The syntax and prosody of the post-verbal domain in Hungarian

Abstract

The present study investigates the syntactic and prosodic realisation of focus and givenness in the post-verbal domain of Hungarian. Two series of experiments were run, the first tested subjects' word order preferences of given and focused constituents, while the second set examined the prosodic realisation of these items. As opposed to the pre-verbal domain, word order in the post-verbal domain is relatively free. While the pre-verbal domain has been highly studied the post-verbal domain remains relatively under studied, non-the-less, due to the freedom of word order it provides and ideal place to investigate the interaction of word order, prosody and information structure.The word order experiments consisted of three types of focus constructions: (i) simple postverbal focus, (ii) post-verbal focus marked with the particle is 'also' and (iii) double focus constructions. In terms of givenness there were also three types, (i) simple textual givenness, (ii) items that were both textually given and marked as topics, and (iii) items that were textually given as well as forming the background of a pre-verbal focus. All experiments in the first set were conducted using the two-way forced choice paradigm, with 16 target sentences and a total of 362 participants. The results indicate that participants preferred to place focused constituents in the immediately post-verbal position as opposed to the clause final position in the case of all three post-verbal foci. In the case of givenness, simple textual givenness did not have an effect on word order, while constituents that were both given and marked as topics, or given and formed the background of a pre-verbal focus were preferred in the immediately post-verbal position, as opposed to the clause-final position, just like focused items. While the tendencies observed were clear it is obvious that word order choices reflected preferences, and not strict, grammatical differences as in the pre-verbal domain.The second set of experiments were run to gain an understanding of the prosodic realisation of post-verbal foci and given constituents, there were again three types of foci, and two types of givenness: simple and backgrounded. There were 4 target sentences in three repetitions, and a total of 42 participants. The parameters considered were f0 maxima, minima and range, as well as the placement of f0 maxima within accented syllables, duration and intensity.The results indicate that there was no effect of givenness in either of its forms tested on the acoustic realisation of constituents. In terms of post-verbal foci however, there were significant differences: if a focused item occurred in the clause final position it was marked by parameters (f0 maxima, duration), than if it occurred in the immediately post-verbal position as compared to the baseline neutral controls. In terms of phrasing: boundaries between the two post-verbal constituents were present both if the immediately post-verbal constituent was in focus, and iv when the clause-final constituent was in focus.It is p...