Hungarian neutral vowels

In Hungarian, stems containing only front unrounded (neutral) vowels fall into two groups: one group taking front suffixes, the other taking back suffixes in vowel harmony. The distinction is traditionally thought of as purely lexical. Beňuš and Gafos (2007) have recently challenged this position, claiming that there are significant articulatory differences between the vowels in the two groups. Neutral vowels also occur in vacillating stems. These typically contain one back vowel and one or more neutral vowels, and accept both front and back suffixes, with extensive inter- and intra-speaker variation. Based on Beňuš and Gafos’s line of argument, the expectation is that vacillating stems will display a kind of phonetic realisation that is distinct from both harmonic and anti-harmonic stems. We present the results of an ongoing acoustic study on the acoustics of neutral vowels, partly re-creating Beňuš and Gafos’s conditions, but also including vacillating stems. To map the extent of individual and dialectal variation regarding vacillating stems, a grammaticality judgement test was also carried out on speakers of two dialects of Hungarian, crucially differing in the surface inventory of neutral vowels. We present our first findings about how this phonetic difference influences the phonological behaviour of vacillating stems

The syntax of phonology : A radically substance-free approach

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Hungarian neutral vowels: A microcomparison

In Hungarian, stems containing only front unrounded (neutral) vowels fall into two groups: one group taking front suffixes, the other taking back suffixes in vowel harmony. The distinction is traditionally thought of as purely lexical. Beňuš and Gafos (2007) have recently challenged this position, claiming that there are significant articulatory differences between the vowels in the two groups. Neutral vowels also occur in vacillating stems. These typically contain one back vowel and one or more neutral vowels, and accept both front and back suffixes, with extensive inter- and intra-speaker variation. Based on Beňuš and Gafos’s line of argument, the expectation is that vacillating stems will display a kind of phonetic realisation that is distinct from both harmonic and anti-harmonic stems. We present the results of an ongoing acoustic study on the acoustics of neutral vowels, partly re-creating Beňuš and Gafos’s conditions, but also including vacillating stems. To map the extent of individual and dialectal variation regarding vacillating stems, a grammaticality judgement test was also carried out on speakers of two dialects of Hungarian, crucially differing in the surface inventory of neutral vowels. We present our first findings about how this phonetic difference influences the phonological behaviour of vacillating stems.

Cryptosonorants and the misapplication of voicing assimilation in Biaspectual Phonology

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Magyar generatív történeti mondattan = Hungarian generative diachronic syntax

Elkészítettük a kéziratos ómagyar és korai középmagyar szövegek, köztük 47 kódex digitális adatbázisát, egy kétmillió szavas korpuszt. 11 kódexszöveghez normalizált helyesírású változatot is illesztettünk. Négy kódexet morfológiailag is annotáltunk. Az adatbázishoz felhasználóbarát keresőt készítettünk. Elemeztük az ómagyar szövegek mondattanát, olykor az ősmagyar korig visszanyúlva. Egyes változásokat a középmagyar koron át az újmagyar korig követtük. Amellett érveltünk, hogy az ősmagyar mondat SOV szórendű volt, és az ősmagyar/ómagyar kor fordulóján változott SVO-vé. Hipotézist állítottunk fel a változás okáról és lefolyásáról. Végigkísértük a határozott névelő kialakulását és a birtokos szerkezet változásait. Kimutattuk , hogy míg az ősmagyart az adverbiális kvantifikáció jellemezte, az ómagyar kor közepére a determinánsi kvantifikáció vált általánossá. A névutós szerkezeteket a relációs főnevet tartalmazó birtokos szerkezetektől a határozóragokig vezető grammatikalizációs út állomásaként elemeztük. Vizsgáltuk az ősmagyar SOV örökségeként továbbélő sokféle korai ómagyar igeneves szerkezetet, és megmutattuk, hogyan szorította ki őket a véges alárendelés. A változásokban kimutattuk a nyelvi változások univerzális válfajait: az újraelemzést, a grammatikalizációt, és megmutattunk a változások ciklikus voltát. Eredményeinket egy magyar és egy angol kötetben foglaltuk össze; előbbi az Akadémiai Kiadónál, utóbbi az Oxford University Pressnél áll megjelenés alatt. | We compiled a 2-million-word corpus of Old and Early Middle Hungarian manuscripts, among them 47 codices. In the case of 11 codices, we also prepared a paleographically normalized version. 4 codices were morphologically parsed and annotated. We prepared a user-friendly corpus query tool. We analyzed the syntax of Old Hungarian texts, often also reconstructing the Proto-Hungarian antecedents. We have followed some of the changes up to the present. We concluded that the Proto-Hungarian sentence was SOV, which changed into SOV at the turn of the Proto-Hungarian/Old Hungarian periods. We have set up a hypothesis about the causes and the process of this change. We analyzed the stages of the emergence of the definite article and the changes of the possessive construction. We pointed out a shift from adverbial quantification to determiner quantification. We analyzed postpositional constructions as intermediate steps on the grammaticalization path leading from possessive constructions with a relational head noun to adverbial suffixes. We investigated the rich system of non-finite subordination surviving from the SOV Proto-Hungarian era, and its gradual replacement by finite subordination. We pointed out the universal mechanisms of change, among them reanalysis and grammaticalization, and we showed the cyclic nature of changes. We summarized our results in a Hungarian and in an English book. The former is being published by Akadémiai Kiadó, the latter, by Oxford University Press

Wh-Islands: A View from Correspondence Theory

Vogel R. Wh-Islands: A View from Correspondence Theory. In: Rice C, Blaho S, eds. Modeling Ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory. Advances in optimality theory. London: Equinox; 2009: 267-292