[Lingtyp] The relation between word order and discourse-based object marking

[Shira Tal]

Dear all,

I am working on an experimental project on the effect of discourse status
on object marking, and would love to get your help with a question I'm
concerned with.

In different languages, object marking is affected by unexpected discourse
status of arguments (e.g., topical objects in Persian, as suggested by
Dalrymple & Nikolaeva (2011)). I am interested in the emergence of such
systems.

According to the literature I'm familiar with, topicality-based marking
often goes hand in hand with change of word order. For example, topical
objects can be initially marked only when they are dislocated. According to
Iemmolo (2010), this is the case with different Romance languages. Later
on, such marking can be extended to other objects which share features of
topicality-worthiness (e.g., animacy and definiteness), and word order
restrictions are lost.

Does anyone know of any other languages in which discourse-based object
marking is restricted (or was initially restricted) to particular word
orders?

Alternatively, does anyone know of any language in which, diachronically,
the effect of discourse status on differential object marking was
direct? By "direct" I mean that marking occurred in situ in the earliest
stages of grammaticalization without having gone through word-order
restrictions earlier.

Many thanks in advance,

Shira Tal

Ph.D. Student, Dept. of Cognitive Science

Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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