Nordic Atlas of Language Structures (NALS) Journal, Vol. 1, 107­109
C opyright © Björn Lundquist 2014 Licensed under a C reative C ommons Attribution 3.0 License
The verb phrase: argument structure
and particle placement
Björn Lundquist
UiT The Arctic University of Norway
1. Introduction
The Sc andinavian languages show fairly little variation with respec t to the internal syntax of
the verb phrase. In general, the verb phrase is head initial, i.e., the direc t objec t always
follows the main verb (VO­order), as exemplified for Swedish below:
(1)
a) Jag ska
köpa
en bil /den.
I
will.PRES buy.I NF a c ar /it.
‘I will buy a c ar/it.’
(Swe.)
b) *Jag ska
en
bil /den köpa.
I
will.PRES buy.I NF a c ar /it.
Int.‘I will buy a c ar/it.’
(Swe.)
Possible exc eptions to the head­initial order c an be found in c omplex verbal c onstruc tions
with lode ‘let’ followed by an infinitival (2a) and få ‘get’ followed by a partic iple (2b), where
the main verb c an be prec eded by the direc t objec t in some dialec ts.
(2)
a) Peter lod
bilen
reparere.
Peter let.PRES c ar.DEF repair.I NF
‘Peter had the c ar repaired.’
(Dan.)
b) Han
fik
stolene
malet.
He
get.PAST
c hair.PL.DEF
paint.PART
‘He got the c hairs painted’ or ‘He managed to paint the c hairs.’
(Dan.)
The lode­c onstruc tion and the få­c onstruc tion are eac h disc ussed in separate c hapters
(Larsson 2014a, Larsson 2014b).
Another instanc e of head­final order is c lauses with post­adjec tival partic ipial c opulas, as
marginally found in some dialec ts in c entral Sweden and Norway:
(2)
Kaffen
er
kæld vørtin.
c offee.DEF be.PRES c old bec ome.PART
‘The c offee has bec ome c old.’
(Bok.)
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Verb phrase
NALS Journal
This c onstruc tion is also disc ussed in a separate NALS­c hapter (Garbac z 2014a). Apparent
OV­order c an also be found c ertain dialec ts when the objec t is negated (or sometimes
quantified). This phenomenon is disc ussed in Garbac z (2014b), in the sec tion in NALS Volume
1 about the middle field.
The verb­phrase phenomenon that probably shows most systematic variation ac ross
Sc andinavia is the plac ement of verb partic les. Verb partic les have been investigated
thoroughly in the Sc anDiaSyn­projec t, and we have inc luded three c hapters desc ribing the
variation in their distribution:
1. The plac ement of verb­partic les with respec t to direc t objec ts in ac tive c lauses (Lundquist 2014a).
2. The plac ement of verb­partic les with respec t to reflexive internal arguments (Lundquist 2014b).
3. The plac ement of partic les with respec t to passive partic iples (Lundquist 2014c ).
Further, dialec tal variation in double objec t­c onstruc tions is disc ussed in the following two
c hapters:
1. Verb­restric tions in ac tive double objec t c onstruc tions (Lundquist 2014d).
2. The syntax of passive double objec t c onstruc tions (Lundquist 2014e).
Finally, one short c hapter is dedic ated to the prefixed negation that turns up on ac tive
partic iples in some northern Swedish dialec ts (Lundquist 2014f). In the part on the middle
field, several other phenomena that are tied to the verb phrase are disc ussed, inc luding
auxiliary selec tion, objec t shift and tense­restric tions in passives. Further, in the c hapter on
partic iple agreement (Larsson 2014c ), the order of partic iples and assoc iates is disc ussed.
References
Garbac z, Piotr. 2014a. ‘Postpredic ative c opulas and the remnants of OV word order,’ Nordic
Atlas of Linguistic Struc tures (NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/36.
Garbac z, Piotr. 2014b. ‘Quantifier movement,’ Nordic Atlas of Linguistic Struc tures (NALS).
http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/40.
Larsson, Ida. 2014a. ‘Word order under lade ‘let’ and høre ‘hear’,’ Nordic Atlas of Linguistic
Struc tures (NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/56.
Larsson, Ida. 2014b. ‘GET and HAVE + past partic iple or supine,’ Nordic Atlas of Linguistic
Struc tures (NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/57.
Larsson, Ida. 2014c . ‘Expletives and agreement in passives,’ Nordic Atlas of Linguistic
Struc tures (NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/58.
Lundquist, Björn. 2014a. ‘Verb­partic les: ac tive verbs,’ Nordic Atlas of Linguistic Struc tures
(NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/4.
Lundquist, Björn. 2014b. ‘Verb­partic les: partic le plac ement in reflexive verbs,’ Nordic Atlas of
Linguistic Struc tures (NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/6.
Lundquist, Björn. 2014c . ‘Verb­partic les: partic le plac ement in passives,’ Nordic Atlas of
Linguistic Struc tures (NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/5.
Lundquist, Björn. 2014d. ‘Double objec t c onstruc tions: ac tive verbs,’ Nordic Atlas of Linguistic
Struc tures (NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/7.
Lundquist, Björn. 2014e. ‘Double objec t c onstruc tions: passive verbs,’ Nordic Atlas of
Linguistic Struc tures (NALS). http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/8.
Lundquist, Björn. 2014f. ‘Prefixed negation,’ Nordic Atlas of Linguistic Struc tures (NALS).
http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals#/c hapter/22.
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Verb phrase
Web sites:
Nordic Atlas of Language Struc tures (NALS) Journal: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals
Nordic Dialec t Corpus: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nota/sc andiasyn/index.html
Nordic Syntax Database: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nota/sc andiasyn/index.html
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