10.4 Simple sentence in Scandinavian languages

The chief principle of Scandinavian word order in a simple sentence is to put a verb in the second or the first position : OIcel. Hallgerði var sagt vig Kols ”Hallgerth was told about Kol’s murder”. The principle was not established in the 4^th - 7^th centuries. It had become a rule by the 9^th century.

The main difference between old Scandinavian and modern Scandinavian languages is the frequency of the first and second positions of a verb in a simple sentence.

In old Scandinavian languages the verb (predicate) was usually put before the subject. It could follow the conjunction ok: OSw. oc sculu sva allir taka “and all should accept”. Also, the verb was put first in case there was no subject in a sentence: OIcel. batnaði honum “he is getting better”. In a narrative, in a sequence of sentences, the verb was put in the first position, too: OIcel. skiljask Þeir “at that moment they parted”.

By the end of the old period the first position of a verb had been preserved, like in modern languages, only in the main clause of a complex sentence, which immediately follows the subjunctive clause, and in compound conditional sentences which were introduced without any conjunction.

Two other possibilities were an interrogative sentence without a question word, and an imperative sentence.

During the old period the position of other members of a sentence was fixed as well.

Unlike modern Scandinavian languages, in old Scandinavian manuscripts we find an indirect object not only after, but also before a direct object; an adjective could be put before and after the noun it determined; the genetive noun could stand before or after the noun it determined.

It should be noted that even in the old period Danish had word order which was very much alike modern rules. on the contrary, Icelandic still reveals old traces.

The main tendency in syntactical change was the development of analytical syntactical means. As a result, more frequent use of prepositions and pronouns has been registered in the course of time. Also, sentences without a subject got out of use. Cf..: OIcel. rignir “it is raining”, mik lystir “I want”. These structures without a subject were substituted by the structures with a subject. As a formal subject, OSw. þet, ODan. thær were used. The formal subject appeared in Danish in the 14^th century; it is widely used a century later. In modern Scandinavian languages a formal subject is less frequent in Icelandic and it is widely used in Danish. Swedish and Norwegian are close to the Danish model than to the Icelandic one.

Reading material

Basic

Жлуктенко Ю.О., Яворська Т.А., op. cit., c.39-43, 50-51.

Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English, op. cit., p.29-31.

Стеблин-Каменский М.И. История скандинавских языков. -М.-Л.: Ан СССР, 1953.

Additional

Аракин В.Д. Сопоставительная типология скандинавских языков. - М.: Высшая школа, 1984.

Вессен Э. Скандинавские языки. - М., 1949.