Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian

The paper investigates utterances which combine imperative and interrogative elements in Hungarian. We intend to explore the scope of the hypothesis that the pragmatico-semantic content of mixed-type sentences can be obtained compositionally. We present four types of interrogative imperative. The i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Judit Kleiber, Gábor Alberti
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin 2017-12-01
Series:LingBaW
Subjects:
Online Access:https://czasopisma.kul.pl/index.php/LingBaW/article/view/5654
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832592734882365440
author Judit Kleiber
Gábor Alberti
author_facet Judit Kleiber
Gábor Alberti
author_sort Judit Kleiber
collection DOAJ
description The paper investigates utterances which combine imperative and interrogative elements in Hungarian. We intend to explore the scope of the hypothesis that the pragmatico-semantic content of mixed-type sentences can be obtained compositionally. We present four types of interrogative imperative. The imperative factor is indicated by subjunctive morphology on the verb. The interrogative character is represented by (1) rise-fall intonation which marks polar questions, (2) the discourse marker ugye expressing bias, (3) the particle vajon expressing self-reflection or hesitation, and (4) wavy intonation which indicates surprise. We claim that such sentences are primarily questions with their main function being ‘request for instruction’. For the analysis, we take a formal pragmatico-semantic point of view. Our goal is to demonstrate how these sentences can be analyzed compositionally within a belief–desire–intention frame. We apply the formal dynamic discourse- and mind-representation theory ReALIS. We have found that the pragmatico-semantic content (intensional profile) of each type can be constructed via using two formal operations: concatenation and pragmasemantic blending. The composition produces the required output, namely that the interrogation / bias / speculation / surprise which pertains to an eventuality in the case of a simple question, pertains to the “commanding” of this eventuality in the case of interrogative imperatives.
format Article
id doaj-art-a3822349b6ab4964b0c1e0f5cb0efb35
institution Kabale University
issn 2450-5188
language English
publishDate 2017-12-01
publisher The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
record_format Article
series LingBaW
spelling doaj-art-a3822349b6ab4964b0c1e0f5cb0efb352025-01-21T05:13:58ZengThe John Paul II Catholic University of LublinLingBaW2450-51882017-12-013110.31743/lingbaw.5654Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in HungarianJudit Kleiber0Gábor Alberti1University of PécsUniversity of Pécs The paper investigates utterances which combine imperative and interrogative elements in Hungarian. We intend to explore the scope of the hypothesis that the pragmatico-semantic content of mixed-type sentences can be obtained compositionally. We present four types of interrogative imperative. The imperative factor is indicated by subjunctive morphology on the verb. The interrogative character is represented by (1) rise-fall intonation which marks polar questions, (2) the discourse marker ugye expressing bias, (3) the particle vajon expressing self-reflection or hesitation, and (4) wavy intonation which indicates surprise. We claim that such sentences are primarily questions with their main function being ‘request for instruction’. For the analysis, we take a formal pragmatico-semantic point of view. Our goal is to demonstrate how these sentences can be analyzed compositionally within a belief–desire–intention frame. We apply the formal dynamic discourse- and mind-representation theory ReALIS. We have found that the pragmatico-semantic content (intensional profile) of each type can be constructed via using two formal operations: concatenation and pragmasemantic blending. The composition produces the required output, namely that the interrogation / bias / speculation / surprise which pertains to an eventuality in the case of a simple question, pertains to the “commanding” of this eventuality in the case of interrogative imperatives. https://czasopisma.kul.pl/index.php/LingBaW/article/view/5654pragmatico-semantic analysisbelief–desire–intention frameworkdiscourse representation theorydiscourse markers
spellingShingle Judit Kleiber
Gábor Alberti
Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian
LingBaW
pragmatico-semantic analysis
belief–desire–intention framework
discourse representation theory
discourse markers
title Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian
title_full Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian
title_fullStr Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian
title_full_unstemmed Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian
title_short Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian
title_sort compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in hungarian
topic pragmatico-semantic analysis
belief–desire–intention framework
discourse representation theory
discourse markers
url https://czasopisma.kul.pl/index.php/LingBaW/article/view/5654
work_keys_str_mv AT juditkleiber compositionalanalysisofinterrogativeimperativesinhungarian
AT gaboralberti compositionalanalysisofinterrogativeimperativesinhungarian