A dependency-based account of Hungarian structural focus

Abstract: The paper combines aspects of dependency grammar and cognitive grammar to propose a new model of Hungarian clausal structure (in a rudimentary form), with special regard to structural focus and negation. Under the assumptions of the model, the core of Hungarian syntax can be described in terms of various types of symbolic relations (formally encoded semantic relations) between the predicate and its dependents. Supplementing the traditional set of relational categories {subject, object, adverbial}, which are relevant for Hungarian morphology, I introduce a second dimension of description with the relational categories {elaborator, extender, restrictor}, bearing on word order and prosody. This opens the way for a new approach to Hungarian structural foci and the sentential negator, interpreted as instantiating a particular type of symbolic relation to the predicate.