Differential place marking beyond place names: Evidence from two Amazonian languages

Abstract

Not all spatial adjuncts behave alike. In some languages, certain spatial adjuncts display different marking or different combinatorial possibilities than others. Recent functional-typological studies make two claims about this differential place marking phenomenon: (1) it is primarily motivated by noun semantics, opposing place names and other nouns; and (2) it is primarily realized as a contrast between zero-marking and overt marking of spatial adjunct function. We evaluate this view against new fieldwork data from two Indigenous Amazonian languages, Dâw (Naduhup) and Ticuna (isolate). In Dâw and Ticuna, differential place marking is conditioned not only by noun semantics, but also by the perceptual properties of noun referents and by morphosyntactic and semantic properties of verbs. Further, the phenomenon is realized not only by alternations between zero and overt marking, but also by alternations among overt markers and alternations in the set of markers with which the adjunct can combine. These findings suggest that differential place marking – like other differential case phenomena, such as split ergativity – is conditioned by a cross-linguistically diverse suite of factors within and beyond the noun phrase.