(Komi-Permyak)
PNPonly
PNPonly: The direct object is exclusively marked through the use of a noun or independent pronoun, and with the exception of required word order in some languages, no other morphosyntactic strategies for direct object marking are available.
| (1) | me | viʒ́öt-a | ʒ́oriʒ́. |
|---|
| I | watch‑prs.1sg | flower |
| ’I am watching a flower.’ (V. E.) | | |
| (2) | me | viʒ́öt-a | tańa-ös. |
|---|
| I | watch‑prs.1sg | Tanya‑acc |
| ’I am watching Tanya.’ (V. E.) | | |
| (3) | me | viʒ́öt-a | tenö. |
|---|
| I | watch‑prs.1sg | you.acc |
| ’I am watching you.’ (V. E.) | | |
| (4) | peťa | košš-ö | vöv | vör-iś. |
|---|
| Petya | look_for‑PRS.3SG | horse | forest‑ELA |
| ’Petya is looking for a horse in the forest.’ (Ponomareva 2010: 69) |
| (5) | me | viʒ́öt-a | pon-ös. |
|---|
| I | watch‑prs.1sg | dog‑acc.1sg |
| ’I am watching my dog.’ (V. E.) | | |
| (6) | peťa | viʒ́öt-ö | velötiś-sö. |
|---|
| Petya | watch‑PRS.3SG | teacher‑ACC.3SG |
| ’Petya is looking at the/his teacher.’ (L. P.) |
In Komi-Permyak, nominal (1) or pronominal (2) direct objects must be present, and verbs do not agree with their objects (cf. Bartens 2000: 332). The language uses differential object marking (DOM) (cf. Klumpp (2009) on object marking in Komi). The distinction is based on the animacy of the nominal functioning as the object: inanimate objects are usually unmarked (1), whereas animate objects appear in accusative case (2)–(3). Occasionally animate nouns are also unmarked (4), in which case they have an indefinite reading. Nominals with the P function have their own possessive paradigm in Komi-Permyak, possessee P nouns are always marked using a special case suffix. The form of 1Sg possessive accusatives (5) is the same as the accusative of animate non-possessive nouns. The 3Sg case suffix can express both possession and definiteness, so at times, only the context determines whether the noun is possessed or not (6).
Author: Nikolett F. Gulyás
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