Differential Marking of inanimate direct objects across four varieties of Spanish: Evidence for grammatical differences from elicitation experiments

• Published in: Glossa (London) Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 1 - 40
• Main Authors: Wall, Albert, Zeugin, Senta, Obrist, Philipp, Kabatek, Johannes, Santos Rebelo, Patrick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Open Library of Humanities 23.07.2025; Ubiquity Press
• Subjects: Animacy; Grammatical case; Infinitives; Language; Language varieties; Multivariate analysis; Predicate; Regional differences; Research Article; Small clauses; Sociolinguistics; Spanish language; Syntactic structures; Syntax; Venezuela; Mexico; Differential Object Marking; small clauses; ditransitives; inanimates; Transitivity Hypothesis; Ambiguity Hypothesis; symmetrical-reversible predicates
• ISSN: 2397-1835; 2397-1835
• DOI: 10.16995/glossa.17201

While animacy is considered to be one of the decisive factors for Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish, many authors have capitalized on the fact that inanimate objects also can be marked to a certain degree (Camacho, 2023; Company Company, 2002; García García, 2014; López, 2012). However, there is still little empirical evidence for many of the claims put forward by these authors. This paper presents an experimental elicitation paradigm which operationalizes and tests a series of claims from the literature, providing quantitative production data on six relevant syntactic configurations: canonical transitive sentences, so-called reversible-symmetrical predicates, double object constructions, accusative-with-infinitive structures, secondary predication with the predicate tener, and ditransitive sentences. The experiment was conducted in parallel in Madrid, Montevideo, Lima, and Mexico City, in order to also verify claims regarding regional differences of DOM. The results show that regional differences are detectable for some constructions but play a minor role overall. Inanimates in canonical transitive sentences and reversible-symmetrical predicates show more variation than would be expected according to the literature, whereas the remaining constructions behave rather categorically. The paper argues that these findings have consequences for the different competing accounts of Spanish DOM and need to be incorporated accordingly.