Differential Indirect Object Marking in Romance (and How to Get Rid of It)
Résumé
In this paper we analyse several verbs in Romance languages which, both intralinguistically and cross-linguistically, are subject to a dative/accusative case alternation. We focus especially on Catalan, as well as Spanish, Asturian and Italian varieties. Our main contribution has to do with the analysis of these alternations as an instance of Differential Indirect Object Marking, since these are indirect objects that, in addition to the dative, may appear in the accusative, and are thus differentially marked. The verbs in question are agentive verbs with a Goal-like complement, as well as psychological verbs with an Experiencer-like complement.