Difference between revisions of "Sentence syntax - Norwegian"

Revision as of 19:49, 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 one 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  IndirectObject  DirectObject  Oblique   Adverbial

Of the verbal categories here shown, 'Modal' comprises the auxiliaries ville, skulle, måtte, burde, kunne. In the positions indicated for 'Modal', these items 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 these conjugational patterns, the -et pattern):

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

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

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

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

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

- present participle (with 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, as follows:

- 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, a position often referred to as the nexus position. 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.

Another distinction between main and subordinate declarative clauses is that in main clauses, the initial position can be held by an adverbial element or a topicalized element, where in either case the subject is then moved behind the finite verb; this is generally referred to as Subject-Verb Inversion. In subordinate declarative clauses no such fronted position is available, however, these clauses are standardly introduced by the complementizer at.

Interrogative clauses come in two varieties, yes-no-questions and constituent questions, the latter inquiring about the value of a constituent of the sentence, the former inquiring about the truth-value of the entire sentence. When occurring as main interrogative clauses, yes-no-questions are marked by Subject-Verb Inversion (but no element fronted), while constituent questions are marked by fronting of a constituent carrying the morphological shape of an interrogative constituent, namely the initial letters hv- - what may be referred to as the questioned constituent -, and Subject-Verb Inversion. When occurring as subordinate interrogative clauses, yes-no-questions are marked by the complementizers om or hvorvidt, and no inversion, while constituent questions are marked by a clause initial occurrence of the questioned constituent (marked by hv-), and otherwise no inversion.

Thus, all varieties of subordinate clauses have the constituent order shown above, preceded by a complementizer or a hv-constituent, but without Subject-Verb Inversion, whereas all interrogative main clauses have inversion, and likewise declarative main clauses with a fronted adverbial or topicalized constituent. Main constituent questions likewise have a fronted element (the questioned constituent), while main yes-no questions simply start with the (finite) verb. The nexus position for adverbials in all subordinate clauses is immediately before the finite verb, in main clauses immediately after the finite verb.

Structurally close to the types of subordinate clauses now described - to be called finite subordinate clauses - are infinitival clauses: these are introduced by the infinitival marker å, they have no subject, and their first verb is in infinitive. They otherwise have the same internal build-up as finite subordinate clauses. In Norwegian, infinitival clauses can not have interrogative function (in contrast to English, for instance), and so they never have fronted hv-elements or interrogative complementizers.

[to be continued]