1.2. STRUCTURAL QUESTIONS
1.2.2. Adjective phrases 1. Operational definition
Adjective phrases occur (a) in predicates containing a copula, (b) in noun phrases, and (c) as (subject or object) complements of one class of verbs.
(215) a. A könyv nagyon érdekes volt, the book very interesting was ‘The book was very interesting.’
b. az érdekes könyv the interesting book
c. A könyv érdekes-nek tűnik
the book interesting-DAT appears ‘The book appears interesting.’
d. Anna érdekes-nek tartott-a a könyv-et.
Anna interesting-DAT considered-DEF the book-ACC ‘Anna considered the book interesting.’
These environments can differentiate between adjectives and attributive expressions whose heads are traditionally considered as derived adjectives, such as (216) active (or present) participles, and (217) -i affixed postpositional phrases.
(216) a. a sétáló fiú
the walk-APRT boy
‘the walking boy’
b. *A fiú sétáló volt.
the boy walk-APRT was (217) a. az Anna előtt-i fiú
the Anna before-AFX boy
‘the boy in front of Anna’
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the boy-ACC Anna before-AFX see.1SG ‘I see the boy as (one) in front of Anna.’
Since, however, nouns without the article can fill the very same positions, as seen in the following examples, and, moreover, adjectives can be case-marked just like nouns, further criteria have to be found. (Note that the form of definite article az/a depends on whether the following word begins with a vowel or a consonant.)
(218) a. Péter diák/unalmas volt.
Peter student/boring was ‘Peter was a student/boring.’
b. a(z) diák/unalmas eladó
the student/boring salesperson
c. Anna diák-nak/unalmas-nak tartotta Péter-t.
Anna student-DAT/boring-DAT considered.DEF Peter-ACC ‘Anna considered Peter a student/boring.’
Admittedly, the (b) case is one of compounding if the two nouns are side by side, but that has to be shown by independent devices, such as the difference between stress patterns, with the compound having a single stress and the adjective+noun construction separate stresses on each word. But further tests may dispel any doubts concerning the distinction between adjectives and nouns.
First of all, (a) adjectives take adverbials, such as nagyon Very’, kissé ‘little’, rendkívül ‘extremely’, etc. Then they have (b) comparative and (c) superlative forms, expressed invariably by affixation in Hungarian. Note that the superlative is marked by a discontinuous morpheme consisting of the comparative suffix and the superlative prefix, surrounding the adjective, as it were.
(219) a. Péter nagyon unalmas/*diák volt.
Peter very boring/student was ‘Peter was very boring/*student.’
b. Péter unalmas-abb/*diák-abb volt.
Peter boring-CMP/student-CMP was ‘Peter was more boring/*more student.’
c. Péter volt a leg-unalmas-abb/*leg-diák-abb.
Peter was the SPR-boring-CMP/SPR-student-CMP ‘Peter was the most boring /*most student.’
It is to be noted here that various derived phrases, usually classified as adjectival, do not pass the tests reviewed here: thus (a) active participles,
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phrases, and (d) phrases derived by means of the participle való ‘being’ from complements of nominalized predicates. They all occur in attributive functions in noun phrases, but fail each of the other criteria listed.
(220) a. egy [(könyv-et) olvas-ó] lány a book-ACC read-APRT girl
‘a girl reading (a book)’
b. a(z) [(sok-szor) olvas-ott] könyv the many-times read-PPRT book
‘the book read (many times)’
c. egy [az asztal-om alatt-i] könyv
a the table-POSS.1SG under-SFX book
‘a book under my table’
d. az [asztal alatt való] olvas-ás the table under being read-NML
‘the reading under the/a table’
1.2.2.2. Arguments in adjective phrases
1.2.2.2.1. Adjectives in subjectless sentences
As was mentioned above, a few adjectives occur in sentences that cannot have overt subjects.
(221) a. Tél-en itt hideg van.
winter-SUP here cold is
‘In winter it is cold here.’
b. A szobá-ban tegnap sötêt volt.
the room-ILL yesterday dark was
‘It was dark in the room yesterday.’
It would be futile to try to claim that the words in questions, i.e., hideg and sötét, are adjectives and nouns, and they are predicate nouns here, especially since adjectives can stand in for nouns in elliptical noun phrases. But recall that “bare” nouns in such sentences express “pure” existence and require that the copula be stressed and placed initially or at least in front of them. Here neither is the case, cf. 1.2.1.1.6.2. Moreover, the words in question can be modified by intensifiers, such as nagyon ‘very’, borzasztóan ‘terribly’, etc., which are never used to modify nouns.
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No adjective has a direct object complement, i.e., none governs an accusative noun phrase. No adjective has an indirect object argument either, since the category does not exist in Hungarian. When an adjective has a dative-marked argument, it may express either the beneficiary or the experiencer.
(222) a. colloquial
Anna sáros volt Péter-nek.
Anna indebted was Peter-DAT
‘Anna was owing money to Peter.’
b. Anna fontos volt Péter-nek Anna important was Peter-DAT
‘Anna was important to Peter.’
The dative arguments can occur also if the adjective is within a noun phrase.
(223) a [Péter-nek fontos] könyv the Peter-DAT important book ‘the book important to Peter’
A number of adjectives have optional (oblique) case-marked or postpositional noun phrase arguments, or infinitival clauses. The illustrations below are by no means exhaustive as to the variety of cases or the number of adjectives.
(224) a. Péter szerelmes volt Anná-ba.
Peter amorous was Anna-ILL
‘Peter was in love with Anna.’
b. Anna biztos volt a dolog-ban.
Anna certain was the matter-INE
‘Anna was certain of the matter.’
c. Péter kedves lesz Anná-hoz.
Peter kind will-be Anna-ALL
‘Peter will be kind to Anna.’
d. Anna óvatos Péter-rel szemben.
Anna cautious Peter-INS against
‘Anna is cautious with Peter.’
e. Péter képtelen volt olvas-ni.
Peter unable was read-INF
‘Peter was unable to read.’
They can preserve their arguments if placed in noun phrases, but, as above, the adjectival head has to be phrase-final.
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the Anna-ILL amorous boy
‘the boy in love with Anna’
b. a [dolog-ban biztos] diák the matter-ILL certain student
‘the student certain of the matter’
c. az [Anná-hoz kedves] emberek the Anna-ALL kind people
‘the people kind to Anna’
d. a [Peter-rel szemben óvatos] lány the Peter-INS against cautious girl
‘the girl cautious with Peter’
e. az [olvas-ni képtelen] lány the read-INF unable girl
‘the girl unable to read’
Some adjectives take finite clauses as arguments, introduced by (sometimes optional) oblique case-marked expletive pronouns. While these expletives can allow finite clauses to be placed outside noun phrases, they are structurally too far from their clauses when inside adjectival phrases that are embedded in noun phrases, so clausal arguments are not possible there. The other alternative, viz., that a finite clause stays inside the adjective or noun phrase, is
impossible as a rule in such left-branching constructions.
(226) a. Anna biztos (ab-ban), hogy Péter beteg volt.
Anna certain it-ILL that Peter sick was
‘Anna is certain that Peter was sick.’
b. Péter kíváncsi (ar-ra), hogy ki volt beteg.
Peter curious it-SUB that who was sick
‘Peter is curious who was sick.’
(227) a. *az [abban, hogy Péter beteg volt, biztos] lány the it.ILL that Peter sick was certain girl
b. *[az [abban ti biztos] lány]] [hogy Péter beteg volt]i the it.ILL certain girl that Peter sick was
‘the girl certain that Peter was sick’
1.2.2.3. Modification of adjectives
In addition to the adverbs or intensifiers illustrated in 1.2.2.1, finite clauses introduced by a lexical or expletive head (and, for a number of speakers, infinitival clauses) can also modify adjectives.
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the lecture extremely/very boring was ‘The lecture was extremely/very boring.’
b. Az előadás elég rövid volt ah-hoz, hogy figyel-j-ünk
the lecture enough short was it-ALL that listen-SUBJ-1PL rá.
SUB.3SG
‘The lecture was short enough for us to listen to it.’
c. Az előadás olyan unalmas volt, hogy nem figyelt-ünk the lecture so boring was that not listened-1PL
rá.
SUB.3SG
‘The lecture was so boring that we weren’t listening to it.’
d. Az előadás túl unalmas volt ah-hoz, hogy figyel-j-ünk the lecture too boring was it-ALL that listen-SUBJ-1PL rá.
SUB.3SG
‘The lecture was too boring for us to listen to it.’
e. %?Az előadás túl unalmas volt felven-ni.
the lecture too boring was record-INF ‘The lecture was too boring to record.’
Again, finite clauses cannot occur either in or outside of an adjective phrase within a noun phrase, though simple adverbial or infinitival modifiers can, since they can be placed to the left of the adjectival head. It is worth
mentioning that infinitival complements are somewhat more acceptable here.
(229) a. a [rendkívül/igen/nem (nagyon) unalmas] előadás the extremely/very/not very boring lecture
b. *[az [ahhoz elég érdekes] előadás] hogy felvegyük the it-ALL enough interesting lecture that we.record.it ‘the interesting enough lecture to record (it)’
c. %?[a [felven-ni túl unalmas] előadás]
the record-INF too boring lecture ‘the too boring lecture to record’
Finally, note that some adjectives can also be used without any adverbial suffixation to serve as modifiers of a limited set of adjectival phrases, e.g., szép ‘nice’, jó ‘good’, etc.,+kis ‘little’, nagy ‘big’, etc.
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‘good little lecture’
b. szép nagy bukás
‘nice big flop’
1.2.3. Adverbial phrases