Verb Clusters: A study of Hungarian, German and Dutch(69 Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today)

Many languages have constructions in which verbs cluster. But few languages have verb clusters as rich and complex as Continental West Germanic and Hungarian. Furthermore the precise ordering properties and the variation in the cluster patterns are remarkably similar in Hungarian and Germanic. This similarity is, of course, unexpected since Hungarian is not an Indo-European language like the Germanic language group. Instead it appears that the clustering, inversion and roll-up patterns found may constitute an areal feature. This book presents the relevant language data in considerable detail, taking into account also the variation observed, for example, among dialects. But it also discusses the various analytical approaches that can be brought to bear on this set of phenomena. In particular, there are various hypotheses as to what is the underlying driving force behind cluster formation: stress patterns, aspectual features, morpho- syntactic constraints? And the analytical approaches are closely linked to a number of questions that are at the core of current syntactic theorizing: does head movement exist or should all apparent verb displacement be reduced to remnant movement, are morphology and syntax really just different sides of the same coin?

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. Verb clusters: Some basic notions (by Kiss, Katalin E.); 3. Part I: Data and theories; 4. Data; 5. West Germanic verb clusters: The empirical domain (by Wurmbrand, Susi); 6. Hungarian verb clusters - Results of a questionnaire survey (by Szendroi, Kriszta); 7. Theories; 8. Clustering theories (by Bobaljik, Jonathan David); 9. "Roll-up" structures and morphological words (by Brody, Michael); 10. The structure of clusters (by Williams, Edwin); 11. Part II: Forces and factors; 12. Prosody; 13. A stress-based approach to climbing (by Szendroi, Kriszta); 14. Particles and phonologically defective predicates (by Csirmaz, Aniko); 15. Aspect; 16. Climbing for aspect: with no rucksack (by Alberti, Gabor); 17. The Hungarian verbal complex: An alternative approach (by Olsvay, Csaba); 18. VO / OV; 19. Parallel strategies of verbal complex formation in Hungarian and West-Germanic? (by Kiss, Katalin E.); 20. Do preverbs climb? (by Ackema, Peter); 21. Morphology; 22. Verbal complexes and morphosyntactic merger (by Bartos, Huba); 23. Infinitival complements of modals in Hungarian and in German (by Toth, Ildiko); 24. Agreement and 'clause union' (by Dikken, Marcel den); 25. List of contributors

Review :
The volume constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of verb clusters and related phenomena, and serves to familiarize the reader with the state of the art with respect to the empirical evidence and the main theoretical issues. This volume is a highly commendable collection of papers, and not just for its coverage of a core area of Hungarian syntax. It can be recommended to any syntactician with interests in the grammar of infinitival constructions in particular, and in the crosslinguitsic parameterization of clause structure in general.