Abstract
This paper examines differential object marking in Romanian, also focusing on less-discussed configurations where ‘canonical’ features such as animacy or specificity are missing. The analysis builds on an adaptation of classical secondary licensing accounts stemming from Kayne’s Generalization (Kayne 1975, Jaeggli 1982, 1986, a.o.). More specifically, under the current proposal the differential marker does not result from (Case) licensing competition between the (accusative) clitic and its correferential DP (as in Kayne’s Generalization). It is rather the need to license more than one piece of structure in a given nominal when the initial/primary licenser is subject to a (φ-/δ-)Uniqueness Constraint. An implementation along these lines avoids the counterarguments brought to Kayne’s Generalization, while still preserving a useful secondary licensing intuition. It also straightforwardly explains the extension of differential marking to classes (such as inanimates) that have generally resisted explanation.
