Mongolian is an ordinary DOM (Differential Object Marking) language: the accusative case does
not always occur on direct objects. This book investigates the phenomenon starting from the
research question of how the Mongolian pattern is influenced by factors that
cross-linguistically trigger DOM such as referentiality animacy and topicality. It shows
that looking at any of these factors on its own is not sufficient but rather that DOM emerges
from a complicated interaction of these factors. Apart from DOM Mongolian also exhibits a
specific type of Differential Subject marking (DSM) in which the subjects of embedded clauses
(including adverbial clauses) occur with the accusative case. This is the second issue
investigated in the study. In addition to the features already mentioned sentence structure
turns out to be relevant here. More specifically the adjacent occurrence of main and embedded
subjects is identified as a crucial factor for triggering DSM. Both observations about DOM and
DSM in Mongolian can be brought together in the generalization that the accusative case in
Mongolian is used to distinguish between two arguments not only within a clause but also across
the clause boundaries. The book provides a detailed introduction into relevant components of
Mongolian grammar and its findings are supported by extensive experimental studies with a
large number of native speakers in an attempt to ensure a high quality of linguistic evidence.
