Datibo osagarri bitxiak eta Datiboaren Lekualdatzea: "ari nai diyot" eta "kanta egin nazu" bidegurutzean

Abstract

Under certain conditions, nonstandard varieties of Basque display so-called quirky dative objects, a phenomenon that belongs to the broader family of constructions studied in the typological literature as Differential Object Marking (DOM). For the most part, Basque grammarians have either ignored the phenomenon, or set it aside with suspicion or disparagement. In this paper we seek to redress this gap. First, we describe the main properties of quirky dative objects in Basque, and delimit the range of variation across varieties. Second, we compare it to similar DOM constructions in Spanish (leísmo) and Hindi-Urdu (-ko marking). Last, we analyze its syntactic properties and claim that Basque quirky dative objects should be viewed as true direct objects rather than as indirect objects. Our discussion compares quirky dative objects with the phenomenon of dative displacement, another little-known source of nonstandard variation in the language.