Marking of the object in ditransitive pronominal constructions (T) (Hungarian)

PT–R: The objects of monotransitive and ditransitive verbs are marked the same way; the recipient is marked differently.

VAgrPTnoR: The verb codes agreement with P and T the same way; agreement with R is not coded.


(1) a fiú meg-vesz-i az-t (P).

the boy pref-buy-prs.obj.3sg det-acc

‘The boy is buying that.’


(2) a fiú a lány-nak (R) ad-ja az-t (T).

the boy the girl-dat give-prs.obj.3sg det-acc

‘The boy is giving that to the girl.’


(3) a fiú meg-ajándékoz-za az-zal (T) a lány-t (R).

the boy pref-give_present-prs.obj.3sg det-ins the girl-acc

‘The boy is giving that to the girl as a present.’


In Hungarian, the pronominal objects (patient or theme) of monotransitive (1) and ditransitive (2) verbs are both marked with the accusative (-t suffix). Nominal recipients are marked with their dative case form. This is the typical way of marking in Hungarian, however a small group of ditransitive verbs (e.g. meglep ‘to surprise somebody’, megajándékoz ‘to give a present’) assign instrumental case to the theme (direct object) and accusative case to the recipient (3). (Due to the marginality of this construction, we did not take it into consideration when the parameter values were determined.) Monotransitive and ditransitive verbs are both agreed with the object (which can either be a patient or a theme or an R in accusative). The agreement is governed by the definiteness of the object (cf. Kenesei et al. 1998: 197198, Komlósy 1992: 345346).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás