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HUNGARIAN-ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL CONTRASTS: THE VERB PHRASE
A lot of difficulty is due to the fact that Hungarian verbs are often comple¬
mented by adverbials, while the corresponding English verbs take a direct or
indirect object:
Kérhetek tőled egy szívességet? Can I ask you a favour?
Játszhatok veled egy sakkpartit? Can I play you a game of chess?
4.2.1 Semantic roles
The semantic roles of verb complements are constant, while their grammatical
functions are variable. Consider the following sentences (cf. Fillmore 1970):
1) John broke the window with a hammer.
2) The window was broken by John with a hammer.
3) The window was broken by John.
4) The window was broken with a hammer.
5) The window was broken.
6) John used a hammer to break the window.
7) The window broke.
8) The hammer broke the window.
John has the grammatical function of subject in 1) and 6); it is an adverbial in
2) and 3), but its semantic role is agent, the doer of the action, in all these
sentences. Grammatically, the window is direct object in 1) and 6), subject in
2) to 5) and 7). Semantically, it is affected (Quirk et al. 1985) by the action (an
alternative term for affected is theme). The word hammer is semantically an
instrument in all the sentences where it occurs, while grammatically it is ad¬
verbial in 1), 2) and 4, direct object in 6), and subject in 8). In some sentences
not all the complements have to be expressed.
There are differences between the preferences of English and Hungarian for
expressing certain semantic roles through certain grammatical functions.
Most salient among these is the preference of English to express the role of
affected through the function of subject in passive sentences. Another major
contrast is related to the semantic role of external causer, particularly in writ¬
ten styles. Consider these sentences:
The crash killed four people.
The snowfall brought traffic to a standstill.
The end of the 19th century saw Britain falling behind Germany in its in¬
dustrial production.
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