„Megjött a tavasz” and „Eljött a tavasz” (‘Spring is here’) What is the difference?

Abstract

Both Hungarian sentences “Megjött a tavasz” and “Eljött a tavasz” mean ‘Spring has come’, with no obvious difference in aspect or function. This paper uses the cognitive framework of image schema, focusing, foregrounding and activation to investigate whether there is any pragmatic difference between the two sentences. Historically, both verbal particles "meg" and "el" evolved from adverbial elements indicating direction of movement – "back" and "off" respectively. This movement consists of a starting point, a path, and an end-point. It is argued in the paper that the perfectivising function of the verbal particle today originates in the central image schema of movement and emerged through metonymical extension, end-point focusing and path backgrounding. The verbal particle "meg" has almost entirely grammaticalised by now, and it solely focuses on the end-point of the process. On the other hand, the verbal particle "el" has not yet grammaticalized completely, and it does not only focuses on the end-point, but also on the path of the movement. The paper offers an analysis to show how this line of explanation can account for the subtle difference in the use of the two verbs with a verbal particle.