Variability in case-marking in northern Philippine languages: Areal typology of existential and related clauses

Abstract

Variability in case-marking in northern Philippine languages: Areal typology of existential and related clauses
Yukinori Komoto(Graduate School of Humanities, The University of Osaka)

Abstract
This paper examines variability in nominal marking in northern Philippine languages, focusing on the existential, possessive, and locational constructions. The study surveys twenty languages from three subgroups—Bashiic, Northern Luzon, and Central Luzon.
The results show that locational constructions display remarkable uniformity, whereas existential and possessive constructions exhibit significant variation. This variation can be classified into four patterns depending on whether the theme noun is marked in nominative, non-nominative (mostly genitive or oblique), connected with the predicate via a linker, or morphologically incorporated into the predicate. It is argued that these patterns are shaped by several semantic and pragmatic factors that compete with each other (competing motivations), and they also show genetic and geographical unities.
This study demonstrates the significance of systematically addressing grammatical variation in Philippine languages, an area that has been relatively underexplored, and also contributes to typological research on existential, possessive, and locational constructions by demonstrating how competing functional motivations shape case-marking variation.