Ways of licensing Hungarian external possessors

Abstract

This paper examines the status of Hungarian dative noun phrases interpreted as external possessors of a sister constituent. It challenges the widely accepted view put forth by Szabolcsi (1983; 1992, etc.) that external possessors are uniformly assigned a theta role by the possessum, and they are uniformly raised from its maximal projection via A-bar movement. It argues instead that external possessors can also be base-generated outside the projection of the possessum, binding its internal possessor, and can receive an 'affected' theta role from the verb. The paper distinguishes three different types of external possession, showing that they have different licensing conditions, and different agreement properties. (i) The external possessor can be generated externally, and be assigned an 'affected' theta role by the verb. The referential identity of the dative marked affected participant and the pro-dropped internal possessor is due to a binding relation between them. (ii) The external possessor can be licensed by information structure/logical structure: a case marked possessor can assume a topic, focus, or quantifier role on its own, and can be raised into the corresponding A-bar position independently, without its possessum.

The position of case markers relative to possessive agreement

“…For a recent discussion of Hungarian external possessives, see É. Kiss (2014). 13 Case markers may also appear in discontinuous PPs.…”

Language Use and Linguistic Structure: Proceedings of the Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium 2021

“…In arguing that we are dealing with movement (as opposed to base generation) in the relevant structures presented in section (1) we rely on den Dikken (1999) and É. Kiss (2014). These use evidence from the anti-agreement facts of the possessive DP paradigm to distinguish between two possibilities for external possessors.…”

“…In order to account for this, den Dikken (1999), and, following the proposal therein, É. Kiss (2014) argue for different derivations. The pattern showing anti-agreement can only arise if the possessor moves from within the possessive DP (5a).…”

Two types of datives in Spanish: Caused possession vs. possessor raising

“…6 As a result, the 6 See É. Kiss (2014) for a detailed discussion on external possessors and for the possibility that external possessors are based generated outside the maximal projection containing the possessum, and are introduced as affected participants coindexed with the pro possessor of a coargument. This option is fully compatible with the data presented here, as nothing in the analysis crucially depends on actual movement.…”