RRL, LXII, 4, p. 445–462, 2017 DIFFERENTIAL INDIRECT OBJECT MARKING IN ROMANCE (AND HOW TO GET RID OF IT) 1 ANNA PINEDA 2 , CARLES ROYO 3 Abstract. 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. Keywords: differential indirect object marking, dative/accusative alternations, agentive verbs, psychological verbs, indirect object, applicatives, Romance languages 1. INTRODUCTION Across and within Romance languages, there is a group of verbs that show dative/accusative case alternation in the marking of their complement of person. In this paper we analyse these patterns of case alternation as an instance of Differential Indirect Object Marking, following a term first proposed by Bilous (2011). Traditionally, Differential Object Marking (DOM) refers to Differential Direct Object Marking, which is present in several languages across the world. In the Romance area, DOM is present a.o. in Spanish, Sardinian and Romanian. However, we argue that Romance languages display what can be seen –at least within a descriptive perspective– as another kind of DOM, which has gone largely unnoticed until now. This is Differential Indirect Object Marking (henceforth, DIOM), which is found with agentive verbs (section 2) and psychological verbs 1 This study was supported by the postdoctoral research fellowship Beatriu de Pinós 2014 BP_A 00165 (Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya) and the research projects FFI2014-56968-C4-1-P and FFI2014-56258-P (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad). 2 Centre National de Recherche Scientifique de Bayonne – Centre de recherche sur la langue et les textes basques (IKER, UMR 5478), anna.pineda@iker.cnrs.fr. 3 Universitat de Barcelona, carlesroyo@ub.edu. Provided by Diacronia.ro for IP 3.229.130.222 (2021-12-03 21:02:04 UTC) BDD-A26976 © 2017 Editura Academiei