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Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 45:2 (2021) ► pp.428–469

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Additive particle uses in Hungarian

A Role and Reference Grammar account

 | Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Published online: 22 October 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19034.bal
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate empirical data that raise challenging issues with respect to focus sensitivity of the Hungarian additive particle is ‘also, too’. In Hungarian, the additive particle is attached to a constituent, and the is-phrase cannot occupy the structural focus position. This raises the issue how to capture the focus sensitivity of is. We propose a primarily pragmatic, context-based analysis of the Hungarian additive particle, where the particle associates with the pragmatic focus (Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information structure and sentence form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) determined on basis of the immediate question under discussion (. 2012. Information structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics. Semantics and Pragmatics 5(6). 1–69.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Important evidence for this claim is that the Hungarian additive particle can take different semantic associates, corresponding to the pragmatic focus of the sentence. After discussing the Hungarian data, we will present the analysis in the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (Van Valin, Robert D., Jr. & Randy LaPolla. 1997. Syntax: Structure, meaning, and function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Van Valin, Robert D., Jr. 2005. Exploring the syntax-semantics interface. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). To capture Hungarian and English data in a uniform way, important extensions of the framework will be proposed.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Additive particles and focus sensitivity
    • 1.2A short note on Hungarian sentence structure
  • 2.The Hungarian additive particle is
    • 2.1Syntactic host and semantic associate
    • 2.2Different semantic associates
  • 3.A context-based analysis
    • 3.1Pragmatic focus and local discourse context
      • 3.1.1Sentential semantic associate
      • 3.1.2Predicate associate
      • 3.1.3Narrow semantic associate
      • 3.1.4Interim summary
    • 3.2Further aspects
      • 3.2.1Prosody
      • 3.2.2Various uses and structural distribution
      • 3.2.3Postverbal occurrences
  • 4.Implementation in Role and Reference Grammar
    • 4.1RRG: Basic architecture
    • 4.2RRG: the focus projection
  • 5.Analysis: Additive particles in RRG
    • 5.1English additive particles
    • 5.2Hungarian additive particles
  • 6.Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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Balogh, Kata
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Balogh, Kata & Corinna Langer
2022. Additive particles, prosodic structure and focus sensitivity in Hungarian. Linguistics 60:1 ► pp. 277 ff. DOI logo

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