The role of the predicative participle construction in the Csángó tense-aspect system

In this article we analyse the predicative participle constructions (PPC) in the most archaic dialect of Hungarian, the Csángó dialect. In this dialect the participle+copula constructions are both more productive and more diverse than in standard Hungarian. We argue that the Hungarian PPC is a perfect-like construction which belongs to the category of the so-called preaspectual items, and that the construction type in the Csángó dialect may also be considered a partial equivalent for the perfect, enriching the Csángó tense-aspect system. Our analysis also reveals the additional aspecto-temporal and syntactic phenomena related to Csángó PPC formation.

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