3

3. WORDS

3.0. introduction

General

The words of a language are classified according to their form (inflection), syntactic function and meaning. The following classes will be presented and discussed in this section:

Nouns are words that refer to human beings, animals, inanimate objects, matter, actions, properties, times, measure units etc., like boy, horse, mountain, stone, milk, song, hate, redness, hour, mile.

Adjectives are words that usually denote permanent or temporary qualities of different kinds: red, blue, tall, short, fat, happy, like, delicious, angry, dead.

Pronouns are words that indicate how a referent can be identified (or not identified) in its context, or that characterize the referent with respect to amount or number: I, me my; you your, he, him, his; this, that, these, those; all, both, everybody, some, any, few, many, etc.

Verbs are words that denote various types of actions, like events (give, throw, injure, disappear, put), processes (go, fall, swim, float) or states (sit, own, be). Usually the verb describes what somebody or something is doing.

Prepositions are words that denote a relation between two referents, either alone (the wheels of the car) or together with a verb, an adjective or a participle (the wheels, sitting on the car). Some frequently used prepositions are: at, between, by, for, from, in, on, to, with.

Adverbs are words that usually denote a circumstantiality of some kind, like degree (more, almost), manner (fast), time (now, always, never, often), place (here), logical relation (also), negation (not), modality/speaker’s attitude (maybe).

Numerals are words that indicate how many referents there are of a certain type (one, two, five, ten, sixtythree, fourhundred eighteen) or which referent in an ordered set of referents that is referred to (first, second, fifth, tenth, sixtythird).

Subjunctions are words that embed a clause within another clause, like that, since, if, than, although.

Conjunctions are words that conjoin two or more elements of the same kind, like and, but, or.

3.1. NOUNS

General

Nouns have the syntactic function of being heads of noun phrases: the boy, my little sweet sister, the decision to leave. In all the Germanic languages nouns are inflected for number: boy, boys. In the Scandinavian languages they are also inflected for definiteness pojke, pojke-n ‘boy, boy.the.’ in Icelandic also for case strákur ‘boy.NOM,’ strák ‘boy.ACC.’ Except in English, each noun has a certain gender, determining the form of articles and referring pronouns: der Junge ‘the boy (MASK),’ das Buch ‘the book (NEUT);’ the gender systems are partly different for different languages.

Swedish

Most words in the lexicon are nouns. The Swedish noun is inflected for number häst, häst-ar ‘horse, horses,’ definitenesshäst, häst-en ‘horse, horse.the, and casehästen, hästen-s ‘horse.the, horse.the’s (the horse’s). Each noun has a certain gender, common gender or neuter gender, which determines the form of the definite article (hästen ‘horse.the’ comon gender, huset ‘house.the’ neuter gender) and otherwise plays a role for the concord within the noun phrase and for pronominal reference.

3.1.1. Form

Swedish nouns are constructed in different ways:

a) as root morphemes, like knä ‘knee,’ öl ‘beer,’ mjölk ‘milk,’ katt ‘cat,’ dans ‘dance,’ ost ‘cheese.’

b) as root morphemes with an added suffix -a, -e, -en, -el, -er: gata ‘street,’ flicka ‘girl;’ pojke ‘boy,’ dike ‘ditch;’ vapen ‘weapon,’ vatten ‘water;’ order ‘order,’ syster ‘sister;’ cykel ‘bike,’ nyckel ‘key.’

c) as borrowed root morphemes of various types: station ‘station,’ variabel ‘variable,’ pronomen ‘pronoun,’ kollega ‘colleague,’ radio ‘radio,’ sommar ‘summer,’ russin ‘raisin,’ konung ‘king,’ bröllop ‘wedding,’ arbete ‘work.’

d) as suffixal derivations like skriv-ning ‘writing, written test,’ skriv-else official letter,’ skriv-are ‘scribe,’ skriv-eri ‘writing;’ dag-is ‘kindergarten,’ stor-het greatness, quantity, great man,’ stor-lek ‘dimensions, magnitude, size;’ kär-lek ‘love;’ prins-essa ‘princess.’

e) as prefixal derivations o-tur ‘un-luck,’ o-väder ‘bad weather,’ miss-bruk ‘abuse,’ van-makt ‘powerlessness,’ super-makt ‘superpower,’ mini-golf ‘miniature golf,’ ur-text ‘original text,’ bi-flod ‘tributary (river),’ ex-hustru ‘ex-wife,’ vice-president ‘vice president.’

f) as compounds. Compounding is a very productive way to form new words in Swedish. This holds for nouns as well as for other word classes. A compounded noun has a noun as its final part: fågel-bo ‘bird’s nest,’ hamn-stad ‘port,’ höger-back ‘right back,’ läkar-arvode ‘doctor’s fee,’ peppar-korn ‘peppercorn,’ spår-hund ‘sleuth-hound.’

3.1.2. Gender

General

Nouns are classified into different genders to account for two distinct phenomena: (a) pronominal reference and (b) concord (or agreement) within the noun phrase. In German, e.g., there are three genders, traditionally called masculine, feminine and neuter. The noun Hund ‘dog’ is masculine, with the definite article der and referred to with the pronoun er ‘he,’ the noun Nuß ‘nut’ is feminine, with the definite article die and referred to with the pronoun sie ‘she,’ and the noun Haus ‘house’ is neuter, with the definite article das and referred to with the pronoun es ‘it.’

Swedish

Swedish has partly different gender systems for pronominal reference and concord within the noun phrase. Generally speaking, Swedish has two noun genders, common gender and neuter, also called n-gender and t-gender after the form of the articles: indefinite en/ett, definite -en/-et. About 80% of all nouns are common gender; in this class we usually find nouns referring to human beings, animals, plants, but also a lot of non-living entities, both concrete and abstract. There are no definite rules for determining which gender a noun belongs to: in many cases either the form of the noun or its meaning may provide a clue to its gender.

3.1.2.1. Concord within the noun phrase

The article (both the free article and the definite ending) has different forms depending on the gender of the noun: it ends in -n in common gender singular and in -t in neuter singular.

Common gender: en häst ‘a horse,’ hästen ‘horse.the,’ hästarna ‘horses.the’

Neuter: ett hus ‘a house,’ huset ‘house.the,’ husen ‘houses.the’

The adjective also agrees in gender with the noun, both when it is used attributively and predicatively, (note that an attributively used adjective modifying a definite noun only has one form in both genders and numbers). Like the articles, the neuter gender on the adjective is characterized by ending in -t.

Common gender: en vacker häst ‘a beautiful horse,’ hästen är vacker ‘horse.the is beautiful,’ den vackra hästen’the beautiful horse,’ några vackra hästar ‘some beautiful horses,’ hästarna är vackra ‘horses.the are beautiful,’ de vackra hästarna ‘the beautiful horses.the’

Neuter: ett vackert hus ‘a beautiful house,’ huset är vackert ‘house.the is beautiful,’ det vackra huset ‘the beautiful house.the,’ några vackra hus ‘some beautiful houses,’ husen är vackra ‘houses.the are beautiful,’ de vackra husen ‘the beautiful houses.the’

3.1.2.2. Pronominal reference

The Swedish gender system is somewhat more complex when it comes to pronominal reference than it is concerning concord within the noun phrase. Whereas a neuter singular is always referred to with det ‘it,’ as in Jag har köpt ett hus. Det är vackert. ‘I have bought a house. It is beautiful,’ and the pronoun de ‘they’ is used in the plural to refer to both common gender and neuter nouns, there is a distinction in common gender singular depending on the reference of the noun: when the noun refers to a human being, the pronoun used is either han ‘he’ or hon ‘she;’ when it does not refer to a human being, the pronoun used is den ‘it.’

Pojken trodde att han hade glömt sin mössa ‘The boy thought that he had forgotten his cap.’

Har du sett min syster? Hon var här nyss. ‘Have you seen my sister? She was here just now’

Jag har en hund, Den är brun. ‘I have a dog. It is brown’

3.1.3. Inflection

Swedish

The Swedish noun is inflected for number, definiteness, and case (rudimentary). When all three inflections are present simultaneously, the order is number closest to the stem, followed by the suffixed definite article and the genitive marker: pojk-e-n-s ‘boy-SG.the-‘s,’ flick-or-na-s ‘girl-s.the’s.’

3.1.3.1 Number

Number is marked on the Swedish noun with an inflectional suffix: häst-ar ‘horse-s,’ ros-or ‘rose-s.’ There are seven different plural endings: -or, -ar, -er, -r, -n, -Ø (no ending) and -s. The nouns are grouped into seven declensions based on the choice of plural ending.

First declension: plurals in -or. All words in this declension are in common gender. Most of the words end in -a in singular; this -a is absent in plural: flicka ? flick-or ‘girl,’ lampa ? lamp-or ‘lamp.’ Some words ending in a consonant also belong to this group: ros ? ros-or, våg ? våg-or ‘wave.’ Some nouns in -el, like bibel ‘bible,’ sadel ‘saddle’ belong to this declension; the final vowel in the singular form is absent in plural: bibl-ar, sadl-ar. Words ending in -er also occasionally belong to this declension: åder ? ådr-or ‘vein.’ Nouns derived by the suffixes -a, -(er)ska, -essa, inna, -issa, -sla belong to the first declension: gula ‘yolk,’ beundrarinna ‘(female) admirer,’ sköterska ‘nurse,’ prinsessa ‘princess,’ diakonissa ‘deaconess,’ känsla ‘feeling.’

Among the 500 most common words in Swedish newspaper texts we find the following nouns belonging to the first declension (Allén, 1972):

(1) flicka ‘girl,’ fråga ‘question,’ höst ‘autumn,’ krona ‘crown,’ kvinna ‘woman,’ kyrka ‘church,’ känsla ‘feeling,’ människa ‘man, human being,’ resa ‘journey,’ sida ‘page, side, flank,’ skola ‘school,’ vecka ‘week.’ Second declension: plurals in -ar. All words in this declension are in the common gender, except the word finger: ett finger, flera fingr-ar ‘a finger, several fingers.’ Many nouns in this declension end in -e, which is lost in plural: pojke ? pojk-ar ‘boy,’ pinne ? pinn-ar ‘stick,’ timme ? timmar ‘hour.’ Polysyllabic nouns ending in -el, -en, -er drop the vowel in the final syllable before the plural ending: fågel ? fågl-ar ‘bird,’ botten ? bottn-ar ‘bottom,’ minister ? ministr-ar ‘minister.’ The words dotter ‘daughter’ and moder ‘mother’ change the root vowel in plural (umlaut): döttr-ar ‘daughters,’ mödr-ar mothers.’ Finally, nouns derived by the suffixes -(l)ing, -(n)ing, -is, -dom, -lek and -e belong to the second declension: älskling ‘darling,’ ledning ‘guidance, clue, cable,’ dagis ‘kindergarten,’ sjukdom ‘illness,’ storlek ‘size,’ unge ‘kid, baby.’

Among the 500 most common words in Swedish newspaper texts we find the following nouns belonging to the second declension (Allén, 1972):

(2) anledning ‘reason,’ artikel ‘article,’ bil ‘car,’ dag ‘day, del ‘part,’ död ‘death,’ fru ‘wife,’ föreställning ‘performance,’ förutsättning ‘presumption,’ gång ‘pathway,’ hjälp ‘help,’ jord ‘soil, land, earth,’ kväll ‘evening,’ medlem ‘member,’ mening ‘sentence, meaning,’ peng ‘money,’ regering ‘government,’ tanke ‘thought,’ teater ‘theater,’ tidning ‘newspaper,’ timme ‘hour,’ undersökning ‘examination,’ ungdom ‘youth, young person,’ uppfattning ‘opinion,’ utbildning ‘education,’ utställning ‘exhibition,’ utveckling ‘development,’ väg ‘road,’ värld ‘world.’ Third declension: plurals in -er. Around 30% of all Swedish nouns form plurals with -er. Most words in this declension are in common gender, like kö ? kö-er ‘queue,’ park ? park-er ‘park,’ månad ? månad-er ‘month.’ Polysyllabic nouns ending in -el, -en, -er drop the vowel in the final syllable before the plural ending: regel ? regl-er ‘rule,’ sägen ? sägn-er ‘ledgend,’ neger ? negr-er ‘Negro.’ Some words change the vowel in plural (umlaut): bok ? böck-er ‘book,’ hand ? händer ‘hand,’ stad ? städ-er ‘city,’ tång ? täng-er ‘tongs’

Among the neuter nouns of the third declension are polysyllabic nouns ending in a stressed vowel, like måleri ? måleri-er ‘painting,’ parti ? parti-er ‘(political) party,’ kafé ? kafé-er ‘coffee house,’ and polysyllabic words on -ium, -eum, where um is lost in plural: museum ? muse-er ‘museum,’ laboratorium ? laboratori-er ‘laboratory.’ There are also some mono-syllabic neuter nouns: pris ? pris-er ‘prize,’ gift ? gift-er ‘poison,’ frö ? frö-er ‘seed.’

Nouns derived by suffixes which result in stress on the last syllable also have the plural form -er, e.g. doktorand ‘candidate for the doctorate,’ student ‘student, undergraduate,’ addressat ‘addressee,’ filolog ‘philologist.’ Included in this group are also nouns derived by the common gender suffix -or, which is not stressed in the singular, but get stressed in the plural: mótor ? motór-er ‘engine.’ In addition, nouns derived by -het and -skap belong to the third declension: nyhet ‘news,’ kunskap ‘knowledge.’

Among the 500 most common words in Swedish newspaper texts we find the following nouns of the third declension (Allén, 1972):

(3) bakgrund ‘background,’ bild ‘picture,’ bok ‘book,’ brist ‘shortage,’ debatt ‘debate,’ detalj ‘detail,’ direktör ‘manager,’ diskussion ‘discussion,’ elev ‘pupil,’ erfarenhet ‘experience,’ familj ‘family,’ film ‘film, motion picture’ form ‘shape, cut,’ framtid ‘future,’ frihet ‘freedom,’ färg ‘color,’ följd ‘consequence, series,’ general ‘general,’ grad ‘degree,’ grund ‘ground, cause, foundation,’ grupp ‘group,’ gräns ‘border,’ gång ‘time,’ hand ‘hand,’ historia ? histori-er ‘story,’ idé ‘idea,’ industri ‘industry,’ kommun ‘municipality,’ konst ‘art, skill,’ konstnär ‘artist,’ kontakt ‘contact, switch,’ kraft ‘power,’ kritik ‘criticism,’ kurs ‘course, track, rate,’ land ‘country,’ metod ‘method,’ miljon ‘million,’ miljö ‘environment,’ museum ‘museum,’ myndighet ‘authority,’ månad ‘month,’ mängd ‘large amount, multitude,’ möjlighet ‘possibility,’ natt ? nätt-er ‘night,’ natur ‘nature,’ parti ‘(political) party,’ person ‘person,’ pjäs ‘piece,’ plan ‘plan,’ plats ‘place,’ polis ‘police(man),’ politik ‘politics,’ president ‘president,’ pris ‘prize,’ proféssor ? professór-er ‘professor,’ publik ‘audience,’ punkt ‘point, dot, full stop,’ rad ‘row,’ risk ‘risk,’ regel ‘rule,’ roll ‘role,’ roman ‘novel,’ rätt ‘dish,’ sak ‘thing,’ scen ‘scene, stage,’ situation ‘situation,’ stad ‘city,’ stat ‘state,’ synpunkt ‘point of view,’ text ‘text,’ tid ‘time,’ typ ‘type,’ uppgift ‘task,’ verklighet ‘reality,’ verksamhet ‘activity, work,’ vän ‘friend,’ åtgärd ‘measure.’ Fourth declension: plurals in -r. All nouns in this declension have a stem in singular which ends in a vowel. Most nouns are common gender, like klo ? klo-r ‘claw,’ tå ? tå-r ‘toe,’ linje ? linje-r ‘line,’ aktie ? aktie-r ‘share,’ fiende ? fiende-r ‘enemy,’ hustru ? hustru-r ‘wife,’ radio ? radio-r ‘radio.’ Nouns derived by the suffixes -else and -arie are also inflected according to the fourth declension: fängelse ? fängelse-r ‘prison’ (this is exceptional, being neuter gender), bibliotekarie ? bibliotekarie-r ‘librarian.’

Among the 500 most common words in Swedish newspaper texts, there are a few nouns belonging to the fourth declension (Allén, 1972):

(4) berättelse ‘tale, story,’ betydelse ‘meaning,’ linje ‘line,’ rörelse ‘movement, motion.’

Fifth declension: plurals in -n. Most nouns of this declension are neuter with a singular stem ending in a vowel: bo ? bo-n ‘nest,’ bi ? bi-n ‘bee,’ knä ? knä-n ‘knee,’ hjärta ? hjärta-n ‘heart,’ rally ? rally-n ‘rally,’ ansikte ? ansikte-n ‘face.’ Nouns derived by the suffixes -ande, -ende, -e, and -sle are also inflected according to the fifth declension: medgivande ‘concession,’ förtroende confidence, faith,’ bygge ‘building, construction,’ hängsle ‘brace.’

Among the 500 most common words in Swedish newspaper texts we find the following nouns belonging to the fifth declension (Allén, 1972):

(5) arbete ‘job,’ förhållande ‘state of affairs, circumstances, affair,’ intresse ‘interest,’ läge ‘situation, position,’ område ‘area,’ ordförande ‘chairman,’ samarbete ‘cooperation,’ samhälle ‘society,’ ställe ‘place,’ tillfälle ‘opportunity,’ värde ‘value.’ Sixth declension: no plural ending. This declension contains both common gender nouns and neuter nouns. Most neuter nouns ending in a consonant belong to this declension, like träd ? träd ‘tree,’ ägg ‘egg,’ papper ‘paper,’ vapen ‘weapon,’ lejon ‘lion,’ huvud ‘head,’ exempel ‘example.’ Names for berries and fruits ending in -on also belong to this declension: lingon ‘cowberry,’ hallon ‘raspberry.’ Furthermore, in this group we also find all common gender nouns ending in -are, -ande, -ende, -iker, in addition to some person and profession denoting nouns on -er: lärare ‘teacher,’ studerande ‘student,’ gående ‘pedestrian,’ akademiker ‘university graduate,’ fader ? fäder ‘father’ (with umlaut), broder ? bröder ‘brother’ (umlaut).

Among the 500 most common words in Swedish newspaper texts we find the following nouns belonging to the sixth declension (Allén, 1972):

(6) antal ‘number,’ barn ‘children,’ behov ‘need, lack,’ beslut ‘decision,’ början ‘beginning,’ exempel ‘example,’ fader ‘father,’ faktum ‘fact,’ fall ‘case,’ folk ‘people,’ framtid ‘future,’ företag ‘company,’ författare ‘author,’ förhållande ‘state of affairs, circumstances, affair,’ förslag ‘suggestion,’ försök ‘try,’ hav ‘sea,’ hem ‘home,’ hus ‘house,’ huvud ‘head,’ håll ‘direction,’ intryck ‘impression,’ krav ‘demand,’ krig ‘war,’ liv ‘life,’ läkare ‘doctor, physician,’ lärare ‘teacher,’ läsare ‘reader,’ man ? män ‘man,’ material ‘material,’ namn ‘name,’ ord ‘word,’ par ‘pair,’ plan ‘plane, level,’ problem ‘problem,’ procent ‘percentage,’ program ‘programme,’ resultat ‘result,’ rum ‘room,’ sammanhang ‘connection, relation, context,’ skäl ‘reason,’ slag ‘blow, stroke,’ slut ‘end,’ språk ‘language,’ stöd ‘support,’ svar ‘answer,’ system ‘system,’ sätt ‘way,’ tal ‘number, speech,’ uttryck ‘expression,’ val ‘election, choice,’ vatten ‘water,’ verk ‘work, deed, production,’ år ‘year,’ ämne ‘subject.’ Seventh declension: plural in -s. Many nouns have a tendency to take -s as their plural marker. Usually, these words are interpreted as foreign in nature due to pronounciation or phonotactic form: musical-s, evergreen-s, broiler-s. In some cases, however, -s has become productive and it is found attached to words that are either domestic or where no -s plural is possible in the source language: schlager-s ‘hit songs,’ streber-s ‘pushers, climbers,’ gubb-s, jocularly for gubbar ‘old men.’

There are no nouns belonging to the seventh declension among the 500 most common words in Swedish newspaper texts (Allén, 1972).

Irregular plural: There are also some irregular plural patterns in Swedish. Some nouns, usually borrowed from Latin, may alternatively take the plural ending -a: visum ? visa ‘visa,’ centrum ? centra ‘center,’ lexikon ? lexika ‘lexicon,’ examen ? examina ‘exam,’ faktum ? fakta ‘fact.’ It is not possible to add a definiteness inflection to plural -a. Another irregular plural suffix is -sar, which is a combination of the s-plural and the ar-plural: baby ? baby-sar ‘baby ? babys.’ The words öga ‘eye’ and öra ‘ear’ have the plural marker -on: ögon, öron. Finally, in addition to the null plural of the word huvud ‘head’we find huvud-en

3.1.3.2 Definiteness

General

The definite form of a noun is used to indicate that the speaker expects the listener to be able to uniquely identify what the definite noun refers to. In Germanic, the definite form is either expressed by a suffix on the noun, or by a free article; sometimes, as in Danish, there are dialectal differences concerning which way definiteness is expressed. In all the Scandinavian languages we find a definite article suffixed to the noun, whereas the non-Scandinavian Germanic languages lack such a suffix, and have to express definiteness with the help of free articles: compare English the book, German der Buch with Swedish bok-en ‘book.the.’

Swedish

The Swedish noun is inflected for definiteness. There us a contrast between a form without a definiteness ending, called the indefinite form, and a form with the definite ending, the definite form: häst ? häst-en ‘horse ? horse.the,’ hästar ? hästar-na ‘horses ? horses.the,’ flicka ? flicka-n ‘girl ? girl.the,’ flickor ? flickor-na ‘girls ? girls.the,’ hus ? hus-et ‘house ? house.the,’ hus ? hus-en ‘houses ? houses.the.’ As these examples show, the definiteness suffix is inflected for gender and number. In singular, the definiteness suffix is added to the stem, in plural it is added to the plural ending. If there is a case ending (genitive), this is placed after the definiteness ending: flick-or-na-s ‘girl-s.the’s.’

The singular definiteness suffix in the common gender is -en when the stem ends in a consonant, and -n for stems ending in a vowel: häst-en ‘horse.the,’ flicka-n ‘girl.the.’ In the neuter gender the singular definiteness suffix is -et for stems ending in a consonant, -t for stems ending in a vowel: hus-et ‘house.the,’ hjärta-t ‘heart.the.’

The plural definiteness suffix is -na for all nouns with a plural suffix ending in -r: flickor-na ‘girls.the,’ pojkar-na ‘boys.the,’ parker-na ‘parks.the.’ The form -na is also used for common gender nouns in the sixth declension ending in -r, where this -r is the final part of the stem (there is no plural suffix in the sixth declension): musiker-na ‘musicians.the,’ indier-na ‘Indians.the.’

For nouns of the fifth declension with a plural ending in -n, the plural definiteness suffix is -a: bin-a ‘bees.the,’ knän-a ‘knees.the.’

Nouns of the sixth declension lack a plural suffix. As already mentioned, -na is used as the suffixed article when the stem ends in -r. This is always true for the common gender, but for neuter gender nouns of this declension, it is usually also possible to use the definiteness suffix -en, thus there are two options in the following cases: Note the loss of -e- in stems on -el, -en, -er when -en is used. For simple roots like år ‘year,’ only -en is available: år-en ‘years.the.’

(1) fönster-na or fönstr-en ‘windows.the,’ nummer-na or numr-en ‘numbers.the,’ papper-na or pappr-en, ‘papers.the,’ bekymmer-na or bekymr-en ‘worries.the,’ piller-na or pillr-en ‘pills.the.’
The suffix -na is also used when the stem ends in -ande: förhållande-na ‘circumstances.the.’ For other nouns of the sixth declension not ending in -r, the suffixed article is -en, with omission of last-syllable -e- for nouns on -el or -en. (2) hus-en ‘houses.the,’ val-en ‘elections.the,’ tal-en ‘numbers.the, speeches.the,’ barn-en ‘children.the,’ segl-en ‘sails.the’ (ett segel), teckn-en ‘signs.the’ (ett tecken).
The suffix -en is always used with plurals ending in -s (seventh declension): chips-en ‘chips.the,’ odds-en ‘odds.the,’ blinkers-en ‘blinkers.the.’

3.1.3.3 Case

General

Case is an inflection on nouns and pronouns (in Icelandic also adjectives) expressing how the noun/pronoun is used in the sentence. The Germanic languages distinguish at most four cases, nominative ("subject case"), accusative ("direct object case"), dative ("indirect object case"), and genitive ("possessor case"). In the languages with productive case systems, certain verbs, adjectives and prepositions assign case to their objects; in these languages, also determiners and adjectives (including past participles) are inflected for case. In English, Dutch and the mainland Scandinavian languages, case is not productive in this respect. The only case marking that is not a frozen remnant of an earlier system is found in possessive noun phrases, to which a genitive ending is attached, usually -s. the boy’s hammer, the man in the moon’s face. As the second example shows, the genitive ending is not attached to the head of the noun phrase, as it is in languages with productive case, but to the last word, or more precisely, to the whole phrase.

Swedish

The Swedish noun has two case forms: unmarked case and genitive (always ends in -s). The unmarked form is generally used, except when the noun is the possessor within a noun phrase:

(1) a. Hästen var stor
horse.the was big
b. Han red på hästen.
he rode on horse.the
c. Han köpte en häst.
he bought a horse
d. hästens man
horse.the’s mane