THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF COMPLEX SENTENCES CONTAINING THE CONJUNCTION HOGY 'THAT' IN HUNGARIAN

Refuted is the widely held view that the precondition for using a that-clause is the presence of a [+abstract] "governing word" in the matrix clause. It is claimed that the use of the that-clause is dependent on Ns - either explicit or implicit in the matrix clause & either [+abstract] or not - that denote sentences (texts) as real world events. A corresponding hypothesis suggests that every that-clause is associated with a N that describes the same real world phenomenon & embeds the particular description provided by the that-clause in the frame of a concept, & thus determines what the description of the that-clause instantiates. "Internal" & "external" relations between the clause & the N are distinguished. Empirical data is analyzed given the above principles. Psychological & epistemological questions are also addressed, eg, the explanatory power of the Marxist theory of the subject regarding the semantic regularities of the clauses at issue. 2 Figures. Modified AA