Differential objects and other structural objects

Abstract

Several recent accounts take adpositional differential marking to indicate those classes of DPs that require obligatory licensing (Case). Here, we examine data from Gujarati and Romanian where this analysis is harder to implement.  The two languages exhibit structural DPs that are signaled via a preposition. But they also contain other structural objects which must be equally analyzed in terms of licensing, leaving the difference from the adpositional objects unexplained. The solution proposed builds on the idea of secondary licensing on the same DP, going back to Kayne’s Generalization. The conclusion is that, at least in some languages, differential objects are classes that undergo an additional licensing operation.