Lexeme derivation and multi-word predicates in Hungarian

Abstract

This paper focuses on predicate formation operations which affect the value and determination of lexical properties associated with Hungarian phrasal periphrastic predicates and, hence, on lexeme-formation (Aronoff 1994). Recent work, following the word and paradigm morphological models of Robins (1959), Matthews (1972), among others, has argued that periphrasis or multi-word expression is often best viewed as a type of morphological exponence, i.e., as the product of morphological rather than syntactic operations, contra many current theoretical proposals. In line with this morphological perspective, I argue that, as in inflection, periphrasis is a type of morphological exponence for lexeme-formation. In support of this claim I explore lexeme-formation for several sorts of phrasal predicates in Hungarian Ackerman (1987), Komlósy (1992), Kiefer-Ladányi (2000), among others), in particular causative formation, causal predicate formation, so-called reiterated activity formation expressed by reduplicated preverbs, and the interaction of these operations with category changing derivation. The general background for the analysis will be the Realization-based Lexicalist Hypothesis (Blevins 2001) and realizational approaches to morphology (Stump 2001) which are compatible with theories subscribing to representational modularity (Jackendoff (1997; 2002).