Syntheticism of verbal inflection (Hungarian)

CpW=4: The category-­per-­word value is 4.


(1) én néz-lek téged.

I look-prs.2obj.1sg you.acc

‘I’m looking at you.’


(2) én néz-né-lek téged.

I look-cond-prs.2obj.1sg you.acc

‘I would look at you.’


(3) én néz-te-lek téged.

I look-pst-2obj.1sg you.acc

‘I looked at you.’


In Hungarian, the verbal morphology codes tense, mood, the person and number of the subject, the definiteness of the object and second person objects if the subject of the verb is in the first person singular. From these, a single verb form can specify the person and number of the subject and the person of the object (1), or mood and the person and number of the subject and the person of the object (2), or tense and the person and number of the subject and the person of the object (3) (cf. Kugler 2000a: 104‒123, Kiefer 2003: 212‒222).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás