Editors:
- Contains numerous illuminating discussions of Differential Subject Marking from languages all over the world
- Provides an important step forwards in our understanding the complex nature of Differential Subject Marking (complex as compared to Differential Object Marking)
- Shows that Differential Subject Marking is often the result of interactions between conflicting constraints on language use
Part of the book series: Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (SNLT, volume 72)
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Although (almost) all sentences have subjects, not all sentences encode their subjects in the same way. Some languages overtly mark some subjects, but not others, depending on certain features of the subject argument or the sentence in which the subject figures. This phenomenon is known as Differential Subject Marking (DSM). Languages differ in which conditions govern DSM. Some languages differentiate their subjects on the basis of semantic features of the argument such as thematic role, volitionality, animacy, whereas others differentiate on the basis of clausal features such as tense/aspect and the main/dependent clause distinction. DSM comes in different formal guises: case marking, agreement, inverse systems, and voice alternations.
Relatively much is known about cross-linguistic variation in the marking of subjects, yet little attempt has been made to formalize the facts. This volume aims to unify formal approaches to language and presents both specific case studies of DSM and theoretical approaches.
Reviews
Editors and Affiliations
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Radboud University, Netherlands
Helen Hoop, Peter Swart
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Differential Subject Marking
Editors: Helen Hoop, Peter Swart
Series Title: Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6497-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-6498-2Published: 12 February 2008
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-2263-9Published: 12 March 2009
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-6497-5Published: 04 December 2007
Series ISSN: 0924-4670
Series E-ISSN: 2215-0358
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 312
Topics: Grammar, Theoretical Linguistics, Comparative Linguistics, Syntax, Semantics