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Classroom:LING2208 - Annotating Norwegian Bokmål

Agreement

The following phrase contains agreement between the noun kjøttbein and the adjectives fint and saftig:

Han så en slakterbutikk, og gikk raskt inn og stjal et fint, saftig kjøttbein fra hyllen.
“He spotted a butcher's shop, and quickly went in and stole a nice, juicy bone from the shelf.”
Han
Han
He1SG
PN
seePAST
Vtr
en
en
3SGMASCINDEF
ART
slakterbutikk
slakterbutikk
butcher.shop
N
og
og
and
CONJ
gikk
gikk
walkSGPAST
V
raskt
raskt
quickly
ADVm
inn
inn
in
ADVplc
og
og
and
CONJ
stjal
stjal
PAST
V
et
et
aINDEFNEUTSG
DET
fint
fint
niceSGINDEFNEUT
ADJ
saftig
saftig
juicySGINDEF
ADJ
kjøttbein
kjøttbein
meat.boneNEUT
N
fra
fra
fromSRC
PREP
hyllen
hyllen
shelfDEF
N

[[1]]


Both adjectives are tagged as being singular and indefinite, which corresponds to the head of the NP in which they are embedded; et fint, saftig kjøttbein. Although kjøttbein is only tagged as neuter, its indefiniteness is given by the determiner et, which also agrees with the noun. Fint is also tagged as being neuter, which agrees with the noun. Saftig does not have gender indicated, and would agree with a noun of any gender, as long as it is indefinite and singular. Whether there is gender agreement between noun and adjective therefore depends on the adjective.


The corpus for Norwegian Bokmål available on TypeCraft contains 182 sentences featuring words tagged as adjectives, with 60 of them tagged with gender markings, such as in the adjectives discussed. This may be an indication of the ratio of adjectives with gender agreement (such as fint) to those without (saftig).

Clause Linkage

The phrase mentioned above is also a complex clause, consisting of the simple clauses Han så en slakterbutikk and [og gikk raskt inn [og stjal et fint, saftig kjøttbein fra hyllen]].

Below needs to be reformulated

The complex clause is an adjoined clause, in which the second simple clause contains a conjunction (og), and is coordinated with the first clause. The syntagms are not in a relation of dependency, as no grammatical slot is occupied by one. Therefore, the second syntagm is not embedded, in which case it would fill a grammatical slot.

The second syntagm may itself be divided into two coordinate clauses, which in turm form a coordinate clause itself. All of thee clauses in the sentece constitute syndetic parataxis.

If Lehmann's terminology is used it should be done properly. Alternatively Government can be used for selected clauses while other forms of embedding should simply be described.

Spelling mistakes could be corrected on the way!


The syntagms describe a series of events in temporal order. The first clause contains the head of the sentence (), and would be grammatical without the rest of the coordinated clauses. Gramatically, the clauses are all linked by tense (past), and the grammaticality would be questionable if they were in different tense. This may be because all of the clauses share the same subject.

--Are Ormberg 13:31, 17 February 2014 (UTC)



Common gender

While Norwegian technically features three genders; common masculine and feminine, feminine nouns (such as elv (river)) often appear in Norwegian Bokmål dialects as masculine (elv-en rather than elv-a). This presents an issue regarding annotation practice: If a noun is realized as masculine, it should not be tagged as feminine, but sice it is not techincally masculine, it can not be tagged as such either. There are POS and gloss tags that indicate common gender (NCOMM and COMM), which are fitted for these cases. In all cases of common gender, it is optional whether the masculine or feminine form is used; it would not be considered ungrammatical in Norwegian Bokmål to use the feminine gender in place of common gender. Place names reflect this too; Lysakerelv-en and Akerselv-a are two rivers in the Oslo region that feature different gender markings for the noun elv (river), as is the case with the places Majorstu-en and Bekkestu-a

In the following transcription, katt (cat) appears as masculine, while actually being a feminine noun. It is therefore tagged as neuter, along with determiners and pronouns:

Klippet handler om en katt som ser ut til å være ganske sulten,
“The clip is about a cat which appears to be very hungry”
Klippet
klippet
clipDEF
N
handler
handler
be.aboutPRES
Vtr
om
om
about
PRTv
en
en
aINDEFSGCOMM
DET
katt
katt
catCOMM
N
som
som
whichREL
CONJS
ser
ser
lookPRES
V
ut
ut
out
PRTv
til
til
to
PRTv
å
å
toINF
COMP
være
være
beINF
COP
ganske
ganske
very
ADV
sulten
sulten
hungry
ADJ


Throughout this text, the cat is referred to by pronouns (den). The pronoun that refers to a masculine or common nouns has the same form as that of feminine nouns, so no indication is here made of whether it is possible to alternate between feminine and common gender.

--Are Ormberg 10:20, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

så den finner en flue som den prøver å spise.
“so it finds a fly which it tries to eat”
so
CONJC
den
den
itDEFCOMM3SG
DET
finner
finner
findPRES
Vtr
en
en
aINDEF
QUANT
flue
flue
fly
NFEM
som
som
which
CONJS
den
den
itDEFCOMM3SG
PN
prøver
prøver
tryPRES
 
å
å
to
CONJS
spise
spise
eatINF
Vtr


AGREEMENT

den innså sin egen dårskap for sent og gikk avsted sulten og trist men kanskje litt klokere
“it realized its own folly too late and walked off, hungry and sad, but perhaps a little wiser”
den
den
3SGCOMMSBJ
PN
innså
inn
 seeVstemPRET
V
sin
sin
REFL3PCOMM
TRUNC
egen
egen
REFLSGCOMM
DET
dårskap
dårskap
foolishNstemnessN>NCOMM
N
for
for
tooDEG
ADVm
sent
sent
lateADJstemNEUT
ADJ
og
og
 
CONJ
gikk
gikk
walkVstemPRET
V
avsted
avsted
aPARTwayN>ADV
ADVplc
sulten
sulten
hungryN>ADJSGCOMM
ADJ
og
og
 
CONJ
trist
trist
sadCOMMSG
ADJ
men
men
 
CONJ
kanskje
kanskje
maybeV>ADVV>ADV
ADV
litt
lit:
a.littleDEG
ADVm
klokere
klokere
wiseADJstemCMPR
ADJ

"Den innså sin egen dårskap for sent og gikk avsted sulten og trist men kanskje litt klokere" [[2]]

The pronoun "den" is a deictic element that picks up its content in "hund" (eng: dog), along with its specifications COMMON GENDER for the feature GENDER, as well as its definite marker suffix "-en", specified for the value SINGULAR for the feature NUMBER. These values spread from "den" to the adjectives "sulten" and "trist".

Both the reflexive pronoun "sin" and the possessive article "egen" (eng: own) are targets of one controller, the noun "dårskap", and so "sin" and "egen" need to agree with the succeeding noun on the values SINGULAR and COMMON GENDER for the features NUMBER and GENDER.

The reflexive pronoun "sin" also needs to agree referentially with its the values of its antecedent, "den". It is important here to bear in mind that agreement is not the same as reference. The two phenomenon may seem deceptively similar, as they both involve a kind of matching of features. One way of differentiating agreement from reference is to see if there any degree of choice involved: if there is, chances are there is reference, and not agreement. To illustrate what I mean by choice see examples below:

- "JEG spiste MIN mat". (I ate MY food)

- "JEG spiste DIN mat". (I ate YOUR food)

As seen above I may freely choose to refer to anyone's food. With agreement there is no choice:

- (1) "Jeg spiste MITT EPLE" ("I ate MY APPLE")

- (2) # "Jeg spiste MINE EPLE" ("I ate MY APPLE")

Here the result is an ungrammatical sentence when the values of the controller (the noun "eple") and the target (the possessive articles "mitt/mine") do not agree; in (1) both are SINGULAR and NEUTER, whereas in (2) the possessive article has switched to PLURAL and COMMON GENDER.

--Eirik Zahl--Eirik Zahl 22:16, 9 May 2014 (UTC) (UTC)

CLAUSE LINKAGE

den innså sin egen dårskap for sent og gikk avsted sulten og trist men kanskje litt klokere
“it realized its own folly too late and walked off, hungry and sad, but perhaps a little wiser”
den
den
3SGCOMMSBJ
PN
innså
inn
 seeVstemPRET
V
sin
sin
REFL3PCOMM
TRUNC
egen
egen
REFLSGCOMM
DET
dårskap
dårskap
foolishNstemnessN>NCOMM
N
for
for
tooDEG
ADVm
sent
sent
lateADJstemNEUT
ADJ
og
og
 
CONJ
gikk
gikk
walkVstemPRET
V
avsted
avsted
aPARTwayN>ADV
ADVplc
sulten
sulten
hungryN>ADJSGCOMM
ADJ
og
og
 
CONJ
trist
trist
sadCOMMSG
ADJ
men
men
 
CONJ
kanskje
kanskje
maybeV>ADVV>ADV
ADV
litt
lit:
a.littleDEG
ADVm
klokere
klokere
wiseADJstemCMPR
ADJ

"Den innså sin egen dårskap for sent og gikk avsted sulten og trist men kanskje litt klokere" [[3]]

The complex clause above consists of two simple clauses;

1: "Den innså sin egen dårskap for sent" 
2: "Den gikk avsted sulten og trist men kanskje litt klokere"

These two simple clauses are connected with the conjunction "and", which often is used to coordinate two or more clauses. In other words we are here dealing with an example of parataxis, in which the clauses are independent of each other (even though they share the same subject). A sign of this is the inflection of the verb contained in these clauses, and that the clauses are quite autonomous, as shown in the breakdown into separate clauses 1 and 2 above. However, they agree in tense (both are in the preterite) which suggests that they are linked temporally. From the semantic content it may seem that the clauses are linked causally, which would imply subordination, or hypotaxis: "Because <Den innså sin egen dårskap for sent>, <gikk den avsted sulten og trist men kanskje litt klokere>", but in my view this complex clause seems to be an example of coordination rather than subordination.

--Eirik Zahl 19:16, 16 February 2014 (UTC)


Expletive pronouns

Expletive pronouns are also called pleonastic or "dummy" pronouns, and are quite commonly used in Norwegian and English. In fact, these languages require an expletive pronoun to appear as a replacement for subjects in clauses where the latter should be missing. The classic example is:

- "It is raining."

One may ask, exactly what is "it" that is raining; does "it" refer to the falling raindrops? No, because a characteristic feature of expletive pronouns is their lack of a referent. Yet if we leave "it" out we are stuck with an incomplete and ungrammatical sentence:

- # "Is raining."

The same goes for the Norwegian equivalents:

- "Det regner" ("it rains")

- # "Regner" ("rains")


Whereas in a language like Spanish one has no choice but to leave out the expletive pronoun, and simply say:

- "Está lloviendo" ("is raining")

In fact, the inclusion a pronoun would result in a truly unusual and ungrammatical sentence:

- # "El/ella está lloviendo" ("he/she is raining")


In Norwegian the requirement for inclusion of expletive pronouns are strict in the example given above, where an subject is missing altogether, but may be optional in other cases:

(1) "Her kommer en hund" ("Here comes a dog")

(2) "Her kommer DET en hund" ("Here comes a dog")

Note that the English translation is identical for both cases. This is not to say that there is absolutely no difference as to whether or how the expletive pronoun is used or perceived; Of the two sentences above (2) seems to me a more common in speech, whereas (1) sounds more formal. Apart from that they are quite similar. Now, if we replace the subject, the indefinite noun "a dog" with a noun in the definite form, "the dog", the situation becomes another:

(1) "Her kommer hunden" ("Here comes the dog")

(2) # "Her kommer DET hunden" ("Here comes the dog")

This may seem to reflect an overall ban in formal Norwegian on the use of expletive pronouns in the same clause as a noun in the definite form.

In cases where the expletive pronoun is topicalized it is obligatory to include it:

(1) "DET kommer en tid når..." ("There comes a time when...")

(2) # "Kommer en tid når..." ("Comes a time when...")


Now, let's take a look at an example from my narration of "Simon's Cat":

[link to annotated text]

Vi ser en katt og som sitter på fanget til en mann som sover og der kommer det en flue og katta prøver å - og der veltet katten en kaffekopp i jakta etter flua.
“We see a cat who is sitting on the lap of a sleeping man, and there comes a fly and the cat tries to - and there the cat knocked over a coffe cup during the hunt for the fly.”
Vi
vi
1PL
PN
ser
ser
seePRES
V
en
en
INDEFSGCOMM
ART
katt
katt
cat
N
og
og
and
INTRJCT
som
som
who
CONJS
sitter
sitter
sitPRES
V
on
PREP
fanget
fanget
lapDEFNEUT
N
til
til
toPOSS
DET
en
en
INDEFSGMASC
ART
mann
mann
manMASC
N
som
som
who
CONJS
sover
sover
sleepPRES
V
og
og
and
CONJC
der
der
thereDEMDXS
PREP
kommer
kommer
comePRES
V
det
det
EXPLET
PN
en
en
INDEFSGCOMM
ART
flue
flue
fly
N
og
og
and
CONJC
katta
katta
catDEFSGFEM
N
prøver
prøver
tryPRES
V
å
å
INF
ART
og
og
and
CONJC
der
der
thereDEMDXS
ADVtemp
veltet
veltet
knock.overPRET
V
katten
katten
catDEFSGCOMM
N
en
en
INDEFSGCOMM
ART
kaffekopp
kaffekopp
coffeecupCOMM
N
i
i
in
PREP
jakta
jakta
huntDEFFEM
N
etter
etter
after
PREPdir
flua
flua
flyDEFSGFEM
N


The part of interest here is "og der kommer det en flue" (and there comes a fly), which presents a typical case of optional use of the expletive pronoun "det".

To clarify (or confuse?) the situation I will include an example to illustrate how "det" should not be identified uniquely as the expletive pronoun. In many cases it is used anaphorically (to pick up the content of an antecedent, or referent); in others words, non-expletively, as below:


Katta vet ikke helt hva den skal gjøre, den prøver å fange flua, og den klarer det nesten, men den oppnår bare å rive ned gardina, og, eller, rive i stykker gardina.
“The cat doesn't know exactly what to do, it tries to catch the fly, and it almost does, but all it accomplishes is to tear down, or rather tear apart the curtain. ”
Katta
katta
catDEFSGFEM
N
vet
vet
knowPRES
V
ikke
ikke
 
ADVneg
helt
helt
completely
ADVm
hva
hva
what
Wh
den
den
it3SGCOMM
PN
skal
skal
shallFUT
AUX
gjøre
gjøre
doINF
N
den
den
it3SGCOMM
PN
prøver
prøver
tryPRES
V
å
å
INF
ART
fange
fange
catchINF
V
flua
flua
flyDEFSGFEM
N
og
og
andPS
INTRJCT
den
den
it3SGCOMM
PN
klarer
klarer
managePRES
V
det
det
it
ART
nesten
nesten
almost
ADVm
men
men
but
CONJC
den
den
NEUT
PN
oppnår
oppnår
acchievePRES
V
bare
bare
only
ADVm
å
å
INF
ART
rive
rive
tearPRES
V
ned
ned
down
ADVm
gardina
gardina
curtainDEFSGFEM
N
og
og
andPS
INTRJCT
eller
eller
or
CONJ
rive
rive
tearPRES
V
i
i
into
PREP
stykker
stykker
piecePL
N
gardina
gardina
curtainDEFSGFEM
N


Here we should look for the phrase "og den klarer det nesten" (and it almost manages to). In this case we can ask "WHAT does it almost manage to?" to get the answer "To catch the fly" (the antecedent from the previous phrase). So we have a case of reference, and hence, not expletive use. However, if we try asking such questions in any of the examples above we will have no straight-forward answer: "WHAT is raining?"

This type of questions may serve as a litmus test when deciding whether or not we are dealing with an expletive pronoun.

 --Eirik Zahl 23:35, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Agreement

In the course of the story we find two cases of agreement that are different with respect to a single feature. It shows, quite neatly, how agreement works in norwegian and how it affects syntactical composition of Norwegian. In sentence 6 we find this noun phrase [4]:

Han så en annen hund nøyaktig lik ham som holdt et bein i munnen sin.
“he saw another dog exactly like him holding a bone in his mouth.”
Han
han
he3SGMASC
PN
sawPAST
V
en
en
INDEFMASCSG
DET
annen
annen
otherMASC
ADJ
hund
hund
dogMASC
N
nøyaktig
nøyaktig
exactly
ADV
lik
lik
likeCMPR
PRT
ham
ham
himMASC3SGACC
PN
som
som
which
CONJS
holdt
holdt
holdVstemPAST
V
et
et
INDEFNEUTSG
DET
bein
bein
boneNEUT
N
i
i
 
PREP
munnen
munnen
mouthMASCDEFMASCSG
N
sin
sin
 MASCSG
PNposs

Our focus in the above sentence is "En annen hund - Another dog (eng)"


In sentence 7, however, we find this noun phrase

Den grådige hunden bestemte seg for at han ville ha dét beinet óg så han knurret i håpet om at den andre hunden i elva skulle miste beinet ut av frykt.
“The greedy dog decided that he wanted that bone too, so he growled in the hope that the other dog would drop the bone out of fear.”
den
den
DEFMASCSG
DET
grådige
grådige
greedyAGRMASCSG
ADJ
hunden
hunden
dogMASCDEFMASCSG
N
bestemte
bestemte
decideVstemPAST
V
seg
seg
self3SGREFL
PNrefl
for
for
 
PRTv
at
at
that
COMP
han
han
he3SGMASC
PN
ville
ville
wouldVstemPAST
AUX
ha
ha
haveINF
V
dét
dét
thatNEUTSG
DEM
beinet
beinet
boneNEUTDEFNEUTSG
N
óg
óg
 
ADV
 
 
Han
han
he3SGMASC
PN
knurret
knurret
growlVstemPAST
V
i
i
in
PREP
håpet
håpet
hopeNEUTDEFNEUTSG
N
om
om
 
PREP
at
at
that
CONJ
den
den
DEFMASCSG
DET
andre
andre
otherDEF
ADJ
hunden
hunden
dogMASCDEFMASCSG
N
i
i
in
PREP
elva
elva
riverFEMDEFFEMSG
N
skulle
skulle
shouldPAST
AUX
miste
miste
dropINF
V
beinet
beinet
boneNEUTDEFNEUTSG
N
ut
ut
 
PREP
av
av
 
PREP
frykt
frykt
fearMASC
N

Our focus in the above sentence is "Den andre hunden - The other dog (eng)"


It should be relatively clear that the only difference between the two noun phrases is one of definiteness. In both cases the controller is the word hund, which means dog and is the head of the phrase. The noun phrase, accordingly, is the domain of agreement. The word hund in itself carries only the feature of masculine (MASC), and definiteness is impossible to determine through this word alone. However, an indefinite article has been chosen, namely en, and thus renders the noun indefinite. En becomes a target for the controller and agrees with the feature MASC. Therefore it carries the two features MASC and indefinite (INDEF). The adjective annen, which means other in English, is also a target for the controller and therefore has to agree in both the features MASC and INDEF.

This can be seen by comparing it to the other noun phrase in sentence 7. Here the word hund has gained the additional morpheme -en. This is the definite article in Norwegian, and so the word now holds two features in itself, namely MASC and DEF. An interesting point is that there is still a preceding article den which also marks definiteness, irrespective of the presence of the definite suffix. This is called double definiteness, and it surfaces when the noun is modified by an adjective. Regardless, this den is affected by the controller and gains the feature MASC. The adjective is also affected by the controller and gathers the features of MASC and DEF. Because of this, it changes form from annen to andre, which is a definite form of the word.

--Anders Lynghaug Haugen 21:49, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Clause Linkage

There are a number of different forms of clause linkage that can be found throughout the story. Let ut first look at sentence number 2 [5]:

Han spanet et slakterhus og smatt raskt inn og stjal et stort, fint, saftig bein fra hyllen.
“He spied a slaughterhouse and snuck quickly inn and stole a big, fat, juicy bone from the shelf.”
han
han
he3SGMASC
PN
spanet
spanet
spyVstemPAST
V
et
et
INDEFNEUTSG
DET
slakterhus
slakterhus
slaughterhouseNEUT
N
og
og
 
CONJC
smatt
smatt
snuckPAST
V
raskt
raskt
quickADJ>ADV
ADV
inn
inn
 
PREP
og
og
 
CONJC
stjal
stjal
stole
V
et
et
INDEFNEUTSG
DET
stort
stort
bigAGRNEUTSG
ADJ
fint
fint
niceAGRNEUTSG
ADJ
saftig
saftig
juicy
ADJ
bein
bein
boneNEUT
N
fra
fra
 
PREP
hyllen
hyllen
shelfMASCDEFSG
N


The phrasal structure that we are interested in is the following: [Han spanet et slakterhus] og [smatt raskt inn] og [stjal et stort, fint, saftig bein fra hyllen]


The brackets here mark the boundaries of the clauses, whether independent or embedded in the sentence. In this sentence we can see by the bracketing that we have three clauses within the sentence. They need to be in this order because of temporal and causal restrictions, but syntactically speaking, they are independent of one another. In this sense, they are parallel to each other, and this is marked through the use of og, which acts as a coordinating conjunction. This is a phenomenon called parataxis.

For another form of clause linkage, let's again look at sentence 6 [6]. Here we find this noun phrase:

Han så en annen hund nøyaktig lik ham som holdt et bein i munnen sin.
“he saw another dog exactly like him holding a bone in his mouth.”
Han
han
he3SGMASC
PN
sawPAST
V
en
en
INDEFMASCSG
DET
annen
annen
otherMASC
ADJ
hund
hund
dogMASC
N
nøyaktig
nøyaktig
exactly
ADV
lik
lik
likeCMPR
PRT
ham
ham
himMASC3SGACC
PN
som
som
which
CONJS
holdt
holdt
holdVstemPAST
V
et
et
INDEFNEUTSG
DET
bein
bein
boneNEUT
N
i
i
 
PREP
munnen
munnen
mouthMASCDEFMASCSG
N
sin
sin
 MASCSG
PNposs


En annen hund [[nøyaktig lik ham] som hold et bein i munnen sin]

The linked clause is the part between the brackets. This clause is complex because the phrase en annen hund works fine on its own. The part in the brackets is thus a modifying element. Nøyaktig lik ham is an adjectival expression which can be overlooked for this purpose. However, the part som holdt et bein i munnen sin is rather important, because it is initiated through the use of the subordinating conjunction som. This results in a downgrading which causes this clause to lack a subject, because this is taken to be the head of the noun phrase that the relative clause is subordinated to.

Yet another form of clause linkage is found in sentence 3 [7]:

Mens han tygget lykkelig på beinet sprang han inn i skogen.
“As he chewed happily on the bone he ran into the forest.”
Mens
mens
while
CONJS
Han
han
he3SG
PN
tygget
tygget
chewVstemPAST
V
lykkelig
lykkelig
happyN>ADJ
ADV
 
PREP
beinet
beinet
boneNEUTDEFNEUTSG
N
sprang
sprang
ranPAST
V
han
han
he3SG
PN
inn
inn
 
ADVm
i
i
 
PREP
skogen
skogen
forestMASCDEFMASCSG
N


[Mens han tygget lykkelig på beinet] sprang han inn i skogen.

In this example, the clause within the brackets is adverbial. It is not needed by the main verb, which is sprang, and is therefore not embedded in the sentence. In spite of this it is introduced by a conjunction fucntions as a temporal adverb. Because it is subordinate to the main event. This would a type of clause linkage that could be said to be halfway between parataxis and embedding.

Finally we have sentence 7 [8]. Here we fin this portion:

Den grådige hunden bestemte seg for at han ville ha dét beinet óg så han knurret i håpet om at den andre hunden i elva skulle miste beinet ut av frykt.
“The greedy dog decided that he wanted that bone too, so he growled in the hope that the other dog would drop the bone out of fear.”
den
den
DEFMASCSG
DET
grådige
grådige
greedyAGRMASCSG
ADJ
hunden
hunden
dogMASCDEFMASCSG
N
bestemte
bestemte
decideVstemPAST
V
seg
seg
self3SGREFL
PNrefl
for
for
 
PRTv
at
at
that
COMP
han
han
he3SGMASC
PN
ville
ville
wouldVstemPAST
AUX
ha
ha
haveINF
V
dét
dét
thatNEUTSG
DEM
beinet
beinet
boneNEUTDEFNEUTSG
N
óg
óg
 
ADV
 
 
Han
han
he3SGMASC
PN
knurret
knurret
growlVstemPAST
V
i
i
in
PREP
håpet
håpet
hopeNEUTDEFNEUTSG
N
om
om
 
PREP
at
at
that
CONJ
den
den
DEFMASCSG
DET
andre
andre
otherDEF
ADJ
hunden
hunden
dogMASCDEFMASCSG
N
i
i
in
PREP
elva
elva
riverFEMDEFFEMSG
N
skulle
skulle
shouldPAST
AUX
miste
miste
dropINF
V
beinet
beinet
boneNEUTDEFNEUTSG
N
ut
ut
 
PREP
av
av
 
PREP
frykt
frykt
fearMASC
N


Den grådige hunden bestemte seg for [at han ville ha det beinet óg...]

In this complex clause, the part within the brackets is completely embedded within the sentence. This is because the clause within the brackets is absolutely necessary to fulfill the valency of the main verb bestemte seg for, i.e. it fills a grammatical slot predicated by the main verb. The clause acts as a complement to the verb and is therefore an embedded clause and totally dependent on the main verb in this sentence. It is the subordinating conjunction at that introduces the embedded element.

For the above paragraph phrases need to be embedded and 'Embedding' still needs to be distinguished correctly from 'Government' --Dorothee Beermann 17:23, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

--Anders Lynghaug Haugen 21:49, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Word order

Norwegian is typically viewed as a highly configurational language, i.e. it has relatively rigid and fixed word order. Generally, this word order is recognised as SVO or Subject-Verb-Object. Because of this, nouns hold little morphology as to their role in the sentence since this can be inferred from their position within the sentence. Here is an example of a standard Norwegian sentence with such a construction.

Han så en annen hund nøyaktig lik ham som holdt et bein i munnen sin.
“he saw another dog exactly like him holding a bone in his mouth.”
Han
han
he3SGMASC
PN
sawPAST
V
en
en
INDEFMASCSG
DET
annen
annen
otherMASC
ADJ
hund
hund
dogMASC
N
nøyaktig
nøyaktig
exactly
ADV
lik
lik
likeCMPR
PRT
ham
ham
himMASC3SGACC
PN
som
som
which
CONJS
holdt
holdt
holdVstemPAST
V
et
et
INDEFNEUTSG
DET
bein
bein
boneNEUT
N
i
i
 
PREP
munnen
munnen
mouthMASCDEFMASCSG
N
sin
sin
 MASCSG
PNposs


In this sentence han is the subject, is the verb and en annen hund is the object. This is the most common sentence construction one typically finds in Norwegian. However, deviations from this are absolutely possible.

A speaker can, for instance, topicalise an element. When a speaker utilizes topicalisation, the topicalised element is fronted to the first position of the sentence. This could very well be the syntactical object. This is usually accompanied with a stronger intonation to signal its topicalisation. Interestingly, the verbs in such sentence retain their position, so often times the object and the subject simply swap places. This has led to many calling Norwegian a V2 language i.e. the verb always holds the second position in the sentence. Here is an example of topicalisation. The topicalised element being in italics.

Det tror jeg ikke. - I don't believe that (That, I don't believe)

Another common sentence structure that is often used in Norwegian is the question form. The sentence structure of questions is intersting because it militates against the V2 assumption. When one asks a question in Norwegian one can do something called a verb inversion. You move the verb to the first position such that you get the structure VSO. Compare the two sentences.

Du leser avisa - You are reading the newspaper

Leser du avisa? - Are you reading the newspaper?

There are other instances where the verb seems to come before the subject. In narration, where you tend to start your sentences with any temporal adverb it is common that the verb comes before the subject. Possibly to retain its position in the sentence as the second element, since the temporal adverb would be the first. Here is an example of such a construction.

Og så finner hun flua til slutt og da hopper hun på gardinene og ramler ned da altså at klørne river i gardinene da.
“And then she finally finds the fly and she jumps on the drapes and falls down so that the claws tear u the drapes.”
og
og
 
CONJC
 
ADVtemp
finner
finner
findVstemPRES
V
Hun
hun
she3SGFEM
PN
flua
flua
flyDEFFEMSG
NFEM
til
til
 
PREP
slutt
slutt
end
N
og
og
 
CONJC
da
da
 
ADVtemp
hopper
hopper
jumpVstemPRES
V
Hun
hun
she3SGFEM
PN
 
PREP
gardinene
gardinene
drapeDEFNEUTPL
NNEUT
og
og
 
CONJ
ramler
ramler
tumbleVstemPRES
V
ned
ned
 
PRTv
da
da
DM
ADV
Altså
Altså
DM
ADVm
at
at
that
CONJ
klørne
klørne
clawDEFFEMPL
NFEM
river
river
tearVstemPRES
V
i
i
 
PREP
gardinene
gardinene
 DEFNEUTPL
NNEUT
da
da
DM
ADV


In this sentence we find og så finner hun flua til slutt where hun follows the verb, irrespective of the fact that it is the subject. You also find og da hopper hun på gardinene, where again the verb precedes the subject. They both have in common that they are introduced by a temporal adverb. This whole text is a narration of a video, and it has a lot of examples where this type of construction occurs.

--Anders Lynghaug Haugen 00:38, 7 March 2014 (UTC)


Reflexive pronouns in Norwegian

Please make the necessary stylistic changes to the paragraph below and copy edit! --Dorothee Beermann 17:30, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

One may divide reflexive pronouns in Norwegian into two categories; 1) forms containing a personal pronoun, such as "hans" or "hennes" , and 2) form containing a noun plus reflexive pronoun "sin". To the first group belong:

-han (personal pronoun, masculine) + sin (reflexive pronoun) -> hans (eng: his)

-henne (personal pronoun, feminine)+ sin (reflexive pronoun) -> hennes (eng: her)

It seems that the reflexive marker "sin" (eng: possessive "'s")has become cliticalized into "s", so that the forms "hans" and "hennes" have replaced "han sin" and "henne sin" both in writing and speech.

In the second group we find typically nouns instead of pronouns:

-Mozart (personal noun) + sin = Mozarts (eng: Mozart's)

-hunden (common noun) + sin = hundens (eng: the dog's)

For this group both forms, "hunden sin" and "hundens" may be used in free variation.

In terms of agreement, the reflexive pronoun "sin" takes its values of GENDER and NUMBER from its controller, the succeeding noun, as seen in the examples below:


"Vindu" spreads its values NEUTER and SINGULAR to "sitt", so that they agree on these features.


When the object "vinduer" is in the plural, then so is the reflexive "sine". "Mannen" is in singular, and does not agree with either.


The reflexive "sitt" is in the singular to agree with its controller, which must be "vinduer", the head of this noun phrase. This could suggest that the head rather than its specifier "mennene" is controller that spreads its values of the features GENDER and NUMBER.

The same control relation also goes for phrases containing the reflexive determiner "egen" (eng:own) in addition to "sin" :


"Window" spreads its values NEUTER and SINGULAR to "eget", so that they agree.


When the controller "vinduer" is in the plural, then so is the reflexive "egne". The specifier, "mannen", is in the singular.


Here we see the opposite case: controller "vindu" and controllee "eget" are in the singular and neuter while the specifier is in the plural and masculine.

This is a purely syntactical analysis for the properties of sin and eget. In this respect we try to show that agreement occurs with the noun phrase it modifies. In the phrase mannen sitt vindu, (the man's window) the word sitt modifies the word vindu and therefore garners its features of SINGULAR and NEUTER. In the phrase mannen sine vinduer(the man's windows) the word has changed and acquired the features Plural and NEUTER. This, we postulate, is the syntactic relation of which the word abides by. In other words, the controller is the word vindu, which spreads it's feature. However we believe that the word holds another relation, which is one of semantics. In this relation the word sin is reflexive in nature and refers back to the word mannnen, even though there is no morphosyntactic evidence to support this.

For the word hans and hennes we have, as we have mentioned, assumed that it is a contracted form of han sin and henne sin. As a result, the words have more encoded meaning. By comparison of Hans and hennes we have morphological evidence for gender. In the sentence mannen sitt vindu we could substitute the word mannen sitt with hans and we see that the NEUTER aspect from vindu is lost. On the other hand, a masculine gender has been specified. If we had a modified sentence, such as mannen og hans vindu (the man and his window) we can see that hans gets the feature MASC from Mannen, as opposed to sin which would get it's gender from vindu in the sentence mannen sitt vindu. Therefore, we can see that the syntactical relation is different for words such as hans and hennes, where the controller of the agreement is different.


Agreement statistics

Agreement statistics are discussed at Agreement statistics


Auxiliary verb constructions

Auxiliary verbs are an analytical way of expressing grammatical information. In Norwegian, they are necessary for expressing some modalities and temporal placements.

There are varying conventions for partitioning the auxiliary verbs into groups. One way is to group them into modal and perfective auxiliaries.

Perfective auxiliaries usually require their complement (the following verb in the verb sequence) to be in the perfect past. Modal auxiliaries usually require their complement to infinite.

[1]

og det ble veltet en kopp ned på gulvet.
“and there was toppled a cup down on the floor”
og
og
and
CONJC
det
det
itDEM
DET
ble
ble
bePRET
V
veltet
veltet
topplePRF
V
en
en
anINDEFMASCSGAGR
DET
kopp
kopp
cup
NMASC
ned
ned
down
PREPdir
on
PREP
gulvet
gulvet
floorDEFSG
NMASC

"ble" (å bli, to be) is a perfective auxiliary. "veltet" (å velte, to topple) has identical preterite and perfect forms, but is here tagged as perfect.


og det det gikk ikke, og den fikk ikke tak i flua så den fikk revet opp gardina veldig mye.
“but it did not work, and it teared the curtain a lot”
og
og
and
CONJC
det
det
itDEM
DET
gikk
gikk
goPRET
V
ikke
ikke
notNEG
ADV
og
og
and
CONJC
Den
den
itDEM
DET
fikk
fikk
getPRET
V
ikke
ikke
notNEG
ADV
tak
tak
hold
NMASC
i
i
in
PREP
flua
flua
flyDEFSG
NFEM
so
CONJC
Den
den
itDEM
DET
fikk
fikk
getPRET
V
revet
revet
tearPRF
V
opp
opp
up
PREP
gardina
gardina
curtainDEFSG
NFEM
veldig
veldig
very
ADV
mye
mye
much
ADJ

"fikk" (å få, to get) is a perfective auxiliary, and its complement "revet" (å rive, to rip) is in the perfect past.


den skulle vise Simon at flua nå er død, men simon virker ikke å våkne.
“it would have shown Simon that the fly was dead, but simon does not seem to wake up.”
Den
den
itDEM
DET
skulle
skulle
shallPRET
V
vise
vise
INF
V
simon
simon
simon
Np
at
at
that
CONJS
flua
flua
flyDEFSG
NFEM
now
ADV
er
er
bePRESCOP
V
død
død
dead
ADJ
men
men
but
CONJC
simon
simon
simon
Np
virker
virker
seemPRES
V
ikke
ikke
notNEG
ADV
å
å
to
CONJS
våkne
våkne
wakeINF
V

"skulle" (would(?)) is a modal auxiliary. Its complement, "(å) vise" (to show), is infinite.


og simon vet kanskje ikke helt hva som har skjedd, men forstår at det er noe katten har gjort, og merker nå at noe har skjedd med magen sin.
“and simon may not quite know what has hapened, but understands that there is something the cat has done, and notices something in his stomach.”
og
og
and
CONJC
simon
simon
simon
Np
vet
vet
knowPRES
V
kanskje
kanskje
maybe
ADV
ikke
ikke
notNEG
ADV
helt
helt
complete
ADJ
Hva
hva
what
PROint
som
som
whichREL
CONJS
har
har
havePRES
V
skjedd
skjedd
happenPRF
V
men
men
but
CONJC
forstår
forstår
understandPRES
V
at
at
that
CONJS
det
det
itDEM
DET
er
er
bePRESCOP
V
noe
noe
somethingDEM
DET
katten
katten
catDEFSG
NFEM
har
har
havePRES
V
gjort
gjort
doPRF
 
og
og
and
CONJC
merker
merker
noticePRES
V
now
ADV
at
at
that
CONJS
noe
noe
somethingDEM
DET
har
har
havePRES
V
skjedd
skjedd
happenPRET
 
med
med
with
PREP
magen
magen
stomachDEFSG
NMASC
sin
sin
hisREFLPOSS
PN

"har" (å ha, to have) is perfective. This is reflected in a perfect past complement, both "skjedd" (å skje, to happen) and "gjort" (å gjøre, to do).


There are potential exceptions, though they do not occur in this text. One example, though, is "skulle reist". Here, a modal is followed by a perfect past. A theory is that an infinite perfective auxiliary "ha" has disappeared in the middle; "skulle (ha) reist" is still grammatical, and has the same semantic meaning.

  1. Tor A. Åfarli, Kristin M. Eide, Norsk generativ syntaks, Novus forlag (2003).

Nicklas Nilsen 04:04, 6 March 2014 (UTC)