Universität zu Köln

Duarte, Tiago A. ORCID: 0000-0003-2073-4549 (2026). Differential Object Marking with AcI constructions and perception verbs in Spanish. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

This project investigates whether the agentivity of the direct object influences the occurrence of DOM in European Spanish. To this end, I focus on the visual and auditory perception modalities in both mono-predicative and AcI constructions, as exemplified in María vio/oyó a la niña ‘María saw/heard the girl’ and María vio/oyó a la niña cantar ‘María saw/heard the girl sing’, respectively. I explore this phenomenon from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. Diachronically, I analyze the development of DOM with perception verbs focusing on human entities across the 14th, 16th, and 20th centuries, comparing the occurrence of DOM between perception modalities and construction types. Following Dowty’s (1991) proto-roles approach, I hypothesize that direct objects high in proto-agent features are more likely to occur with DOM. Thus, DOM should be more common with auditory verbs than visual ones, as the auditory stimulus is richer in proto-agent features than the visual stimulus. Similarly, AcI constructions should favor DOM occurrence compared to mono-predicative constructions over time. Synchronically, I verify through two forced-choice experiments with native European Spanish speakers whether the saturation of DOM observed in AcI constructions with human entities in the 20th century has started to extend to inanimate dynamic entities, and I compare these results with those of mono-predicative constructions. The results demonstrate that agentivity indeed influences the occurrence of DOM, not only in present-day Spanish but also in the older varieties of the language. As for the corpus studies, the auditory stimulus registered a much higher rate of DOM cases over the centuries in both constructions than the visual stimulus. In the experiments, participants opted for DOM with inanimate dynamic NPs in AcI constructions in more than 50% of cases. However, no impact of the perception modality was observed. On the other hand, DOM with the auditory stimulus in mono-predicative constructions was chosen twice as often as with the visual stimulus. The comparison of DOM occurrences in both constructions shows that AcI constructions strikingly influence the occurrence of DOM with inanimate dynamic NPs. Based on these results, I argue that the agentivity of the direct object, which can be determined by the perception modality, the construction type, and the transitivity of the infinitive, is directly connected to the occurrence of DOM in Spanish. The more agentive a direct object (or an NP2) is, the more likely it is to occur with DOM.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Duarte, Tiago A. tiagoaduarte@outlook.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2073-4549 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-804824
Series Name at the University of Cologne:	Papers on Prominence
Date:	2026
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Collaborative Research Centers > CRC 1252: Prominence in Language > TP B04
Subjects:	Language, Linguistics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language DOM; Differential Object Marking; Spanish; agentivity; AcI; Accusativus cum Infinitivo; perception verbs; animacy; inanimate entities; proto-roles; proto-agent; corpus linguistics English MDO; Marcado Diferencial de Objeto; español; agentividad, AcI; Accusativus cum Infinitivo; verbos de percepción; animacidad; entidades inanimadas; proto-roles; proto-agente; lingüística de corpus Spanish
Date of oral exam:	7 January 2025
Referee:	Name Academic Title García García, Marco Prof. Dr. von Heusinger, Klaus Prof. Dr. Becker, Martin Prof. Dr.
Funders:	Project ID 281511265 - SFB 1252 “Prominence in Language”, project B04
Projects:	B04 - Interaction of nominal and verbal features for Differential Object Marking
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/80482