hatástartamú

Hatástartamú is a term used in Hungarian linguistics to describe linguistic units—typically words, phrases, or clauses—that occur at the beginning of a prosodic or syntactic boundary and whose position has functional significance for discourse structure. The term is formed from határ (boundary) and start, with the suffix -amú indicating a characteristic property.

In practice, hatástartamú elements are discussed in studies of intonation, discourse marking, and clause structure. They often correspond to sentence-initial units that align with a boundary tone or with a discursive pivot, such as transitions between topics or focus shifts. They may occur with discourse markers (such as tehát, azonban, szóval) or as cues that guide pausing and emphasis. The exact definition and categorization vary by author and subfield; some treat hatástartamú as a prosodic property, others as a syntactic-functional class.

Characteristic features include association with pause boundaries, potential to trigger a short pause before the unit, and the ability to influence information structure by marking topic or focus at the start of a clause. In corpus studies, researchers may label items as hatástartamú when their position at clause onset correlates with boundary-related phenomena.

See also: discourse marker, topic fronting, boundary tones, prosody, Hungarian syntax.

Note: The term is not universally standardized; consult field-specific sources for precise definition in a given study.