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In:First Language Acquisition in Finno-Ugric Languages
Edited by Minna Kirjavainen, Ágnes Lukács and Virve-Anneli Vihman
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 33] 2025
► pp. 271–309

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The acquisition of Hungarian morphology and syntax

 | Budapest University of Technology and Economics | HUN-REN Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics
 | Budapest University of Technology and Economics | University of Szeged
Published online: 13 October 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.33.09bab
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the acquisition of morphosyntax in Hungarian as a first language. Hungarian presents particular challenges for language development due to its rich, largely agglutinative morphology and pragmatically governed, non-configurational word order. Drawing on data from experimental studies, naturalistic corpora, and longitudinal observations, the chapter outlines the development of case marking, verb agreement, possessive constructions, verbal prefixes, spatial expressions, and argument structure. It also examines how Hungarian-speaking children acquire sensitivity to word order and pragmatic functions, including topic-focus structure and verbal prefix placement. The findings indicate early productivity in morphology, with noun morphology preceding verb morphology, and a gradual acquisition of syntactic patterns influenced by morphological marking and processing demands. The chapter also discusses the role of allomorphy and discourse-related variation, and includes evidence from both typical and atypical development. The typological properties of Hungarian offer insight into how language-specific features interact with general mechanisms of morphosyntactic development.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The acquisition of Hungarian morphology
    • 2.1A brief description of Hungarian morphology
    • 2.2Case marking and allomorphy in child language
      • 2.2.1Acquisition of allomorphy classes in nouns
      • 2.2.2Experimental results of early productivity
      • 2.2.3The acquisition of spatial terms in Hungarian
      • 2.2.4Possessive marking
    • 2.3Agreement marking
    • 2.4Verbal prefixes
  • 3.The acquisition of Hungarian syntax
    • 3.1Argument structure
      • 3.1.1The mapping of thematic roles: Experimental data
      • 3.1.2Patterns of implicit and explicit subjects and objects in early child language: CHILDES data
    • 3.2Word order and information packaging in Hungarian
      • 3.2.1The development of prefix-verb inversion in production
      • 3.2.2The interpretation of focus
    • 3.3Relative clauses
  • 4.Normative data on grammatical development
  • 5.Summary and future directions
  • References
References (83)
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