The Noun Phrase - Norwegian
The Noun
Norwegian common nouns undergo two types of inflection: for number, and for definiteness. The inflection for number reflects a distinction singular vs. plural, and resides in a suffix for plural vs. no marking for singular. The inflection for definiteness reflects a distinction ‘definite’ vs. ‘indefinite’, and resides in a suffix marking definiteness vs. no marking in the case of indefiniteness. When a noun is both definite and in plural, this is marked by a single suffix expressing the two values in combination. There are thus four possible forms of a common noun in Norwegian:
No inflection, signifying ‘indefinite singular’
Single suffix for Plural, signifying ‘indefinite plural’
Single suffix for Definite, signifying ‘definite singular’
Single suffix for Definite Plural, signifying ‘definite plural’.
(A note on terminology: when characterizing something in quotes in the above list, like saying
‘indefinite plural’
we refer to grammatical concepts, or grammatical features, independently of how the grammar expresses these features. Thus, ‘indefinite plural’ is a feature, and also the general parameters ‘number’ and ‘definiteness’. The smallest units of expression are generally called morphs, dividing into segmental and suprasegmental morphs, the latter residing in tone, stress, and length, the former in words and affixes. Of affixes there are in general four types: prefix, suffix, infix and circumfix. Of these types, in Norwegian, the noun features under consideration materialize only as suffixes when expressed in the noun.)
Inherently, common nouns in Norwegian belong to a gender. There are three genders for nouns in Norwegian, ‘masculine’, ‘feminine’ and ‘neuter’, and a noun generally belongs to one of them. (In some versions of Norwegian there are only two genders, the marking of feminine having disappeared or nearly disappeared. In these versions, one sometimes refers to the remaining non-neuter gender as ‘common gender’. Here we will assume the three-gender system.) The gender of a noun reveals itself in the form of the inflections for number and definiteness; typical forms of the suffixes are as indicated below:
Inflections for masculine noun:
Single suffix signifying ‘indefinite plural’: -er
Single suffix signifying ‘definite singular’: -en
Single suffix signifying ‘definite plural’: -ene
Inflections for feminine noun:
Single suffix signifying ‘indefinite plural’: -er
Single suffix signifying ‘definite singular’: -a
Single suffix signifying ‘definite plural’: -ene
Inflections for neuter noun:
Single suffix signifying ‘indefinite plural’: -Ø (zero)
Single suffix signifying ‘definite singular’: -et
Single suffix signifying ‘definite plural’: -ene or -a
Agreement
The morphological shape of the noun sets its stamp on its environment, inside of the noun phrase (henceforth: NP) but also on adjectives connected to the NP via a copula. This ‘stamp-setting’ is standardly referred to as agreement, or concord. We first describe the NP internal patterns of agreement.
In an NP in Norwegian, the ordering of determiner, adjectives and nouns is strictly as follows:
Det Adj N
Both the determiner and the adjective agree partly with the noun with respect to the factors mentioned above, thus reflecting the gender of the noun, its number and its definiteness. While number and gender agreement occur in many languages, definiteness agreement is rarer, in Norwegian choosing one or the other of these patterns:
Det [Definite] Adj [Definite] N [Definite]
Det [Indefinite] Adj [Indefinite] N [Indefinite]
Determiners
Determiners as a category comprise articles, demonstrative pronouns and quantifiers. Some of these items are listed below, in the required forms relative to the specification of the noun:
Occurring with a masculine noun
when ‘indefinite singular’: en (article), noen (quantifier, countable), noe (quantifier, non-countable), hver (univ. quantifier), all (quantifier, non-countable)
when ‘indefinite plural’: noen (quantifier), alle (univ.quantifier), ), begge (univ. quantifier for two), disse (demonstrative)
when ‘definite singular’ : den (article or demonstrative), all (quantifier, non-countable), denne (demonstrative)
when ‘definite plural’.: de (article or demonstrative), alle (univ.quantifier), begge (univ. quantifier for two), disse (demonstrative)
Occurring with a feminine noun
– same as for masculine, except for using indefinite singular ei rather then en.
Occurring with a neuter noun
when ‘indefinite singular’: et (article), noe (quantifier, countable), noe (quantifier, non-countable), hvert (univ. quantifier), alt (quantifier, non-countable)
when ‘indefinite plural’: noen (quantifier), alle (univ.quantifier), ), begge (univ. quantifier for two), disse (demonstrative)
when ‘definite singular’ : det (article or demonstrative), alt (quantifier, non-countable), dette (demonstrative)
when ‘definite plural’.: de (article or demonstrative), alle (univ.quantifier), begge (univ. quantifier for two), disse (demonstrative)
The constellations where a (definite) article or demonstrative occurs together with a definite form of the noun (singular or plural) is generally referred to as ‘double definiteness’.
Adjectives
When an adjective occurs in the ‘definite’ pattern, it has a so-called weak form, ending in –e.
In the strong form, i.e., when occurring in the indefinite pattern, the adjective has the following inflections:
with masculine singular: -Ø
with feminine singular: -Ø or –a
with neuter singular: -t
with plural, any gender: -e
(As may be be noted, weak form and strong plural form are identical.)
Syntactic patterns
Nouns can normally be omitted (given a context where they may be inferred), so that a Det or Det + Adj can constitute the nominal constituent. (Thus, like in the French “les misèrables”, a string like “de miserable” is a wellformed NP.)
Noun, or Adj + N, without a determiner are also normally allowed, but with two restrictions, one very sharp, and one less sharp.
The sharp restriction is:
A definite (i.e., weak) adjective has to be preceded by
a definite article or a demonstrative.
This means that strings like the following are ungrammatical:
- svarte katten
(correct: den svarte katten)
- gale avgjørelsene
(correct: de gale avgjørelsene)
(Note that since plural strong adjective and weak adjective are of the same form, a lone-occurring form like svarte or gale, although ungrammatical as a weak form, can in principle have a plural interpretation.)
The less sharp restriction is:
A singular indefinite noun with countable interpretation (with or without an adjective preceding it) is not felicitous without a determiner preceding it.
The exact conditions are not easy to pin down, and the topic is much discussed, under the heading ‘Bare Singulars’.
Another tendency to be aware of is that the pattern of a demonstrative preceding an indefinite form is best used with abstract reference or referring to types, whereas in a discourse context where referents are known and concrete, a definite form of the noun is preferred together with the demonstrative (i.e., a pattern of 'double definiteness').