Differential Subject Marking

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Cross-linguistic Variation in Differential Subject Marking

   • Helen de Hoop, Peter de Swart

   Pages 1-16

3. Differential Subject Marking at Argument Structure, Syntax, and PF

   • Ellen Woolford

   Pages 17-40

4. Quantitative Variation in Korean Case Ellipsis: Implications for Case Theory

   • Hanjung Lee

   Pages 41-61

5. Ergative Case-marking in Hindi

   • Helen de Hoop, Bhuvana Narasimhan

   Pages 63-78

6. DOM and Two Types of DSM in Turkish

   • Jaklin Kornfilt

   Pages 79-111

7. Differential Subject Marking in Polish: The Case of Genitive vs. Nominative Subjects in “X was not at Y”-constructions

   • Joanna Blaszczak

   Pages 113-149

8. Differential Argument Marking in Two-term Case Systems and its Implications for the General Theory of Case Marking

   • Peter M. Arkadiev

   Pages 151-171

9. Non-canonical Agent Marking in Agul

   • Dmitry Ganenkov, Timur Maisak, Solmaz Merdanova

   Pages 173-198

10. From Topic to Subject Marking: Implications for a Typology of Subject Marking

    • Yukiko Morimoto

    Pages 199-221

11. Grammaticalization and Strategies in Resolving Subject Marking Paradoxes: The Case of Tsimshianic

    • Jason Brown, Tyler Peterson

    Pages 223-245

12. Different Subjects, Different Marking

    • Mark Donohue

    Pages 247-279

13. Differential Marking of Intransitive Subjects in Kambera (Austronesian)

    • Marian Klamer

    Pages 281-299

14. Back Matter

    Pages 301-309

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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.

• Nominativ
• Syntax
• aspect
• genitive
• interaction
• language
• semantic
• semantic features
• subject

From the reviews: “This book originates from a 2004 workshop on ‘Differential Subject Marking’ held in Nijmegen. … chapters address DSM phenomena in particular languages. … This collection of articles … succeeds in advancing our understanding of DSM and the factors that determine it. … Researchers interested in case, agreement, and argument structure … will find a rich amount of data in this volume. Linguists with an interest in modeling animacy effects … will be as stimulated by some of the proposals developed here as I have been.” (Raúl Aranovich, Language, Vol. 85 (4), 2009)

• Radboud University, Netherlands

  Helen Hoop, Peter Swart

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