Gaining an accusative marker?

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Davush
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Gaining an accusative marker?

Post by Davush »

What type of words are likely to become grammaticalised into accusative markers?

I am trying to derive a particle which marks the accusative but I am not sure how natlangs have done this.

Thanks
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Frislander
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Re: Gaining an accusative marker?

Post by Frislander »

I'll bring up the Spanish example: in Spanish the dative preposition a is being grammaticalised into an accusative.
Curlyjimsam
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Re: Gaining an accusative marker?

Post by Curlyjimsam »

Several languages have object markers derived from verbs meaning "take, seize". Another possible source is dative or allative marking (as in Spanish).
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gach
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Re: Gaining an accusative marker?

Post by gach »

The Permic accusative suffix (-ës in Komi Zyrian, -ez in Udmurt) originates from a 3rd person pronominal attached on more highly individuated objects for marking their definiteness. The 3rd person pronominal in question was likely a possessive suffix but using a demonstrative pronoun as a starting point should work equally well.
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k1234567890y
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Re: Gaining an accusative marker?

Post by k1234567890y »

It looks like a language can have a differential object marking first(proper nouns, definite nouns or animate nouns are more likely to have nomintive-accusative distinctions among nouns, and pronouns are much more likely to have nominative-accusative distinctions than all nouns.), then generalizes it to every noun that is a direct object...although this is not about what words may become accusative markers, this may also help.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different ... ct_marking

as for the origin of the accusative marker, what people have said above can be answers.
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Man in Space
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Re: Gaining an accusative marker?

Post by Man in Space »

Someone on the ZBB once said (and I think TaylorS' Mekoshan did this, at least in one version of the language) that definiteness can turn into an accusative.
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k1234567890y
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Re: Gaining an accusative marker?

Post by k1234567890y »

Linguifex wrote:Someone on the ZBB once said (and I think TaylorS' Mekoshan did this, at least in one version of the language) that definiteness can turn into an accusative.
ok (:

I have read somewhere that a topic marker can also turn into a nominative marker in marked nominative languages; also, it is said that the nominative case of Proto-Indo-European also evolved from something similar.
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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