[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2019-04-20 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by peter.kristof.hu ]  https://duolingo.hobune.stream/comment/31821286

Hungarian in focus -- Word order

Or the focus in Hungarian. Topic, focus, predicate. These things compose the key to be understanding of the Hungarian syntax, word order, the use of verbs and preverbs, verb modifiers, negations and questions. According to the traditional classification, the two main parts of a sentence are the subject and predicate. Besides that, linguistics recently use the topic-predicate (also called topic-comment) concept.

Then came the generative grammar, a new paradigm, which gave the languages a whole new perspective. Unfortunately, it has not spread in schools and public awareness, but it's not surprising because this theory requires lots of specific knowledge. The generative grammar defines a set of rules that generates exactly those combinations of words that form grammatical sentences in a given language. This theory affected other disciplines, too.

Hungarian linguists have also been processing the language based on the generative grammar in the last decades. Though the work has not finished, however, the Hungarian language is said to be the best processed Non-Indo-European language.

I. Overview

The two main parts of a sentence are the topic and the predicate in Hungarian. The topic of the sentence is what we are talking about, and the predicate is what we say about the topic. The topic is usually known information, while the predicate is new information.

Here is the syntactic structure of a typical Hungarian sentence represented by an abstract tree, containing a focus, with two examples. (The asterisk denotes zero, one or more repetitions.)

                    Sentence (S)
                     /             \
          Topic (XP*)    Predicate (VP)
               |                  /                 \
               |        Focus (XP)            Verb Phrase (V')
               |             |                           /          \    \     \
               |             |                  Verb (V)        Complement (XP*)
               |             |                       |                          |
            Vilmos a kertben         olvasta              a Hamletet.
           'It was in the garden that William was reading Hamlet.'
           Edison  a fonográfot    találta               fel 1877-ben.
           'It is the phonograph that Edison invented in 1877.'

In the following, I will not deal with the hierarchical structure of the sentence, instead of this, I will take the leaves of the tree that designate the positions of the components of the Hungarian sentence. The main stressed word of the sentence marked in bold. Remember each content word stressed on its first syllable, so for example articles are unstressed.

#	Topic	Predicate

1					Verb	Postverbal
2	Topic				Verb	Postverbal
3	Topic		Focus		Verb	Postverbal
4	Topic		Verb Mod. (preverb)		Verb	Postverbal
5	Topic		Verb Mod.(bare nominal)		Verb	Postverbal
6	Topic			Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
7	Topic		Focus	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
8	Topic	Neg.	Focus		Verb	Postverbal

(Verb Mod. = Verb Modifier, Neg. = Negative )

The verb divides the sentence into two parts: the preverbal and the postverbal regions, and the predicate overlaps them.

Examples for the table above:

#	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1					Alakult	egy énekkar.
2	Vilmos				olvasta	a Hamletet a kertben.
3	Vilmos		a Hamletet		olvasta	a kertben.
4	Edison		fel-		találta	a fonográfot 1877-ben.
5	János		híres		lesz.
6	Tamás			nem	táncolt	a feleségével.
7	Tamás		a feleségével	nem	táncolt.
8	Tamás	nem	a feleségével		táncolt.

• 1 ‘A choir formed.’
  It's a simple case. All the constituents are in postverbal position.
• 2 ‘William was reading Hamlet in the garden.’
  Only the topic is before the verb at the beginning of the sentence.
• 3 'It was Hamlet that William was reading in the garden.'
  "a Hamlet" was highlighted as a focus. The focus is immediately before the verb (only the negative can be placed between them).
• 4 'Edison invented the phonograph in 1877.’
  The preverb occupies the same position as the focus. In this example, the preverb is immediately before the verb.
• 5 'John will be famous.'
  The bare nominal also occupies the same position as the focus. The bare noun stands on the right before the verb (only the negative can be between them).
• 6 'Thomas wasn't dancing with his wife.'
  The negative is immediately before the verb.
• 7 'It was his wife that Thomas wasn't dancing with.'
  The negative is also immediately before the verb.
• 8 'It was not his wife that Thomas was dancing with.'
  Here the negative stands immediately before the focus.

The focus and verb modifiers, i.e. preverbs and bare nominals (more accurately: preverbs, bare nouns, bare adverbs, case-marked adjectives or a postpositions) mutually exclude each other, and the focus has priority.

2. Full description

The generative grammar describes the derivation of a sentence by movements of the components. Accordingly, the major constituents of Hungarian sentences, except the verb, are generated in the postverbal region and then may move to various positions before the verb.

TOPIC

With some restriction, topics can be selected not only from the subject but from other parts of the sentence in Hungarian. The sentence can contain one or more topics or no topic. Hungarian is a topic-prominent language, though when verbs express creation, emergence or existence of something, need not any topic in the sentence. The following two examples apply to non-topic sentences.

#	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1					Alakult	egy énekkar.
2					Megjött	a vonat.

• 1 'A choir formed.'
• 2 'The train has come.'

In Hungarian, the personal suffix of the verb indicates the person, therefore the personal pronoun is usually omitted.

	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
					Olvasok	egy angol könyvet.

'I'm reading an English book.'

As a transformation, the topic may be selected from the postverbal region and moves into the topic position.

#	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1					Olvasta	Vilmos a Hamletet a kertben.
2	Vilmos				olvasta	a Hamletet a kertben.
3	A Hamletet				olvasta	Vilmos a kertben.
4	A kertben				olvasta	Vilmos a Hamletet.

• 1 ‘William was reading Hamlet in the garden.’
  No topic.
• 2 ‘William was reading Hamlet in the garden.’
  "Vilmos" has been moved into the topic position.
• 3 'Hamlet, William was reading in the garden.'
  The phrase "a Hamlet" has been moved into the topic position.
• 4 'In the garden, William was reading Hamlet.'
  The phrase "a kertben" has been moved into the topic position.

I admit, recently I still thought that Hungarian has a free word order. The fact is that the word order fixed in the preverbal region and virtually free word order is permitted in the postverbal domain. The following sentences are identical in meaning:
"a Hamletet Vilmos a kertben",
"a Hamletet a kertben Vilmos",
"Vilmos a Hamletet a kertben",
"Vilmos a kertben a Hamletet"
sequences are all correct.

FOCUS

In Hungarian, the focus is the most important new information in the sentence, in other words, it expresses exhaustive identification from among a set of alternatives. With some restriction, a focus can be selected from any part of the sentence in Hungarian. It may be moved from the postverbal region into the topic position. The focus always immediately precedes the conjugated verb and only the negative can be placed between the two words. The main stress is on the focus and the subsequent verb is unstressed.

#	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1	Vilmos				olvasta	a Hamletet a kertben.
2			a Hamletet		olvasta	Vilmos a kertben.
3			a kertben		olvasta	Vilmos a Hamletet.
4			Vilmos		olvasta	a Hamletet a kertben.
5	A kertben		Vilmos		olvasta	a Hamletet.
6	Vilmos a Hamletet				olvasta	a kertben.

• 1 'William was reading Hamlet in the garden.'
  Here "Vilmos" can be either topic or focus. In speaking, just the emphasis determines whether which one is.
• 2 'It was Hamlet that William was reading in the garden.'
  "a Hamlet" has been moved into the focus position.
• 3 'It was in the garden that William was reading Hamlet.'
  "a kertben" has been moved into the focus position.
• 4 'It was William who was reading Hamlet in the garden.'
  It's the same situation as in sentence 1.
  "Vilmos" has been moved into the focus position.
• 5 'In the garden William was reading Hamlet.'
  The previous sentence with another topic.
• 6 'William was reading Hamlet in the garden.'
  If "Hamlet" was stressed it would come into the focus position. (This information does not appear in writing.)

VERB MODIFIER

There are two kinds of verb modifiers: preverb and bare nominal. Consider the following two examples:

Preverb:
János megsütötte a húsgolyókat.
ʻJohn fried the meatballs.ʼ

Bare nominal:
János feketére sütötte a húsgolyókat.
ʻJohn fried the meatballs black.ʼ

Preverb

(also called verbal prefix, verbal particle)

Preverb is a kind of verb modifiers. The focus and the preverb try to occupy the same position, but the focus has priority over the preverb. If the sentence contains both preverb and focus phrase, the preverb moves after the verb. (In this case, the presence of the focus is syntactically indicated.)

#	Topic	Neg.	Verb Mod./Focus	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1			fel-		találta	Edison a fonográfot 1877-ben.
2	Edison		fel-		találta	a fonográfot 1877-ben.
3	A fonográfot		fel-		találta	Edison 1877-ben.
4	1877-ben		fel-		találta	Edison a fonográfot.
5	Edison a fonográfot		fel-		találta	1877-ben.
6			Edison		találta	fel a fonográfot 1877-ben.
7	A fonográfot		Edison			találta fel 1877-ben.
8	A fonográfot		Edison			találta 1877-ben fel.
9	Edison a fonográfot		1877-ben		találta	fel.

• 1 'Edison invented the phonograph in 1877.’
• 2 'Edison invented the phonograph in 1877.’
• 3 'The phonograph, Edison invented in 1877.’
• 4 ' In 1877 Edison invented the phonograph.’
• 5 'The phonograph, Edison invented in 1877.’
• 6 'It was Edison who invented the phonograph in 1877.’
  The focus and the verb modifier are immediately before the verb. They mutually exclude each other, and the focus has priority. If a focus is presented in the sentence, the verb modifier is moved into the postverbal position.
• 7 The phonograph, it was Edison who invented the phonograph in 1877.’
  The preverb is moved into the postverbal position.
• 8 The phonograph, it was Edison who invented the phonograph in 1877.’
  In Hungarian, preverb can be in any places in a postverbal region, and the meaning of the sentence does not change.
• 9 'It was in 1877 that Edison invented the phonograph.’

Of course, if the preverb immediately precedes the verb, the two words are written together, otherwise they are separately.

Bare nominal

This is the other type of verb modifiers besides the preverb.

#	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1	János		levelet		ír.
2	János a barátjának		levelet		ír.
3	János		iskolába		jár.
4	János		operaénekes		lesz.
5	János		operaénekes.
6			Gyerek		született.
7	Jánost		elnökké		választották.
8	János		híres		lesz.
9	Jánost		bolondnak		tartják.
10	Jánost		boldoggá		tette	a hír.
11	János		úszni		akar.

• 1 'John is writing his friend a letter.'
  "levelet" is a noun as a direct object in the sentence.
  "János ír egy levelet" without a verb modifier, the meaning of the sentence is the same as the original one. (The bare noun moved into the postverbal position.)
  "János egy levelet ír" is also acceptable with a slightly different meaning. In this case, the phrase "egy levelet" gets the focus position.
• 2 'It is his friend that John is writing a letter.'
• 3 'John goes to school.'
  "iskolába" is a case-marked noun as an adverbial of place.
• 4 'John will be an opera singer.'
  "operaénekes" is the nominal part of the complex predicate.
  In "János Magyarországon lesz operaénekes.", "Magyarországon" is a focus, thus "operaénekes" moved to postverbal position.
• 5 'John is an opera singer.'
  The verb lenni 'to be' is sometimes omitted when it is in the present indicative third person.
• 6 'A child was born.'
  "gyerek" is the nominal part of the complex predicate.
• 7 'John was elected president.'
  "elnökké" is an adverb.
• 8 'John will be famous.'
  "híres" is an attribute.
• 9 'John is considered a fool.'
  "bolondnak" is an adverb.
• 10 'John made the news happy.'
  "boldoggá" is an adverb.
• 11 'John wants to swim.'
  "úszni" is an infinitive. "János akar úszni" is also acceptable. In this case, the stressed verb is "akar".

The focus and the bare noun mutually exclude each other, and the focus has priority. If the topic is placed in the sentence, the bare noun moves into the postverbal position. (Also, in this case, the presence of the focus is syntactically indicated.)

(For the sake of accuracy, I note that the focus is at a higher level in the hierarchical structure than the verb modifiers (hence its scope is greater), even though they may occupy the same position.)

I note that the first five examples relate to the use of nouns without articles. (Also see: The use of articles in Hungarian

NEGATION

Both the verb phrase and another phrase in the focus position can be negated. The negation of the verb implies the negation of the whole sentence.

#	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1	Tamás				táncolt	a feleségével.
2	Tamás			nem	táncolt	a feleségével.
3	Tamás		a feleségével		táncolt.
4	Tamás		a feleségével	nem	táncolt.
5	Tamás	nem	a feleségével		táncolt.
6	Edison		fel-		találta	az izzólámpát.
7	Edison			nem	találta	fel a repülőgépet.
8	Edison	nem	a repülőgépet		találta	fel.
9	János		levelet		ír.
10	János			nem	ír	levelet.
11	János			nem	jár	iskolába.
12	János			nem	lesz	operaénekes.

• 1 'Thomas was dancing with his wife.'
• 2 'Thomas wasn't dancing with his wife.'
• 3 'It was his wife that Thomas was dancing with.'
• 4 'It was his wife that Thomas wasn't dancing with.'
  Other emphasis is also possible. (Usually the new information is stressed.)
• 5 'It was not his wife that Thomas was dancing with.'
  Other emphasis is also possible.
• 6 'Edison invented the light bulb.'
• 7 'Edison didn't invent the airplane.'
• 8 'It was not the airplane that Edison invented .'
  Other emphasis is also possible.
• 9 'John is writing a letter.'
• 10 'John isn't writing a letter.'
• 11 'John doesn't go to school.'
• 12 'John won't be an opera singer.'

The negative that negates the verb is an alternative to the verb modifier. When there is a negative before the verb, there is not allowed verb modifier in this position. If the verb or focus is negated, the verb modifiers are moved into a postverbal position.

QUESTIONS

• Yes-no questions

The word order can be the same as an affirmative sentence. The question mark and special intonation differentiate from the affirmative sentence. (It may also be used the "-e" particle for a question.)

#	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1	Vilmos		a Hamletet		olvasta	a kertben?
2	Vilmos		a kertben		olvasta	a Hamletet?
3			Vilmos		olvasta	a Hamletet a kertben?
4					olvasta	Vilmos a Hamletet a kertben?
5					olvasta	Vilmos a Hamletet?
6	Vilmos			nem	olvasta	a Hamletet?
7	Vilmos	nem	a Hamletet		olvasta?
8	Edison			nem	találta	fel a fonográfot?
9		Nem	Edison		találta	fel a fonográfot?

• 1 'Was it Hamlet that William was reading in the garden?'
• 2 'Was it in the garden that William was reading Hamlet?'
• 3 'Was it William who was reading the Hamlet in the garden?'
• 4 'Was William reading Hamlet in the garden?'
• 5 'Did William read Hamlet?'
• 6 'Did William not read Hamlet?'
• 7 'Was it not Hamlet that William read?'
• 8 'Did Edison not invented the phonograph?'
  The preverb is moved into the postverbal position.

• 9 'Was it not Edison who invented the phonograph?'
  The preverb is also moved into the postverbal position.

• Wh-questions

#	Topic	Neg.	Focus/Verb Mod.	Neg.	Verb	Postverbal
1			Ki		olvasta	a Hamletet?
2			Mit		olvasott	Vilmos a kertben?
3			Hol		olvasta	Vilmos a Hamletet?
4			Mit	nem	olvasott	Vilmos?
5			Miért		olvasta	Vilmos a Hamletet?
6	Miért		a Hamletet		olvasta	Vilmos?

The question word is in the focus position, except for the sentence beginning with "why".

• 1 'Who read Hamlet?'
• 2 'What did William read in the garden?'
• 3 'Where did William read Hamlet?'
• 4 'What did not William read ?'
• 5 'Why did William read Hamlet?'
  The question word asks about the verb and the whole predicate.
• 6 'Why was Hamlet what William read?'
  It's a special case. The question word asks the reason for selecting the focus. (Why not another book?)

I tried to outline the Hungarian syntax. I think the generative grammar gives a new perspective on language learning. I didn't mention the quantifiers, arguments, adjuncts, complex sentences, and of course much more things, but you have to move from simple to complex to learn. I hope to could help with Hungarian learning. If you find something mistake, please correct me.

Sources in Hungarian:
Új magyar nyelvtan This is an easy-to-read description of the Hungarian grammar.
Mondattan
A magyar nyelv
A magyar nyelv: A mondat alapszerkezete

Sources in English:
Hungarian grammar
Syntax of Hungarian Vol. 1
Syntax of Hungarian Vol. 2 These are the two first volumes of series.
And lots of articles online, some of them:
Topic and Focus
The Intonation of Topic and Comment in the Hungarian Declarative Sentence
And finally the title article:
Hungarian in focus ( downloadable)

-------------
See also: word order posts by vvsey: 

On Emphasis and Word Order in Hungarian
Structure and word order of a Hungarian sentence
Once more on Hungarian Word Order?