Projects per year
Abstract
This article presents a case study on the differential marking of direct objects (DOM) in Balkan Judeo-Spanish, an endangered language (sub)group which still lacks detailed, systematic documentation of its (comparative) morphosyntax. Countering recent claims that the phenomenon is frequently absent in Judeo-Spanish, we demonstrate the robust presence of so-called a-marking as a highly systematic, multi- dimensional DOM strategy in early 20th century fieldwork recordings from the understudied dialect of Monastir (present-day Bitola, North Macedonia). We show that, in our corpus, a-marking in transitive (S)V(S)O(S) structures is primarily regulated by (grammatical) animacy/person and (syntactic) definiteness, such that indefinite DOs are excluded and specificity plays no role. Theoretically, the empirical distribution of a-marking broadly conforms with, yet—crucially—cannot be fully subsumed under, scale-based hierarchies that model DOM in terms of referential prominence. Rather, our findings support the conclusion that a-marking of the DO occurs iff the argument is syntactically specified for animacy/person and definiteness. From the typological perspective, the (non-)coincidence of Monastirli a-marking with a co-referential accusative clitic exhibits a hitherto undescribed distribution distinct from other patterns documented for (Balkan) Romance. The present article thus not only advances description of, and inquiry into, the cross-linguistic landscape of DOM, but contributes more broadly to redressing the conspicuous absence of empirical and theoretical investigation into Judeo-Spanish dialect syntax.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie |
Publication status | Accepted/In press - 12 Dec 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Not yet published as of 22/04/2024.Keywords
- Judeo-Spanish
- differential object marking
- prepositional accusative
- animacy
- definiteness
- referential prominence
- Balkan Romance
- Romance linguistics
- morphosyntax
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Differential marking of direct objects in Monastirli džudezmu: a case study in Judeo-Spanish morphosyntax'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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Grammars under threat: recording the grammatical legacy of Judeo-Spanish
1/05/19 → 31/07/22
Project: Research
Activities
- 1 Conference, workshop or symposium
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Differential marking of direct objects in Monastirli dialect
Alice Corr (Presenter)
25 Oct 2022Activity: Academic and Industrial events › Conference, workshop or symposium