Criteria for Auxiliaries in Hungarian István Kenesei (In: I. Kenesei, Ed
Criteria for auxiliaries in Hungarian 1 István Kenesei (in: I. Kenesei, ed., Argument structure in Hungarian , Akadémiai Kiadó, Bp., 2001, 73-106.) 1. Introduction This paper is an attempt at examining whether there is a class of auxiliaries in Hungarian, and if so, what distinguishes them from the rest of the verbs. The initial hypothesis is based on the fundamental distinction between lexical and functional categories: whereas both can have complements, in the case of the former, complements are assigned thematic roles, while functional categories in general do not have thematic grids at all. Thus, for example, an article, i.e. an item of the category D, belongs under a functional category because, even though it can never stand without a complement, it never assign its NP complement any thematic role. If the NP can have a thematic role at all, it is discharged by some head to the dominating DP, either in a Spec-head (external argument) or a complement-head relation (internal argument). The target of our investigation is the class of elements, which has perhaps been most prone to equivocation and misunderstanding in Hungarian linguistic tradition: auxiliaries. First, I will survey the literature and identify three positions, which have come to different conclusions although they may very well have determined identical classes. Then I will reproduce one of the most comprehensive summaries of the properties of auxiliaries in the languages of the world with the purpose of applying them to Hungarian. This will lead to various new classifications of the verbs concerned, of which the one based on the capability of having a thematic grid proves to be most promising.
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