AV短视频

This paper examines the syntax of Hungarian subjunctive embedded clauses. Based on evidence that subjunctives are a category proper, but that all embedded subjunctives do not exhibit a uniform behavior w.r.t tense and to extraction, I propose that embedded subjunctive clauses come in different shapes, and form a continuum, in terms of a gradable set of features associated with the embedded clause.

The syntactic analysis discussed here seeks to answer the following questions: (i) Is is legitimate to talk about a category ‘subjunctive’/’imperative’ in Hungarian, and does this affect the properties of the complementizer hogy? (ii) How is subjunctive encoded ? How is it checked? (iii) what is the structure of an embedded subjunctive clause ?

With respect to the first question, the relevant distinction is directives (and some desideratives, which, I argue, have directive force) versus other classes of subjunctive embedding verbs. I assume that ‘hogy’ may combine (or span, following e.g. Starke 2010) more or less features.  One of the properties of the matrix predicate in directives is to match/check/select one such set of features, which includes a ‘directive/imperative’ type of feature, related to the notion ot ‘to do list’ (see Portner 2004).

Answers to the second question involve both the CP layer and lower functional projections. I propose that hogy selected by the classes of verbs above also includes a feature which is selected by the matrix predicate, and which corresponds to the property that the embedded proposition undergoes a shift in the model of evaluation (Quer 1998). This feature is part of the featural make-up of (‘subjunctive’) hogy. I assume that subjunctive morphology is the expression of an uninterpretable feature, which is associated with the verbal head. Therefore, the structure must contain the relevant interpretable feature which will occur in a Mood projection (see e.g. Pollock 1993, Giorgi and Pianesi 2004, Roussou 2009).

Part of the answer to question (iii) resides in the observation that subjunctive clauses exhibit a non-uniform behavior in more than one respect, including  extraction facts and temporal dependency. I show that the properties of the matrix predicates can be directly associated with the features on the complementiser responsible for these variations.