Basic word order of adverbs of manner (Hungarian)

MnrVO: The basic word order is MnrVO.


(1) áron tortá-t süt.

Áron cake-acc bake-prs.3sg

‘Áron is baking a cake.’


(2) áron süt-i a tortá-t.

Áron süt-prs.obj.3sg the cake-acc

‘Áron is baking the cake.’


(3) áron ügyesen süt tortá-t.

Áron skillfully bake-prs.3sg cake-acc

‘Áron is good at baking cakes.’


(4) áron lassan süt-i a tortá-t.

Áron slowly bake-prs.obj.3sg the cake-acc

‘Áron is baking the cake slowly.’


(5) lassan áron süt-i a tortá-t.

slowly Áron bake-prs.obj.3sg the cake-acc

‘Áron is the one who is baking the cake slowly.’


In Hungarian, the word order of sentences, which have an indeterminate object, is OV (1), while the word order of marked sentences (which have determinate objects) is VO (2). Adverbs of manner in neutral sentences (3), (4) are put before the verb and the object, which triggers a change in the word order of the sentence. In non-basic word orders, adverbs of manner can also be put in other position, e.g. at the beginning of the sentence (5), where the subject is in focus position (cf. É. Kiss 2002: 83‒86, Kenesei et al. 1998: 76‒78).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás