Word order variation in Hungarian PPs
Éva Dékány, Veronika Hegedűs · Approaches to Hungarian · 2015
This paper proposes a syntactic account of the variation Hungarian case assigning adpositions exhibit in their word order and extraction properties. The empirical generalization is that if a P allows the prepositional word order then it can also be stranded by its complement and it also has a particle use, but not vice versa. We suggest that some Ps are inserted in the Place/Path head and cannot move higher. Ps allowing the particle use and P-stranding are inserted in a higher head, namely p . The particle use and P-stranding involve PlaceP/PathP extraction from p P, separating the adposition from its complement. PlaceP/PathP and p P are head-final. A subset of Ps inserted in p may move into a higher, left-headed projection, deriving a prepositional order. We also account for the fact that some case assigning Ps may appear without a complement. We suggest that this is due to a difference in the licensing of deictic here/there complements, which may remain silent: those Ps have a seemingly intransitive use that allow here/there as their complement.