Differential Adpositional Case Marking in Vafsi within Optimality Theory

The purpose of this research is to analyze Differential Adpositional Case Marking (DACM) in Vafsi within OT framework by using the generalization of Aissen’s (2003) Differential Object Marking (DOM) model. While Bossong (1985) has traced DOM in more than 300 languages, DACM has not been investigated typologically, yet. DACM, as a branch of Differential Case Marking (DCM), questions the effect of semantic and/or pragmatic features on case marking of object of adposition. Evidence from Vafsi (Stilo, 2004) suggest that animacy in object of adposition (OA), affects its case marking; i. e. human and animate OAs in Vafsi will be oblique case-marked, while inanimate OAs are direct (nominative) case-marked. DACM OT model is developed using Prince and Smolensky (1993), Smolensky (1995) and the generalization of Aissen’s (2003) DOM OT model. The constraints hierarchies are extracted using formal devices of harmonic alignment and local conjunction.