Cover not available

Article published In: Studies in Language: Online-First Articles

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

Differential argument marking and discourse prominence

ORCiD logo with link | University of Bamberg
ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne
ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne
ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne | LACITO (CNRS)
ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with the University of Cologne.

Published online: 9 March 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.23060.pau
Abstract
Many languages exhibit some form of differential argument marking (DAM), where the same generalized argument role can be marked differently. Approaches explaining these phenomena have in common that they assume some form of ranking among linguistic elements of the same kind. While previous approaches emphasize this relative ranking based on semantic features (e.g., animacy, definiteness, transitivity) or information structure (e.g., topicality), several observations from the literature suggest that differential argument marking might also depend on discourse factors. In this contribution, we explore recent empirical work on differential argument marking in selected languages (Spanish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Tima, Yali) and illustrate the discourse sensitivity of these phenomena. In particular, we present evidence that discourse prominence, i.e., the dynamic ranking and keeping track of referents in discourse, interacts with the phenomena under discussion. This contribution offers new perspectives on the interplay of differential argument marking and discourse prominence, highlighting perspectives for future research.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Differential argument marking
    • 1.2Language sample
  • 2.Discourse prominence, differential object marking and differential object indexing
  • 3.Discourse prominence and differential agent marking
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Author statement
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (144)
References
Aissen, Judith. 2003. Differential object marking: Iconicity vs. economy. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 21(3). 435–483. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andersen, Torben. 1988. Ergativity in Päri, a Nilotic OVS language. Lingua 751. 289–324. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Neil & Martha Wade. 1988. Ergativity and control in Folopa. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 191. 1–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arkadiev, Peter. 2016. Роли, иерархии и двойное маркирование объектов [Roles, hierarchies and the double-marking of objects]. Vorposy jazykoznanija 51. 7–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asenova, Petya [Асенова, Петя]. 2002. Балканско езикознание [Balkan linguistics]. Sofia: Faber.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bárány, András. 2017. Person, case, and agreement: The morphosyntax of inverse agreement and global case splits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bardají, Maria, Gertrud Schneider-Blum, Markus Philipp & Sarah Dolscheid. 2025. Why agent prominence persists even under challenging conditions. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 10(1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barraza, Georgina. 2003. Evolución del objeto directo inanimado en español. Ciudad de México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Ph.D. dissertation.
Becker, Laura & Gertrud Schneider-Blum. 2020. Morphological marking of contrast in Tima. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 5(1). 125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Becker, Martin & Jakob Egetenmeyer. 2018. A prominence-based account of temporal discourse structure. Lingua 2141. 28–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Belloro, Valeria A. 2007. Spanish clitic doubling: A study of syntax-pragmatics. Albany: State University of New York Ph.D. dissertation.
2015. To the right of the verb: An investigation of clitic doubling and right dislocation in three Spanish dialects. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bickel, Balthasar, Alena Witzlack-Makarevich & Taras Zakharko. 2014. Typological evidence against universal effects of referential scales on case alignment. In Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Andrej L. Malchukov & Marc Richards (eds.), Scales and hierarchies: A cross-disciplinary perspective on referential hierarchies, 7–44. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bossong, Georg. 1985. Empirische Universalienforschung: Differentielle Objektmarkierung in den neuiranischen Sprachen. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. Le marquage différentiel de l’objet dans les langues d’Europe. In Jack Feuillet (ed.), Eurotyp 2, Actance et valence dans les langues de l’Europe, 193–258. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Casaretto, Antje, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, Birgit Hellwig, Uta Reinöhl & Gertrud Schneider-Blum. 2020. Roots of ergativity in Africa (and beyond). Studies in African Linguistics 49(1). 111–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace L. (ed.). 1980. The pear stories: Cognitive, cultural, and linguistic aspects of narrative production (Advances in Discourse Processes 3). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chappell, Hilary & Jean-Christophe Verstraete. 2019. Optional and alternating case marking: Typology and diachrony. Language and Linguistics Compass 13(3). e12311. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chiriacescu, Sofiana. 2014. The discourse structuring potential of indefinite noun phrases: special markers in English, German and Romanian. Stuttgart: University of Stuttgart Ph.D. dissertation.
Chiriacescu, Sofiana & Klaus von Heusinger. 2010. Discourse prominence and pe-marking in Romanian. International Review of Pragmatics 2(2). 298–332. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christensen, Steve. 2010. Yongkom discourse: Ergativity and topic. In Joan Hooley (ed.), Papers on six languages of Papua New Guinea, 1–39. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Compensis, Paul. 2022. Differential object indexing in Bulgarian: The role of discourse prominence and predictability. Cologne: University of Cologne Ph.D. dissertation.
Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language universals and linguistic typology: Syntax and morphology. 2nd edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creider, Chet A. & Jane T. Creider. 1983. Topic — comment relations in a verb-initial language. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 5(1). 1–15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1989. A grammar of Nandi. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creissels, Denis, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Christa König. 2009. Africa as a morphosyntactic area. In Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds.), A linguistic geography of Africa, 86–150. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2003. Typology and universals. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cyxun, Gennadij [Цихун, Генадий]. 1962. Местоименната енклитика и словоредът в българското изречение [Clitic pronouns and word order in Bulgarian spoken language]. Български Език [Bulgarian Language] 12(4). 283–291.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dalrymple, Mary & Irina Nikolaeva. 2011. Objects and information structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. 1981. Episodes as units of discourse analysis. In Deborah Tannen (ed.), Analyzing discourse: Text and talk, 177–195. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 1986. Prominence hierarchies and Turkana syntax. In Gerrit J. Dimmendahl (ed.), Publications in African languages and linguistics, 127–148. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. Marked nominative systems in Eastern Sudanic and their historical origin. Afrikanistik Online 11(3).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. 1979. Ergativity. Language 551. 59–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Enç, Mürvet. 1991. The semantics of specificity. Linguistic Inquiry 221. 1–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Endriss, Cornelia & Hans-Martin Gärtner. 2005. Relativische Verb-Zweit Sätze und Definitheit. In Franz-Josef d’Avis (ed.), Proceedings of the Symposium Deutsche Syntax: Empirie und Theorie, 195–220. Göteburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farkas, Donka F. 1978. Direct and indirect object reduplication in Romanian. In Donka F. Farkas, Wesly M. Jacobsen & Karol W. Todrys (eds.), Papers from the Seventeenth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, April 13–14 1978, 88–97. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fedden, Sebastian. 2020. Morphology of Trans New Guinea languages. Oxford research encyclopedia of linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischer, Susann, Mario Navarro & Jorge Vega Vilanova. 2019. The clitic doubling parameter: Development and distribution of a cyclic change. In Miriam Bouzouita, Anne Breitbarth, Lieven Danckaert & Elisabeth Witzenhausen (eds.), Cycles in language change, 52–70. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foley, William A. 2000. The languages of New Guinea. Annual Review of Anthropology 29(1). 357–404. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Friedman, Victor. A. 2008. Balkan object reduplication in areal and dialectological perspective. In Dalina Kallulli & Liliane Tasmowski (eds.), Clitic doubling in the Balkan languages, 35–63. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García García, Marco. 2014. Differentielle Objektmarkierung bei unbelebten Objekten im Spanischen. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. Nominal and verbal parameters in the diachrony of DOM in Spanish. In Ilja A. Seržant & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich (eds.), Diachrony of differential argument marking, 209–242. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García García, Marco & Javier Caro Reina. Forthcoming. Differential object marking. In Matthias Heinz, Marc-Olivier Hinzelin & Lorenzo Filipponio (eds.), Manual of classification and typology of the Romance languages (Manuals of Romance Linguistics). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
García-Miguel, José M. 2015. Variable coding and object alignment in Spanish: A corpus-based approach. Folia Linguistica 49(1). 205–256. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Georgieva, Elena [Георгиева, Елена]. 1974. Словоред на простото изречение в българския книжовен език [Word order of the simple sentence in Bulgarian standard language]. Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Science.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 1981. On the development of the numeral ‘one’ as an indefinite marker. Folia Linguistica Historica 21. 35–53. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1983. Topic continuity in discourse: An introduction. In Talmy Givón (ed.), Topic continuity in discourse, 1–42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guentchéva, Zlatka. 1994. Thématisation de l’objet en bulgare. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Object clitic doubling constructions and topicality in Bulgarian. In Dalina Kallulli & Liliane Tasmowski (eds.), Clitic doubling in the Balkan languages, 203–226). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haig, Geoffrey L. J. & Stefan Schnell. 2014. Annotations using GRAID (Grammatical Relations and Animacy in Discourse) (v7.0). Manuscript.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2013. Argument indexing: A conceptual framework for the syntactic status of bound person forms. In Dik Bakker & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), Languages across boundaries, 197–226. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. Indexing and flagging, and head and dependent marking. Te Reo 62(1). 93–115.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021a. Explaining grammatical coding asymmetries: Form–frequency correspondences and predictability. Journal of Linguistics 57(3). 605–633. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021b. Role-reference associations and the explanation of argument coding splits. Linguistics 59(1). 123–174. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heeschen, Volker. 1998. An ethnographic grammar of the Eipo language spoken in the central mountains of Irian Jaya (West New Guinea), Indonesia. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd. 1980. Camus, a Maa dialect. In Bernd Heine (ed.), The non-Bantu languages of Kenya, 99–140. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Heusinger, Klaus. 2008. Verbal semantics and the diachronic development of DOM in Spanish. Probus 20(1). 1–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Heusinger, Klaus, Tiago A. Duarte & Marco García García. 2024. Differential object marking and discourse prominence in Spanish. Isogloss 10(1). 1–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Heusinger, Klaus, Marco García García & Georg Kaiser. 2024. Differential object marking and (non-)specificity in Spanish — some empirical evidence for Leonetti’s Generalization. In Ignacio Bosque Muñoz, Silvia Gumiel Molina & Cristina Sánchez López (eds.), Buceando entre palabras. Inmersiones en gramática de la mano de Manuel Leonetti, 247–262. Alcalá de Henares: Editorial Universidad de Alcalá.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Heusinger, Klaus & Petra B. Schumacher. 2019. Discourse prominence: Definition and application. Journal of Pragmatics 1541. 117–127. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Heusinger, Klaus & Alina Tigău. 2020. Clitic doubling, DOM and discourse prominence in Romanian. Paper presented at the 10th International Workshop on Referential Expressions in Discourse: Prominent Inferences, University of Cologne, 17–18 September 2020.
Hill, Virginia & Alexandru Mardale. 2019. Patterns for differential object marking in the history of Romanian. Journal of Historical Syntax 3(5). 1–47.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. The diachrony of differential object marking in Romanian. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. & Beatrice Primus. 2015. Prominence beyond prosody — a first approximation. In Amedeo de Dominicis (ed.), pS-prominenceS: Prominence in Linguistics, 38–58. Viterbo: Disucom Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. & Sonja Riesberg. Forthcoming. Discourse patterns and emerging grammar in Papuan languages. In Nicholas Evans & Sebastian Fedden (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Papuan languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hofmann, Thomas R. 1989. Paragraphs and anaphora. Journal of Pragmatics 13(2). 239–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Sandra A. Thompson. 1980. Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language 56(2). 251–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Towards a typological study of differential object marking and differential object indexation. Pavia: Università degli Studi di Pavia Ph.D. dissertation.
Jaeger, T. Florian & Veronica A. Gerassimova. 2002. Bulgarian word order and the role of the direct object clitic in LFG. In Miriam Butt & Tracy H. King (eds.), Proceedings of the LFG 02 Conference, 197–219. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaeggli, Osvaldo. 1982. Topics in Romance syntax. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1986. The syntax of pronominal clitics. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jasinskaja, Katja & Elena Karagjosova. 2020. Rhetorical relations. In Daniel Gutzmann, Lisa Matthewson, Cecile Meier, Hotze Rullmann & Thomas E. Zimmerman (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to semantics, 1–29. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jerono, Prisca. 2011. Tugen word order: A minimalist perspective. Nairobi: University of Nairobi Ph.D. dissertation.
Just, Erika. 2022. A functional approach to differential indexing: Combining perspectives from typology and corpus linguistics. Leiden: Leiden University Ph.D. dissertation.
. 2024. A structural and functional comparison of differential A and P indexing. Linguistics 62(2). 295–321. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Just, Erika & Slavomír Čéplö. 2022. Differential object indexing in Maltese — a corpus based pilot study. In Turek Przemyslwa & Julia Nintemann (eds.), Maltese: Contemporary changes and historical innovations, 105–132. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
König, Christa. 2008. Case in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
König, Christa, Bernd Heine & Karsten Legère. 2015. The Akie language of Tanzania: A sketch of discourse grammar. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages, Cultures of Asia & Africa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krapova, Iliyana & Guglielmo Cinque. 2006. Two asymmetries between clitic left and clitic right dislocation in Bulgarian. In Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riny Huybregts, Ursula Kleinhenz & Jan Koster (eds.), Organizing grammar: Linguistic studies in honor of Henk van Riemsdijk, 359–364. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kießling, Roland. 2007. The “marked nominative” in Datooga. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 28(2). 149–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laca, Brenda. 1995. Sobre el uso del acusativo preposicional en español. In Carmen Pensado (ed.), El complemento directo preposicional, 61–91. Madrid: Visor.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. El objeto directo. La marcación preposicional. In Concepción Company Company (ed.), Sintaxis histórica de la lengua española. Primera parte: La frase verbal, 423–475. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional de México.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lazard, Gilbert. 2003. What is an object in a cross-linguistic perspective. In Giuliana Fiorentino (ed.), Romance objects. Transitivity in Romance languages, 1–16. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leafgren, John R. 1997. Bulgarian clitic doubling: Overt topicality. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 5(1). 117–143.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leonetti, Manuel. 2004. Specificity and differential object marking in Spanish. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 31. 75–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levergood, Barbara J. 1987. Topics in Arusa phonology and morphology (Tanzania). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Ph.D. dissertation.
Matić, Dejan & Daniel Wedgwood. 2013. The meanings of focus: The significance of an interpretation-based category in cross-linguistic analysis. Journal of Linguistics 49(1). 127–163. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGregor, William B. 1992. The semantics of ergative marking in Gooniyandi. Linguistics 301. 275–318. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. Focal and optional ergative marking in Warrwa (Kimberley, Western Australia). Lingua 116(4). 393–423. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Optional ergative case marking systems in a typological-semiotic perspective. Lingua 120(7). 1610–1636. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. Optionality in grammar and language use. Linguistics 511. 1147–1204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meakins, Felicity & Carmel O’Shannessy. 2010. Ordering arguments about: Word order and discourse motivations in the development and use of the ergative marker in two Australian mixed languages. Lingua 120(7). 1693–1713. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Melis, Chantal. 2018. Spanish indexing DOM, topicality, and the case hierarchy. In Ilja. A. Seržant & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich (eds.), Diachrony of differential argument marking, 97–128. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. From topic marking to definite object marking: Focusing on the beginnings of Spanish DOM. In Johannes Kabatek, Philipp Obrist & Albert Wall (eds.), Differential object marking in Romance, 39–64. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mietzner, Angelika. 2016. Cherang’any: A Kalenjin language of Kenya. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, Cynthia L. & Leoma G. Gilley. 2001. Evidence for ergativity in Shilluk. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 22(1). 33–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Minčeva, Angelina [Минчева, Ангелина]. 1969. Опит за интерпретация на модела на удвоените допълнения в българския език [An attempt for an interpretation model of doubled complements in the Bulgarian language]. Известия на Института за български език [Proceedings of the Institute for the Bulgarian Language] 171. 3–50.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moodie, Jonathan & Rosey Billington. 2020. A grammar of Lopit: An Eastern Nilotic language of South Sudan. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mürmann, Sophie. 2023. Differential object marking and role semantics in Romance. Cologne: University of Cologne Ph.D. dissertation.
. 2001. Secondary topic as a relation in information structure. Linguistics 39(1). 1–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Onea, Edgar & Daniel Hole. 2017. Differential object marking of human definite direct objects in Romanian. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique 62(4). 359–377.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Onea, Edgar & Alexandru Mardale. 2020. From topic to object: Grammaticalization of differential object marking in Romanian. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne De Linguistique 65(3). 350–392. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ovcharova, Bilyana. 2018. Clitic doubling of the proposed direct object in Bulgarian. Slavia Meridionalis 181. 1606. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ozerov, Pavel. 2018. Tracing the sources of information structure: Towards the study of interactional management of information. Journal of Pragmatics 1381. 77–97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. Multifactorial information management (MIM): Summing up the emerging alternative to information structure. Linguistics Vanguard 7(1). 1–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pensado, Carmen. 1995. La creación del complemento directo preposicional y la flexión de los pronombres personales en las lenguas románicas. In Carmen Pensado (ed.), El complemento directo preposicional, 179–233. Madrid: Visor.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Popov, Konstantin [Попов, Константин]. 1983. Граматика на съвременния български книжовен език. Том 3: Синтаксис [Grammar of the contemporary Bulgarian language. Vol. III: Syntax]. Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reh, Mechthild. 1996. Anywa language: Description and internal reconstructions. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riesberg, Sonja. 2018. Optional ergative, agentivity and discourse prominence — Evidence from Yali (Trans-New Guinea). Linguistic Typology 22(1). 17–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riesberg, Sonja, Maria Bardají i Farré, Kurt Malcher & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann. 2022. Predicting voice choice in symmetrical voice languages. All the things that do not work for Totoli. Studies in Language 46(2). 453–516. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riesberg, Sonja, T. Mark Ellison, Maria Bardají & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann. Submitted. Word order and the interaction of prominence hierarchies A case study from Totoli, a western Austronesian symmetrical voice language.
Romero Heredero, Diego. 2022. Marcado diferencial de objeto y semántica verbal en español. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rudin, Catherine. 1990. Topic and focus in Bulgarian. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 40(3/4). 429–447.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos. 2007 [2001]. Сянката на вятъра [The shadow of the wind; Bulgarian version translated by Svetla Hristova]. Sofia: Iztok-Zapad.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Same, Fahime. 2022. Referring expression generation in context: Combining linguistic and computational evidence. Cologne: University of Cologne Ph.D. dissertation.
Sánchez, Liliana & Pablo Zdrojewski. 2013. Restricciones semánticas y pragmáticas al doblado de clíticos en el español de Buenos Aires y de Lima. Lingüística 29(2). 271–320.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiborr, Nils N., Stefan Schnell & Hanna Thiele. 2018. RefIND: Referent indexing in natural-language discourse: Annotation guidelines (v1.0). Manuscript.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider-Blum, Gertrud. 2022. On noncausal/causal alternations in Tima (Nuba Mountains, Sudan). Linguistique et Langues Africaines 8(2). 1–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. The impact of attentional centering on ergative marking in Tima. STUF: Language Typology and Universals 76(1). 87–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider-Blum, Gertrud & Birgit Hellwig. 2018. Reference tracking in Tima and its interplay with split ergative marking. Studies in Language 42(4). 970–993. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider-Blum, Gertrud, Sonja Riesberg, Birgit Hellwig & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann. 2022. On resolving prominence conflicts — exceptional case marking in Tima and Yali. In Chiara Gianollo, Łukasz Jędrzejowski & Sofiana I. Lindemann (eds.), Paths through meaning and form, 211–215. Cologne: USB Monographs. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schikowski, Robert & Giorgio Iemmolo. 2015. Commonalities and differences between differential object marking and indexing. Available at: [URL] (last access 18 March 2025)
Schultze-Berndt, Eva. 2017. Interaction of ergativity and information structure in Jaminjung (Australia). In Jessica Coon, Diane Massam & Lisa Demena Travis (eds.), The Oxford handbook of ergativity, 1089–1113. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. Expanding GRAID annotations with information structure annotations: A first suggestion. Talk presented at the Workshop on Information Structure, Referential Status and Referent Type in Discourse and Grammar, Manchester, 27–28 June 2018.
Skopeteas, Stavros & Gisbert Fanselow. 2010. Focus types and argument asymmetries: A cross-linguistic study in language production. In Carsten Breul & Edward Göbbel (eds.), Comparative and contrastive studies of information structure, 169–197. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scott, Graham. 1986. On ergativity in Fore and other Papuan languages. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics 241. 167–175. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siewierska, Anna. 2004. Person. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siewierska, Anna & Dik Bakker. 2012. Case and alternative strategies: Word order and agreement marking. In Andrej L. Malchukov & Andrew Spencer (eds.), The Oxford handbook of case, 290–303. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael. 1976. Hierarchy of features and ergativity. In R. M. W. Dixon (ed.), Grammatical categories in Australian languages, 112–171. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stojanov, Stojan [Стоянов, Стоян]. 1983. Граматика на съвременния български книжовен език. Том 2: Морфология [Grammar of the contemporary Bulgarian language. Vol. 2: Morphology]. Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suter, Edgar. 2010. The optional ergative in Kâte. In John Bowden, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann & Malcolm Ross (eds.), A journey through Austronesian and Papuan linguistic and cultural space. Papers in the honour of Andrew Pawley, 423–437. Canberra: Pacific Linguisitcs.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tigău, Alina. 2022. An experimental study on the discourse properties of Romanian direct objects. Studii de lingvistică 12(2). 85–107.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomić, Olga. M. 2008. Variation in clitic doubling in South Slavic. In Sjef Barbiers, Olof Koeneman, Marika Lekakou & Margreet van der Hann (eds.), Microvariations in syntactic doubling, 443–468. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomlin, Russell S. 1987. Linguistic reflections of cognitive events. In Russell S. Tomlin (ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse, 455–479. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vonk, Wietske, Lettica G. M. M. Hustinx & Wim H. G. Simons. 1992. The use of referential expressions in structuring discourse. Language and Cognitive Processes 7(3). 301–333. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vries, Lourens. 2006. Areal pragmatics of New Guinea: Thematization, distribution and recapitulative linkage in Papuan narratives. Journal of Pragmatics 381. 811–828. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weissenrieder, Maureen. 1991. A functional approach to the accusative a. Hispania 74(1). 146–156. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena, Taras Zakharko, Lennart Bierkandt, Fernando Zúñiga & Balthasar Bickel. 2016. Decomposing hierarchical alignment: Co-arguments as conditions on alignment and the limits of referential hierarchies as explanations in verb agreement. Linguistics 54(3). 531–561. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena & Ilja Seržant. 2018. Differential argument marking: Patterns of variation. In Ilja A. Seržant & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich (eds.), Diachrony of differential argument marking, 1–40. Berlin: Language Science Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue