{"pk":49061,"title":"A Reinvestigation of the Accusative Case Marker in Yoronese Ryukyuan","subtitle":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the distribution of the accusative marker <em>=NcjaN</em> in Yoronese Ryukyuan through corpus analysis of 314 pages of folktales. Previous accounts claimed that <em>=NcjaN</em> is optional when objects are adjacent to verbs but obligatory elsewhere. However, analysis of transitive clauses reveals that while adjacency correlates with marking frequency (67% adjacent vs. 86% nonadjacent objects marked), some nonadjacent objects remain unmarked. The data show differential object marking patterns: animate and definite objects are more frequently marked than inanimate and indefinite ones, regardless of adjacency. Cross-dialectal comparison reveals cognate forms functioning as limitative particles (‘only<!--StartFragment--><!-- x-tinymce/html -->’<!--EndFragment-->) in neighboring varieties of the Northern Ryukyuan languages, suggesting a grammaticalization path from limitative to accusative. I propose that contact-induced borrowing of Japanese =<em>dake</em> ‘only’ (=<em>daki</em> in Yoronese) triggered functional redistribution, with the indigenous =<em>NcjaN</em> shifting from limitative to accusative functions. These findings demonstrate how small endangered languages can develop unique case-marking strategies through internal reorganization catalyzed by language contact.</p>","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives  4.0","short_name":"CC BY-NC-ND 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.\n\nNoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0"},"keywords":[],"section":"Oral Presentations","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0816m5zg","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"So","middle_name":"","last_name":"Miyagawa","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Tsukuba","department":"Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences"}],"date_submitted":"2025-07-18T22:18:24.714000Z","date_accepted":"2025-07-19T07:25:22.940000Z","date_published":"2025-07-07T07:00:00Z","render_galley":{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/japanesekoreanlinguistics/article/49061/galley/36995/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/japanesekoreanlinguistics/article/49061/galley/36995/download/"}]}