Predicate fronting and dative case in Hungarian

Abstract

In this paper I provide a unified analysis of predicate clefts and a large class of secondary predicates in Hungarian. These constructions involve the occurrence of a predicate that is not immediately dominated by tense, which results in a striking similarity: in both, a verbal predicate takes the form of an infinitive, while nominal/adjectival predicates appear as dative. I argue that both the infinitive and the dative surface form indicate that the predicate's head is spelled out in a functional projection (commonly referred to as PredP or AspP) just outside the predicate's lexical projection, which is evidenced, among other facts, by phrase-internal modification patterns. Therefore, the structure of predication, including the position of modifiers, is claimed to be uniform, regardless of the lexical category of the predicate itself (V, A or N). This result is strongly in line with research that views datives as predicates in general, and structural case on nominals as a reflex of a functional projection in the tense-aspect domain.