Obviation in Hungarian: What is its shape, and is it due to competition?
Anna Szabolcsi
July 2020 

According to the classical description of obviation, the subject of a subjunctive is disjoint in reference from the attitude-holder subject of the immediately higher clause. Inspired by Ruwet 1984/1991 and Farkas 1988, 1992, I present data from Hungarian where obviation in certain subjunctives is plainly lifted, and data where obviation occurs in indicatives. I argue that obviation is not the result of competition with another construction in the same language, and point to potential accounts in terms of semantics and conceptual alternatives.

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Reference:	lingbuzz/005313 (please use that when you cite this article)
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keywords:	hungarian, obviation, competition, blocking, responsibility, subjunctive, infinitive, indicative, positive polarity, semantics, syntax
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