Katalin É Kiss
Biographic Data
| ID | 5902387 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katalin É Kiss |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katalin É |
| FAMILY NAME | Kiss |
| SIGNATURE | KISS K E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Benczúr utca 33, H-1068 Budapest, Hungary. |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 239 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
From Parataxis to Finite Subordination in The Ugric Languages and Beyond
This article documents an evolutionary pathway from parataxis via the correlative construction to finite subordination in the Ugric languages. The first step of the emergence of finite subordination is the appearance of a paratactic precorrelative sentence pair, with an indefinite pronoun in the first sentence that is anaphorically resumed in the second sentence. This pattern, witnessed in the SOV Ob-Ugric languages, developed into a full-fledged…
Discourse configurationality
From possessor agreement to object marking in the evolution of the Udmurt -jez suffix
This article argues that morpheme syncretism can arise as a result of structural and functional changes that display features of a grammaticalization process. Our claim is based on a case study analyzing the functional evolution of - jez , the third singular possessive agreement morpheme of Udmurt, which appears to function as a nominalizer, to mark contrast, to function as a kind of definite determiner, and to mark accusative case. We argue that…
Quantifier Scope Ambiguities
Sentences containing quantifiers are often ambiguous, as quantificational DPs interact with one another, and with wh ‐phrases, negation, and adverbials. This kind of ambiguity is an ambiguity with respect to the scope of the quantifiers. However, sentences containing several quantifiers or operators are not always scope ambiguous: compare, for example, the ambiguous Some of us always showed up with the unequivocal Always, some of us showed up . T…
The Person–Case Constraint and the Inverse Agreement Constraint are manifestations of the same Inverse Topicality Constraint
This paper first claims that the Inverse Agreement Constraint and the Person–Case Constraint attested in overlapping sets of Uralic languages are manifestations of the same Inverse Topicality Constraint, requiring that the structural hierarchy of topicalized constituents correspond to the ranking of their referents in the Animacy/Topicality Hierarchy. Then it argues that it is the hypothesized Inverse Topicality Constraint that also underlies the…
Why is children’s interpretation of doubly quantified sentences non-isomorphic
The initial hypothesis examined in this paper is that Hungarian preschoolers assign to sentences containing two numerical quantifiers and a distributivity marker the same isomorphic distributive interpretation as Hungarian adults do. This hypothesis is partially refuted by Experiment 1, a truth value judgement task, and Experiment 2, a forced choice task, which show that children can access distributive readings, however, they tend to accept both…
A negative cycle in 12th–15th‐century Hungarian
This chapter analyses two changes that took place in the syntax of negation in 12th–15th‐century Hungarian. Parallel with the restructuring of the Hungarian sentence from SOV to TopFocVX*, a sentence structure with separate thematic and functional domains, the negative particle ceased to be adjoined to the verb. It was relocated into the left periphery, where it assumed the role of a functional head eliciting V‐movement. The central topic of the …
Discourse Configurationality
Approaches to Hungarian
Patterns of agreement with coordinate noun phrases in Hungarian
Adverbs and Adverbial Adjuncts at the Interfaces
Adverbs and adverbial adjuncts at the interfaces
Free Word Order, (Non)configurationality, and Phases
The article argues that a particular implementation of phase theory makes it possible to account for seemingly contradictory facts of Hungarian that no other framework has been able to handle. Namely, (a) Hungarian word order is fixed preverbally and free postverbally. The fixed word order of a string is liberated when it is crossed by V-movement. (b) Grammatical phenomena sensitive to c-command provide evidence of both configurationality and non…
Universal Grammar in the Reconstruction of Ancient Languages
Philologists aiming to reconstruct the grammar of ancient languages face the problem that the available data always underdetermine grammar, and in the case of gaps, possible mistakes, and idiosyncracies there are no native speakers to consult. The authors of this volume overcome this difficulty by adopting the methodology that a child uses in the course of language acquisition: they interpret the data they have access to in terms of Universal Gra…
Event Types and Discourse Linking in Hungarian
In every sentence type describing a particular type of event, there is a designated argument functioning as the default information focus. In the case of sentences expressing a change of state, this argument is the theme undergoing the change of state. In the case of sentences describing a change of location, this argument is the terminus, denoting the end-location of the moving theme. In stative sentences indicating the existence or spatial conf…
Verb Clusters
Many languages have constructions in which verbs cluster. But few languages have verb clusters as rich and complex as Continental West Germanic and Hungarian. Furthermore the precise ordering properties and the variation in the cluster patterns are remarkably similar in Hungarian and Germanic. This similarity is, of course, unexpected since Hungarian is not an Indo-European language like the Germanic language group. Instead it appears that the cl…
The Syntax of Hungarian
Clearly written and comprehensive in scope, this is an essential guide to syntax in the Hungarian language. It describes the key grammatical features of the language, focusing on the phenomena that have proved to be theoretically the most relevant and have attracted the most attention. The analysis of Hungarian in the generative framework since the late Seventies has helped to bring phenomena which are non-overt in the English language into the f…
On The Comparative And Absolute Readings Of Superlatives
The Dynamics of Focus Structure
Introduction 1. The interpretation of f-structure 2. Reference and coreference 3. Negation, questions and contrast 4. The phonological interpretation of f-structure 5. Scope and R-dependencies 6. I-dependencies in focus-structure Conclusion References Indexes
Identificational Focus versus Information Focus
This article argues that identificational focus, which expresses exhaustive identification and occupies the specifier of a functional projection, must be distinguished in language description from information focus, which conveys new information and involves no syntactic reordering. The properties of the two types of focus are established on the basis of Hungarian and English material. It is argued that the cleft constituent is the realization of…
Two subject positions in English
L'A. montre que dans la structure-S/PF de la phrase anglaise, seuls les sujets non-specifiques se trouvent en Spec de IP ; les sujets specifiques etant eleves dans le specifieur d'une projection entre IP et CP, appelee RefP. Cette hypothese rend compte de certains faits en anglais : 1) les adverbes de phrase precedent toujours les sujets non-specifiques, mais peuvent suivre les specifiques ; 2) seuls les sujets non-specifiques permettent une extr…
English Focus Constructions and the Theory of Grammar
An Answer to Nakajima
Parasitic Chains
On the Japanese ‘Double Subject’ Construction
Identificational Focus versus Information Focus
This article argues that identificational focus, which expresses exhaustive identification and occupies the specifier of a functional projection, must be distinguished in language description from information focus, which conveys new information and involves no syntactic reordering. The properties of the two types of focus are established on the basis of Hungarian and English material. It is argued that the cleft constituent is the realization of…
Free Word Order, (Non)configurationality, and Phases
The article argues that a particular implementation of phase theory makes it possible to account for seemingly contradictory facts of Hungarian that no other framework has been able to handle. Namely, (a) Hungarian word order is fixed preverbally and free postverbally. The fixed word order of a string is liberated when it is crossed by V-movement. (b) Grammatical phenomena sensitive to c-command provide evidence of both configurationality and non…
On The Comparative And Absolute Readings Of Superlatives
Patterns of agreement with coordinate noun phrases in Hungarian
Event Types and Discourse Linking in Hungarian
In every sentence type describing a particular type of event, there is a designated argument functioning as the default information focus. In the case of sentences expressing a change of state, this argument is the theme undergoing the change of state. In the case of sentences describing a change of location, this argument is the terminus, denoting the end-location of the moving theme. In stative sentences indicating the existence or spatial conf…
On the Japanese ‘Double Subject’ Construction
Parasitic Chains
An Answer to Nakajima
English Focus Constructions and the Theory of Grammar
Two subject positions in English
L'A. montre que dans la structure-S/PF de la phrase anglaise, seuls les sujets non-specifiques se trouvent en Spec de IP ; les sujets specifiques etant eleves dans le specifieur d'une projection entre IP et CP, appelee RefP. Cette hypothese rend compte de certains faits en anglais : 1) les adverbes de phrase precedent toujours les sujets non-specifiques, mais peuvent suivre les specifiques ; 2) seuls les sujets non-specifiques permettent une extr…
Identificational Focus versus Information Focus
This article argues that identificational focus, which expresses exhaustive identification and occupies the specifier of a functional projection, must be distinguished in language description from information focus, which conveys new information and involves no syntactic reordering. The properties of the two types of focus are established on the basis of Hungarian and English material. It is argued that the cleft constituent is the realization of…
The Dynamics of Focus Structure
Introduction 1. The interpretation of f-structure 2. Reference and coreference 3. Negation, questions and contrast 4. The phonological interpretation of f-structure 5. Scope and R-dependencies 6. I-dependencies in focus-structure Conclusion References Indexes
On The Comparative And Absolute Readings Of Superlatives
The Syntax of Hungarian
Clearly written and comprehensive in scope, this is an essential guide to syntax in the Hungarian language. It describes the key grammatical features of the language, focusing on the phenomena that have proved to be theoretically the most relevant and have attracted the most attention. The analysis of Hungarian in the generative framework since the late Seventies has helped to bring phenomena which are non-overt in the English language into the f…
Verb Clusters
Many languages have constructions in which verbs cluster. But few languages have verb clusters as rich and complex as Continental West Germanic and Hungarian. Furthermore the precise ordering properties and the variation in the cluster patterns are remarkably similar in Hungarian and Germanic. This similarity is, of course, unexpected since Hungarian is not an Indo-European language like the Germanic language group. Instead it appears that the cl…
Universal Grammar in the Reconstruction of Ancient Languages
Philologists aiming to reconstruct the grammar of ancient languages face the problem that the available data always underdetermine grammar, and in the case of gaps, possible mistakes, and idiosyncracies there are no native speakers to consult. The authors of this volume overcome this difficulty by adopting the methodology that a child uses in the course of language acquisition: they interpret the data they have access to in terms of Universal Gra…
Event Types and Discourse Linking in Hungarian
In every sentence type describing a particular type of event, there is a designated argument functioning as the default information focus. In the case of sentences expressing a change of state, this argument is the theme undergoing the change of state. In the case of sentences describing a change of location, this argument is the terminus, denoting the end-location of the moving theme. In stative sentences indicating the existence or spatial conf…
Free Word Order, (Non)configurationality, and Phases
The article argues that a particular implementation of phase theory makes it possible to account for seemingly contradictory facts of Hungarian that no other framework has been able to handle. Namely, (a) Hungarian word order is fixed preverbally and free postverbally. The fixed word order of a string is liberated when it is crossed by V-movement. (b) Grammatical phenomena sensitive to c-command provide evidence of both configurationality and non…
Adverbs and Adverbial Adjuncts at the Interfaces
Adverbs and adverbial adjuncts at the interfaces
Patterns of agreement with coordinate noun phrases in Hungarian
A negative cycle in 12th–15th‐century Hungarian
This chapter analyses two changes that took place in the syntax of negation in 12th–15th‐century Hungarian. Parallel with the restructuring of the Hungarian sentence from SOV to TopFocVX*, a sentence structure with separate thematic and functional domains, the negative particle ceased to be adjoined to the verb. It was relocated into the left periphery, where it assumed the role of a functional head eliciting V‐movement. The central topic of the …
Discourse Configurationality
Approaches to Hungarian
Quantifier Scope Ambiguities
Sentences containing quantifiers are often ambiguous, as quantificational DPs interact with one another, and with wh ‐phrases, negation, and adverbials. This kind of ambiguity is an ambiguity with respect to the scope of the quantifiers. However, sentences containing several quantifiers or operators are not always scope ambiguous: compare, for example, the ambiguous Some of us always showed up with the unequivocal Always, some of us showed up . T…
The Person–Case Constraint and the Inverse Agreement Constraint are manifestations of the same Inverse Topicality Constraint
This paper first claims that the Inverse Agreement Constraint and the Person–Case Constraint attested in overlapping sets of Uralic languages are manifestations of the same Inverse Topicality Constraint, requiring that the structural hierarchy of topicalized constituents correspond to the ranking of their referents in the Animacy/Topicality Hierarchy. Then it argues that it is the hypothesized Inverse Topicality Constraint that also underlies the…
Why is children’s interpretation of doubly quantified sentences non-isomorphic
The initial hypothesis examined in this paper is that Hungarian preschoolers assign to sentences containing two numerical quantifiers and a distributivity marker the same isomorphic distributive interpretation as Hungarian adults do. This hypothesis is partially refuted by Experiment 1, a truth value judgement task, and Experiment 2, a forced choice task, which show that children can access distributive readings, however, they tend to accept both…
From possessor agreement to object marking in the evolution of the Udmurt -jez suffix
This article argues that morpheme syncretism can arise as a result of structural and functional changes that display features of a grammaticalization process. Our claim is based on a case study analyzing the functional evolution of - jez , the third singular possessive agreement morpheme of Udmurt, which appears to function as a nominalizer, to mark contrast, to function as a kind of definite determiner, and to mark accusative case. We argue that…
Discourse configurationality
From Parataxis to Finite Subordination in The Ugric Languages and Beyond
This article documents an evolutionary pathway from parataxis via the correlative construction to finite subordination in the Ugric languages. The first step of the emergence of finite subordination is the appearance of a paratactic precorrelative sentence pair, with an indefinite pronoun in the first sentence that is anaphorically resumed in the second sentence. This pattern, witnessed in the SOV Ob-Ugric languages, developed into a full-fledged…
Linguistics (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (14 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (7 works) · Linguistics and language evolution (6 works) · Mathematics (5 works) · Natural language processing (5 works) · Sentence (5 works) · Focus (optics) (4 works)