Difference between revisions of "Sentence syntax - Norwegian"

Revision as of 18:52, 13 August 2011

From one point of view, the shape of a Norwegian declarative clause can be depicted as follows. The subject precedes all verbs, objects immediately follow the main verb and precede any oblique arguments or adverbials; when there are two objects, the indirect object is the NP occurring closest to the main verb. Case is marked only on personal pronouns, with a subject – non-subject distinction. The items marked in boldface are obligatory.

 Subject  Modal   ha   Modal   bli  Vmain  Indirect object   Direct object  Oblique   Adverbial

Of the verbal categories here shown, 'Modals' comprise the auxiliaries ville, skulle, måtte, burde, kunne. In the positions indicated for 'Modals', these can occur alone or in combination. Ha is called the perfect auxiliary, and bli the passive auxiliary. The order among these items is rigid. Vmain subsumes full verbs and copulas. Of copulas there are two, være and bli (distinct from the passive auxiliary). For all of these verb categories, there are six possible forms of inflection; for their full conjugational realizations, see Verb Conjugation, while below we exemplify with one of the conjugational patterns, the -et pattern:

- infinitive (in the -et pattern a form ending in -e)

- imperative (a form relating to an e-infinitive by dropping the -e)

- present (a form relating to an e-infinitive by adding -r)

- past (a form relating to an e-infinitive by adding -t)

- past participle (a form identical to the past form)

- present participle (a form relating to an e-infinitive by adding -nde),

Of these forms, the present and the past are called finite forms, while the infinitive and the participles are called non-finite forms. The choice among these categories is connected to the sentence schema shown above:

- The first verb in a sentence is finite, whichever of the verb categories occurs first.

- The verb immediately following a modal is in infinitive form.

- The verb immediately following the auxiliary ha or the auxilary bli is in the past participle form.

Relative to the above schema, adverbial elements, in addition to the final position, can also occur adjacent to the finite verb. At this point there is a distinction between main and subordinate declarative clauses: in a main clause, the adverbial comes after the finite verb, in subordinate clauses before the finite verb.

[to be continued]