Use of indefinite negative pronouns (Hungarian)

DbleNeg:Negation is expressed through the use of both a negative pronoun and a negative predicate.


(1) nóri nem jö-tt iskolá-ba.

Nóri neg come-pst.3sg school-ill

’Nóri didn’t come to school.’


(2) senki sem jö-tt iskolá-ba.

nobody neg come-pst.3sg school-ill

‘Nobody came to school.’


Hungarian uses double negation: the negative predicate is required if a negative pronoun (e.g. senki ‘nobody’, semmi ‘nothing’) appears in a clause. The general form of the negating particle is nem ‘not’, which is used in the form of sem next to negative pronouns (cf. É. Kiss 2002: 133‒134).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás