DOM in Modern Catalan varieties: An empirical study based on acceptability judgment tasks

Abstract

This paper examines the current situation of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in the major Catalan varieties, focusing on the animacy of the direct object. In the past, Catalan standard grammar has advocated for very conservative rules for applying DOM, and thus a substantial divergence between spoken language and standard grammar was created. Nowadays, standard Catalan seems to accept DOM more readily, but still falls short of the wide range of uses found in Catalan dialects. Hence, this paper relies on experimental methods (i.e. an acceptability judgment task with a 2x3 within-subjects design) to analyze the situation found in the major Catalan dialects, i.e. Central Catalan, North-Western Catalan, Valen-cian and Majorcan. The experiment focuses on direct objects in definite noun phrases and the test sentences were manipulated for presence/absence of DOM and three degrees of animacy (human, animal, inanimate). Results suggest that for human direct objects in noun phrases the use of DOM is as well accepted as the unmarked version, which contradicts what is claimed by Catalan standard grammars. However, the unmarked version is slightly preferable in the case of animals and clearly preferable for inanimate objects.