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Long passives in Norwegian: Evidence for complex predicates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2014

Helge Lødrup
Helge Lødrup*
Affiliation:
University of Oslo, Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, Pb 1102, Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway. helge.lodrup@iln.uio.no
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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.

Keywords

complex predicateslong passivesNorwegian syntaxreanalysisrestructuringverbal feature agreement
Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , December 2014 , pp. 367 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © Nordic Association of Linguistics 2014 

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