The purpose of this book is to argue for the claim that Hungarian
sentence structure consists of a non-configurational propositional
component, preceded by configurationally determined operator positions.
In the course of this, various descriptive issues of Hungarian syntax
will be analyzed, and various theoretical questions concerning the
existence and nature of non- configurational languages will be
addressed. The descriptive problems to be examined in Chapters 2 and 3
center around the word order of Hungarian sentences. Chapter 2
identifies an invariant structure in the apparently freely permutable
Hungarian sentence, pointing out systematic correspondences between the
structural position, interpre- tation, and stressing and intonation of
the different constituents. Chapter 3 analyzes the word order phenomenon
traditionally called 'sentence inter- I twining' of complex sentences,
and shows that the term, in fact, covers two different constructions (a
structure resulting from operator movement, and a base generated
pattern) with differences in constituent order, operator scope and
V-object agreement. Chapter 4 deals interpretation, case assignment,
with the coreference possibilities of reflexives, reciprocals, personal
pro- nouns, and lexical NPs. Finally, Chapter 5 assigns structures to
the two major sentence types containing an infinitive. It analyzes
infinitives with an AGR marker and a lexical subject, focusing on the
problem of case assignment to the subject, as well as subject control
constructions, accounting for their often paradoxical, simultaneously
mono- and biclausal behaviour in respect to word order, operator scope,
and V-object agreement.
