Adjectives without nouns (Hungarian)

AdjNoN=Adj: Adjectives can appear without a noun; the bare adjective appears with no morphological change.


(1) a polc-on piros és zöld kalap-ok van-nak. én zöld-et választ-ott-am.

the shelf-sup red and green hat-pl be-prs.3pl I green-acc choose-pst-1sg

’There are red and green hats on the shelf. The one I chose was green.’


(2) a polc-on piros és zöld kalap-ok van-nak. én egy zöld-et választ-ott-am.

the shelf-sup red and green hat-pl be-prs.3pl I a green-acc choose-pst-1sg

       ’There are red and green hats on the shelf. I chose a green one.’


(3) a polc-on egy piros és egy zöld kalap van. én a zöld-et választ-ott-am.

the shelf-sup a red and a green hat be.prs.3sg I the green-acc choose-pst-1sg

’There are a red and a green hat on the shelf. I chose the green one.’


In Hungarian, if an adjective is used instead of the whole NP (1)-(3), the same form of the adjective is used as the one which can accompany the noun (cf. Lengyel 2000a: 150).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás