Sentence syntax - Norwegian

The shape of a Norwegian main clause is essentially as depicted in (3.1), in terms of grammatical function (GF) categories, indicated on the top line, and word class (with projections) categories, indicated on the bottom line. Tense sits on the first verb, and adverbials have the option of occurring right after the finite verb. The constituent order is rigid, to such an extent that linguistic descriptions standardly (and abstracting away from rearrangements associated with ‘fronting’ permutations like ‘topicalization’ and ‘wh-fronting’) assume a one-to-one correspondence between GF categories and positions in the clause: subject is the NP preceding all verbs, objects are the NPs immediately following the main verb and preceding any PP or AdvP; when there are two objects, the indirect object is the NP occurring closest to the verb:

(3.1)

Subject      (Modal)*  (ha)   (Modal)*   (bli)   [VP Vmain   (Indirect object)  (Direct object)  (PP)*]     (Adverbials)*

’ have’ ’become’

     NP     		(V)*     	        	 [VP   V            ( NP)                (NP)            (PP)* ]       (PP/AdvP)*

We will follow this tradition, and thus frequently use locutions like ‘the DO (Direct object) position’ (bearing in mind that many languages might resist such a terminology).