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Abstract

There remain various linguistic phenomena that have not yet been fully described or discussed in grammars of languages spoken in Eurasia. As one such phenomenon, this paper examines a typologically unique type of direct object marking in transitive clauses in Tundra Yukaghir (Siberia, Yukaghir language family), namely transformative-essive objects. Based on a detailed analysis of corpus data, this paper demonstrates that (1) this non-canonical object marking is licensed when the direct object is a semantically “effected object” (Fillmore 1968) in a broad sense and when the object NP includes a beneficiary indicated either by a pronominal modifier or by a possessive suffix, and that (2) the use of the transformative-essive case for objects has plausibly been derived from its use in result roles (e.g., with the verb “make”) or as a secondary predicate. The analysis further shows that this construction is not marginal but is systematically attested in natural discourse, thereby constituting an integral part of the argument-marking system of the language. In addition, the paper argues that transformative-essive objects emerged under the influence of Ewen (Tungusic language family), one of the contact languages of Tundra Yukaghir, which uses the designative case for direct objects under similar structural conditions.