Thematic section
From oblique to core case in the Southern Min languages
The role of topic in the emergence of optional object marking in Sinitic
This study sets out to discuss the evolution from oblique to core case as a manifestation of overtly-marked
nominative-accusative alignment in Sinitic languages. This is due to the emergence of a type of ‘optional’ marking on preverbal
direct objects in a construction type that has become widespread in Sinitic (
Chappell &
Verstraete 2019). In particular, I examine spoken discourse data from Taiwanese Southern Min whose comitative
preposition,
ka7
, has grammaticalized into an optional object marker. It is argued that this marker is
undergoing morphologization into a direct object index (
doi) on the main verb in the predicate, subsequent to the
omission of the resumptive pronoun it governs. The new index takes over this function of cross-referencing the lexical direct
object, typically located in the immediately preceding discourse, if not in clause-initial position.
In an epilogue, I also briefly treat the evolution of local cases such as the allative and the perlative to
optional object markers in the Southern Min languages of Shantou and Jieyang, situated in Guangdong Province, China. Both of these
are extremely rare sources in the Sinitic family, yet common in Tibeto-Burman and Romance languages. The approach adopted is in
harmony with recent diachronic studies which target source morphosyntax in order to explain the emergence of a variety of
synchronic patterns, all bearing similar discourse and grammatical functions (
Cristofaro &
Zúñiga 2018).
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Parallel semantic shifts and shared grammaticalization in Southeast Asia
- 3.Sinitic languages
- 3.1Conditions of use on the object marking constructions
- 3.1.1Animacy of direct object noun
- 3.1.2Telicity of the predicate
- 3.1.3Givenness of direct object noun
- 3.1.4Topicality
- 4.Sinitic comitatives, their grammaticalization pathways into object-marking constructions
- 4.1Southern Min object marking constructions
- 4.1.1Type I: Common OM construction
- 4.1.2Type II: Clause-initial lexical object with a resumptive pronoun introduced by the object marker
- 4.1.3Type III: Clause-initial lexical object indexed by a proclitic object marker
- 4.1.4Type IV: Double-marked object marking construction
- 4.2Diachronic change and the comitative
- 5.OMs in Taiwanese Southern Min discourse
- 6.Epilogue: Allatives and perlatives as a source of oms in Shantou Southern Min
- 7.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Romanization
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
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