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Essentials of an LFG analysis of Hungarian finite sentences

Laczkó, T.: Essentials of an LFG analysis of Hungarian finite sentences.
Proc. LFG Conf. 14, 325-345, 2014.
title:
Essentials of an LFG analysis of Hungarian finite sentences
authors:
  • Laczkó Tibor
published:
2014
type:
article
genre:
research article/review article
journal:
Proceedings of the LFG Conference (ISSN: 1098-6782)
language:
English
HAC:
Humanities, Linguistics
abstract:
In this paper I present an LFG (and XLE-implementable) analysis of the preverbal portion of Hungarian finite clauses. The structural representation is largely motivated by É. Kiss (1992) and Laczkó & Rákosi (2008-2014). I argue for S and against IP (and I also postulate CP). I employ a hierarchical, binary branching, adjunction structure for the topic field, in addition to a similar setup in the quantifier field. I handle all the question phrases other than the question phrase immediately adjacent to the verb in multiple constituent questions as occupying VP-adjoined positions in the quantifier field. I assume that focussed constituents, verbal modifiers and the (verb-adjacent) question phrase are in complementary distribution in [Spec,VP]. On the basis of the analysis proposed in this paper, I suggest that LFG's parametric space that is potentially available to c-structure?function associations should be augmented along the following lines. (i) The [Spec,VP] position should be allowed to host the FOCUS discourse function. (ii) The XP in [S XP VP] can also be a topic, in addition to a subject. (iii) A VP constituent can also contain a subject.
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