Morbid Angel Formation, demos and Altars of Madness (1983-1990) Were these albums a success? Few albums struck a chord within the ears and minds of the late-'80s underground metal scene like Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness did Did any of them win awards? I don't know.
Were there any influences in marking of these?
Were there any influences in marking of the albums Morbid Angel, Formation, demos and Altars of Madness?
Morbid Angel was formed in 1983 in Tampa, Florida by guitarist Trey Azagthoth and drummer/vocalist Mike Browning. The band made their debut in 1987 on the New Renaissance Records record label. They recorded their debut album, Abominations of Desolation, in 1986, but the band was unsatisfied with the final product and it remained unreleased until 1991, printing 10,000 copies. In the early stages of their career the band developed a reputation for "gruesome stage antics."  In 1986, David Vincent joined the band, replacing Michael Manson and Sterling von Scarborough as vocalist and bassist respectively. Fellow Terrorizer drummer Pete Sandoval soon followed. Their first studio album, Altars of Madness, was released in 1989, and is regarded by many as one of the most important death metal albums of all time. It is also considered the first true death metal album. Music journalist Jason Birchmeier writes that:  Few albums struck a chord within the ears and minds of the late-'80s underground metal scene like Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness did at the end of the decade, setting a new precedent for metal bands to reach. With the arguable exception of Chuck Schuldiner's Death, never before had a heavy metal band carried their lightning-fast guitar riffs and equally spellbinding guitar solos into such horrific territory. Venom and Slayer redefined the extent to which a metal band could align itself with all things evil during the beginning of the decade, but Morbid Angel made these two groups sound like children's music compared to the Florida-based group's assaulting death metal sounds and their blasphemous lyrics. CANNOTANSWER
CANNOTANSWER
Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida, formed in 1983 by guitarist, primary composer and sole remaining original member Trey Azagthoth, vocalist and bassist Dallas Ward, and drummer Mike Browning. Widely considered one of the most influential bands in the genre and important in the transition of death metal from its thrash metal roots, they were one of the first bands to incorporate guttural vocals, up-tempo blast beats, multiple tempo changes and a dark atmosphere. They have been described as one of "the most influential and emulated bands in death metal", alongside Obituary, Death, Cynic, Autopsy and Deicide, and have been cited as an influence by many later bands. They were also the first death metal band to experience mainstream success in connection with being signed to Giant Records in 1992, heavy rotation of their music videos on MTV, and having the music video for the song "God of Emptiness" shown on an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Their first three albums – Altars of Madness (1989), Blessed Are the Sick (1991), and Covenant (1993) – are considered classics in the genre.

British music magazine Terrorizer ranked Altars of Madness first in its list "Top 40 greatest death metal albums". Decibel magazine also rated guitarist Trey Azagthoth as the number one "death metal guitarist ever". The band's songs are complex in arrangement, owing to the considerable technical skills of both Azagthoth as well as drummer Pete Sandoval, the latter of whom also played in the grindcore band Terrorizer. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Morbid Angel is the third best-selling death metal band in the United States (after Cannibal Corpse and Deicide up until 2003 with sales of over 445,000), with their third album Covenant being the best-selling death metal album of the Soundscan era with over 150,000 units sold.

The band's original lyrical themes, when helmed by Vincent (and Azagthoth and Browning respectively) focused mostly on Satanism, occultism and blasphemous subject matter, but from Formulas Fatal to the Flesh onward, via Azagthoth's influence, the lyrics moved toward the ancient Sumerian gods. Much of this is a nod to the Simon Necronomicon, which was influenced by Sumerian mythology, the author H. P. Lovecraft, and fascination with the Roman Empire, and during Steve Tucker's tenure they take on more anti-religious and barbaric themes, namely of the strong overcoming the weak.  Their albums are notable for being released in alphabetical order, with guitarist Trey Azagthoth commenting that it was a coincidence regarding the first two albums, but that it has been done consciously since then.

History

Formation, demos, and Altars of Madness (1983–1990)
Morbid Angel was formed in 1983 in Tampa, Florida by guitarist Trey Azagthoth and drummer/vocalist Mike Browning. In the early stages of their career the band developed a reputation for "gruesome stage antics". They quickly became highly influential in the formation of the Florida death metal scene, inspiring other highly influential acts such as Obituary. They recorded their debut album, Abominations of Desolation, in 1986, but the band was unsatisfied with the final product and it remained unreleased until 1991, printing 10,000 copies. In 1986, David Vincent joined the band, replacing Michael Manson and Sterling von Scarborough as vocalist and bassist respectively. Fellow Terrorizer member, drummer Pete Sandoval, soon followed. The band made their debut in 1987 on the New Renaissance Records record label.

Their first studio album, Altars of Madness, was released in 1989, and is regarded by many as one of the most important death metal albums of all time. Music journalist Jason Birchmeier writes that:Few albums struck a chord within the ears and minds of the late-'80s underground metal scene like Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness did at the end of the decade, setting a new precedent for metal bands to reach. With the arguable exception of Chuck Schuldiner's Death, never before had a heavy metal band carried their lightning-fast guitar riffs and equally spellbinding guitar solos into such horrific territory. Venom and Slayer redefined the extent to which a metal band could align itself with all things evil during the beginning of the decade, but Morbid Angel made these two groups sound like children's music compared to the Florida-based group's assaulting death metal sounds and their blasphemous lyrics.

Morbid Angel toured for nearly two years in support of Altars of Madness. The tour started in November 1989 when they opened for Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower in the UK and Europe. Most of 1990 and 1991 were spent touring North America, playing with bands such as Pantera, Obituary, Atheist, Death Angel, Forbidden, Sanctuary, Ripping Corpse, Deicide, Sacrifice and Wrath. The Altars of Madness tour ended in April 1991 with a Brazilian tour, supported by Sarcófago, Sextrash and Cambio Negro.

Rise to success (1991–1995)
In 1991, Morbid Angel released their second album, Blessed Are the Sick, which was met with widespread critical acclaim, and is considered by many to be a landmark release in the death metal genre. The album differed from its predecessor, showcasing a more "sludgy" side to the band. Morbid Angel toured worldwide in support of Blessed Are the Sick throughout 1991 and 1992, headlining a European tour with Sadus, Cathedral, Godflesh and Unleashed, a North American tour (also supported by Unleashed) and then a European tour with Entombed and Unleashed. They also were one of the opening acts (along with Kreator, Sepultura, Headhunter and Wolfsbane) for Motörhead on the "Christmas Metal Meetings '91" tour, and toured Australia for the first time.

Following the success of Altars of Madness and Blessed Are the Sick, Morbid Angel were signed by Irving Azoff to Giant Records for one album, with the option of five more. In late 1992, second guitarist Richard Brunelle was kicked out of the band due to alleged substance abuse; instead of replacing him, Morbid Angel moved on as a three-piece.

On June 22, 1993, the band released their third full-length album Covenant, which went on to sell over 150,000 copies in the United States alone. Their record label dedicated promotional resources to the album, and commissioned music videos for the songs "Rapture" and "God of Emptiness". These music videos were put on heavy rotation by MTV, and the latter also appeared on the television show Beavis and Butt-head. The success of the album enabled the band to tour with Black Sabbath and Motörhead across the United States from February through March 1994, which David Vincent credits with helping the band significantly expand their audience. Morbid Angel also toured North America with Kreator and Paradise Lost, and Europe with Grave and Dismember.

The band released its fourth studio album, Domination, on May 9, 1995, which featured new guitarist Erik Rutan of Ripping Corpse. It proved to be a somewhat controversial album among fans, featuring a slower, more atmospheric and experimental sound than on previous albums. AllMusic describes the album's sound as "more groove-oriented". The album has gone on to sell over 100,000 copies in the United States alone. Regardless, following the release of the album, their record label dropped them from their roster.

Steve Tucker era (1996–2003)
In 1996, shortly after the release of their live album titled Entangled in Chaos, bassist/vocalist David Vincent departed the band and was replaced by Steve Tucker. They released their fifth full-length album Formulas Fatal to the Flesh in 1998, which was considered more aggressive and complex than their previous album Domination. With Tucker, the band went on to release Gateways to Annihilation and Heretic in 2000 and 2003 respectively. Tucker briefly left Morbid Angel in 2001 and was replaced by former Hate Eternal bassist and vocalist Jared Anderson. That year, the band joined Pantera, Skrape, Slayer and Static-X on the Extreme Steel Tour of North America, which was Pantera's last major tour.

In 2002, Anderson left the band and Tucker re-assumed his position as bassist and vocalist.

Reunion with David Vincent (2004–2014)

In 2004, Steve Tucker once again left the band, paving the way for former vocalist/bassist David Vincent to return. The band continued by touring and playing festivals such as Wacken Open Air in 2006.

Morbid Angel's appearance on some of the mid-summer 2008 European festivals was announced as a "short break from writing and pre-production of their new 8th studio album". In May 2008, it was announced that Destructhor from Zyklon would be the band's new guitarist, and Destructhor would appear on the new album.

On March 18, 2010, the band announced that Tim Yeung would play drums on the upcoming album, allowing Pete Sandoval to recover from back surgery. On June 22, the band entered the studio to begin the recording of their new full-length album. On March 5, 2011, the band headlined the Scion Rock Fest in Pomona, California. This performance was their first in the US in six years, aside from a one-off show in Los Angeles in May 2009. On March 9, Morbid Angel confirmed that their new album would be called Illud Divinum Insanus. The album was released on June 7 via Season of Mist. The album incorporated electronic sounds and deviated from the usual sound of the band. In an interview in December 2013, David Vincent confirmed that Pete Sandoval is no longer a member of the band, claiming that Sandoval had "found Jesus", and stating, "Pete Sandoval and Morbid Angel are not compatible", laying to rest speculation that Sandoval would eventually be returning to the band.

Asked in a December 2014 interview about Morbid Angel's plans for 2015, Vincent replied, "We're done [touring] for awhile. It's time to write." Yeung said that the band was in talks of recording an EP.

Reunion with Steve Tucker (2015–present)
On June 15, 2015, it was reported that David Vincent and Tim Yeung were no longer in Morbid Angel. Former vocalist/bassist Steve Tucker shortly rejoined the band once again, while a replacement drummer, Scott Fuller, joined in 2017. Later that day, however, Vincent denied that he had left the band. On his official Facebook page, Tucker hinted in a post on June 17 that Destructhor was no longer part of Morbid Angel either: "Who will play second guitar? Time will answer that one ..." On June 18, this was confirmed, as Destructhor announced his departure from the band to focus on the Norwegian death metal band Myrkskog. The next day, Vincent confirmed his departure due to creative differences. Both he and Yeung teamed up together in late 2016 to form the band I Am Morbid. On August 3, Morbid Angel was signed to UDR Music and was at work on a new studio album, which would be released in 2017, with a tour to follow.

On January 9, 2017, Trey Azagthoth announced on his Facebook page that Scott Fuller from Annihilated joined Morbid Angel for the recording of their new album. Additional details indicated that the album title would presumably start with the letter "K", given the band's history on naming their albums alphabetically. The next day, the band announced that they had hired Dan Vadim Von from Vadimvon as their second guitarist. They also announced a U.S. tour with Suffocation, Revocation and Withered, which would begin in late May and continue into late June. In a March interview on The Metal Magdalene with Jet show on Metal Messiah Radio, Steve Tucker explained that the album would be a "death metal album". When speaking to Orlando Weekly in May 2017, Tucker said that the tour setlist would not feature any David Vincent era material and would then perform songs featuring him instead. He also said that they would play "probably one or two new songs" from the new album, in which he said that it was "almost done, but we don't want to put out too much with YouTube putting it up the next day." On the opening night on May 23, they performed a new song entitled "Warped". Morbid Angel canceled their European appearance twice due to passport issues from one of the members. The band's management explained that a new passport would not be issued in time for the shows. The band expressed disappointment with the news and issued an apology. On October 5, the cover artwork for the forthcoming album titled Kingdoms Disdained was revealed, which was released on December 1 by Silver Lining Music. Later that day, the brand new song "Piles of Little Arms" was made available for streaming, followed by "For No Master" on November 29.

Morbid Angel toured the U.S. in the spring of 2018 with Misery Index and Origin, performing on separate legs. Two additional bands Dreaming Dead and Hate Storm Annihilation were added as additional support. In early 2019, Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse toured together for the first time ever, promoted by heavy metal magazine Decibel, with Necrot and Blood Incantation as additional support. Immolation replaced Cannibal Corpse for the final week of the tour.

In a February 2019 interview with Metal Wani, Tucker stated that Morbid Angel was planning to begin working on a new album that year: "I'm gonna actually start writing some new music, and I think Trey will probably start writing some new music. We'll probably do a couple of more tours throughout the year. We have some stuff that's being talked about now, but nothing concrete. It's that time. It's been a little bit over a year since the last album came out. I've kind of got the urge and desire myself to write some more music. So we'll start getting into that and continue doing shows." In March 2019, Morbid Angel appeared on the Adult Swim television series FishCenter Live.

Legacy 
Morbid Angel have been one of the most highly influential bands in the growth and development of death metal along with death metal band Cannibal Corpse. Former guitarist Erik Rutan went on to form the successful death metal band Hate Eternal, while the South Carolina band Nile have gone on to enjoy significant levels of success in a similar style of death metal. Their sound has also heavily influenced the growth and development of death metal and black metal in South America, as well as of the early black metal scene in Norway. Many bands have cited Morbid Angel as an influence on their own music, including Obituary, Immortal, Krisiun, Gorguts, Behemoth, Dead Congregation, Gojira, Opeth, Pyrrhon, Revocation, and many others. Their early release Abominations of Desolation as well as Altars of Madness are considered two of the earliest true examples of death metal, as well as two of the most boundary-pushing albums of their time in terms of extremity. Metalsucks named them one of the most important bands of the 90s, writing that "The band released three seminal albums — Blessed are the Sick, Covenant, and Domination — between 1991 and 1995 alone (and there are definitely fans who'd say we're being unfair to 1998's Formulas Fatal to the Flesh). And thanks to a little show called Beavis and Butt-Head, Morbid Angel became death metal's ambassadors to the outside world, acting as the gateway drug for who even knows how many scores of kids."

Guitarist Trey Azagthoth is one of the most influential and widely revered guitarists in heavy metal. Loudwire named him one of the top 10 rock and metal "riff lords", writing that "Trey Azagthoth left his fingerprints all over the early death metal scene with a unique riffing style still unmatched within the genre today. ... His unconventional style sounds haphazard in its approach, awkwardly stepping over piles of rubbles left from previous riffing attacks, but with crushing effect." VH1 have described him as "a unique and thrilling lead player more following in the adventurous footsteps of Eddie Van Halen than a stiff tactician. Bands like Hate Eternal and Nile have used the now common death metal language that Morbid Angel commenced. Their influence is most clearly represented by current Metal heavyweight, Gojira." SPIN write that "he has blazed a tension-filled style all his own" and that "when he solos, he enters a mystical mind state he calls the "Temple of Ostx". During the nineties the band were one of a number of bands involved in the scare created around death metal, and were featured in a news report about the issue due to the band's overtly Satanic and occult lyrics and imagery.

Musical style 
Morbid Angel's style of music has undergone a number of changes throughout their musical career. The band's sound is characterised by harsh, growled vocals, technically complex guitarwork that frequently makes use of fast tremolo-picking and palm-muted riffs. Azagthoth's guitarwork is a core part of the band's sound, with his atonal "shredding" style being likened to the guitar work in Slayer. Pete Sandoval's work behind the drums has also been crucial to the band's sound, and "is known for his great double bass drum speed and technical proficiency" and as one of the fastest drummers in metal. In addition, "Sandoval is also among the first extreme metal drummers to champion the use of acoustic drum triggers." On their early albums, they pushed metal to its most extreme level, musically and lyrically. The band has evolved their anti-Christian lyrical themes from these early works. On Altars of Madness, the lyrics largely consist of simple blasphemous and overtly Satanic proclamations. However, the sophistication and depth of the lyrics has grown over time. On their 1993 album Covenant, the band articulate more broadly anti-theistic lyrics, and profess "anger at a higher power". Today, "the band's lyrics are even more philosophical and thought-provoking. Current lyricist Trey Azagthoth has diagramed his personal ideology in the album Formulas Fatal to the Flesh. His stance is blasphemous and non-traditional, but hardly evil."

Members

Current members
Trey Azagthoth – guitars, keyboards 
Steve Tucker – bass, vocals 
Scott Fuller – drums 
Dan Vadim Von – guitars

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Demo albums

EPs

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

Official website
Extensive interview with Trey (May 1999)

Death metal musical groups from Florida
1984 establishments in Florida
Critics of religions
Earache Records artists
Giant Records (Warner) artists
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups from Tampa, Florida
Musical quartets
Relativity Records artists
Season of Mist artists
A language is head-marking if the grammatical marks showing agreement between different words of a phrase tend to be placed on the heads (or nuclei) of phrases, rather than on the modifiers or dependents. Many languages employ both head-marking and dependent-marking, and some languages double up and are thus double-marking. The concept of head/dependent-marking was proposed by Johanna Nichols in 1986 and has come to be widely used as a basic category in linguistic typology.

In English
The concepts of head-marking and dependent-marking are commonly applied to languages that have richer inflectional morphology than English. There are, however, a few types of agreement in English that can be used to illustrate these notions. The following graphic representations of a clause, a noun phrase, and a prepositional phrase involve agreement. The three tree structures shown are those of a dependency grammar (as opposed to those of a phrase structure grammar):

Heads and dependents are identified by the actual hierarchy of words, and the concepts of head-marking and dependent-marking are indicated with the arrows. Subject-verb agreement, shown in the tree on the left, is a case of head-marking because the singular subject John requires the inflectional suffix -s to appear on the finite verb cheats, the head of the clause. The determiner-noun agreement, shown in the tree in the middle, is a case of dependent-marking because the plural noun houses requires the dependent determiner to appear in its plural form these, not in its singular form this. The preposition-pronoun agreement of case government, shown in the tree on the right, is also an instance of dependent-marking because the head preposition with requires the dependent pronoun to appear in its object form him, not in its subject form he.

Noun phrases and verb phrases
The distinction between head-marking and dependent-marking shows the most in noun phrases and verb phrases, which have significant variation among and within languages.

{| class="wikitable"
!Phrase type!!Head!!Dependents!!Global distribution map (WALS)
|-
|Noun phrase||Nouns||adjectives, possessives, relative clauses, etc.||Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
|-
|Verb phrase (theory A)||Verb||verb arguments||Marking in the Clause: Head-marking
|-
|Verb phrase (theory B)||Subject||verbs||Marking in the Clause: Dependent-marking
|}

Languages may be head-marking in verb phrases and dependent-marking in noun phrases, such as most Bantu languages, or vice versa, and it has been argued that the subject rather than the verb is the head of a clause so "head-marking" is not necessarily a coherent typology. Still, languages that are head-marking in both noun and verb phrases are common enough to make the term useful for typological description.

Geographical distribution
Head-marked possessive noun phrases are common in the Americas and Melanesia and infrequent elsewhere. Dependent-marked noun phrases have a complementary distribution and are frequent in Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and New Guinea, the only area where the two types overlap appreciably. Double-marked possession is rare but found in languages around the Eurasian periphery such as Finnish, in the Himalayas, and along the Pacific Coast of North America. Zero-marked possession is also uncommon with instances mostly found near the equator but does not form any true clusters.

The head-marked clause is common in the Americas, Australia, New Guinea, and the Bantu languages but is very rare elsewhere. The dependent-marked clause is common in Eurasia and Northern Africa, sparse in South America, and rare in North America. In New Guinea, it clusters in the Eastern Highlands, in Australia in the south, east, and interior, with the very old Pama-Nyungan family. Double-marking is moderately well attested in the Americas, Australia, and New Guinea, and the southern fringe of Eurasia (chiefly in the Caucasian languages and Himalayan mountain enclaves), and particularly favored in Australia and the westernmost Americas. The zero-marked object is, unsurprisingly, common in Southeast Asia and Western Africa, two centers of morphological simplicity, but also very common in New Guinea and moderately common in Eastern Africa and Central America and South America, among languages of average or higher morphological complexity.

The Pacific Rim distribution of head-marking may reflect population movements beginning tens of thousands of years ago and founder effects. Kusunda has traces in the Himalayas and there are Caucasian enclaves, both perhaps remnants of typology preceding spreads of interior Eurasian language families. The dependent-marking type is found everywhere but rare in the Americas, possibly another result of founder effects. In the Americas, all four types are found along the Pacific Coast but in the East, only head-marking is common. Whether the diversity of types along the Pacific Coast reflects a great age or an overlay of more recent Eurasian colonizations on an earlier American stratum remains to be seen.

See also 

Dependency grammar
Dependent-marking language
Double-marking language
Head
Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time
Linguistic typology
Phrase
Verb phrase
Zero-marking language

Notes

References
Ágel, V., L. Eichinger, H.-W. Eroms, P. Hellwig, H. Heringer, and H. Lobin (eds.) 2003/6. Dependency and Valency: An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Nichols, J. 1986. "Head-marking and dependent-marking grammar," in Language 62, 1, 56-119.
Nichols, J. 1992. Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Linguistic typology Differential argument marking (DAM) is a cover term for when languages encode the same grammatical function (e.g. subject or object) in different ways. It includes non-uniform encoding of arguments in terms of case marking, but also in terms of the presence or absence of agreement on the verb. The term differential marking – specifically differential object marking or DOM – was coined by Georg Bossong in relation to his work on Sardinian and New Iranian languages. However, in recent years there has been a growing interest in the great variety of differential marking patterns across the world's languages in both formal and functional linguistics.

Types of differential marking 
There are several sub-types of differential argument marking depending on the grammatical function and/or semantic role of the differentially-marked argument:

Differential Subject Marking
Differential Object Marking
 Differential Agent Marking/Optional Ergative Marking
 Differential Recipient Marking
 Differential Theme Marking

The most widely studied are differential object marking, differential subject marking, and optional ergative marking.

Differential object marking

Differential subject marking 
Case-marking is one of the formal guises of differential subject marking, along with agreement, inverse systems and voice alterations, which goes hand in hand with differential subject marking. The use of case marking on subject is to differentiate prominence in arguments. It can be used on subjects of transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. The definiteness and animacy scale of differential subject marking has the same hierarchical structure exhibited in the section on differential object marking. The functional motivation for the implementation of differential subject and object marking is to avoid ambiguity as to what is subject and object in transitive clauses. The most natural hierarchy of animacy and definiteness places transitive subjects higher than transitive object.

Optional vs alternating systems 
Some people draw a distinction between optional and alternating systems of differential marking. An optional system is one in which the case marker can be either present or absent. This can be illustrated from Persian:

An alternating system is one in which two different case markers alternate in marking the same argument. This can be illustrated from Finnish:

Patterns of differential marking 
Differential marking is known to be affected by a range of semantic and information structure factors. These include semantic properties of the argument such as animacy, definiteness and referentiality. It also includes properties related to the event semantics, such as the affectedness of arguments or the level of volitionality or control. Finally, in many languages, differential marking is related to the status of arguments as either topical or focal. There appear to be cross-linguistic differences in the triggering factors depending on whether the subject (agent) or object (patient) is differentially-marked.

Person and animacy 
In some cases, arguments are marked differential depending on their inherent properties. Examples of inherent properties that affect argument marking include the person, animacy and uniqueness features of a noun, which are often expressed as a hierarchy or scale. 

In cases of differential marking, arguments that are higher on the scale tend to have one form of marking, whilst arguments lower on the scale have a different form of marking. The cut off point may not be the same in all languages. An example is Hindi where the marking of objects is affected by animacy. Animate objects are marked with accusative case, irrespective of whether the argument is definite or not. In contrast, if an inanimate object is marked for the accusative case, the object must be definite.

Definiteness and specificity 
Differential marking can also be affected by discourse-related semantic features, such as definiteness and specificity. Like other semantic features, these can also be represented as a hierarchy.

Information structure 
Differential marking is also linked to information structure and the status of an argument as either topic or focus. Like definiteness, this is related to the status of the argument in discourse and depends on the context. Differential marking of agents and patients appear to be affected by different information structure triggers. Differential object marking often signals the status of a patient as topical. In contrast, differential agent marking often signals the status of an agent as being in focus.

An example of differential object marking that is affected by information structure is Neo-Aramaic. In the Neo-Aramaic dialect of Telkepe, objects can either be unmarked or marked with ta. Objects that are topical, such as (4a), are marked with ta. Objects that are not topical cannot be marked with ta, for example when they have argument focus as the answer to a question, as in (4b).

An example of differential agent marking that is affected by information structure is Tibetan. In Central Lhasa Tibetan, an agent in a transitive clause can either be marked with ergative marking or unmarked. When the agent is a topic, which is the most common role for agents cross-linguistically, it is normally unmarked, as in (5a). However, when the agent is contrasted, it will be marked with ergative case, as in (5b).

Differential case marking vs differential agreement 
It remains a matter of debate whether differential argument marking (i.e. the presence or absence of case markers) and differential argument indexing (i.e. the presence or absence of verbal agreement) are part of the same phenomenon or not. Some have argued that differential case marking and differential agreement should be treated as the same phenomenon on the basis that the share many functional similarities. Others have argued that they are different, pointing to different functions, motivations and historical development.

References

See also
Differential object marking

Grammatical cases
Syntax
Linguistic typology