A kutatás célja a -Magyar strukturális nyelvtan 4., a mentális szótár szerkezetéről szóló kötetén... more A kutatás célja a -Magyar strukturális nyelvtan 4., a mentális szótár szerkezetéről szóló kötetének elkészítése. A szótári információk szerteágazó és rendkívül gazdag voltából következően a kutatás esettanulmányok elkészítésére törekedett. Az igékről hat esettanulmány készült: az első az igék szemantikája és a szintaktikai alternációk közötti összefüggést vizsgálja, a második az implicit vonzatok kérdésével foglalkozik, a harmadik témája a határozatlan argumentumok problémája, a negyediké az igék eseményszerkezete és az aspektus összefüggései, az ötödiké az igei poliszémia, végül a hatodiké az igei vonzatkeret ábrázolásának problémái. Külön-külön esettanulmány készült a relációs főnevekről, a melléknevek szemantikájáról, a mellérendelő kötőszókról, a funkcionális kategóriákról és a partikulákról. Általánosabb témákat vesz célba a ?Morfofonológia a szótárban? c. esettanulmány, a mentális szótár pszicholingvisztikai aspektusairól szóló tanulmány, valamint a szótár korpusznyelvészeti v...
Ebben a cikkben a magyar morfológia egy érdekes részfejezetérıl szóló vitairattal találkozhat az ... more Ebben a cikkben a magyar morfológia egy érdekes részfejezetérıl szóló vitairattal találkozhat az olvasó. Bánréti (2007) a mellérendelı szerkezetek közötti ellipszis vizsgálata során kitér az összetett szavakban tapasztalható törlési eljárásokra is. Az alábbiakban Bánréti állításait vizsgáljuk meg és szembesítjük az adatokkal, illetve az elméleti megfontolásokkal.
This paper is concerned with a construction in which multiple foci are found in front of the infl... more This paper is concerned with a construction in which multiple foci are found in front of the inflected verb, contrary to the accepted view on focussing in Hungarian, which allows for only one constituent there. Since earlier proposals for multiple wh-question constructions or multiple (postverbal) foci cannot be extended to cover the new cases, a new analysis is put forward based upon the assumption that Neg does not attract Tense and that wh-phrases must be licensed by Comp. The phenomenon of negative concord is invoked to provide independent evidence for the analyses presented. The interaction of negated universal quantifiers with negative concord quantifiers and focus is also examined in order to argue for the checking mechanisms at work in this language.
In this paper we will argue that contrary to the received view passive potential affixation in Hu... more In this paper we will argue that contrary to the received view passive potential affixation in Hungarian primarily derives complex syntactic objects rather than adjectives. By means of a number of tests we show the differences between the two classes of items bearing the homophonous affix ˗ható/hető: one a nonfinite verb form, the other a lexicalized adjective. In addition to a syntactic analysis of this composite affix, a typology is provided for languages that have similar constructions.
The recent cognitive turn in linguistics is closely related to research into the creative nature ... more The recent cognitive turn in linguistics is closely related to research into the creative nature of language. Formal creativity, or in other words, the recursive nature of language (with respect to both words, i.e., the basic units, and sentences, i.e., the end products) is what determines further domains of creativity, viz., at the level of meanings and in the theory of mind, providing for their unlimited and variable nature. Principles of the formal properties of language are presented at the levels of words and sentences, showing that recursion occurs both in words and sentences, indicating the local nature of syntactic relations, and demonstrating their neural correlates. Reference to neurolinguistic experiments is used to argue that metaphorical extensions of meanings are a natural phenomenon placing no burden on mental processing, even though literal meanings are not handled the same way as metaphors. It is claimed that sentential meanings have a primacy over word meanings, while words, and not sentences, are the basic units of the mental lexicon, i.e., long-term memory. In order to understand metaphors it is essential to have theory of mind (ToM), which develops in children parallel with the acquisition of complex syntactic structures involving mental verbs, as is shown by false-belief tasks. The nature and limits of the complexity of ToM is related to the limits of syntactic complexity in natural language.
This paper sets out to show that, contrary to common wisdom, complex event nominals
in Hungarian ... more This paper sets out to show that, contrary to common wisdom, complex event nominals in Hungarian (or CENs hereunder) do not arise through a purely lexical process involving a change in argument structure (demotion, promotion and the like) but are a result of a syntactic derivation that crucially relies on the assumption that CENs have clausal properties. I will rst review earlier work demonstrating that undisputed nonnite clauses in Hungarian exhibit more arguments than had been thought to exist before. The method of acquiring this evidence is introduced and its consequences explained. This move is necessary because similar arguments will be made use of in discussing at least one aspect of CENs, which will point towards the need to accept the clausal derivation. Then new data will be listed showing that CENs, too, have more argument positions than can be accommodated in the previous proposals and that properties of (non)resumption are incompatible with lexical derivation. Finally, a somewhat intricate new analysis will be presented, which is based on den Dikken's (1999) analysis of Hungarian possessive DPs.
Recent attempts to define the functions and domains of focus make a distinction between informati... more Recent attempts to define the functions and domains of focus make a distinction between information focus on the one hand and identificational or contrastive focus on the other. While both types of focus are claimed here to be identificational, they differ in that information focus incorporates a weaker relationship between the set of individuals identified and the relevant set of elements in the discourse available to both speaker and hearer. In a reexamination of focus domains in Hungarian, a focus-sensitive language, it is shown that they have been taken to be too restrictive and too broad at the same time: a number of syntactic constituents previously disqualified can be interpreted as focussed provided both syntactic and prosodic factors are taken into consideration, while others prove to be focussable only as parts of larger syntactic and semantic units.
This paper is concerned with the status of bound forms in compounds and other lexical items, but ... more This paper is concerned with the status of bound forms in compounds and other lexical items, but it ultimately aims at setting up a hierarchy of lexical items of various degrees of 'freedom', making use of clear-cut criteria applicable in at least one (fairly large) group of languages. In spite of the difficulties of the various (phonological, morphological, lexical, and semantic) definitions of 'word', Bloomfield's characterization of minimum free forms is applied to designate items at the top of the hierarchy, which are called 'autonomous words'. Bound forms that allow autonomous words to occur between them and the lexical item they are bound to are 'dependent words'. The novelty of this paper lies in dividing the rest of the lexical items 'below', i.e., 'nonwords', into three groups: semiwords, affixoids, and affixes, based on a new application of a familiar operation, coordination reduction, which is shown to work both backward and forward for some items, but only backward reduction is possible for others.
Indefinite pronouns differ from common nouns in English and a number of other languages in their ... more Indefinite pronouns differ from common nouns in English and a number of other languages in their position or some other feature of the construction they form with the adjectival phrases (APs) that modify them. This squib intends to throw some more light on their curious behavior by attempting to offer a new analysis.
The-i derivative affix is an old conundrum in the grammar of Hungarian. It is regularly classifie... more The-i derivative affix is an old conundrum in the grammar of Hungarian. It is regularly classified as a fully productive affix deriving adjectives from nouns of various semantic properties including geographical and proper names. It is usually also claimed that it can occur on postpositions and some adverbials, but since these are closed classes the use of the affix in these cases is not productive. We challenge the accepted wisdom and argue that the affix is productive across the board and the meanings its derivatives represent are highly predictable. Canonical adjectives have a number of characteristics that these derivative adjectives do not, which suggests that the latter are an alternative to modification by noun, rather than adjectives proper. On the other hand, i-affixation can take referential noun phrases as its base, a phenomenon found in other morphological processes in this language, as well as in other languages. Referential adjectives based on inherently referential expressions, proper names in particular, can carry over the referential function in a conceptual-semantic, though not in a syntactic sense. I-modifiers work much the same way in Hungarian, but there are also differences, as shown in relation to result nominals as well as complex event nominals.
A kutatás célja a -Magyar strukturális nyelvtan 4., a mentális szótár szerkezetéről szóló kötetén... more A kutatás célja a -Magyar strukturális nyelvtan 4., a mentális szótár szerkezetéről szóló kötetének elkészítése. A szótári információk szerteágazó és rendkívül gazdag voltából következően a kutatás esettanulmányok elkészítésére törekedett. Az igékről hat esettanulmány készült: az első az igék szemantikája és a szintaktikai alternációk közötti összefüggést vizsgálja, a második az implicit vonzatok kérdésével foglalkozik, a harmadik témája a határozatlan argumentumok problémája, a negyediké az igék eseményszerkezete és az aspektus összefüggései, az ötödiké az igei poliszémia, végül a hatodiké az igei vonzatkeret ábrázolásának problémái. Külön-külön esettanulmány készült a relációs főnevekről, a melléknevek szemantikájáról, a mellérendelő kötőszókról, a funkcionális kategóriákról és a partikulákról. Általánosabb témákat vesz célba a ?Morfofonológia a szótárban? c. esettanulmány, a mentális szótár pszicholingvisztikai aspektusairól szóló tanulmány, valamint a szótár korpusznyelvészeti v...
Ebben a cikkben a magyar morfológia egy érdekes részfejezetérıl szóló vitairattal találkozhat az ... more Ebben a cikkben a magyar morfológia egy érdekes részfejezetérıl szóló vitairattal találkozhat az olvasó. Bánréti (2007) a mellérendelı szerkezetek közötti ellipszis vizsgálata során kitér az összetett szavakban tapasztalható törlési eljárásokra is. Az alábbiakban Bánréti állításait vizsgáljuk meg és szembesítjük az adatokkal, illetve az elméleti megfontolásokkal.
This paper is concerned with a construction in which multiple foci are found in front of the infl... more This paper is concerned with a construction in which multiple foci are found in front of the inflected verb, contrary to the accepted view on focussing in Hungarian, which allows for only one constituent there. Since earlier proposals for multiple wh-question constructions or multiple (postverbal) foci cannot be extended to cover the new cases, a new analysis is put forward based upon the assumption that Neg does not attract Tense and that wh-phrases must be licensed by Comp. The phenomenon of negative concord is invoked to provide independent evidence for the analyses presented. The interaction of negated universal quantifiers with negative concord quantifiers and focus is also examined in order to argue for the checking mechanisms at work in this language.
In this paper we will argue that contrary to the received view passive potential affixation in Hu... more In this paper we will argue that contrary to the received view passive potential affixation in Hungarian primarily derives complex syntactic objects rather than adjectives. By means of a number of tests we show the differences between the two classes of items bearing the homophonous affix ˗ható/hető: one a nonfinite verb form, the other a lexicalized adjective. In addition to a syntactic analysis of this composite affix, a typology is provided for languages that have similar constructions.
The recent cognitive turn in linguistics is closely related to research into the creative nature ... more The recent cognitive turn in linguistics is closely related to research into the creative nature of language. Formal creativity, or in other words, the recursive nature of language (with respect to both words, i.e., the basic units, and sentences, i.e., the end products) is what determines further domains of creativity, viz., at the level of meanings and in the theory of mind, providing for their unlimited and variable nature. Principles of the formal properties of language are presented at the levels of words and sentences, showing that recursion occurs both in words and sentences, indicating the local nature of syntactic relations, and demonstrating their neural correlates. Reference to neurolinguistic experiments is used to argue that metaphorical extensions of meanings are a natural phenomenon placing no burden on mental processing, even though literal meanings are not handled the same way as metaphors. It is claimed that sentential meanings have a primacy over word meanings, while words, and not sentences, are the basic units of the mental lexicon, i.e., long-term memory. In order to understand metaphors it is essential to have theory of mind (ToM), which develops in children parallel with the acquisition of complex syntactic structures involving mental verbs, as is shown by false-belief tasks. The nature and limits of the complexity of ToM is related to the limits of syntactic complexity in natural language.
This paper sets out to show that, contrary to common wisdom, complex event nominals
in Hungarian ... more This paper sets out to show that, contrary to common wisdom, complex event nominals in Hungarian (or CENs hereunder) do not arise through a purely lexical process involving a change in argument structure (demotion, promotion and the like) but are a result of a syntactic derivation that crucially relies on the assumption that CENs have clausal properties. I will rst review earlier work demonstrating that undisputed nonnite clauses in Hungarian exhibit more arguments than had been thought to exist before. The method of acquiring this evidence is introduced and its consequences explained. This move is necessary because similar arguments will be made use of in discussing at least one aspect of CENs, which will point towards the need to accept the clausal derivation. Then new data will be listed showing that CENs, too, have more argument positions than can be accommodated in the previous proposals and that properties of (non)resumption are incompatible with lexical derivation. Finally, a somewhat intricate new analysis will be presented, which is based on den Dikken's (1999) analysis of Hungarian possessive DPs.
Recent attempts to define the functions and domains of focus make a distinction between informati... more Recent attempts to define the functions and domains of focus make a distinction between information focus on the one hand and identificational or contrastive focus on the other. While both types of focus are claimed here to be identificational, they differ in that information focus incorporates a weaker relationship between the set of individuals identified and the relevant set of elements in the discourse available to both speaker and hearer. In a reexamination of focus domains in Hungarian, a focus-sensitive language, it is shown that they have been taken to be too restrictive and too broad at the same time: a number of syntactic constituents previously disqualified can be interpreted as focussed provided both syntactic and prosodic factors are taken into consideration, while others prove to be focussable only as parts of larger syntactic and semantic units.
This paper is concerned with the status of bound forms in compounds and other lexical items, but ... more This paper is concerned with the status of bound forms in compounds and other lexical items, but it ultimately aims at setting up a hierarchy of lexical items of various degrees of 'freedom', making use of clear-cut criteria applicable in at least one (fairly large) group of languages. In spite of the difficulties of the various (phonological, morphological, lexical, and semantic) definitions of 'word', Bloomfield's characterization of minimum free forms is applied to designate items at the top of the hierarchy, which are called 'autonomous words'. Bound forms that allow autonomous words to occur between them and the lexical item they are bound to are 'dependent words'. The novelty of this paper lies in dividing the rest of the lexical items 'below', i.e., 'nonwords', into three groups: semiwords, affixoids, and affixes, based on a new application of a familiar operation, coordination reduction, which is shown to work both backward and forward for some items, but only backward reduction is possible for others.
Indefinite pronouns differ from common nouns in English and a number of other languages in their ... more Indefinite pronouns differ from common nouns in English and a number of other languages in their position or some other feature of the construction they form with the adjectival phrases (APs) that modify them. This squib intends to throw some more light on their curious behavior by attempting to offer a new analysis.
The-i derivative affix is an old conundrum in the grammar of Hungarian. It is regularly classifie... more The-i derivative affix is an old conundrum in the grammar of Hungarian. It is regularly classified as a fully productive affix deriving adjectives from nouns of various semantic properties including geographical and proper names. It is usually also claimed that it can occur on postpositions and some adverbials, but since these are closed classes the use of the affix in these cases is not productive. We challenge the accepted wisdom and argue that the affix is productive across the board and the meanings its derivatives represent are highly predictable. Canonical adjectives have a number of characteristics that these derivative adjectives do not, which suggests that the latter are an alternative to modification by noun, rather than adjectives proper. On the other hand, i-affixation can take referential noun phrases as its base, a phenomenon found in other morphological processes in this language, as well as in other languages. Referential adjectives based on inherently referential expressions, proper names in particular, can carry over the referential function in a conceptual-semantic, though not in a syntactic sense. I-modifiers work much the same way in Hungarian, but there are also differences, as shown in relation to result nominals as well as complex event nominals.
Review article on
Katalin E. Kiss, The syntax of Hungarian (Cambridge Syntax Guides). Cambridge: ... more Review article on Katalin E. Kiss, The syntax of Hungarian (Cambridge Syntax Guides). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xii+278. Laszlo Varga, Intonation and stress : evidence from Hungarian. Houndmills :Palgrave MacMillan, 2002. Pp. xvii+229. Laszlo Hunyadi, Hungarian sentence prosody and universal grammar. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002. Pp. 328.
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Papers by Istvan Kenesei
in Hungarian (or CENs hereunder) do not arise through a purely lexical process
involving a change in argument structure (demotion, promotion and the like) but are a result
of a syntactic derivation that crucially relies on the assumption that CENs have clausal
properties. I will rst review earlier work demonstrating that undisputed nonnite clauses
in Hungarian exhibit more arguments than had been thought to exist before. The method
of acquiring this evidence is introduced and its consequences explained. This move is
necessary because similar arguments will be made use of in discussing at least one aspect
of CENs, which will point towards the need to accept the clausal derivation. Then
new data will be listed showing that CENs, too, have more argument positions than can
be accommodated in the previous proposals and that properties of (non)resumption are
incompatible with lexical derivation. Finally, a somewhat intricate new analysis will be
presented, which is based on den Dikken's (1999) analysis of Hungarian possessive DPs.
in Hungarian (or CENs hereunder) do not arise through a purely lexical process
involving a change in argument structure (demotion, promotion and the like) but are a result
of a syntactic derivation that crucially relies on the assumption that CENs have clausal
properties. I will rst review earlier work demonstrating that undisputed nonnite clauses
in Hungarian exhibit more arguments than had been thought to exist before. The method
of acquiring this evidence is introduced and its consequences explained. This move is
necessary because similar arguments will be made use of in discussing at least one aspect
of CENs, which will point towards the need to accept the clausal derivation. Then
new data will be listed showing that CENs, too, have more argument positions than can
be accommodated in the previous proposals and that properties of (non)resumption are
incompatible with lexical derivation. Finally, a somewhat intricate new analysis will be
presented, which is based on den Dikken's (1999) analysis of Hungarian possessive DPs.
Katalin E. Kiss, The syntax of Hungarian (Cambridge Syntax Guides). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xii+278.
Laszlo Varga, Intonation and stress : evidence from Hungarian. Houndmills :Palgrave MacMillan, 2002. Pp. xvii+229.
Laszlo Hunyadi, Hungarian sentence prosody and universal grammar. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002. Pp. 328.