Difference between revisions of "Reflexives - Norwegian"

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Reflexives carry 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.

Reflexives come in two varieties, as personal pronouns, and as possessive pronouns.

Reflexives as personal pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are a subset of the personal pronouns, 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).

There are some verbs which necessarily take a reflexive object - skamme ('be ashamed') is one:

Thus, the following is ungrammatical:

*jeg skammer Ola

The reflexive has to agree in person and number with the antecedent. Thus, the following are all ungrammatical:

*jeg skammer seg
*du skammer seg
*vi skammer seg
*dere skammer seg

What shows that the forms meg, deg, oss, dere can be used as reflexives is that they can occur in sentences like those above when they have an antecedent to agree with:

jeg skammer meg
du skammer deg
vi skammer oss
dere skammer dere

Reflexives as possessive pronouns

Reflexives also have a possessive form. Below is rendered 'patterns 2 and 3' of possessive pronouns from Possessive constructions in Norwegian; all of these can be used reflexively:

Pattern 2 is constituted by

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

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, and with the antecedent thus being first person plural, with 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

From Pattern 1, the only item which can be used as a reflexive is

 deres (your', plural), when the possessor, and antecedent, is second person (the ones talked to)

As with non-possessives, there are certain verbs or constructions which can only occur with a reflexive, for instance:

(2)

Illformed is thus:

*jeg tok Olas død

As with the non-possessives from 1st and 2nd person, the following illustrates that all of the forms mentioned above can be used as reflexives:

jeg tok min død
du tok din død
vi tok vår død
dere tok deres død

That they must agree with an antecedent, when used in a reflexive construction, is illustrated here:

*han tok min død
*han tok din død

Moreover, parallell to the non-possessive case is that the third person forms - sin, sitt, sine - can only be used reflexively, while the others can be used without antecedent.

*sin død var et sjokk ('REFL's death was a chock')
din død var et sjokk ('your death was a chock')

(In this respect, thus, note that sin is NOT A COUNTERPART TO GERMAN sein!!! )