Discourse meets grammar: The case of Hungarian verbal particles

Abstract

This paper sets forward an information structural account of the position of verbal particles in present-day Standard Hungarian and in Old Hungarian. Diacronically a gradual change in the position of particles can be observed across different construction types, which is claimed to be governed by the discourse status of the culmination of the event expressed by the verbal particle. It is argued that the position of verbal particles is not to be accounted for by assuming an aspectual representation independent of information structure.