Optional and alternating case marking: Typology and diachrony

Hilary Chappell, Jean Christophe Verstraete*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper presents a survey of the typology and diachrony of optional and alternating case marking, in the context of related phenomena such as referent- and construction-based splits. While there is much recent work in this area, driven by text-based approaches to language description, as well as quantitative and areal approaches to typology, the domain remains somewhat scattered, conceptually and terminologically. We chart the relevant phenomena, and we provide a typological survey of optional and alternating marking for A and O arguments. We also highlight some of the questions that remain, including problems with the classic model of case marking based on markedness reversal. A final section investigates the diachronic origins of optional case markers. These are largely similar to those for non-optional systems, apart from certain source domains, as well as factors related to information structure, both in the form of source domains and as constructional contexts playing a role in the development of the markers.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article numbere12311
    JournalLinguistics and Language Compass
    Volume13
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2019

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