lack of casemarking in answers?

[Smit, N.]

Does anyone know of languages that employ no or default casemarking on NPs used as single-word answers, if the thematic relation of the questioned constituent to the state-of-affairs can be retrieved from the question itself? These would be cases like the following (only then in languages with overt casemarking):

Did you buy a bookPat? No, a doll0

I am primarily interested in arguments rather than adjuncts. The little data I have is from German; it is very inconclusive but seems to suggest that the casemarking used in the question should at all times be repeated on the answer. Dutch, a close relative, has no casemarking at all on NPs but does require use of the properly inflected pronoun in case of a single-word answer, which seems to point in the same direction.

Even more interesting would be cases where both is possible (i.e. omission and repetition of casemarking), and where the distinction would have an identifiable influence on the answer's interpretation. This situation seems to obtain for certain oblique NPs in English (Where did you go to? - Switzerland / to Switzerland); I would be very interested to know if languages allow this for non-obliques.

I would be most grateful for your information. Thanks, best regards,

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Niels Smit				
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication

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Faculty of Humanities, dept. of Theoretical Linguistics
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