Differential Object Marking in Catalan in the Romance Context

Abstract

This monograph provides a comprehensive qualitative, quantitative, and theoretical analysis of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Catalan, within the context of Romance linguistics. Chapter 1 introduces the phenomenon from a cross-linguistic perspective, traces its origins and development in Romance. Chapter 2 investigates current usage patterns of DOM through a unique dialectal survey of over 400 native speakers of Catalan, examining oral production and aural acceptability across the entire linguistic domain. Chapter 3 explores the historical progression of the phenomenon from the 11th to the 18th century using balanced textual corpora. This unprecedented large-scale diachronic study challenges traditional assumptions by arguing that DOM is an endogenous development in Catalan that existed prior to intensive sociolinguistic pressure from Spanish, the analysis shows how the 16th century served as a catalyst for expansion. Chapter 4 further assesses the impact of 20th-century standardization efforts, documenting the sharp divergence between prescriptive norms and the persistent use of DOM in spontaneous speech. Chapter 5 situates the Catalan evidence within a broad theoretical landscape and evaluates major theoretical models on DOM, concluding that scale-based or purely Case-oriented accounts, among others, are insufficient to fully explain the Catalan data. It proposes a novel formal syntactic analysis where DOM functions as a licensing mechanism for a [person] feature and utilizes parametric hierarchies to map synchronic microvariation and diachronic evolution. Ultimately, by integrating extensive empirical data with rigorous formal analysis, this monograph aims to refine existing linguistic theories on this phenomenon, offering a more nuanced understanding of DOM in Romance languages and beyond.