General
Words belonging to different word classes function syntactically as heads in phrases. A phrase consists of a head, a verb, a noun, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, which alone or together with optional modifiers constitutes a verb phrase (run, wash the car) noun phrase (John, Marys sister from Utah, peace in our time), adjective phrase (red, like his father), adverb phrase (always, almost never) or prepositional phrase (at my door, with Marie). The modifying phrases may occur before and/or after the head word, depending on language and phrasal type. In many respects the phrases in the Germanic languages have very similar properties.
General
The verb phrase has a verb as its head: He bought a book yesterday. In main clauses, where the tensed main verb appears in the finite position (1.3), there is no verb within the verb phrase: Er kaufte vielleicht gestern ein neues Auto ‘he bought maybe yesterday a new car’.
The verb phrase is the last part of the sentence, following the sentential adverbials. With respect to word order, the most obvious difference within the group of Germanic languages is found here: in German and Dutch, the verb phrase begins with adverbials for time, location, manner and other content adverbials, followed by the object and the infinite verb, as in the following German example, where the verb phrase is underlined: Ich muss morgen im Warenhaus ein Buch gekaufen. Compare the word order of the corresponding English example: I must buy a book at the department store tomorrow. Generally speaking, this means that the German and Dutch verb phrase is verb final, whereas the verb phrase of the other Germanic languages is verb initial.
Swedish
The Swedish verb phrase is verb initial. It begins either with an auxiliary or a main verb. In main clauses where the tensed verb (auxiliary or main verb) is in the finite position and thus not in the verb phrase, (Swedish being a verb second language), the verb phrase lacks a verb or begins with a non-finite verb (Nu har han nog stigit på tåget ’now has he probably got on the train’, Nu steg han på tåget ’now got he on the train’.)
2.1.1. The Order of Elements in the Verb Phrase
Swedish
The order of elements in the Swedish verb phrase is given in the scheme
below. Directly following the verb is the verbal particle,
which forms a separable compound with the verb. If there is an indirect
object, this follows next, preceding a position where we find the
subjectpredicative
complement, the direct object
or the associate
subject; see the last example below for a case with both an indirect
object and an associate subject. The object predicative complement
and the infinitive of the object with infinitive construction
share a position, followed by a field for
bound content adverbials
(Han bor i Lund ‘he lives in Lund’) and prepositional
objects (Han ser på henne ‘he is looking at
her’). Finally there is a field for free content adverbials and
postponed phrases.
| Verb | Particle | Ind. obj. | Direct obj,
Real subj, Subj predicative |
Obj predicativ, Infinitive
clause |
Bound adverbials,
Prep. objects |
Free advls,
Postponed phrases |
| kasta
throw |
ut
out |
en boll
a ball |
på planen
in field.the |
|||
| bör ge
should give |
honom
him |
en bok
a book |
på födelsedagen
at his birthday |
|||
| måla
paint |
huset
the house |
rött
red |
||||
| hoppa
jump |
upp
up |
en katt
a cat |
på bordet
at the table |
framför mig
in-front-of me |
||
| se
see |
honom
him |
komma
come |
||||
| ta
take |
ifrån
away-from |
honom
him |
boken
book.the |
genast
immediatelyt |
||
| tilldelats
given |
henne
her |
en belöning
a reward |
av konungen
by the king |
General
In all the Germanic languages, the cognates of English have and be are among the most common verbs. As main verbs, they have almost the same meaning in all the languages: compare English The book is on his table, He has a book on his table. As a main verb, be and its cognates is also used as the copula: He is sick. As auxiliaries, be and have are used to express voice, tense and aspect: He was killed, He has read the book, He is reading the book. In English, Norwegian (some dialects) and Swedish, the cognates to have are used to express the perfect tense and the pluperfect tense with all kinds of verbs. In the other four Germanic languages, be is used with intransitive verbs indicating a change of state, have otherwise:
(1) a. Er ist jetzt gekommen.
he is now arrived
b. Now he has arrived.
Swedish
Ha is used together with an uninflected form of the verb, the Supine, to form the perfect and pluperfect tenses of all verbs. The main difference between the supine and the past participle is that the past participle agrees with the subject in number and gender, whereas the supine always ends in -t.
(1) a. Han har redan kommit. Han har köpt en ny bil.
he has already arrived he has bought a new car
b. Han hade arbetat hårt. Han hade målat huset.
he had worked hard he had painted the house
c. Han lär ha avlidit plötsligt. Han måste ha hört tjuven.
he is-said-to have died suddenly he must have heard thief.the
The supine is in many respects clearly different from the past participle, besides lacking agreement. One remarkable fact is that it is inflected for passive voice; the -s at the end of the underlined supine in the following example is a passive morpheme (see Passive 1.12.4). Note also the vowel i in the ending: past participles have e here:
(2) Han hade övergivits av sin hustru.
he had abandoned.PASS by his wife
Vara is used with a past participle as passive auxiliary, when the passive expresses the result of an action or a completed transition. Note that the participle agrees with the subject in number and gender:
(3) a. Kyrkan var byggd av en lokal byggmästare. b. Han är plågad av mygg.
church.the was built by a local building contractor he is tormented by mosquitoes
Vara is also used as the copula; when the predicative is an adjective or a past participle, it agrees with the subject in gender and number:
(4) a. Han var sjuk igår. b. De var sjuka igår c. Han är en idiot. d. Han är som ett barn.
he was sick y’day they were sick y’day he is an idiot he is as a child
General
The object of a transitive verb may be a reflexive pronoun, as in he
killed himself, where the reflexive can be replaced by another
pronoun (he killed her) or a full noun phrase (he killed
the
man) without any other change than the one signalled by the choice
of object. However, in the Germanic languages besides English, the combination
verb + reflexive may also have a meaning of its own, and in such cases
it usually corresponds to a single English verb: consider German Ich
weigere mich, ihm zu helfen, where mich is the reflexive,
which corresponds to English I refuse to help him
without a reflexive.
With reflexive verb is meant such a use of verb + reflexive that
is lexicalized as a semantically homogenous unit where the reflexive does
not have a clear referent: in such a case, the reflexive pronoun cannot
be replaced by a noun. Consider the following German and Swedish examples.
| (1) a. Er sollte sich hüten.
he should REFL take-care He should be on his guard. b. Ich sehne mich nach dem Sommer. I long REFL after the summer I long for the summer. |
(2) a. Han ångrade sig.
he regretted REFL He was sorry b. Han reste sig. he rose REFL He rose. |
Swedish
Reflexive verbs are intransitive in nature. Typical is, e.g. that a reflexive verb can be used in existential constructions, a construction that is not possible with an ordinary object (1), and that the object cannot be left out in coordination constructions (2):
(1) Det visade *(sig) några svarta moln vid horisonten.
there showed REFL. some black clouds at the horizon.
(2) Ministern visade *(sig) och såg sig omkring.
minister.the appeared REFL and looked REFL around
Cf: Ministern tvättade (sig) och kammade sig.
The minister washed REFL and combed REFL.
Some verbs are only used together with a reflexive (bete sig
’behave’, infinna sig ’appear’), others are either intransitive
or reflexive, like huka (sig) ’chouch (down)’. A third group
of reflexive verbs can occur with an ordinary object instead of the reflexive,
but with a different meaning:
| (3) Han vände sig till henne.
he turned REFL to her |
Compare: Han vände bladet.
He turned page.the |
The use of a verb as reflexive or transitive is of importance for the
interpretation of the subject; often the subject of the reflexive verb
has the same role as the object of the corresponding transitive verb:
| (4) Dörren öppnade sig långsamt.
door.the opened REFL slowly |
Compare: Han öppnade dörren långsamt.
He opened door.the slowly |
With respect to word order, the reflexive of a reflexive verb behaves
like an ordinary reflexive object, following the verbal particle: Han
slet ut sig ’he wore himself out’. When a reflexive verb forms
a semantic whole with a particle, the reflexive often occurs between the
verb and the particle: ta sig an någon ‘take REFL.
PART. smb = take care of smb’, sätta sig in i något
‘set REFL PART in sth = acquaint oneself with sth’,
arbeta
sig
upp ‘work REFL PART = make one’s way in the world’,
sätta sig ner ‘set REFL PART ‘sit
down’.
General
The verb particle, underlined in sit down, tumble off, get through, is phonologically stressed and semantically and syntactically closely attached to the verb.
(1) a. The application got through (En)
. b. Ansökan gick igenom, (Sw)
Swedish
The Swedish particle is usually an adverb of direction (fara bort ‘go away’, lägga ner ‘lay down’) or a preposition (bryta av något ‘break off sth’, ta på något ‘put on sth’). Together with the verb it forms an intonational unit, with the stress on the particle. Since the preposition can be stressed only when it is in focus, the stress is a clear indication of a particle. Compare the examples in (1), where we have a particle in (1a), a preposition in (1b):
(1) a. Han läste óm boken. b. Han läste om boken (i tidningen)
he read about book.the he read about book.the (in newspaper.the)
He re-read the book He read about the book (in the newspaper)
The verb particle immediately follows the verb in Swedish. Note that the tensed verb and the imperative verb is separated from the particle in the following cases: a. In main clauses with a sentential adverbial: Jag tyckte inte om henne. ’ I never liked her’. b. In main clauses with inversion: Tycker du om henne? ‘Do you like her?’ c. In imperative clauses with a sentential adverbial: Kasta inte ut den! Don’t throw it away’. When the verb and the particle are combined with an object, the object must follow the particle, irrespectively of its form. The participle form of a particle verb must be compounded with the particle (2c), see 3.4.1.1:
(2) a. Han kastade ut bollen. b. Han kastade ut den. c. Bollen är utkastad-
he threw out ball.the he threw out it ball.the is out-thrown
Often the combination verb + particle corresponds to a compound particle-verb with the same meaning: härda ut Å uthärda ’to endure’, lägga ned Å nedlägga ’lay down’; here the separated forms are used in the spoken language and in informal writing, the integrated forms are reserved for more formal usages.
In other cases there is a semantic difference between the separated and the compound form, where the separated form usually has a literal meaning and the integrated a figurative meaning:
(3) a. Han strök under ordet. b. Han underströk ordets betydelse.
he lined under word.the he underlined word.the’s meaning
He underlined the word. He emphasized the meaning of the word.
A reflexive verb forming a semantic whole with a particle often has the reflexive between the verb and the particle: ta sig an någon ‘take REFL.PART. smb = take care of smb’, sätta sig in i något ‘set REFL PART in sth = acquaint oneself with sth’, arbeta sig upp ‘work REFL PART = make one’s way in the world’.
General
The object is an obligatory nominal or sentential complement of certain verbs: John kissed Mary, He bought a new car. He knows where to stay. There cannot be an object in a clause with a tensed verb unless it also has a subject; clauses based on an infinitive verb may have the object as the sole nominal complement, however: To open the door is difficult. The object may be a noun phrase, Kate opened the door, a pronoun, He has seen her, Who did you ask, an infinitival clause, He promised to do it or an embedded finite clause, He said that he loved her, John asked who would come. Some verbs take two objects: John gave Mary a book. In this case the first object (the indirect object) expresses the one who gets what is expressed by the second object (the direct object). When there is only one object it often expresses what is affected, moved or created by the action expressed by the verb: Mary painted the house, John drove his car to London, He built a house.
Swedish
The object is either following the main verb (1) and (2), or it is in
first position (3).
| (1) Hon hade slagit honom. | (2) Han öppnade dörren | (3) Henne har jag kysst. |
| she had hit him | He opened door.the | her have I kissed |
Unless it is in first position, the object follows the subject (also
when this is inverted) and the sentence adverbials, including the negation
(4a). However, when the object is a pronoun, it precedes the adverbial
when the main verb is in second position, as in (4b) (Object shift, 1.12.8).
The object precedes content adverbials like adverbials for time, place
and manner, see (4c):
| (4) a. Öppnade han inte dörren? | b Öppnade han den inte? | c. Jag träffade henne igår på stan. |
| opened he not door.the | opened he it not | I met her yesterday in town |
When the object is questioned, it is always in first position (5a), unless also the subject is questioned (5b); in this case the object remains after the infinite verb:
(5) a. Vem hade du träffat?
who had you met
b. Vem hade köpt vad, sa du?
who had bought what, did you say
As shown in (1)-(5), the object is a pronoun (1), (3), (4a,c), (5) or a noun phrase (2), (4a). Sometimes the object is an infinitival clause (6) or an embedded clause (7). Example (8) illustrates the case with two objects; the indirect object is boldfaced:
(6) Regeringen beslutade att höja skatten.
government.the decised to raise tax.the
(7) Regeringen beslutade att skatten skulle höjas.
government.the decided that tax.the should be-raised
(8) a. Jag lovade henne att komma.
I promised her to come
b. Hon gav honom en blomma.
she gave him a flower
When the object is a pronoun, it is in the specific "oblique" case, cf. honom ’him’ in (1), (8b), and henne ‘her’ in (3), (4c), (6a), and compare the corresponding "subject" forms han ‘he’ in (2), (4) and hon ‘she’ in (1), (8b) (See 3.1.3.3., 3.3.1.1). The object form den ‘it’ in (4b) is non-distinct from the subject form.
When the object is a negated pronoun (ingenting ‘nothing’) or a noun phrase with ingen (ingen cykel ‘no bike’) it cannot be placed further to the right than the negation:
(9) a. Han hade ingenting sett. Compare Han hade inte sett någonting.
he had nothing seen he had not seen anything
b. Han hade ingen cykel köpt. Compare Han hade inte köpt någon cykel.
he had no bike bought he had not bought any bike
The pronoun ingen, ‘noone’, like other negated pronouns, cannot occur in a position where the negation could not occur; however, placing it between the auxiliary and the infinite main verb is usually avoided:
(10) ??Han hade ingen träffat.
he had noone met
General
A predicative complement is a word or a word group which fills out the subject (or the object), as in She is happy, He made her happy. The predicative complement is either a noun phrase (Mary is a clever girl, My best friend is John, They called her Jane), an adjective phrase (He is sick, She painted the house red), a prepositional phrase (They elected Clinton as president) or a subordinate clause (One result is that prices will rise).
The predicative complement often expresses a quality or attribute of the subject or object, or it tells us the identity of the subject or object. Unlike the object, the predicative complement of an active clause does not correspond to the subject of a passive clause.
Swedish
The predicative complement in Swedish is either a noun phrase (1), an
adjective phrase (2), a prepositional phrase (3) or a subordinate clause
(4). The a-examples are subject complements, the b-examples object complements.
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) |
| a. Hon är smed.
she is smith |
a. Skogen var grön
forest.the was green |
a. Han arbetar som kock.
he works as cook |
a. Det är vad jag sa.
that is what I said |
| b. Hon kallade dem svin.
she named them swine |
b. Han söp sig full.
he got himself drunk |
b. De valde Bo till kock.
they chose Bo as cook |
b. --- |
When the predicate complement is an indefinite noun phrase, it does not necessarily have the indefinite article.
(5) Han är amerikan, hon är professor, Lisa är rektor vid en skola.
he is american she is professor Lisa is rector at a school
In other cases an indefinite article is called for:
(6) Den där bilen är en Volvo, Pelle är en papegoja, Henke är en spelare som kan göra mål.
this there car.the is a Volvo Pelle is a parrot Henke is a player that can do goals
When the noun phrase is predicative complement of the object, it must usually be part of a prepositional phrase:
(7) a. Vi utsåg henne till sekreterare. Det amerikanska folket valde Busch till president.
we appointed her (to) secretary the american people elected Busch (to) president
b. Vi kallade honom (för) Råttan.
we named him for Rat.the
When the predicative complement is an adjective or a past participle, it agrees with the word it is a complement to (subject or object) in number and gender:
(8) a. Pojken var kort, och flickorna var långa.
boy.the was short-sg and girls.the were long-pl
The predicative complement of the subject is immediately following the non-tensed form of the copula, preceding content adverbials (Han hade varit sjuk igår ’he had been sick yesterday’). The particle verb se ut ‘look like’ takes the subject predicate between the verb and the particle: den ser fin ut ‘it looks nice PART’.
The predicate complement of the object is found immediately after the object in the verb phrase:
(9) Han hade målat huset rött.
General
Content adverbials modify the event expressed in the sentence with respect to manner, place, time, condition etc. He always drives carefully. He parked his car behind the church yesterday. Content adverbials may modify the verb, as in the examples just given, or an adjective (He is very fat), or another adverbial (He smokes rather heavily). Occasionally, the adverb modifies a determiner (He has hardly any friends), pronoun (Nearly everybody will come) or a whole noun phrase (the meeting today, the above statement).
As content adverbials we find adverbs (often formed from adjectives, as in Engl. slowly), prepositional phrases (He is sitting in the kitchen), noun phrases (He will stay the whole summer) and clauses (If you laugh I will leave; He was eating when she arrived).
When they are not in first position, content adverbials are found within the verb phrase. In German and Dutch, content adverbials are verb phrase initial, preceding the object and the infinite verb, as in the following German example: Ich muss morgen im Warenhaus ein Buch gekaufen. In Danish, English, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish, the content adverbials follow the infinite verb and the object (the order is reversed compared to German and Dutch), as in the following English example: I must buy a book at the department store tomorrow.
Swedish
Swedish has two types of content adverbials, depending on how closely
bound the adverbial is to the verb: bound content adverbials (Jag vill
tala med dig om detta i morgon ‘I want to talk
to you about this tomorrow’), and free adverbials (i morgon ‘tomorrow’
in the preceding example, and redan ‘already’ in Han saknade
henne redan ‘he missed her already’). When placed in the verb
phrase, bound content adverbials precede free content adverbials. Bound
content adverbials are usually not found in the middle part of the clause,
where free content adverbials may occur:
| (1) a. Han hade bott i London på
1960-talet.
he had lived in London in the 1960’s b. Talet hade varat i tre timmar. talk.the had lasted for 3 hours |
(2) a. Han hade på 1960-talet
bott i London.
he had in the 1960’s lived in London b. *Talet hade i tre timmar varat. talk.the had for 3 hours lasted |
Very often we find a content adverbial as the first part of the sentence. An initial free content adverbial, but not an initial bound content adverbial, can be followed by så ‘so’:
(3) a. Plötsligt (så) förstod jag allt. b. Tre timmar (*så) varade demonstrationen
suddenly so understood I all three hours so lasted demonstration.the
When there are several free content adverbials in the verb phrase, their order depends on the function of the adverbial in the communicative structure of the clause. The following tendencies are noted:
a. When the adverbial is a subordinate clause, it is placed after other adverbials: Johan arbetade på kvällarna utan att chefen visste det ‘Johan worked in the evenings without his boss knowing it’.
b. Adverbials denoting time or cause usually follow other free adverbials: Han hade talat här då ‘he had spoken here then’, De hade träffats i Lund av vissa skäl ‘they had met in Lund for certain reasons’.
c. Whereas free adverbials that refer to time, location or cause usually are found after the bound adverbials, free adverbials denoting manner, duration and iteration often precede bound adverbials: Johan hade lidit av tandvärk länge / länge av tandvärk ‘Johan had suffered from tooth-ache long / had suffered long from tooth-ache’, De hade tittat surt på honom ‘they had looked acidly at him’.
The most common content adverbs in Swedish: där ‘there’, var ‘where’, nu ‘now’, när ‘when’, mycket ‘mutch’, då ‘then’, här ‘here’, sedan ‘then, afterwards’,ut ‘out’, upp ‘up’, in ‘in (direction)’, hur ‘how’, redan ‘already’, ännu ‘still’,