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Abstract
This article provides a critical examination of the widespread idea that A and O (and Agents and Patients) are each other's mirror image in terms of case marking and semantic features. We examine patterns of differential case marking for nouns in a sample of 185 languages, showing that the behaviour of A cannot be captured in terms of markedness reversal based on models for O marking. We highlight pecularities of A marking that are not found with O marking, like sensitivity to the feature of motivity, and syntactic restrictions on use as A, and use these to develop an independent account of A marking.
Keywords: animacy; definiteness; differential object/subject marking; focus; grammatical relations; markedness; referential hierarchy; syntax; topicality
Received: 2012-10-8
Revised: 2013-9-9
Published Online: 2014-5-9
Published in Print: 2014-5-1
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
