Hungarian clausal proleptic demonstratives as predicates

In this paper I argue for a treatment of Hungarian clausal associate proleptic demonstrative proforms that is in line with ideas put forward by den Dikken’s (2017) and Szűcs (to appear 2024). Namely, these pronouns should be analyzed as predicates. This approach captures the non-referential but meaningful nature of the pronouns in question, thereby avoiding the theoretical and empirical problems with other analyses, which take them to be either fully meaningless (expletives) or standard discourse-deictic referential arguments. Evidence from distribution, number features, nominalization, focussing, and the general patterning of demonstrative predicates point in the direction that the proleptic proforms are a member of the “verbal modifier” category of Hungarian grammar, which are arguably all predicative in nature (Hegedűs 2013). The analysis is further motivated by the existence of such analyses for English proforms.