Difference between revisions of "Verb Complementation - Norwegian"

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Types of argument constituents in Norwegian

Grammar traditions often classify sentence constituents according to whether they are 'required', or 'valence bound', by the main verb; those that are, are often called arguments, and those that are not, adjuncts. (This is not always easy to decide.) In one use of the word complement, adopted here, this is any type of argument apart from the subject. The constituent types listed below are commonly considered as arguments relative to the main verb, and are all found in Norwegian:

subject
object  ('direct object')
indirect object (used in combination with 'direct object')
sentential complement (when not being classified as object)
oblique, i.e., a PP where the governed NP has a role defined relative to the head
the 'presented' NP in a presentational construction
secondary predicate
complement of a predicational or identifying Copula
'adverbial complement', i.e., a PP, Adv or AdvP serving as argument
'particle', an adverb with aspectual or less tangible impact

The following examples illustrate the placement of some of these types - subject, direct and indirect object, and oblique - and an adjunct, called adverbial, at the end of the clause. The examples at the same type illustrate the rather strict order of constituents in Norwegian: The subject precedes the verb, objects immediately follow the verb and precede any oblique arguments or adverbials. When there are two objects, the indirect object is the one occurring closest to the main verb. Case is marked only on personal pronouns, with a subject – non-subject distinction. (See Personal pronouns in Norwegian.) Subject and Main Verb are generally necessary for making a grammatically wellformed clause.

(1) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain IndirectObject DirectObject Adverbial ]:

Subject     Vmain           Indir.Obj.   DirectObject               Adverbial

(2) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain Oblique Adverbial ]:

Subject     Vmain             Oblique                  Adverbial

(3) Example with the pattern [ ExpletiveSubject Vmain DirectObject DirectionalAdvbl ]: det ruller en ball hit

Subject        Vmain          DirectObject              DirectionalAdvbl

(4) Example with the pattern [ ExpletiveSubject Vmain IndirectObject DirectObject Adverbial ]: det venter ham en ulykke

Subject        Vmain           Indir.Obj.       DirectObject       

(5) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain AspectualAdvbl ]: regnet varer ved

Subject                   Vmain             AspectualAdvbl

(6) Example with the pattern [ SententialSubject Vmain ]: at han sover hender

Subject     Vmain             
Subject                                                 Vmain

(7) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain AspectualAdvbl ]: Ola leer på seg

(8) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain Oblique-for-bodypart ]: jeg fryser på ryggen

(9) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain Oblique-with-sentential-governee ]: de snakker om at det er for sent

                                                   ExpletiveSubject        Vmain    Sec.Pred.
Subject     Vmain            Oblique 

(10) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain SecondaryPredicate (SC) ]: huset står tomt

11) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain SecondaryPredicate (SC) ]: gutten virker syk

(12) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain SecondaryPredicate (SC) ]: han synes å komme

(13) Example with the pattern [ Subject Vmain SecondaryPredicate (SC) ]: kjelen koker i stykker

(14) det hender at han kommer

Example with the pattern [ ExpletiveSubject Vmain SententialComplement ('extraposed' ]:

                                          Subject          Vmain 
Subject       Vmain              SententialComplement 

Abbreviations in blue script:
SBJ		- subject
OBJ		- object  ('direct object')
IOBJ	- indirect object (used in combination with 'direct object')
COMP	- sentential complement (when not being classified as object)
OBL	- oblique, i.e., a PP where the governed NP has a role defined relative to the head
SC	        - secondary predicate
PRTCL	- 'particle', an adverb with aspectual or less tangible impact

For a detailed survey of construction types instantiating these functions and combinations of them, see

• Verbconstructions Norwegian - intransitive,
• Verbconstructions Norwegian - transitive,
• Verbconstructions Norwegian - ditransitive and copular.

Special topics

Infinitival complements, and homophony of coordinating conjunction and infinitival marker

By 'infinitival complements' we mean infinitival expressions serving as subject, object or oblique relative to a verb (called the 'matrix verb'). These expressions are built up exactly in the same way as subordinate finite clauses, except for lacking a subject, and having the first verb in infinitival form. They are usually initiated by the infinitival marker å.

This marker is homophonous to the coordinationg conjunction og. The simplest practical way of deciding whether to use å or og in a given construction is by comparison with English: where you would use and in English, use og, and where you would use to in English, use å.

Predicatives following copulas, and adjective agreement

The Norwegian copula verbs are være and bli. They can not be omitted. The predicative following them can be formally of any type: AP, NP, PP. Adjectives occurring as predicative are in the strong form (cf. theinflection patterns described in The Noun Phrase - Norwegian), and agree in number and gender with the subject.

Obligatorily transitive verbs

An example in English of this category is devour: as opposed to eat, it requires that its logical object always be expressed. The Norwegian counterpart to devour is fortære. Notice that no matter how salient from context the object may be, it has to be expressed (as opposed to many languages which can drop an object when contextually given).

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs are verbs which are necessarily followed by a reflexive pronoun, a form of seg (see The Noun Phrase - Norwegian under Reflexives). Examples are skamme seg and liste seg, and the former takes the paradigm:

jeg skammer meg

du skammer deg

han skammer seg

hun skammer seg

den skammer seg

det skammer seg

vi skammer oss

dere skammer dere

de skammer seg

Related pages

Sentence syntax - Norwegian

Subject-Verb Inversion in Norwegian

Sentence adverbials in Norwegian

Infinitives in Norwegian

Past and Perfective patterns in Norwegian

Personal pronouns in Norwegian

Reflexives - Norwegian

The Noun Phrase - Norwegian

Agreement in Norwegian noun phrases

Definite determiners in Norwegian

Possessive constructions in Norwegian

Gender in Norwegian nouns

Coordination marking in Norwegian

--Lars Hellan 20:03, 12 September 2011 (UTC)