{"title":"Verbal group complexes in Norwegian","authors":"Hilde Hasselgård","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103971","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article presents a corpus-based study of hypotactic verbal group complexes (VGCs) in Norwegian with the form ‘verb^infinitive marker^verb’, for instance <em>begynne å lese</em> (‘begin to read’). The aims are to identify the meanings expressed by such VGCs in terms of the primary and secondary verbs that occur in them, thereby illuminating the nature of the verbs that occur in such VGCs and any additional meanings that arise from the collocation of primary and secondary verb. Particular attention is paid to VGCs expressing conation, time phase, and usuality. Findings show that meaning categories are unequally represented in the corpus in terms of frequency. A large majority of VGCs express material processes. While some of the VGC meanings overlap with those of tense, aspect or modality, others go beyond these systems. VGCs can thus be seen as a supplement to the systems of tense and modality in that they can include meanings in the verbal group that are not fully grammaticalized. In addition, some of the meaning categories are associated with particular semantic prosodies, especially involving ‘effort’, ‘difficulty’ and ‘voluntary action’.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103971"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Lingua","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024384125000968","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article presents a corpus-based study of hypotactic verbal group complexes (VGCs) in Norwegian with the form ‘verb^infinitive marker^verb’, for instance begynne å lese (‘begin to read’). The aims are to identify the meanings expressed by such VGCs in terms of the primary and secondary verbs that occur in them, thereby illuminating the nature of the verbs that occur in such VGCs and any additional meanings that arise from the collocation of primary and secondary verb. Particular attention is paid to VGCs expressing conation, time phase, and usuality. Findings show that meaning categories are unequally represented in the corpus in terms of frequency. A large majority of VGCs express material processes. While some of the VGC meanings overlap with those of tense, aspect or modality, others go beyond these systems. VGCs can thus be seen as a supplement to the systems of tense and modality in that they can include meanings in the verbal group that are not fully grammaticalized. In addition, some of the meaning categories are associated with particular semantic prosodies, especially involving ‘effort’, ‘difficulty’ and ‘voluntary action’.
期刊介绍:
Lingua publishes papers of any length, if justified, as well as review articles surveying developments in the various fields of linguistics, and occasional discussions. A considerable number of pages in each issue are devoted to critical book reviews. Lingua also publishes Lingua Franca articles consisting of provocative exchanges expressing strong opinions on central topics in linguistics; The Decade In articles which are educational articles offering the nonspecialist linguist an overview of a given area of study; and Taking up the Gauntlet special issues composed of a set number of papers examining one set of data and exploring whose theory offers the most insight with a minimal set of assumptions and a maximum of arguments.