The purpose of this book is to argue for the claim that Hungarian sentence structure consists of a non-configurational propositional component, preceded by configurationally determined operator positions. In the course of this, various descriptive issues of Hungarian syntax will be analyzed, and various theoretical questions concerning the existence and nature of non configurational languages will be addressed. The descriptive problems to be examined in Chapters 2 and 3 center around the word order of Hungarian sentences. Chapter 2 identifies an invariant structure in the apparently freely permutable Hungarian sentence, pointing out systematic correspondences between the structural position, interpre tation, and stressing and intonation of the different constituents. Chapter 3 analyzes the word order phenomenon traditionally called 'sentence inter- I twining' of complex sentences, and shows that the term, in fact, covers two different constructions (a structure resulting from operator movement, and a base generated pattern) with differences in constituent order, operator scope and V-object agreement. Chapter 4 deals interpretation, case assignment, with the coreference possibilities of reflexives, reciprocals, personal pro nouns, and lexical NPs. Finally, Chapter 5 assigns structures to the two major sentence types containing an infinitive. It analyzes infinitives with an AGR marker and a lexical subject, focusing on the problem of case assignment to the subject, as well as subject control constructions, accounting for their often paradoxical, simultaneously mono- and biclausal behaviour in respect to word order, operator scope, and V-object agreement.

Hungarian syntax has played a vital, albeit much debated role in linguistic theory since the early 1980s. Volume 27 of "Syntax and Semantics" is the result of a project on Hungarian syntax launched in the early 1980s at the Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The volume illuminates relevant and insightful aspects of Hungarian syntax. It assumes the basic theoretical claims and the basic methodology of generative linguistic theory, and shows that descriptive grammar is best approached by posing theoretically interesting questions. It features comprehensive coverage of Hungarian syntax and presents a complete analysis of salient questions and theories. It offers new insights into Hungarian syntax and discusses the important role Hungarian syntax has played in linguistic theory throughout the past decade.

The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

Publisher Description

Contains a collection of essays which explore the ways in which greater incorporation of nonsyntactic explanations into linguistic research may deepen the understanding of problematic linguistic phenomena and, at the same time, strengthen syntactic research. It also addresses the status of syntactic constraints.

The grammar of focus has been studied in generative grammar from its inception. It has been the subject of intense, detailed cross-linguistic investigation for over 20 years, particularly within the Principles and Parameters framework. It is appropriate at this point, therefore, to take stock. Appraisal at this particular point is all the more legitimate because it comes at a time of general evaluation of the results of the profound activity that has characterized the Principles and Parameters framework. This general assessment has produced a radical new direction within that framework. The volume starts off with an introductory chapter that aims to provide an outline for the assessment, to be followed by an overview of the evolution of the study of focus in generative grammar, and a recapitulation of the principal issues associated with focus. These issues are taken up in the remaining chapters of the book, where various grammatical means of marking focus (as well as grammaticalization of focus marking) are analyzed in a wide variety of languages.

This volume is intended to be used by practicing scholars as well as students. It represents all major and some of the minor trends that have evolved during the past decade. Book titles from all available sources have been included, as well as periodical articles from the major journals, whenever there was evidence of a theoretical approach. To ensure maximum accessibility of the entries listed, books and articles in language other than English and unpublished dissertations and working papers have been excluded. All entries are fully annotated and the volume is completed by indices of authors and subjects.

The book presents a new perspective on clausal syntax and its interactions with lexical and discourse function information by analysing Hungarian sentences. It also demonstrates ways in which grammar engineering implementations can provide insights into how complex linguistic processes interact. It analyses the most important phenomena in the preverbal domain of Hungarian finite declarative and wh-clauses: sentence structure, operators, verbal modifiers, negation and copula constructions. Based on the results of earlier generative linguistic research, it presents the fundamental empirical generalisations and offers a comparative critical assessment of the most salient analyses in a variety of generative linguistic models from its own perspective. It argues for a lexical approach to the relevant phenomena and develops the first comprehensive analysis in the theoretical framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. It also reports the successful implementation of crucial aspects of this analysis in the computational linguistic platform of the theory, Xerox Linguistic Environment.