Differential Object Marking
Differential object marking (DOM) is a linguistic phenomenon that is present in more than 300 languages; the term was coined by Georg Bossong. In languages where DOM is active, direct objects are divided in two different classes, depending on different meanings, and, in most DOM languages, only one of the classes receives a marker, the other being unmarked (but there are languages, like Finnish, where both types of objects are marked with different endings).
Read more about Differential Object Marking: Spanish, Other Languages, Research On DOM
Famous quotes containing the words differential, object and/or marking:
“But how is one to make a scientist understand that there is something unalterably deranged about differential calculus, quantum theory, or the obscene and so inanely liturgical ordeals of the precession of the equinoxes.”
—Antonin Artaud (18961948)
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“Hair of man, man-hair, hair of
breast and groin, marking contour as
silverpoint marks in cross-
hatching ...”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)