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Little pro's, but how many of them?-On 3SG null pronominals in Hungarian

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Abstract

While Hungarian 3SG 1 individual reference null pronominals are in free variation with their lexical counterparts, 3SG generic reference null pronominals do not show such variation. This follows from the fact that Hungarian 3SG generic null pronominals behave like bound variables, i.e. they always require a 3SG generic lexical antecedent in an adjacent clause. Both the 3SG generic lexical antecedent and the 3SG generic null pronominal must be in the scope of the GN operator, which is seated in SpeechActParticipantPhrase (SAPP), the leftmost functional projection of the left periphery in the sentence (see Alexiadou & D'Alessandro, 2003; Bianchi, 2006). GN binds all occurrences of the generic variable in accessible worlds (see Moltmann 2006 for English one/oneself). These properties distinguish Hungarian from the four major types of Null Subject Languages identified by Roberts & Holmberg (2010).
Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
Little pro’s, but how many of them? On 3SG null
pronominals in Hungarian
Gréte Dalmi
Independent scholar, Hungary
Abstract
While Hungarian 3SG
1
individual reference null pronominals are in free variation with their lexical counterparts,
3SG generic reference null pronominals do not show such variation. This follows from the fact that Hungarian
3SG generic null pronominals behave like bound variables, i.e. they always require a 3SG generic lexical antecedent
in an adjacent clause. Both the 3SG generic lexical antecedent and the 3SG generic null pronominal must be in the
scope of the GN operator, which is seated in SpeechActParticipantPhrase (SAPP), the leftmost functional
projection of the left periphery in the sentence (see Alexiadou & D’Alessandro, 2003; Bianchi, 2006). GN binds all
occurrences of the generic variable in accessible worlds (see Moltmann 2006 for English one/oneself). These
properties distinguish Hungarian from the four major types of Null Subject Languages identified by Roberts &
Holmberg (2010).
Keywords: null pronominal, generic, bound variable
1. Hungarian as a Null Subject Language
Hungarian has all the properties of so-called Null Subject Languages (Jaeggli & Safir, 1989;
Egerland & Sigurðsson, 2009; Roberts & Holmberg, 2010). It allows expletive null subjects in
meteorological sentences, individual reference null subjects as well as generic reference null
subjects, and any other null arguments in active finite sentences:
1
Abbreviations: ACC – accusative case; ASPP – Aspect Phrase; COMP – complementizer; COP – copula; [D] –
referentiality feature; DAT – dative case; EXPL – expletive pronoun; FORM – formalis case ‘in a given form’;
GN generic operator; IMP – imperative mood; IMPFV imperfective aspect; INESS inessive case (‘in’);
PAST – past tense; PERF – perfective aspect; PFX – prefix; PHI – person/number agreement features; POSS –
possessive marker; PRES – present tense; PRT – particle; PRTC participle; RFL – reflexive marker; REFL
reflexive pronoun; SAPP SpeechActParticipant Phrase; SBJ subjunctive mood; TERM terminalis case
(‘until’); TOP topic marker; TOPP – Topic Phrase; 3SG third person singular; 3PLthird person plural;
– existential operator.
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
62
Expletive null subject
Már hajnal-od-ott pro
EXPL
, amikor el-alud-tak
k
a gyerekek.
already dawn-RFL-PAST3SG EXPL when
PFX-SLEEP-PAST3PL the children
‘It was already beginning to dawn when the children fell asleep.’
Referential null subject
Vera
i
fél-t, [hogy pro
i/j
le-kés-i a film-et].
Vera fear-PAST3SG that (s/he) PFX-MISS-PRES3SG the movie-ACC
‘Vera
i
feared that she
i/j
(herself or someone else) would miss the movie.’
Generic inclusive null subject
Ha az ember
GN
iszik, pro
GN
nem vezet.
if the man drinks (the man) not drives
‘If one drinks, one does not drive.’
Itt nem beszél-nek pro
arb
magyar-ul.
here not speak-PRES3PL (people) Hungarian-FORM
‘People do not speak Hungarian here.’
2
Other null arguments
Amikor meg-érkezel pro azonnal hívd fel pro.
When PFX-arrive (you) at once call-IMP2SG PFX (him)
‘When you arrive, call him up at once.’
Despite these properties, Hungarian differs from the four major types of Null Subject Languages
(NSLs) established by Roberts & Holmberg (2010) in crucial ways. First, while 3SG individual
reference null pronominals are in free variation with their lexical counterparts, no such
variation is found with 3SG generic reference null pronominals. Second, the 3SG generic
reference null pronominal functions as a variable, which must be coreferential with a 3SG
generic lexical antecedent in an adjacent clause, while 3SG individual reference null
pronominals function quite well without any lexical antecedent. Third, 3SG generic inclusive
null pronominals show no scope interaction with quantifiers, as they must be in the scope of
GN, which always take widest scope. These properties will be discussed in the rest of the paper.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 1.1 describes the syntactic and semantic
properties of 3SG null pronominals with the generic inclusive interpretation and the way they
differ from 3SG null pronominals with the individual reference interpretation in Hungarian.
Section 1.2 explains how 3SG generic inclusive are distinguished from 3PL generic exclusive
2
Existentially quantified NPs can take scope over 3PL generic exclusive NPs. This indicates the quantificational
properties of 3PL generic exclusive NPs. 3SG generic inclusive NPs, on the other hand, show no similar scope
interaction, as GN always takes widest scope (see Moltmann, 2006):
(i) Az emberek néha furcsa e-mail üzeneteket kapnak. (= Some x’s are such that….) >GN
‘Sometimes people receive strange e-mail messages.’
(ii) Az ember néha furcsa e-mail üzeneteket kap. (≠ Some x is such that…) *>GN
‘Sometimes one receives strange e-mail messages.’
On 3PL generic exclusive null pronominals in Hungarian see (Tóth, 2011). On the semantic differences between
Hungarian 3SG generic inclusive vs. 3PL generic exclusive null arguments see Dalmi (2013; 2014).
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
63
null pronominals with respect to their scope interaction options and binding requirements. Part
2 discusses a recent typology of Null Subject Languages (NSLs) given by Roberts & Holmberg
(2010) and explains that Hungarian does not fit in any of the four major types of NSLs as far as
3SG generic inclusive null pronominals are concerned. Part 3 introduces Harley & Ritter’s
(2002) feature geometric account of pronominals and Alexiadou & D’Alessandro’s (2003)
proposal to include impersonal SI in Italian in that system. Finally, it explains why Hungarian
3SG generic inclusive null pronominals do not require a feature geometric approach and
proposes to give merely a feature composition of such pronominals.
1.1. 3SG generic inclusive pro vs. 3SG individual reference pro in Hungarian
The general consensus concerning Hungarian 3SG individual reference null pronominals is that
they are in free variation with their lexical counterparts (É. Kiss, 1987; 2002; Kenesei, 1989):
3
Péter nem 0 biztos abban, hogy ő/pro átmegy a vizsgán.
Peter not COP sure in_it that he/(he) through_go.3SG the exam-on
‘Peter is not sure that he/pro will pass the exam.’
Ő/pro nem 0 biztos abban, hogy ő/pro átmegy a vizsgá-n.
he/(he) not COP sure in_it that he/(he) through_go.3SG the exam-on
‘He is not sure that he/pro will pass the exam.’
The 3SG generic reference null pronominal, pro
GN
, differs from 3SG individual reference pro
inasmuch as it shows the properties of bound variables (see Moltmann, 2006 on English
one/oneself and Kratzer, 2000 on German man). Unlike the 3SG individual reference pro, this
type of 3SG null pronominal must be bound by the 3SG lexical antecedent az ember ‘the man
GN
’,
(8); it does not alternate with the 3SG individual reference pronominal (lexical or null), (9); it
cannot be bound by the 3SG individual reference pronominal, whether this pronominal bears
structural or inherent case, (10)-(11). Notice that unlike the 3SG individual reference null
pronominal, the 3SG generic reference null pronominal always involves the speaker, hence it is
1
st
person-oriented, (8)-(11):
Az ember
GN
nem tudja, mennyit kell pro
GN
/ *ő-neki / *pro
the man not knows how much must (the man-DAT) / he-DAT / (he-DAT)
a nyugdíj-ig dolgoz-ni-a.
the retirement- TERM work-INF-3SG
‘One does not know how much one/*he/(*he) must work till retirement.’
Az ember
GN
nem 0 biztos abban, hogy *ő / *pro / pro
GN
át-megy a vizsgá-n.
the man not COP sure in_it that he/ (he) / (the man) through-go.3SG the exam-on
‘One is not sure that one / *he will pass the exam.’
3
In present indicative copular sentences, the 3SG and 3PL copula is morphologically zero, except with locative
complements (see Dalmi, 2010; 2016).
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
64
*Ő/*pro nem 0 biztos abban, hogy az ember
GN
/ pro
GN
átmegy a vizsgá-n.
He/(he) not COP sure in_it that the man / (the man) through_go.3SG the exam-on
‘He is not sure that one will pass the exam.’
Ha az ember
GN
sejtené, mennyi megpróbáltatás vár
if the man guess-COND3SG how many adversities wait
pro
GN
/ *ő-rá a házépítés során, pro
GN
/*ő /*pro el sem kezdené.
(one) on / he-on the housebuilding during (one) / he /(he) PFX not even start-COND3SG
‘If one could guess how many adversities are awaiting one in the course of building a house, one would not
even start.’
As the examples in (8)-(11) show, 3SG pro
GN
clearly differs from 3SG pro in its distribution,
binding requirements, and semantic interpretation:
The properties of 3SG pro
GN
(i) It requires the 3SG lexical antecedent az ember ‘the man’.
(ii) It does not alternate with 3SG lexical, individual reference pronominals.
(iii) The 3SG lexical antecedent az ember ‘the man’ cannot have individual reference.
(iv) It is 1
st
person-oriented, i.e. it includes the speaker.
These properties justify isolating 3SG generic reference pro
GN
from 3SG individual reference
pro. The semantic properties of 3SG generic inclusive pro
GN
also distinguish it from 3PL generic
exclusive pro. This will be shown in the next subsection.
1.2. The semantic properties of 3SG generic inclusive vs. 3PL generic exclusive null
pronominals
Cinque (1988) notes that impersonal SI in Italian has quantificational properties. Yet, his
examples mostly involve the generic exclusive 3PL use of SI:
Qui SI fanno in quattro per aiuatere.
here (they) do in all to help
‘Here they do their utmost to help.’
It is important to segregate the 3PL generic exclusive reading of impersonal SI from the 3SG
generic inclusive reading (see Roberts & Holmberg, 2010 for a recent typology of Null Subject
Languages, NSLs). As Moltmann (2006) points out, 3PL generic exclusive people in English
shows scope interaction with quantifiers but 3SG generic inclusive one never does:
People often wear fashionable clothes at parties. OFTEN > MOST or MOST > OFTEN
One often wears fashionable clothes at parties. GN > OFTEN but *OFTEN > GN
While (14) can be interpreted as “there are many x’s, such that….” Such interpretation is not
available for (15). The two lexical items also differ pragmatically:
You can’t imagine how much one suffers during cosmetic surgery!
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
65
You can’t imagine how much people suffer during cosmetic surgery.
Generic inclusive one in (16) conveys the speaker’s intention to arouse sympathy in the
addressee, while (17) with generic exclusive people is merely a statement of the fact.
The existentially quantified DP in (18) does not c-command the 3SG pronominal, and
therefore it cannot serve as an antecedent for it. This leads to a Weak Cross-Over (WCO) effect.
In (19), on the other hand, GN takes scope over all occurrences of one and no Weak Cross-Over
effect shows up:
WEAK CROSS
-
OVER EFFECT
*Someone
i
’s mother always gives him
i
a birthday present.
One’s mother always gives one a birthday present.
A similar scenario is found in Hungarian:
WCO
-
EFFECT
??[Valaki-nek
i
. mindig ad-0 ajándék-ot az pro
i
any-ja [
DP
t
i
]].
someone-DAT always give-PRES3SG present-ACC the s/he.NOM mother-POSS3SG
‘His
i
mother always gives someone
i
a present.’
NO WCO
-
EFFECT
[
SAPP
GN [
TOPP
Az ember-nek
gen
mindig ad ajándék-ot
the man-DAT always give.PRES3SG present-ACC
az [
DP
pro
gn
any-ja].
the (the man.NOM) mother-POSS3SG
One’s mother always gives a present to one.’
GN in Moltmann’s (2006) sense is a group-inducing, first person-oriented modal operator that
binds generic inclusive one in accessible worlds. GN does not enter into scope interaction with
quantifiers. Furthermore, GN always has widest scope. This verifies its operator status.
4
Tóth (2011) also discusses the quantificational properties of the Hungarian 3PL generic
exclusive az emberek ‘the people’ and its interaction with quantificational adverbials like
általában ‘generally’, rendszerint ‘usually’. This behaviour follows from the fact that 3PL generic
exclusive az emberek ‘the people’ (and its null counterpart) is bound by a quantifier like MOST:
most x’s are such that…:
A középkor-ban általában az emberek féltek a villámlás-tól.
the Middle Ages-INESS generally the people feared the lightning-from
‘In the Middles Ages, people generally feared lightning.’
A középkor-ban általában féltek pro a villámlás-tól.
the Middle Ages-INESS generally feared (the people) the lightning-from
‘In the Middle Ages, people generally feared lightning.’
(Most x’s in the Middle Ages were such that they feared lightning.)
4
As most modal operators, GN takes scope over the whole sentence. It sits in the leftmost functional projection
of the periphery, SAPP, in the sentences, to ensure that it has widest scope.
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
66
3SG generic inclusive az ember ‘the man’ and its null pronominal counterpart, on the other
hand, do not show any scope interaction, as they must both be in the scope of the GN operator,
which takes scope over the whole sentence:
Ha az ember
GN
munkanélkülivé válik, gyakran éhezik pro
GN
.
when the man unemployed becomes often starves (the man)
‘When one becomes unemployed, one often starves.’
(≠Most x’s are such that when they become unemployed, they starve.)
Cross-linguistic studies on pronominals mostly discuss individual reference null pronominals,
expletive null pronominals but not generic reference ones. By studying the properties of 3SG
generic reference pronominals across languages, a more fine-grained typology of Null Subject
Languages can be provided. In Consistent NSLs, 3SG generic inclusive pronouns must always
be lexical, whereas 3SG individual reference pronouns can be freely dropped. Partial NSLs, by
contrast, require 3SG individual reference pronouns to be overt but 3SG generic reference
pronouns to be null. Holmberg (2005; 2010) explains these facts in terms of parametric
variation across languages. Wherever the T
0
head has a [+D] feature, the 3SG pronominal does
not spell out. In Italian sentences with the 3SG generic inclusive interpretation, the T
0
head has
a [-D] feature, which forces the 3SG generic pronominal to be overt.
2. A cross-linguistic outlook on null arguments
Roberts & Holmberg (2010) establish a typology of Null Subject Languages (NSLs), based on
the kinds of null subject such languages allow:
Type 1 Expletive Null Subject Languages (German, Dutch, Afrikaans)
Type 2 Partial Null Subject Languages (Finnish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese)
Type 3 Consistent Null Subject Languages (Italian, Polish, European Portuguese)
Type 4 Radical Null Subject Languages (Chinese, Indonesian, Thai)
Holmberg (2005; 2010) observes the following correlation between 3SG referential vs. 3SG
generic null subjects in Type 2 Partial NSLs and Type 3 Consistent NSLs:
Partial NSLs: 3SG referential subjects must not be null;
3SG generic subjects must always be null;
Consistent NSLs: 3SG referential subjects can be freely dropped;
3SG generic subjects must not be null.
Partial NSLs: 3SG referential lexical subject
Hän /*pro istuu mukavasti ssä.
he /*he sits comfortably here
‘He sits comfortably here.’
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
67
Partial NSLs: 3SG generic null subject
Tässä pro
GN
/*i
istuu mukavasti.
there one /*he sits comfortably
‘One can sit comfortably here.’ (Finnish, Holmberg 2010)
Consistent NSLs: 3SG referential null subject
pro Ha telefonato.
PERF3SG telephone.PTCP
‘He has telephoned.’ (Italian, Rizzi 1982)
Consistent NSLs : 3SG generic lexical subject
Se si è morti, non ci si muove piu.
if one COP dead not RFL one move anymore
‘If one is dead, one does not move anymore.’
*Se pro
GN
è morti, non ci pro
GN
muove piu.
if one COP dead not RFL one move anymore
‘If one is dead, one does not move anymore.’
(Italian, Alexiadou & D’Alessandro, 2003)
These correlations can also be observed in two different varieties of the same language, i.e.
European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. While Brazilian Portuguese (BP) 3SG generic
subjects comply with the Partial NSL requirement, European Portuguese (EP) generic subjects
behave like those in Consistent NSLs (Holmberg & Sheehan, 2010):
É assim que pro / *se faz o doce.
is thus that (one) / one makes the sweet
‘This is how one makes sweets.’
(Brazilian Portuguese, Holmberg & Sheehan, 2010)
É assim que *pro / se faz o doce.
is thus that (one) / one makes the sweet
‘This is how one makes sweets.’
(European Portuguese, Holmberg & Sheehan, 2010)
Radical NSLs allow variation in the generic vs. individual reference interpretations of 3SG null
pronominals. This is not found in any other type of NSLs:
Ah John
i
waa hai jingwok pro
i
/ pro
GN
jiu gong jingman.
PRT John say in England he / one need speak English
‘John
i
says that in England he
i
/one needs to speak English.’
(Cantonese Chinese, Holmberg & Sheehan, 2010)
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
68
John
i
-wa kono beddo-de-wa yoku nemu-reru-to pro
i
/pro
GN
iu.
John-TOP this bed-in-TOP well sleep-can-COMP (he / one) say
‘John
i
says that he
i
/one can sleep well in this bed.’
(Japanese, Holmberg & Sheehan, 2010)
Although Hungarian is unquestionably a Null Subject Language (NSL), it does not perfectly
match any of these major types of NLSs, as far as the properties of 3SG generic inclusive
arguments are concerned. In several respects, it patterns with Icelandic, which is renowned as
a non-Null Subject Language. In Icelandic, 3SG generic inclusive subjects are expressed
lexically, by maður ‘the man’. Yet, in certain contexts, a 3SG generic inclusive null pronominal
can also show up:
Ef maður tapar, thá er maður úr leik.
if one/I loses then is one/I out
‘If one loses, one is out.’
‘If I lose, I am out.’
(Icelandic, Jónsson, 1992)
[
ForceP
[
SAPP
GN
[
TOPP
Í Feneyjum ferðast [
TP
maður
GN
yfirleitt [
VP
á báti]]]].
in Venice travels one generally on boat
‘In Venice, one generally travels by boat.’
Maður var óheppinn í gær.
man-the was lucky yesterday
‘I was lucky yesterday.’
Á tunglinu væri ferðast pro
GN
a báti.
on moon.the be.SBJ travel.PRTC on boat
‘On the moon, one would travel by boat.’
(Icelandic, Egerland & Sigurðsson, 2009)
Variation between the 3SG generic vs. 1SG individual interpretations of maður ‘the man’ is
contextually determined. The 3SG generic inclusive interpretation of the null pronominal in
(37) is licensed by the non-veridical operator.
It is worth noting that in (37), generic inclusive maður must be repeated in the matrix
clause, just as English one or German man (see Moltmann, 2006 and Kratzer, 1996,
respectively). This is not the case in Hungarian, where it is the first occurrence of 3SG generic
inclusive arguments that must always be lexical but the other occurrences must be null,
irrespective of whether they appear in matrix or subordinate clauses, i.e. precedence is crucial
but dominance is not. This fundamentally distinguishes Hungarian from all the four major
types of NSLs.
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
69
3. The feature geometric approach to pronominals
3.1. Harley & Ritter (2002)
Harley & Ritter (2002) adopt Noyer’s (1992; 1997) Universal Feature Hierarchy (UFH), and
propose a system of pronominals in which pronouns are built up of geometrically arranged
feature bundles, including pragmatic features such as speaker and addressee, as well as
morphological features like person and gender:
Referring expression (Pronoun)
Participant Individuation
Speaker Addressee Group Minimal Class
Augmented Animate Inanimate
F M N
While this system provides sufficient room for cross-linguistic variation among individual
reference pronominals, it does not have much to offer for generic ones.
3.2. Alexiadou & D’Alessandro (2003)
Alexiadou & D’Alessandro (2003) provide a feature-geometric account of impersonal generic
SI in Italian. Their system draws heavily on Harley & Ritter’s (2002) feature geometry and takes
3
rd
person pronouns to be unspecified for person/number features (i.e. they are neither speakers
nor addressees). Thus, impersonal SI in Italian is claimed to have no person/number features
at all in their system. This explains the variation between the 3SG generic vs. the 1PL individual
reference readings of impersonal SI. They derive this variation from the presence or absence of
the [±gn] feature in ASPP. They introduce the SAPP (SpeechActParticipant Phrase) functional
projection, which stores 1
st
and 2
nd
person features in their account. The absence of SAPP yields
the 3
rd
person individual reference reading:
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
70
SAPP (Alexiadou & D’Alessandro, 2003, p. 41)
SAP TP
[±person] T ASPP
ASP vP
(IM)PERF si v’
[±gn] ‘one/we’ v VP
mangiava ‘eat’
è mangiato ‘ate’
In quell ristorante SI mangiava bene.
in that restaurant SI eats well
‘In that restaurant one can eat well.’
In quell ristorante SI è mangiato bene.
in that restaurant SI is eaten well
‘In that restaurant we ate well.’
A similar picture is found in Polish, where the generic vs. individual reference interpretation of
the impersonal pronoun SIĘ largely depends on the aspectual form of the verb:
W Krakowie sprzedawało się dużo kwiatòw.
in Krakow sell.IMPFV.PAST REFL a lot flowers
‘In Krakow one used to sell a lot of flowers.’ (habitual past)
W Krakowie sprzedało się dużo kwiatòw.
in Krakow sell.PERF.PAST REFL a lot flowers
‘In Krakow we sold a lot of flowers.’ (actual past)
(Polish, Krzek, 2012)
This suggests that Alexiadou & D’Alessandro’s (2003) model works fine for NSLs in which
generic interpretation correlates with aspect. But what about languages that lack this
correlation? We have seen that Icelandic, a non-NSL, has variation in the interpretation of
maður ‘the man’, however this variation does not hinge on aspect. Hungarian patterns with
Icelandic in this respect, and calls for a non-feature geometric analysis.
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
71
4. The feature composition of the 3SG generic null pronominal in Hungarian
5
Hungarian is a NSL, in which variation between the generic vs. individual reference
interpretations of 3SG null pronominals is not conditional on the aspectual properties of the
verb. These interpretive differences can be reduced to the presence or absence of the [GN]
feature, licensed by the GN operator in SAPP, the leftmost functional projection of the left
periphery of the whoel ssentence. 3SG vs. 3PL agreement on the verb clearly indicates that
generic inclusive and generic exclusive null pronominals are specified for person/number
features in this language. The locus of licensing these features in the clause is the TP projection.
6
(As opposed to Finnish, Hungarian imposes no obligation on 3SG individual reference subjects
to be lexical, i.e. they can be freely dropped.):
SAPP
Spec SAP’
SAP ForceP….
GN ……TP
Spec T’
T VP
[PHI]
[D] V NP….
az ember/pro
‘one’
[GN]
[PHI]
The feature composition of 3SG generic null pro
GN
vs. 3SG individual reference pro is given in
(48a) and (48b), respectively. These features are licensed in the clausal architecture given in (47)
via Cyclic Agree (Bèjar & Rezac, 2009).
a. NP b. NP
N N
pro
GN
pro
[GN] [D]
[3P] [3P]
[SG] [SG]
5
See Bródy (2011) on the generic uses of 1PL, 2SG and other pronouns.
6
On splitting the TP further into PersonP and NumP, see Bianchi (2006) and Sigurðsson (2004).
Gréte Dalmi / Linguistics Beyond And Within 3 (2017), 61-73
72
The differentiated feature specification of individual reference vs. generic reference
pronominals enables us to place Hungarian in its proper place among Null Subject Languages
(NSLs). Given that 3SG vs. 3PL generic null pronominals have turned out to be crucial in the
cross-linguistic study of null arguments (see Holmberg & Phimsawat, 2013), the present study
is an important contribution to a more fine-grained picture of null arguments, in general, and
in this way, to the typology of Null Subject Languages.
5. Summary
The present proposal derives the generic vs. individual reference interpretations of pronominals
(lexical or null) from the presence or absence of the [GN] feature in the feature composition of
the pronominal. The [GN] feature is licensed by the GN operator in SAPP cross-linguistically.
The Person and Number features are licensed in TP in the standard way. The [+D] feature is
licensed by the T head.
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... It must be semantically licensed by GN. GN is an intensional operator ranging over possible worlds (Moltmann 2006(Moltmann , 2010, and located in the Speech Act Participant Phrase (SAPP) within the C-domain (see Bianchi 2006;D'Alessandro & Alexiadou 2003;Dalmi 2013Dalmi , 2014Dalmi , 2017Dalmi , 2018. 3 Generic lexical and null arguments must both be in the scope of GN. In the typological scale established by Roberts & Holmberg (2010), Hungarian resembles radical NSLs in that in finite indicative clauses any argument can remain silent as long as it can be interpreted at a later stage of the derivation. ...
... Since this classification, the theory of null subjects has undergone robust changes due to the accumulation of data from more and more NSLs (see Cognola & Casalicchio 2018). The intense study of the distribution, structure and licensing of generic inclusive and generic exclusive null subjects has led to a more fine-grained analysis of null subjects (see Krzek 2012 for Polish;Dalmi 2013Dalmi , 2014Dalmi , 2017 ...
... As Dalmi (2013Dalmi ( , 2014Dalmi ( , 2017Dalmi ( , 2018 notes, Hungarian has all the characteristic properties of NSLs in the sense of Jaeggli & Safir (1989), Sigurdhsson & Egerland (2009) and Roberts & Holmberg (2010). It allows expletive null subjects in meteorological sentences, as shown in (7), individual reference null subjects, as in (8), generic inclusive and generic exclusive null subjects, (9)-(10), and, finally, any other null argument in finite clauses, as is shown in (11). ...
... It must be semantically licensed by GN. GN is an intensional operator ranging over possible worlds (Moltmann 2006(Moltmann , 2010, and located in the Speech Act Participant Phrase (SAPP) within the C-domain (see Bianchi 2006;D'Alessandro & Alexiadou 2003;Dalmi 2013Dalmi , 2014Dalmi , 2017Dalmi , 2018. 3 Generic lexical and null arguments must both be in the scope of GN. In the typological scale established by Roberts & Holmberg (2010), Hungarian resembles radical NSLs in that in finite indicative clauses any argument can remain silent as long as it can be interpreted at a later stage of the derivation. ...
... Since this classification, the theory of null subjects has undergone robust changes due to the accumulation of data from more and more NSLs (see Cognola & Casalicchio 2018). The intense study of the distribution, structure and licensing of generic inclusive and generic exclusive null subjects has led to a more fine-grained analysis of null subjects (see Krzek 2012 for Polish;Dalmi 2013Dalmi , 2014Dalmi , 2017 ...
... As Dalmi (2013Dalmi ( , 2014Dalmi ( , 2017Dalmi ( , 2018 notes, Hungarian has all the characteristic properties of NSLs in the sense of Jaeggli & Safir (1989), Sigurdhsson & Egerland (2009) and Roberts & Holmberg (2010). It allows expletive null subjects in meteorological sentences, as shown in (7), individual reference null subjects, as in (8), generic inclusive and generic exclusive null subjects, (9)-(10), and, finally, any other null argument in finite clauses, as is shown in (11). ...
... The different agreement patterns can be explained under the assumption that the possessee of BE-possessives contains a complex null anaphoric possessor whose antecedent is the dative external possessor, as in Den Dikken (1999). This complex anaphoric possessor surfaces as the possessive reflexive pronoun saját 'one's own' in emphatic or focused sentences (see Dalmi 2013Dalmi , 2017: ...
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