Difference between revisions of "Possessive constructions in Norwegian"

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Possessive construction here subsumes constructions with possessive pronouns and with NPs with an -s attached at the end (without apostrophe). Possessive pronouns come in three patterns:

Pattern 1:  hans ('his'), hennes ('her'), dens ('its', masc and fem.), dets ('its', neut.), dennes ('this one's', masc and fem.), 
  dettes ('that one's', neuter), deres (your', plur., and 'their', plur.)
Pattern 2: min ('my'), din ('your'), sin (reflexive 'his', 'her')
Pattern 3: vår ('our'). 

Pattern 1 uses essensially a personal pronoun plus -s; see Personal pronouns in Norwegian.

Pattern 2 inflects much like adjectives, exemplifying with min:

with a masculine singular noun:  min
with a feminine singular noun: mi
with a neuter singular noun: mitt
with a plural noun, any gender: mine

Pattern 3, i.e., vår, has the pattern:

with a masculine singular noun:  vår
with a feminine singular noun: vår
with a neuter singular noun: vårt
with a plural noun, any gender: våre

Genitives occupy the position otherwise held by the definite article, and they may be said to induce a definiteness effect in that they require the weak form of the adjective. Contrary to the definite article, however, the ensuing noun has to be in indefinite form (parenthesis indicating that the well- or illformedness indicated for the example prevails in the presence of either of the parenthesized words):

mine (tre) (små) griser

min (lille) gris

• min (lille) grisen

• mine (tre) (små) grisene

den rike bondens (tre) (små) griser

den rike bondens (lille) gris

• den rike bondens (tre) (små) grisene

For possessive pronouns, another position of occurrence is immediately after the noun, which then has to be in definite form:

grisen min

• gris min

den lille grisen min

de tre grisene mine

• den lille gris min

• lille grisen min

• tre grisene mine

The last two examples show that also for this use of definite nouns, the requirements III and V above imposed by preceding weak adjectives and numerals hold.