If, however, the ellipsis is at work in the first clause, the numeral or the adjective must not be case-marked, but the identical constituents are simply omitted.
(311) a. Péter négy [...],
Anna meg hat könyv-et olvasott.
'Peter has read four books, and Anna six.' b. Anna az érdekes [...],
Péter pedig az unalmas könyv-et olvasta.
'Anna has read the interesting book, and Peter the boring one.' The deletion under identity can only involve immediate constituents of the noun phrase; constituents of constituents cannot be affected.
When the adjective phrases are in the predicate, the different intensifiers may also lead to ellipsis. This is not available for adjectives inside the noun phrase.
(312) A könyv nagyon [...], the book very a level viszont csak kissé unalmas volt.
the letter however only little boring was
T h e book was very boring, but the letter was only a little boring.'
Owing to the structure of ellipsis in Hungarian, even postpositions may be missing from the first conjunct.
(313) Anna a könyv [...], Anna the book
Péter pedig a levél alatt talált egy kulcsot.
Peter and the letter under found a key.ACC
'Anna found a key under the book, and Peter, under the letter.' 1.4. N E G A T I O N
c. [Ezt a könyv-et nem olvas-ni] butaság volt.
this.ACC the book-ACC not read-INF silliness was 'It was silly not to read this book.'
Ne differs from nem in that it is required in imperatives and subjunctives and cannot occur in any other modality.
(315) Ne olvas-d a könyvet!
not read-2SG the book.ACC 'Don't read the book.'
The preverbal position of the negation word is maintained even in focussed clauses; it is the only item that can occur between a focussed phrase and the finite verb.
(316) Anna a könyvet nem olvasta.
Anna the book.ACC not read.DEF 'It's the book that Anna hasn't read.'
When the additive-correlative clitic is is combined with either negation word, they are amalgamated into the single phonological words sem and se, historically derived from is 'also' + ne(m) 'not', appropriately illustrat-ing the meanillustrat-ing of the combined form, too.
(317) a. Anna a könyv-et sem olvasta.
Anna the book-ACC nor read
'Anna hasn't read the book either.' = 'In addition to other things, the book also belongs to the set of objects Anna hasn't read.'
b. A könyv-et se olvas-d!
the book-ACC not read-IMP.DEF.2SG 'Don't read the book either!'
One subcase of sentence negation is negation of the nominal or adjectival predicate in copular sentences without an overt copula (see 1.2.1.1). Since they have no verbs, the negation word must occur before the nominal or adjectival predicate.
(318) a. Anna nem (volt) diák.
Anna not was student 'Anna i s / w a s not a student.' b. Péter nem (volt) unalmas.
Peter not was boring 'Peter is / w a s not boring.'
When the nominal predicate contains a measure expression, negation can have two versions: (a) if the measure word (in focus) is negated, it means
that there is either more or less of the item quantified by the measure expression; (b) if the copula is negated, the construction means that there is less of the denoted quantity.
(319) a. Péter nem száz kiló volt.
Peter not hundred kilo was
'Peter wasn't a hundred kilos (= he was more, or less).' b. Péter nem volt száz kiló.
'Peter was less than a hundred kilos.'
Wherever the copula has to occur in the third person in present tense, the positive form van(nak) 'is' has the suppletive negative counterpart nin-cs(en) 'not-is' and nincsenek 'not-are'.
(320) a. Péter nines száz kiló.
Peter not-is hundred kilo
'Peter isn't a hundred kilos (= he is less).' b. A diákok nincsenek az iskolá-ban.
the students not-are the school-INE 'The students are not in the school.' 1.4.2. Constituent negation
Although it seems to be unproblematic to claim that whenever the ne-gation word is placed in front of any constituent other than the verb, we have to do with constituent negation, this would be a spurious generalization.
First of all, if the sentence contains a universal quantifier, it must be negated by the negation word placed in front of the quantifier, rather than preverbally, thus in this case apparent constituent negation amounts to sentence negation.
(321) a. *Mindenki nem olvasta a könyvet.
everyone not read.DEF the book.ACC 'Everyone didn't read the book.'
b. Nem mindenki olvasta a könyvet.
'Not everyone has read the book.'
If the negation of the focussed constituent is constituent negation, then pre-focus negation belongs here. In another sense, however, such sen-tences are the negative counterparts of the corresponding affirmative focussed propositions, thus they do not realize constituent negation proper.
(322) a. Anna a kert-ben olvasta a könyvet.
Anna the garden-INE read.DEF the book.ACC 'It's in the garden that Anna read the book.' b. Anna nem a kert-ben olvasta a könyvet.
'It's not in the garden that Anna read the book.'
On the other hand, if focus negation were sentence negation, then nega-tive polarity items, which are always triggered by sentence negation, could appear in these sentences, too.
(323) a. Anna nem olvasott semmi-t.
Anna not read nothing-ACC 'Anna didn't read anything.'
b. *Anna nem a kert-ben olvasott semmi-t.
c. Anna a kert-ben nem olvasott semmi-t.
'It's in the garden that Anna didn't read anything.' d. Anna nem a kert-ben nem olvasott semmi-t.
'It's not in the garden that Anna didn't read anything.'
We conclude at this point that, of the two negation elements, the one occurring in front of focus is a realization of constituent negation and the one in front of the verb is an instance of sentence negation.