Difference between revisions of "Reflexives - Norwegian"

Revision as of 14:18, 27 December 2015

Reflexive pronouns are a subset of the personal pronouns, carrying their name because they 'reflect' another noun phrase in the sentence, that is, they refer to the same entity as that other NP, often called the antecedent. As a general rule, the antecedent is the subject of the clause where the reflexive pronoun - for short: reflexive - occurs, and the reflexive thus always has accusative form.

Below is a list of the accusative forms of personal pronouns (see Personal pronouns in Norwegian):

meg    1p  sg            accusative   reflexive_or_non-reflexive
deg    2p  sg            accusative   reflexive_or_non-reflexive
ham    3p  sg   masc     accusative   non-reflexive
henne  3p  sg   fem      accusative   non-reflexive
den    3p  sg   masc/fem 
det    3p  sg   neut
seg    3p                accusative   reflexive_only
oss    1p  pl            accusative   reflexive_or_non-reflexive
dere   2p  pl                         reflexive_or_non-reflexive
dem    3p  pl            accusative   non-reflexive

Of these only the following can be used as reflexives:

meg    1p  sg            accusative   reflexive_or_non-reflexive
deg    2p  sg            accusative   reflexive_or_non-reflexive
seg    3p                accusative   reflexive_only
oss    1p  pl            accusative   reflexive_or_non-reflexive
dere   2p  pl                         reflexive_or_non-reflexive

Seg here covers both singular and plural of third person, and it is the only pronoun which can only be used reflexively.

All of the forms can be followed by selv (the rules for when they must, or cannot, will be explained elsewhere).

See Possessive constructions in Norwegian on how these forms compare to their possessive counterparts..

Pattern 2 is constituted by

 min ('my'), when the possessor is first person singular,
 din ('your') when the possessor is second person singular,
 sin (reflexive 'his', 'her') when the possessor is third person singular, 

and these forms inflect as follows reflecting the noun for the item possessed:

when the noun for the item possessed is a masculine singular noun:  min,  din,  sin
when the noun for the item possessed is a feminine singular noun: mi,  di,  si
when the noun for the item possessed is a neuter singular noun: mitt, ditt, sitt
when the noun for the item possessed is a plural noun, any gender: mine, dine, sine

Pattern 3 has one item, vår ('our'), for first person plural, which has the pattern: .

when the noun for the item possessed is a masculine singular noun:  vår
when the noun for the item possessed is a feminine singular noun: vår
when the noun for the item possessed is a neuter singular noun: vårt
when the noun for the item possessed is a plural noun, any gender: våre