Formatives (Hungarian: képző) are particles or affixes which are joined to the word in order to give it another signification. A distinction is to be made between the affixes used for declension and conjugation, and the formatives (affixes for forming new words). Those modify only the meaning expressed in the crude (uninflected) form; while the latter create new ideas; as, ház, house; házaló, pedlar; házasság, matrimony, marriage, &c. Furthermore, a word being inflected cannot take a formative, and so form new ideas; while a word with a formative affix constitutes a new word, capable of being inflected according to the part of speech to which it then belongs. Derivatives may also take formatives and form again new words, in which case the derivative is called the primitive of the new word. In the following example each preceding word is the primitive or stem-word of the following derivative : harc (substantive), battle. harci (adjective), pertaining to battle. harcias (adjective), valorous, warlike. harciaskod-(ni) (verb), to battle, to be engaged in war. harciaskodás (abstract substantive), struggle, the state of being in war, challenging. harciaskodási (adjective), pertaining to struggle, war or fighting. By this it will be seen how rich the Hungarian language is in its capacity for forming words and expressing the finer shades of meaning. In the following the principal formatives only are given. To give all of them would exceed the limits of this book, and would be, moreover, quite superfluous, as most of the derivatives are to be found in the dictionaries. I. Substantives are formed: (a) by adding ság, se to adjectives; as, szépség, beauty; jóság, goodness. (b) by adding -ás, és to verbs: alvás, sleeping; állás (from áll(ni) to stand), position, standing; (c) by adding -as, -es, -ös, or -ár, -ér to substantives, new substantives are formed; as asztal, table; asztalos, joiner. kés, knife; késes, cutler. kád, coop, tub; kádár, cooper. (d) All present participles of the verb may be used as substantives: olvasó, reader; arató, reaper. (e) Diminutives of substantives are formed in different ways. The principal forms are :— -ka, -ke; lány-ka, a little girl. -ocska, ecske; ablak-ocska, a small window. II. Adjectives are formed by adding :- hely, place; ágy, bed; arany, gold; helyes, proper (i.e. in the right place). ágyas, furnished with beds. aranyos, golden, or covered with gold. (b) -talan or -telen are the negatives of the foregoing; as― helytelen, improper. ágytalan, without beds. aranytalan, without gold. (c) -i, mostly used after names of places. It denotes " taining to," or may be rendered in English by "of"; as Budapesti, of Budapest, or pertaining to Budapest. per (d) Diminutives are derived by adding -s, to adjectives ending with a vowel; or -es, -ás, -os to those ending in a con sonant; as sárga, yellow; sárgás, yellowish. öreg, old; öreges, elderly. III. Verbs are formed by adding :- (a) -al, -ol, -el, or -oz, -ez, to substantives, which become then active verbs; as házal(ni), * to peddle. vasal(ni), to iron. ablakoz(ni), to furnish with windows. *The ending -ni belongs to the class of suffixes, and not to the for matives. (b) it, -úl, -ül, to adjectives; the former for transitive, and the latter for intransitive verbs; as kékit, he makes blue; kékül, it is getting blue (by itself). (c) -oz, -öz, -ez, -áz, to postpositions; as aláz(ni), to humble. túlozni, to exaggerate; &c. (d) -etlen, atlan, will negative a verb; as, varatlan, unsown; and the word becomes then an adjective. These are the principal formatives, and all which is necessary to know, all other derivatives being found in the dictionaries. Derivatives may also be formed by the putting together of words. But a distinction must then be made between compounds and derivatives. To the former belong all compounds retaining the primitive meaning of the respective words; as, for instance, vasajtó, an iron door (made of vas iron, and ajtó = door). = To the derivatives belong compounds forming new ideas; e.g., Szépanya, great-grandmother. If written separately-szép anya-it would mean "a pretty mother." Nagybátya, uncle; but nagy bátya means "a tall (elder) brother." SYNTAX. Syntax teaches us how to put words together so as to form sentences. The meanings of the different forms of the noun and verb having been fully explained in the Accidence, there remains but little to say about this part of the subject. The following rules will, however, be found useful:— The elements of the sentence are the agent, the predicate, and the object. Nouns and verbs, having in each case a significant termination, are independent of their place in the sentence, and therefore the construction of Hungarian is very free. As a principal and leading rule it may be given, that the words follow the same order as the ideas occur. In the sentence―János szereti Marít, John loves Mary—the words might be placed in any order without altering the meaning of the sentence. The emphasis rests chiefly on the first word; and accordingly as we want to impress upon the hearer the person who loves, or the person (object) that is loved, or the fact that the person we speak of is in love, the respective word would be put in the first place. Thus the example given above would admit of six different arrangements: 123, 132, 213, 312, 321, 231, all of which would be equally grammatical and of the same meaning, although the emphasis would differ in each case. |