Topik? Fókusz? Javaslatok a szórend tanításának megújításához

Abstract

The paper makes the case for a reform in the teaching of Hungarian word order, in both L1 and L2 environments. It is argued that the notions of topic and focus, taken over from generative accounts of Hungarian, are suboptimal for the purpose of teaching this area of grammar. In line with Sámuel Brassai’s original discoveries about information structure, it is proposed that topics are just a subtype of a broader category of contextualizers, providing supporting context for the smooth processing and intended interpretation of a message. Immediately preverbal elements bearing the main stress of the sentence (so-called foci) are described not in terms of an empty slot that may be filled by various expressions but rather in terms of their relation to the verb. This relation is termed overriding. The paper also makes comments on how to bring the analyses closer to students, for example by drawing a parallel between contextualization in the sentence and the attachment of hashtags to an image.