Adnominal adjective agreement (Hungarian)

NoAdjAgr: Although other elements in the noun phrase can display agreement with the noun, adjectives cannot.


(1a) tágas szoba

airy room

‘airy room’


(1b) tágas szobá-k

airy room-pl

‘airy rooms’


(1c) tágas szobá-k-ban

airy room-pl-ine

‘in airy rooms’


(2a) ez a szoba

det the room

‘this room’


(2b) ez-ek a szobá-k

det-pl the room-pl

‘these rooms’


(2c) ez-ek-ben a szobá-k-ban

det-pl-ine the room-pl-ine

‘in these rooms’


In Hungarian, adnominal adjectives (1a)-(1c) do not agree with their head nouns, neither in number nor in case (cf. Lengyel 2000a: 142‒151, Balogh 2000b: 444‒448, Kenesei et al.  1998:  330‒331). In contrast, determiners  take the same number and case marking suffixes which appear on their head nouns (2a)–(2c) (cf. Balogh. 2000b: 448).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás