Verbal Complexes

In this book Hilda Koopman and Anna Szabolcsi propose a unified analysis of restructuring constructions in Hungarian, Dutch, and German that involves only overt phrasal movement and derives variation from the varying sizes of pied piping constituents.

Restructuring verbs in Hungarian exhibit three patterns: the will begin up-climb and the up will begin climb orders common in Dutch and the up-climb begin will order common in German. Traditionally these have been analyzed as involving no movement (or covert movement), phrasal movement, and head movement, respectively. The first goal of this book is to develop a unified analysis where (1) the same features are checked in all three orders, (2) all feature checking is achieved by overt movement, and (3) all three types involve phrasal movement. The second goal is to account for the significant variation across Hungarian, Dutch, and German, which is argued to arise from the varying sizes of the constituents pied piped in the course of movement.

In addition to its novel theoretical claims, the book presents the first systematic description of Hungarian complex verbs and the first comparison of West-Germanic and Hungarian.