Differential object marking in Romanian: an overview

Abstract

This article offers a descriptive overview of the most important empirical traits that characterize differential object marking (DOM) in modern standard Romanian, ranging from purely interpretive parameters to the more syntactically oriented ones. Various aspects are reviewed, among which the argumental status of Romanian differentially marked objects, despite overt prepositional marking, interactions with clitic doubling, or with the animacy and specificity scales. The final part is dedicated to a presentation of the numerous problems Romanian DOM raises for formal accounts. Against this background, it is shown that analyses which take this phenomenon to signal a mechanism at the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface appear to be best suited for the data.