Chapter 57: Marking of patient noun phrases

Feature information for this chapter can be found in feature 57.

1. Patient marking of full noun phrases

In many languages, the patient argument of a typical transitive clause is coded in some overt way (i.e. not just by word order) to distinguish it from the agent. Such markers are well-known from Latin and are typically called accusative markers (cf. 1).

(1)
Latin
In
in
principio
beginning
creavit
created
Deu-s
God-nom
caelu-m
heaven-acc
et
and
terra-m.
earth-acc
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Accusative markers can be case affixes, as in Latin, but they can also be prepositions, as in many of the examples below, in (7a-c) for example.

As will be seen in Chapter 58, some languages have overt coding of the transitive agent instead, but in this chapter we only consider coding of patients. Moreover, we do not consider patient coding by means of person-number indexing (or cross-referencing, or agreement) on the verb, as is found in Río de la Plata Spanish (cf. 2) and many Bantu languages such as Swahili (cf. 3). (Note that Spanish has both an object person marker on the verb and an accusative marker on the noun phrase.)

(2)
Río de la Plata Spanish
Lo
3sg.obj
veo
I.see
a
acc
Juan.
Juan
I see Juan.
(3)
Swahili
Ni-li-mw-uliza
1sg.sbj-pst-3sg.obj-ask
Ali.
Ali
I asked Ali.

Finally, we do not consider the coding of personal pronouns here. Many languages treat full noun phrases and personal pronouns differently (typically restricting accusative marking to pronouns, as in English), and pronouns will be dealt with in Chapter 59.

Thus, for this feature we only ask whether full noun phrases (i.e. nonpronominal noun phrases) have an overt accusative case affix or adposition. This marker need not be unique to patients (cf. Spanish a in (2), which also codes recipients in ditransitive constructions), but it must serve to distinguish patients from agents.

2. The feature values

Overt patient marking is not common in APiCS languages.

No marking of patient NPs62
Only definite patient NPs are marked2
Only animate patient NPs are marked8
Only definite and animate patient NPs are marked2
All patient NPs are marked2
Representation:76

Most of our languages have the first feature value, no marking of patient NPs.

(4)
a.
di
art
bɔbɔ
boy
kik
kick
di
art
bɔl
ball
The boy kicked the ball.
b.
Dotor
doctor
kura
cure
omi
man
duenti.
sick
The doctor cured the sick man.

This is expected for three reasons: (i) The languages also tend to have fixed SVO word order (cf. Chapter 1), so that the patient NP need not be overtly marked (see Sinnemäki 2010); (ii) the European lexifiers English, French, Portuguese and Dutch do not have overt patient marking; and (iii) hardly any of the relevant African and Oceanic substrate languages have overt patient marking. Thus, overt patient marking is generally found only in Asian pidgins and creoles as well as in some mixed languages.

In the world's languages, accusative marking of patients is not uncommon, but most languages with accusative marking use this marking only on a subclass of prominent patients, especially animate and definite patients. This situation, known as differential object marking (Bossong 1998, Aissen 2003), is more common than consistent object marking, and this is reflected in our languages as well. Moreover, in many cases object marking is optional and its use depends on a complex set of factors. Thus, when we say that only patients of a certain type are marked, this does not imply that these patients must be marked, or that marking of other patients is categorically excluded.

In Sri Lankan Malay and Pidgin Hawaiian, only definite patients are marked (value 2). In both languages, there is variability, but examples (5) and (6) show that accusative marking of inanimate patients is at least possible when they are definite.

(5)
Go
1sg
itu
dem
buk-pəðə-yang
book-pl-acc
ati-baça.
fut-read
I will read those books.
(6)
pehea
why
oe
2sg
aihue
steal
i
obj
ka
def
dala
dollar
Why did you steal the dollar?

In Pidgin Hawaiian, object marking with i (inherited from its lexifier Hawaiian) is in fact uncommon, but when the object is indefinite, it does not occur at all. In Sri Lankan Malay, the accusative marker probably arose under the influence of Tamil. Classical Malay has no accusative marking, and the patient marker sama that is sometimes used in colloquial Malay is not likely to have played a role.

In a number of languages in South Asia and Southeast Asia, only animate patients are marked (value 3). A few examples are given in (7a-c).

(7)
a.
Choma
call
kung
obj
kusir.
coachman
Call the coachman.
b.
Yo
I
ulyo
see.pst
ku
obj
padgar.
priest
I saw the priest.
c.
Ya
pfv
coge
catch
el
the
mga
pl
pulis
police
con
obj
el
the
ladron.
thief
The policemen caught the thief.

In the Spanish- and Portuguese-based languages, the accusative marker typically derives from the preposition con/com 'with'. In Diu Indo-Portuguese and in Sri Lanka Portuguese, the accusative marker is -pa/-pə, from Portuguese para or por.

(8)
eev
1sg
vosa
2sg.gen
kuɲaadu-pa
brother.in.law-acc
kada
every
ɔɔra
time
ki-lembraa
hab-remembre
I often think of your brother-in-law.

In the mixed language Michif, patient marking is restricted to animates, too, but the marker in question is traditionally called obviative rather than accusative, because strictly speaking, it marks non-topic status rather than patienthood. Under certain circumstances, it may be used on arguments other than patients. It is counted as a patient marker here because in practice, it mostly occurs on patients.

(9)
Li
art
shyaen
dog
kii-nawashwaat-eew
pst-chase-3sbj.3obj
li
art
sha-wa.
cat-obj
The dog chased the cat.

In Afrikaans and Papiá Kristang, only patients that are both definite and animate get accusative marking (value 4).

(10)
Ons
1pl
het
pst
nie
neg
vir
for
Piet
Pete
ge-sien
ptcp-seen
nie.
neg
We didn't see Pete.
(11)
yo
1sg
ja
pfv
olá
see
ku
acc
Maria
Maria
sa
gen
pai
father
I saw Maria's father.

Finally, in two languages all patient noun phrases are (or may be) marked with accusative case (value 5). In Zamboanga Chabacano, accusative marking is obligatory on patients that are definite and human, but optionally possible for all patients.

(12)
Pírmi
often
si
ag
Peter
Peter
ta-besá
ipfv-kiss
kun
obj
Joan.
Joan
Peter often kisses Joan.

In the mixed language Media Lengua, accusative marking is as ubiquitous as in the grammatifier Quechua, even though it is not absolutely necessary in all cases.

(13)
kura
priest
bindizia-xu-n
bless-prog-3sg
nwibu
new
iskwila-da
school-acc
The priest blesses the new school.