Time reference, deixis, contextualization

Abstract The chapter explores the semantic variability of the deictic temporal adverb most ‘now’ in Hungarian, also describing the time reference of some frequent most + particle combinations and the participation of most in clausal constructions. The analyses are based on data from the Hungarian National Corpus but remain strictly qualitative in nature. The proposed semantic account relies on such cognitive factors as grouping, contrast, and direction of mental scanning, with non-primary meanings motivated by metonymy and deictic projection. In the analysis of most in clausal constructions, a key concern is to describe its role as a contextualizer, both in a broader sense of linking the onstage process to an offstage, context-dependent reference point and in the narrower sense of functioning as an anchor for information processing.