Datapoint Diu Indo-Portuguese/Marking of patient noun phrases

In monotransitive constructions, animate patient NPs are obligatorily marked with the preposition pe (occasionally also a, which is functionally equivalent to pe but normally reserved for pronominal arguments). This preposition also marks recipients in ditransitive constructions, and therefore, for purely descriptive reasons, I will call it a marker of dative/accusative case.

Inanimate arguments are, as a rule, unmarked; cases of dative marking on inanimate patient NPs are rather exceptional and involve the conceptualization of the argument as a target or beneficiary. To illustrate this, consider the following sentences, both of which involve the verb ve 'to see':

(a) Yo vay ve sinem. 'I am going to watch a movie.'

(b) Vay ve pə leyt. 'Go check on the milk.'

In (b), it is dative-accusative marking, normally reserved for animate patients, which determines that 'milk' is not simply looked at, but looked after.

Values

Only animate patient NPs are marked

Example 39-93:
Yo tə faze burak.
Yo
1sg
ipfv.npst
faz-e
make-inf
burak.
hole
I'm making a hole.

Source: Cardoso 2009: 327

Example 39-111:
Vay ve pə leyt.
Vay
go.npst
ve
see.inf
acc
leyt.
milk
(You) go check on the milk.

Source: Cardoso 2009: 191

Example 39-112:
Leopard foy murde pə lion.
<Leopard>
leopard
foy
go.pst
murd-e
bite-inf
dat
<lion>.
lion
The leopard went and bit the lion.

Source: Cardoso 2009: 195

Confidence:
Very certain