Competition for the object status: the effects of referential factors in derived and non-derived ditransitive verbs in Mojeño Trinitario

International audienceThis paper investigates the effects of referential factors (more specifically the person hierarchy) in non-derived and derived three-participant constructions of Mojeño Trinitario, an Arawak language of Bolivia. The basic effect of referential properties in the three-participant constructions is that only one object may be indexed on the verb, and it is has to be a speech act participant. Referential factors thus indirectly create a competition between the two non-agentive arguments for the object status. The person value of the two non-agentive arguments is thus conditioning a construction split between a double-object and an indirective alignment based on a semantic role hierarchy P / T > R / Causee. Differences along four tests of objecthood can be observed among the three types of three-participant constructions (ditransitive verb 'give', causativized and applicative-marked monotransitive roots). The clearest conclusion is that derived ditransitive verbs do not behave like non-derived three-participant verbs