[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2022-01-14 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by peter.kristof.hu ]
The use of bare nouns
This post is about count singular nouns like levél 'letter' that don't have an article or other determinant. The use of articles in any language is problematic, but perhaps the difficult question is when to leave them. In Hungarian, there are three articles: a(z)/egy/Ø; the latter denotes the lack of the article. For clarity in the following, I mark it with a sign "Ø". But first of all, let's see some examples:
| Ø Levél van a postaládában. | There is a letter in the mailbox / There are letters in the mailbox. |
| Ø Levelek vannak a postaládában. | There are letters in the mailbox. |
| Hugo Ø levelet írt. | Hugo wrote a letter/letters. |
| Ø Kutyák támadták meg a postást. | Dogs attacked the postman. |
| Ø Madár dalol az ablakomban. | Birds sing in my window. |
| A fiú Ø könyvet olvas. | The boy is reading a book. |
| Hol van a közelben Ø bank? | Where is the bank nearby? |
| Nincs Ø kardfogú tigris. | There is no saber-toothed tiger. |
1. Definiteness
To understand the use of bare nouns, let’s look at some example sentences with and without articles related to a noun, ranging from definite to indefinite. I should note that this property is described by a complete structure, in the simplest case, a noun with an article.
Definite
|
| A levél a postaládában van.
| Egy levél van a postaládában.
| Ø Levél van a postaládában.
v
Indefinite
Let's look at each one.
- A levél a postaládában van.
'The letter is in the mailbox.'
The article indicates that the noun is definite; we know which letter it is.
"A levél van a postaládában" does not sound good, because the existential verb "van" needs an indefinite noun phrase ("egy levél van ..."), similar to the English "there is/are". That is the so-called definiteness effect. It means that certain verbs may require that one of their arguments be an indefinite. The sentence above could be at most: "A levél van a postaládában, nem az újság".
It is also worth mentioning here the notion of specificity. Specific means that the noun has been referred to before in the discourse, or is already known. A definite noun phrase is specific in most cases.
Egy levél van a postaládában.
'There is a letter in the mailbox.' The indefinite article indicates that the noun is less definite. All we know is that there is one letter in the mailbox.Ø Levél van a postaládában.
'There is a letter in the mailbox./There are letters in the mailbox'. The absence of the article indicates that the noun is even less definite. All we know is that there are one or more letters in the mailbox.
2. Number
Ø Levél van a postaládában.
'There is a letter in the mailbox / There are letters in the mailbox'.
Ø Levelek vannak a postaládában.
'There are letters in the mailbox'.
The following figure gives an intuitive sense of the number of letters. “•” symbolizes an element in the set.
• levél ^
• • levelek |
• • • levelek | levél
• • • • levelek v
Singular bare nouns
In Hungarian, count singular nouns can form grammatically correct sentences. They are semantically number-neutral and indefinite. In this respect it is similar to mass nouns. (I will not mention here the use of mass (uncountable) nouns.) "Levél van a postaládában" means that one or more letters can be in the mailbox. However, as always, semantics (meanings) and pragmatics (contexts and knowledge) are crucial, e.g.:
Autót vettem.'
I bought a car.'
Intuitively, it is obvious that I did not buy two or ten cars, but just one.Plural bare nouns denotes indefinite plural things.
Ø Kutyák támadták meg a postást.
'Dogs attacked the postman.'
I should mention that in Hungarian, we do not usually express general statements with plural bare nouns. The general way is to use a definite article with a singular or plural noun.
| A zebrák csíkosak. | Zebras are striped. |
| A kutya az ember legjobb barátja. | Dogs are man's best friend. |
3. Summary
- Singular bare nouns refer to one or more indefinite elements.
-- We mean one element: if it is obvious from the context that there can only be one element, e.g.: Jövőre veszek házat 'I'll buy a house next year'.
-- We mean one or more elements: if it is not impossible, e.g.: Levelet írok 'I am writing a letter/I am writing letters.'
- Plural bare nouns refer to more indefinite elements, e.g.: Házakat veszek 'I buy houses'.
4. Noun in the preverbal position
In Hungarian, the conjugated verb is a grammatical boundary, so my classification is justified. It is very often occurred that the bare noun is in topic or focus position. These bare nouns are often considered verb modifiers.
| János Ø levelet írt. | János wrote a letter/letters. |
| Ø Vendég érkezett. | A guest has arrived. |
| Ø Vendégek érkeztek. | Guests have arrived. |
| Ø Kutya támadta meg a postást. | A dog attacked the postman. |
| Ø Kutyák támadták meg a postást. | Dogs attacked the postman. |
| Ø Madár dalol az ablakomban. | Birds sing in my window. |
| Ø Gyerek született. | A child was born. |
| Ø Késsel vágta a kenyeret. | She cut the bread with a knife. |
| Imre Ø könyvet olvas. | Imre is reading a book. |
| Péter Ø moziba ment. | Peter went to the cinema. |
| Éva Ø iskolába fog járni. | Eva will go to school. |
| János Ø orvos lesz. | János becomes a doctor. |
| A kutya Ø farka rövid. | The dog's tail is short. |
| Ø Középiskolában tanít. | He teaches in high school. |
| Ø Jegyeket, Ø bérleteket kérem! | Tickets, season tickets please! |
| Jánost Ø rendőrök keresték. | János was wanted by the police. |
Note that if you put an indefinite article ("egy") in front of the involved singular nouns, you get a grammatical sentence in most cases. The difference in meaning is that we are talking about strictly one noun in that case. (E.g. "A kutya egy farka rövid" is ungrammatical. By the way it's a possessive structure.)
5. Nouns in the postverbal position
I don't know any general rule in this case. So this part will be more of a case study.
The bare nouns often get into a postverbal position because of a question word, negation, or auxiliary verb. Thus these cases can be traced back to the previous ones.
Ø Vendég érkezett. -> Érkezett Ø vendég?
Péter Ø moziba ment. -> Ki ment Ø moziba?
János Ø levelet írt. -> János nem írt Ø levelet.
János Ø levelet írt. -> János írni fog Ø levelet.
It is used bare nouns after the existence/possession verb "van/vannak":
Vannak még Ø hibák.
Nincs Ø kardfogú tigris.
Van Ø tollam.
Finally, some examples:
| A kutyák megtámadtak Ø postásokat, Ø kéményseprőket, Ø tűzoltókat. | The dogs attacked postmen, chimney sweeps and firemen. |
| Vannak még Ø hibák. | There are still errors. |
| Van Ø tollam. | I have a pen./I have pens. |
| Nincs Ø kardfogú tigris. | There is no saber-toothed tiger. |
| Van Ø lift az épületben? | Is there an elevator in the building? |
| Hol van a közelben Ø bank? | Where is a bank nearby? |
| Imre nem olvas Ø könyvet. | Imre doesn't read book/books. |
| Kinyújtotta Ø karját. | He held out his arm. |
| Kaptam Ø újságot. | I got a newspaper. |
Sources:
http://acta.bibl.u-szeged.hu/54242/1/mai_magyar_nyelv_001_199-234.pdf,
and others
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12 Comments
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Awesome post. I did not know that "A levél van a postaládában" would be ungrammatical due to the definite article. However, one thing I still don't understand is that, if it is clear from context that there is only a single instance of the noun, which is preferred: "Jövőre veszek házat" or "Jövőre veszek egy házat"? I get the feeling that the former is more common but is there some intuition for these? Is there some difference in meaning or connotation between these two, even though from context it would be clear that a single house is denoted?
Here, I disagree with Péter. I don't think "A levél van a postaládában" is ungrammatical. It is just unusual, but with the right context and right intonation, it could be a possible sentence.
Like it is in the post: "A levél van a postaládában, nem az újság".
Can't we just use it like this?
Mi van a postaládában, a levél, vagy az újság?
Megnéztem. A levél van a postaládában.
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You are right, it is not ungrammatical. I corrected it. But there is no doubt that the sentence itself is not correct.
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As I've written, if you contradict the two things, "levél" and e.g. "újság", then the sentence is grammatical:
"A levél van a postaládában(, nem az újság.)" With emphasis.
Here, the "levél" is in the focus.
Imagine the following situation. You are going home and looking in the mailbox. You exclaim: Ø Levél van a postaládában! (There's a letter in the mailbox!)
English has an indefinite article.
Also good:
Egy levél van a postaládában.
Két levél van a postaládában.
Néhány levél van a postaládában.
All phrases are indefinite.
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You can say this in several ways, depending on what you put in focus:
Jövőre (egy) házat veszek
Jövőre veszek (egy) házat
(egy) Házat veszek jövőre
(egy) Házat (majd csak) jövőre veszek.
Veszek jövőre (egy) házat
Veszek (egy) házat jövőre
You can say it without an indefinite article, since we assume that we are not talking about a number (one) - (how many houses would we buy at once)
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Regarding your question
"Jövőre veszek házat" or "Jövőre veszek egy házat"?
Since we can assume that I want to buy a single house, it is practically irrelevant which sentence I choose. However, if it is known that the intention is to buy a house (and not another thing), I will choose the first sentence. Otherwise, I will choose the second.
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Just an idea:
I would suggest to analyze some of the "preverbal" and "postverbal" bare nouns as preverbs. It explains why they behave like this:
János levelet ír. ~ János elmegy.
János ír levelet. ~ János megy el.
János nem ír levelet. ~ János nem megy el.
János levelet fog írni. ~ János el fog menni. and so on...
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Really, it's a good idea. I've mentioned this topic several times in other posts. It's about the focus and the verb modifiers antagonism. Preverbs and bare nouns are collectively called verb modifiers.
There can be the focus or, if not any, the preverb or the bare noun in the focus position.
| Foc. pos. | Verb | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| János | levelet | ír. | "levelet" is a verb modifier (bare noun) | |
| János | el | megy. | "el" is a preverb | |
| János | ír | levelet. | "János" is the fókusz. | |
| János | megy | el. | "János" is the fókusz. The preverb is moved back | |
| János | nem ír | levelet. | I consider the negative to be part of the verb. This may be debatable. The verb modifier is moved back | |
| János | nem megy | el. | the preverb is moved back | |
| János | levelet | fog | írni. | the verb modifier is in the focus pos. The conjugated verb is "fog" |
| János | el | fog | menni. | the preverb is in the focus pos. The conjugated verb is "fog" |
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Yes, this is exactly what I have been mentioning on and off. These bare nouns are usually also semantically very close to the verb, they almost extend the meaning of it - they really act like phrasal verbs and by extension, prepositions.
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There is another "rule of thumb" I feel is pretty good: when you say "egy", you introduce something new to the conversation that you can later refer back to. When you use a bare singular noun, you probably won't talk about it further, it's more disposable.
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Yes. I've been thinking about this. I could put it grammatically (but I'm not sure, that's just my opinion): A bare noun is less definite than a noun with an indefinite article, but a bare noun is more specific than the other. (As a reminder: Definite is a thing that is determined. Specific means that the noun has been referred to before in the discourse or is already known.)
I feel that "egy levél" is more definite than "levél", and "levél" is more specific than "egy levél".
Definite
|
| A levél a postaládában van.
| Egy levél van a postaládában.
| Ø Levél van a postaládában.
v
Indefinite
Specific
|
| A levél a postaládában van.
| Ø Levél van a postaládában.
| Egy levél van a postaládában.
v
Unspecific
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