Frequency and prototypicality determine variation in the Hungarian verbal 1 SG.INDEF
Frequency and prototypicality determine variation in the Hungarian verbal 1 SG.INDEF

Summary/Abstract: I provide a synchronic account of the variation between the marked and unmarked forms of the 1SG.INDEF of Hungarian (-ik) verbs; verbs that end in (-ik) in the 3SG.INDEF. I use a generalised mixed-effects regression analysis to explore how these forms vary in an extensive sample of the language, the Hungarian Webcorpus. I find that verbs' preference for the marked/unmarked form is determined by their lemma frequency and their prototypicality as members of the (-ik) class. These results are consistent with a morphological levelling account of variation in Hungarian verbal morphology, in which verbs migrate away from the minority (-ik) class and into the majority regular class. This suggests a picture of variation in Hungarian verbs that is shaped by lexical organisation, morphophonology, and social dynamics.

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