The discourse marker 'hát' – in several roles

Abstract

The paper presents ten types of the discourse marker hát with syntactic and prosodic characterization – for learners
of Hungarian and, in a first approximation, for their teachers. Specifically, we identify nine types of hát, and in one case, we argue that the relevant function (that of teasing) is in fact not the function of the discourse marker. For sentence-initial hát-types we make the generalization that they act as mind-synchronizing 'semaphores': on hearing the first word, the listener can be prepared to receive either more, or less easily ‘digestible’ information. As for end-of-sentence hát-types, we consider their uses and alternative short replies in a separate chapter. Beyond the novel aim of offering native speakers' grammatical judgments and their statistically evaluated speech productions for use in the field of Hungarian as a foreign/second language (HFL), our global aim is to dispel the misconception which can rear its head even among HFL professionals: that hát is nothing more than a superfluous filler word which should therefore be avoided. While we do not deny that hát can express "everything and its opposite"
(merely by changing the intonation pattern and/or word order), we do offer explanation for the peculiar phenomenon.