Long split focalization in Hungarian and the typology of A′-dependencies

We show that hitherto unstudied constructions of long split focalization (LSF) in Hungarian provide evidence for a double derivation analysis, in that they can involve either a movement derivation or a base-generation one. These derivations correlate with different patterns of verbal definiteness agreement and case marking. The evidence for the double derivation analysis comes from two sources. First, there is systematic speaker variation in the acceptance of movement derivations: whereas all speakers accept base-generation sentences, only a subgroup of them accepts movement sentences. Second, island phenomena support the analysis: we find that base-generation sentences show no sensitivity to islands, whereas movement ones do. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.