Essentials of an LFG Analysis of Hungarian Finite Sentences

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.