Coding of the causee in ditransitive constructions (Hungarian)

DitrCeeInstr: The causee appears in the instrumental case.


(1) zoli egy könyv-et ad istván-nak.

Zoli a book-acc give.prs.3sg István-dat

’Zoli is giving a book to István.’


(2) zoli egy könyv-et ad-at istván-nak ádám-mal.

Zoli a book-acc give-caus.prs.3sg István-dat Ádám-inst

’Zoli makes Ádám to give István a book.’


In Hungarian, morphological causation is coded with the -­at/-­et, -­tat/-­tet derivational suffixes (Keszler 2000a: 307‒320). The causee is marked with the instrumental case in the causative construction, while the causer takes the nominative (É. Kiss 2002: 36‒37).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás