Semantic differences of suffixal alternates in Hungary

Abstract

Some of the inflectional paradigms of the Hungarian lexicon containsuffixal alternates which do not vary freely with each other, but certaininflected forms are connected to specific senses of the lexical item. Amongverbal suffxes the -ik suffix marking the third personsingular form of the present tense indicative behaves in this way, which oncertain verbs can simultaneously signal intransitivity, while the alternatefor with the zero suffix is transitive. On other verbs, the choice betweenthe bare -t and -Vtt forms of thepast tense suffix (in 3rd person singular) can indicate sense differences.The inflectional paradigm of some verbs can even contain more than oneinstance of semantic distinction among alternates. A peculiar differencebetween the multiple plural forms of nouns derived from adjectives is basedon whether the nominal meaning is an occasional one or the nominal lexemehas become completely independent. The same difference is reflected in theaccusative form of these nouns, too. Different personal possessive suffixalforms of nouns can signal differences between the types of the possessiverelation (real possession or part-whole relation), instead of differentiatingsenses of the basic form. The adverbial forms of adjectives with l _Ag, -An and -Ul suffixescan also indicate sense distinctions.