Object Marking in Western Eurasia
The Circum-Baltic Area Dissolves into the Broader Areal Background
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12987735 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daria Alfimova (0000-0002-1289-4537, University of Potsdam, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 281-314 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-18 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Language Contact (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1955-2629 • E-ISSN: 1877-4091 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/19552629-bja10065 |
| OpenAlex | W4402657760 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 10 |
This paper investigates object marking strategies in Circum-Baltic languages and beyond, using a sample of 103 predicates from 30 Western Eurasian languages from the BivalTyp database. The study aims to identify areal clusters in object marking and evaluate the relevance of the Circum-Baltic linguistic area in this context. It finds that while most Circum-Baltic languages dissolve into larger, genealogy-driven clusters, areal signals are present, particularly with Lithuanian merging with Slavic languages due to genitive-taking predicates. German deviates from the larger Germanic cluster, merging with Latvian and Hungarian without a specific marking strategy driving this alignment. The results suggest that the concept of a linguistic area is less effective for describing object marking relationships around the Baltic Sea, in contrast to the Balkan linguistic area, where cross-linguistic clusters of object marking strategies do align with the linguistic area. Additionally, the paper discusses large-scale trends, such as comitativity prominence and the comparison of observed object marking strategy distributions with the predicted Zipf distribution
Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Ergative case · Estonian · Genitive case · Geography · German · Latvian · Linguistics · Lithuanian · Object (grammar · Slavic languages · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Mathematics
The Languages and Linguistics of Europe
The European linguistic area
The Circum-Baltic Languages
Contemporary Approaches to Baltic Linguistics
Dative experiencer constructions as a Circum-Baltic isogloss
Defining caritive as a comparative concept
World-Wide Comparative Evidence for Calquing of Valency Patterns in Creoles
Contact-Induced Changes in the Argument Structure of Middle English Verbs on the Model of Old French
The Projection of Arguments
Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in crosslinguistic studies
| Citations per year | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |