Depictive secondary predication in Hungarian

This paper takes SCHULTZE-BERNDT & HIMMELMANN (2004) and HIMMELMANN & SCHULTZE-BERNDT (2005) as the starting point for a description of depictive secondary predication in Hungarian. The Hungarian language distinguishes between three major types of depictives, based on nouns, converbs, and numerals, respectively. It is shown that significant semantic and syntactic differences hold between the two most important nominal depictives. As for the converb type, it is shown that there is a clear-cut distinction between adverbial uses of converbs to express manner or circumstance on the one hand and depictives on the other. The latter form one category with the converbs and can be used in periphrastic resultative constructions. Apart from the universal quantifier, which acts as a genuine depictive, numerals have a restricted use as depictives. Finally, it is argued that adjectives may also be considered a class of depictives.