objectmarking

Objectmarking refers to the marking of a noun phrase that functions as the direct object or indirect object in a sentence. This marking can be morphological, occurring on the noun itself as a case or postpositional suffix, or syntactic, appearing as agreement or clitic elements attached to a verb or auxiliary. Object marking helps identify object function independently of word order and is found across many language families.

The primary mechanisms are: noun-internal case marking, where the object is marked by accusative, dative, or other case suffixes or prepositions; verbal or clitic marking, where the object is indicated through agreement on the verb or through clitic pronouns attached to the verb or auxiliary; and in some languages, both systems are used together. In addition, some languages employ object marking only for certain objects, a pattern known as differential object marking (DOM), which is influenced by properties such as definiteness, animacy, or specificity.

Cross-linguistic patterns vary. Nominative-accusative languages typically mark the object with an accusative case on the noun, while ergative-absolutive languages align objects differently. Systems of object marking can interact with word order flexibility, discourse focus, and pronoun systems. Many languages also use clitic doubling or object pronouns to clarify object reference, particularly with pronouns or in complex clauses.

Examples range from Turkish and Hungarian, which show overt noun-marked objects, to languages with limited overt marking on nouns but extensive use of object pronouns or clitics, such as Romanian or Spanish. English relies mostly on pronoun case for marked objects and on word order for disambiguation.</audio>