Toward a unified functional account of structural focus and negation in Hungarian

The goal of this paper is to provide a unified analysis of the function of various types of (structural) focus and the negative particle (used preverbally) in Hungarian. It is argued that the function of these elements (each inducing the inversion of verbal modifier and verb) is best understood with respect to the interpretation assigned to the verbal predicate in different contexts. By treating the verbal predicate as a schematic positive declarative clause (or “proto-statement”) in its default interpretation, it becomes possible to define the function of the elements concerned in terms of the kind of relation in which they stand with the proto-statement, the kind of relation in which the overall symbolic pattern (as a Gestalt) stands with the unmarked positive declarative clause type