Particles and a Two Component Theory of Aspect

This chapter argues that Hungarian is best described by adopting a two component theory of aspect, which distinguishes situation and viewpoint aspect. Situation aspect concerns properties of the event description, and viewpoint aspect establishes aspectual properties external to the event description. It is argued that Hungarian particles, similarly to non-particle constituents, play a role in both types of aspect: their presence can affect situation aspect properties, and their position can vary according to the viewpoint specification. The effect on either aspectual component is a consequence of the denotation of the particle or the similar non-particle constituent. It is also shown that situation and viewpoint aspect characterizes all event descriptions, not only those which show an overt difference between different aspect markings. The proposed account assumes a compositional account of situation aspect, and derives the distribution of particles by appealing to the semantic properties of particles and viewpoint aspect.