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Volume 2, Issue 1
  • ISSN 2772-3720
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Abstract

Abstract

This paper provides the first formal account of the meaning of the pragmatic marker in the Székely (Szekler) dialect of Hungarian. Using standard diagnostics of sentence types, we argue that it is compatible with declaratives and constituent interrogatives but not with polar interogatives. We suggest that it makes a contribution analogous to that of German in declaratives, and argue that its use-conditional meaning can be described along the lines proposed for by Eckardt (2020). Accordingly, is analyzed as an inferential evidential, marking that the prejacent is defeasibly entailed by the maximal body of knowledge of the speaker. The paper discusses contrasts between the distribution and felicity of vs. , and vs. , an inferential particle that appears both in the standard and in the Székely dialect.

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2023-06-19
2025-04-26

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/content/journals/10.1075/jul.00017.gyu
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): inferential evidential; pragmatic marker; sentence type; speech act; use condition

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