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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 complemented 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 adverbial 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 written 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 industrial production. + 53 +
