About using lehet ‘may be’ without hogy ‘that’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18349/MagyarNyelv.2023.3.306Keywords:
clause boundary, clause deletion, conversion, interpunctuation, regions, generationsAbstract
The present study investigates the phenomenon of deleting the conjunction hogy ‘that’ in the subject complement clause of the main clause verb lehet ‘it may be (that)’, which can happen in two ways: on the one hand, it can be a stylistic variant of the biclausal structure, that is, of the case where a matrix clause – subordinate clause structure is retained; on the other hand, the clause boundary can cease to exist, the original matrix verb lehet may turn into a modal verb modifying its original subordinate clause. Commenting on the observations of the literature written in the 2010s, the author illustrates the features of these two types on the basis of data collected from written and spoken texts, and discusses both the importance and the difficulties of distinguishing these two types. He also examines the origin of the single-clause variant, the direction of its spread, and the generational differences in its use.
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Copyright (c) 2023 László Horváth
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