Spelling out of scope taking arguments in (de-)verbal constructions in Hungarian

Judit Farkas

University of Pécs , Hungary

Gábor Alberti

University of Pécs , Hungary
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8907-0715


Abstract

The paper systematically investigates operators in post-head positions within the three constructions referring to states of affairs in Hungarian, that is, within verbal, deverbal nominal and infinitival phrases. Hungarian is well-known to be a language in which all types of operator can be, and are usually, spelt out in the pre-head zone. However, it has not been discussed in a systematic and comprehensive way earlier whether operators can appear in post-head positions. The paper points out that this is partially possible via a systematic overview of six basic operator types. It also illustrates that while spelling out operators in the pre-head zone results in unambiguous constructions, placing them in post-head positions yields different types of ambiguity. As for the acceptability of scope taking arguments, finite verbal constructions show a black-and-white picture while infinitival and deverbal nominal constructions can be characterized by gray zones in respect of the readiness of arguments to take scope from post-head position. In these “gray zones”, a somewhat speaker-dependent variation can be observed, presumably with underlying microvariation. To represent and interpret our findings, we use Grohmann’s (2000, 2003) phase-theoretic approach with its pragmasemantics-based three Spell-Out domains per cycle.

Keywords:

(de-)verbal phrases, Hungarian, operators, Spell-Out positions

Alberti, G. (ed.) to appear. Syntax of Hungarian: Infinitival and Other Non-Finite Constructions. Amsterdam, The Neatherlands: Amsterdam University Press.

Alberti, G., and J. Farkas. 2018. Modification. In G. Alberti, and T. Laczkó (eds.), Syntax of Hungarian: Nouns and noun phrases, 775–895. Amsterdam, The Neatherlands: Amsterdam University Press. (Crossref)

Alberti, G., and J. Farkas. 2021. Igei és hibrid szerkezetek Grohmann-ciklusai és tartományai a magyarban [Grohmannian cycles and domains of verbal and hybrid constructions in Hungarian]. Általános Nyelvészeti Tanulmányok [Studies in General Linguistics] XXXIII: 13–42.

Alberti, G., and T. Laczkó (eds.) 2018. Syntax of Hungarian – Nouns and Noun Phrases. Amsterdam, The Neatherlands: Amsterdam University Press. (Crossref)

Broekhuis, H., Keizer, E., and M. den Dikken. 2012. Syntax of Dutch – Nouns and Noun Phrases. Amsterdam, The Neatherlands: Amsterdam University Press. (Crossref)

Doner, J. 2018. The Anchoring Domain and the EPP. Talk at GLOW41. http://seas3.elte.hu/tmp/glowabstracts/glow41-Doner.pdf

É. Kiss K. 1987. Configurationality in Hungarian. Reidel, Dordrecht & Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest. (Crossref)

É. Kiss, K. 2002. The Syntax of Hungarian. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Crossref)

É. Kiss, K. 2009. Is free postverbal order in Hungarian a syntactic or a PF phenomenon? In N. Erteschik-Shir, and L. Rochman (eds.), The Sound Pattern of Syntax, 53–71. Oxford, Great Britain and New York, USA: Oxford University Press. (Crossref)

Farkas, J. 2020. A személyragozott és személyragozatlan főnévi igenév igeiségének mértéke. [The degree of verbalness of inflected and uninflected infinitives in Hungarian]. Általános Nyelvészeti Tanulmányok [Studies in General Linguistics] XXXII: 69–81.

Farkas, J., and G. Alberti. 2017. The Hungarian HATNÉK-noun expression: A hybrid construction. In A. Bloch-Rozmej, and A. Bondaruk (eds.), Constraints on Structure and Derivation in Syntax, Phonology and Morphology, 71–100. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.

Farkas, J., and G. Alberti. 2018. Complementation. In G. Alberti, and T. Laczkó (eds.), Syntax of Hungarian: Nouns and noun phrases, 662–775. Amsterdam, The Neatherlands: Amsterdam University Press. (Crossref)

Farkas, Judit – Veronika Szabó – Gábor Alberti 2017. Information-Structurally (Un)Ambiguous Nominal Constructions in Hungarian. Finno-Ugric Languages and Linguistics 6/2: 38–80.

Farkas, J., Szabó, V., and G. Alberti. 2021. Egy- és többértelműségek igéből képzett és közönséges főnevek csoportjaiban [(Un)ambiguity in phrases of deverbal and non-derived nominals]. Általános Nyelvészeti Tanulmányok [Studies in General Linguistics] XXXIII: 125–148.

Featherston, S. 2007. Data in generative grammar: The stick and the carrot. Theoretical Linguistics 33 (3): 269–318. (Crossref)

Fu, J., T. Roeper and H. Borer. 2001. The VP within Process Nominals: Evidence from Adverbs and the VP Anaphor Do-So. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 19: 549–582. (Crossref)

Grohmann, K. K. 2000. Prolific Peripheries: A Radical Viewfrom the Left. Dissertaion at University of Maryland, USA.

Grohmann, K. K. 2003. Prolific Domains: On the Anti-Locality of Movement Dependencies. Linguistik Aktuell 66. Amsterdam, The Neatherlands: John Benjamins. (Crossref)

Grohmann, K. K. 2009. Exploring features and arguments. In K. Grohmann (ed.), Explorations of Phase Theory: Features and Arguments (Interface Explorations), 1–20. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. (Crossref)

Horvath, J. 1997. The status of ‘wh-expletives’ and the partial wh-movement construction in Hungarian. NL&LTh. 15: 509–572.

Kenesei, I. 1998. Argumentumszerkezet és VP-fókusz. A mai magyar nyelv leírásának újabb módszerei III.: 223–242. Szeged: JATE.

Sigurðsson, H. A. 2009. Remarks on Features. In K. K. Grohmann (ed.), Explorations of Phase Theory: Features and Arguments (Interface Explorations), 21–52. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. (Crossref)

Szabolcsi, A. 2018. Strict and Non-strict Negative Concord in Hungarian: A Unified Analysis. In H. Bartos, M. den Dikken, Z. Bánréti, and T. Váradi (eds.), Boundaries Crossed, at the Interfaces of Morphosytax, Phonology, Pragmatics and Semantics, 227–242. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. (Crossref)

Varga, L. 2016. The Intonation of Topic and Comment in the Hungarian Declarative Sentence. Finno-Ugric Languages and Linguistics 5/2: 46–77.

Download

Published
31-12-2022


Farkas, J., & Alberti, G. (2022). Spelling out of scope taking arguments in (de-)verbal constructions in Hungarian. Linguistics Beyond and Within (LingBaW), 8, 55–74. https://doi.org/10.31743/lingbaw.14957

Judit Farkas  farkas.judit2@pte.hu
University of Pécs
Gábor Alberti 
University of Pécs https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8907-0715



License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.