Long passives in Norwegian: Evidence for complex predicates

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show that Norwegian has complex predicates, in which two verbs are reanalyzed as one predicate in a monoclausal structure, comparable to complex predicates that have been proposed for other languages. The central evidence comes from the construction called the long passive, in which the subject of the first verb is typically the patient of the second verb. Norwegian long passives often have passive morphology on both verbs, and I consider this a case of verbal feature agreement. The article also discusses evidence for complex predicates from active sentences.

The features of the voice domain: actives, passives, and restructuring

“…This would allow Voice to be spelled out as an independent auxiliary while at the same time matching with the matrix Voice. Such rule is arguably marked and thus captures the dispreference noted in Lødrup (2014) for such constructions. 20 A similar issue may arise for English, which is typically analyzed as not allowing voice restructuring since LOM of the form *The car was tried to repair is entirely impossible.…”

“…In section 3.1, we began our journey through the voice domain by noting that Norwegian allows both morphological and periphrastic passive. Interestingly, Norwegian also allows LOM in restructuring contexts, and, as illustrated in (41), allows both voice matching and default voice constructions (Lødrup 2014 notes that speakers may have a preference for voice matching, but both constructions are attested). Since Norwegian is, in our sense, an optional incorporation language, this is exactly what we expect: when it comes to restructuring Voice, both strategies are available.…”

Verbal present participles in Norwegian: Controlled complements or parts of complex predicates

“…This "feature agreement" has been established as a restructuring phenomenon (Niño 1997, Sells 2004, Wiklund 2007. Example ( 14) shows feature agreement with the preceding passive verb, (15) with the preceding imperative form, and ( 16) with the preceding participle form (Lødrup 2014a, Havnelid 2015, Aagaard 2016 Restructuring is usually an optional process. Verbs that can be light verbs in complex predicates also appear as full verbs in e.g.…”

“…For example, the Norwegian verb prøve 'try' is a verb that allows restructuring with an infinitive. The resulting complex predicate can passivize, as in ( 14) (Lødrup 2014a). It also allows the second verb to take on verbal features of the first verb.…”

Pseudocoordination with posture verbs in Mainland Scandinavian: A grammaticalized progressive construction?

“…(46), and Danish, cf. Norwegian also allows this kind of passive outside of pseudocoordination with a small number of verbs (Lødrup 2014b). An example is (50).…”