Affectedness and Differential Object Marking in Turkish and Uzbek

Semra Kizilkaya, Zarina Levy-Forsythe, Klaus Von Heusinger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between affectedness and Differential Object Marking (DOM) of indefinite direct objects in Turkish and Uzbek. We argue that the distribution of DOM in the two Turkic languages is determined by the direct objects' specificity and animacy as nominal semantic properties, and affectedness as a verbal semantic property associated with the direct object. We provide original empirical evidence from two forced-choice studies that investigate DOM along the parameters of animacy, affectedness, and telicity, and their interaction with each other. Our findings indicate that affectedness shapes the distribution of DOM in both Turkish and Uzbek, with an interesting variation in how it is instantiated and interacts with animacy. The findings do not confirm an impact of telicity as an independent factor driving overt case marking in the languages investigated. Rather, its influence on DOM stems from interaction with affectedness.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1907-1941
Number of pages35
JournalLinguistics
Volume60
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2022

Keywords

  • Differential Object Marking
  • Turkish
  • Uzbek
  • affectedness
  • prominence
  • telicity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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