Negative universal quantifiers in Hungarian

This paper examines the syntax of a class of Hungarian negative expressions (e.g. senki (‘no one’), semmi (‘nothing’)), proposing an analysis in the minimalist framework (Chomsky, 1995). It is argued that these expressions are negative universal quantifiers, and that they bear both an optional [+q] and an inherent [+neg] feature. The optional [+q] feature accounts for the fact that they behave like universal quantifiers in that they are optionally distributive and that they can occur either in a preverbal or a postverbal position. On the other hand, the inherent [+neg] feature is argued to be a syntactic feature: preverbal negative quantifiers check the feature in a high NegP at Spellout, while postverbal negative quantifiers check it after Spellout in NegP.