Nordic Atlas of Language Structures (NALS) Journal, Vol. 1

Copyright © Piotr Garbacz 2014

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Postadjectival indefinite article

Piotr Garbacz

University of Oslo

1. Introduction

The postadjectival indefinite article, sometimes also labeled 'double indefiniteness', is found in dialects spoken in the Northern Swedish provinces of Västerbotten, Ångermanland, Medelpad, and Jämtland, as well as in the Northern Norwegian dialects, north of the Trøndelag area (Delsing 2003), see the two examples below taken from Delsing (2003: 45):

(1)	a.	e	märskvärdu		e	selvsje	(Swedish)
		a	strange		a	silver_spoon
		‘A strange silver spoon.’
	b.	e	stutt	e	rånnkringlut	e	skaft	(Swedish)
		a	short	a	round-crooked	a	handle
		‘a short, round-crooked handle.’

The postadjectival indefinite article is absent in both standard and non-standard varieties of Danish, Fenno-Swedish, Faroese, and Icelandic (Delsning 2003). In contrast to the regular indefinite article, the postadjectival article can also appear in the plural (Marklund 1986:33 ff.). To all appearances, the postadjectival article had a wider distribution in earlier times, e.g in the Swedish provinces of Dalarna and Norrbotten, and the Finnish province of Österbotten (Dahl 2010:103; Delsing 2003:46-48).

In addition to the postadjectival indefinite article described above, there exists another type of this article. This latter type requires a degree element så (and its cognates) in front of the adjective, see the example in (2). It is common in Germanic varieties, with the exception of modern Standard Swedish (Delsing 1993:138-139).

(2)	så	stort	et	hus	(Danish)
	so	big	a	house
	'Such a big house.'

2. Results

2.1 Nordic Syntax Database (NSD)

The acceptance of the postadjectival indefinite article has been tested in the NDS among Norwegian, Swedish and Fenno-Swedish informants. Different variants of the construction were tested: (i) a postadjectival indefinite article following a single adjective, see (3); (ii) a postadjectival indefinite article following a single adjective preceded by the degree element så 'such' (which in its turn was preceded by an indefinite article), see (4); (iii) a postadjectival article following an adjective with the degree element så 'such', see (5); and (iv) doubling of the indefinite article, see (6). The last construction is apparently not a case of a postadjectival indefinite article, but just a case of article doubling that is treated together with the postadjectival indefinite article here. It may also be interpreted as consisting of an indefinite article and a definite article, as it is analysed by Thráinsson et al. (2004:96) for the Faroese expression eitt kvöldið 'one of the nights.'

(3)	Vi	såg	en	svart	en	häst.	(#1216) (Swedish)
	we	saw	a	black	a	horse
	`We saw a black horse.´

(4)	En	så	svart	en	häst	har	jag	aldrig	sett	förr.	(#1217) (Swedish)
	a	so	black	a	horse	have	I	never	seen	before
	'I have never seen such a black horse.'

(5)	a.	Så	svart	en	häst	har	jag	aldrig	sett	förr.	(#718) (Swedish)
		so	black	a	horse	have	I	never	seen	before
		'I have never seen such a black horse.'

(6)	a.	En	dag-en	skal	jeg	bygge	meg	ei	hytte.	(#709) (Norwegian)
		a	day_a	shall	I	build	myself	a	cottage
		'One day I will build a cottage for myself.'

The acceptance of the above-mentioned constructions is shown in the maps below.

Map 1: Postadjectival indefinite article

(#1216: Vi såg en svart en häst. ‘We saw a black horse.’)

(White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).

Map 2: Doubling of indefinite articles

(#1217: En så svart en häst har jag aldrig sett förr ‘I have never seen such a black horse.’)
(White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).

Map 3: Single indefinite article after an adjective

(#718: Så svart en häst har jag aldrig sett förr. ‘I have never seen such a black horse.’)
(White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).

Map 4: Doubling of the indefinite article of the type ‘en dag en’

(#709: /En dag-en skal jeg bygge meg ei hytte.’One day I will build a cottage for myself.’)
(White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).

Among the tested sentences, the #718 is accepted in most places in Scandinavian, followed by #1217 and #1216. The doubling of indefinite article the type en dag- en (#709) is accepted by all the informants in Saltvik on Åland and in Karlsøy in northern Norway (Troms). It is also accepted by older informants in two Norwegian locations: Nord-Trøndelag (Meråker) and Rogaland (Karmøy).

Article doubling with a single adjective preceded by the degree element så 'such', cf. (5) above, is widely accepted in Northern Sweden (in the provinces of Härjedalen, Jämtland, Västerbotten, Dalarna, Medelpad, and Ångermanland) and in Northern Norway (especially in the province of Trøndelag, but also in Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark). In addition, the phenomenon is judged as grammatical in Northwestern Norway (Møre og Romsdal) and in Southeastern Norway (Telemark and Akershus).

Postadjectival article with a single adjective, cf. (3) above, is judged as grammatical only in seven locations in Northern Sweden (the provinces of Härjedalen, Jämtland, and Västerbotten), but among older informants it is accepted also in Northern Norway (Nordland) and in additional locations in Northern Sweden (Dalarna).

Finally, the postadjectival article following an adjective with the degree element så 'such', cf. (4) above, is accepted in the central and northern parts of both Sweden and Norway.

2.2 Nordic Dialect Corpus (NDC)

Indefinite article doubling with a single adjective is attested in the NDC in Norway and Sweden, although there are only a few hits. In Sweden, the construction is found in Medelpad (7), and in Norway it is attested in Nordland (8) and (9), and in Troms (10). Interestingly, the test sentence #1216, that is supposed to test the same construction is judged as ungrammatical by the informants in Ballangen and Sømna, who nevertheless produce it. The distribution is shown in Map 5.

(7)

det

var

ju

en

naturlig

en

del

av

livet

här

hemma

det

(Swedish)

it

was

ADV

a

natural

a

part

of

life.DEF

here

at_home

it

'It was a natural part of life here at home.' (indal_om3)

(8)	he	vi	jo	hadd	en	lanng	en	flått	en	sommar	(Norwegian)
	have	we	ADV	had	a	long	a	nice	a	summar
	'...we have had a long and nice summer.' (ballangen_04gk)

(9)

en

#

ifrå

gammaL

ti

en

stor

en

fin

en

haga

(Norwegian)

a

from

old

time

a

big

a

nice

a

garden

"...an old, big, nice garden' (soemna_04gk)

(10)	æ	hadde	ei	svart	ei	bok	(Norwegian)
	I	had	a	black	a	book
	'I had a black book.' (mefjordvaer_20)

Map 5: Indefinite article doubling with a single adjective as attested in the NDC.
(White = high score)

Doubling of the indefinite article with a single adjective preceded by the degree element så 'such' is only found once in the corpus in Troms (11), and the informants also judge the test sentence #1217 as grammatical.

(11)	de	e	en	så	triveliar	en	by	å	være	i	(Norwegian)
	it	is	a	so	nicer	a	city	to	be	in
	'This is a city that is so much nicer to dwell.' (lavangen_04gk)

The postadjectival article following an adjective with the degree element så 'such' is the most frequently attested example of the postadjectival article in the NDC. It is found both in Norway and Denmark, but not in Sweden. In Norway, it is found in the southern regions of Aust-Agder and Telemark, in northwestern Oppland and central Møre og Romsdal and in Troms in Northern Norway, see (12)-(16).

(12)	hadde	så	stor	en	går	menn	hann	ær	mye	å	(Norwegian)
	had	so	big	a	farm	but	he	is	much	to
	'...had such a big farm, but it is much to...' (soendeled_ma_01)

(13)

nårr

enn

havvnar

i

så

go

æin

stol

så

søvvnar

n

då

(Norwegian)

when

one

lands

in

so

good

a

chair

so

falls_asleep

one

then

'When one lands in such a comfortable chair, one falls asleep the.' (nissedal_04gk)

(14)	åss	hadde	så	strenng	æin	lærar	(Norwegian)
	we	had	so	strict	a	teacher
	'We had such a strict teacher.' (lom_03gm)

(15)

de

e

så

smalt

æi

nissje

de

#

marrkede

dæi

søke

inn

(Norwegian)

it

is

so

narrow

a

niche

the

market.DEF

they

search

in

'It is such a small niche, the market that they target.' (rauma_03gm)

(16)	så	fikk	æ	så	onnt	ei	akksel	(Norwegian)
	so	got	I	so	sore	a	shoulder
	'So my shoulder begun to hurt so much.' (tromsoeysund_ma_01)

In Denmark, the construction is found in Ærø, Nordjylland, and Sjælland, cf. (17) - (19). Interestingly, all of the Danish examples are constructed with the adjective stor 'big'. The Norwegian and Danish results are shown in Map 6 below.

(17)

det

er

så

stort

et

sogn

at

de

er

for

sig

selv

(Danish)

it

is

so

big

a

parish

that

they

are

for

REFL

self

'It is such a big parish that they are an independent unit.' (aeroe1)

(18)	på	den	måde	er	det	inte	så	stor	en	grund	(Danish)
	in	this	way	is	it	not	so	big	a	ground
	'In this way, it is not such a big reason...' (nordjylland1)

(19)	jeg	er	ikke	så	vild	med	så	stor	en	by	(Danish)
	I	am	not	so	wild	with	so	big	a	city
	'I don't like very much such a big city.' (sjaelland2)

Map 6: Postadjectival articles following an adjective modified by the attribute så 'such' as attested in the NDC. (White = high score)

Finally, doubling of the indefinite article of the type en dag-en 'one day', is only attested once in Northern Norway, in Nordland (Mo i Rana), see (20). The informant, however, rejects the sentence #709 that is supposed to test the construction in question.

(20)	here	ein	dag-en	så	va	katta	borrte	i	to	daga	(Norwegian)
	here	a	day-a	so	was	cat.DEF	away	in	to	days
	'Here, one day the cat dissapeared for two days.' (mo_i_rana_03gm)

All of the postadjectival indefinite articles tested in the NSD are found in the NDC, the postadjectival article following an adjective followed by the degree element så 'such' being the one found the most often. It is also worth mentioning that all the types of postadjectival indefinite article are found only in the Norwegian part of the NDC.

3. Discussion

3.1 General remarks

The postadjectival indefinite article is mostly a Northern Scandinavian phenomenon, according to the literature and to the research infrastructure. In Norway, it is rarely judged as grammatical in the southern parts of the country and it is never attested there in spontaneous speech. In Sweden, it is neither judged as grammatical or attested south of the province of Dalarna. The postadjectival indefinite article in the construction så stort ett hus ‘so big a house’ is most frequently attested, both in the NDC and in the NSD, also in Denmark.

Generally, the picture of postadjectival indefinite articles given in the literature and the picture that emerges from the data gathered in the NSD and the NDC are similar, although not identical. In the research infrastructure, one finds all of the postadjectival article types mentioned in Section 1 above. The biggest differences are found between the spontaneous data of the NDC and the elicited data of the NDS, see 3.3. below.

3.2 Age variation

Generally, the postadjectival article is most often accepted and produced by older speakers. This is especially visible in the case of the postadjectival article following an adjective with the degree marker så 'such', compare the general acceptance of the construction in Map 7 to the acceptance among older speakers in Map 8.

Map 7: General acceptance of (#718). Map 8: Acceptance of (#718) among older speakers. ( Så svart en häst har jag aldrig sett förr. ‘I have never seen such a black horse.’) (White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).

The construction en dag-en 'one day', this is normally rejected in all of Norway, Sweden and Finland, but some older Norwegian speakers in Trøndelag (Meråker, Lierne) and in Rogaland (Karmøy) accept it, see Map 9 below.

Map 9: Acceptance of #709: (En dag-en skal jeg bygge meg ei hytte.’One day I will build a cottage for myself.’) among older speakers
(White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).

3.3 Spontaneous data vs. elicited judgment data

There is a certain asymmetry between the two types of data gathered in the infrastructure: the spontaneous and the elicited. The postadjectival indefinite article following a single adjective is judged as grammatical only in Sweden, not in Norway, but the NDC data show clearly that this phenomenon is found in natural speech among the Norwegian informants (interestingly the same informants that produce the construction, consider an example sentence with the same construction as ungrammatical in their dialect). When the adjective is preceded by the degree marker så ‘such’, article doubling is only attested once in the NDC (Lavangen in Northern Norway), whereas it is judged as fully grammatical by a substantial number of both Norwegian and Swedish informants in the NSD. The postadjectival article in the construction så stort ett hus ‘so big a house’ is accepted by about fifty percent of all the Norwegian informants in the NSD, and it is also often found in the NDC. In Sweden, it is though never found in the spontaneous speech, nevertheless it is accepted in the majority of Northern Swedish locations. Finally, the construction en dag-en ‘a day a’ is only accepted by the informants in Karlsøy (Northern Norway), of which no one produces it. Conversely, it is found in the speech of an older female informant in Mo i Rana, who judge it as ungrammatical. The results thus indicate – in line with earlier studies – that judgments and actual speech may differ. It is also apparent that the Swedish part of the corpus – probably due to its small size – does not cover the variation that is present in the spoken language.

References

Dahl, Östen. 2010. Grammaticalization in the North: Noun Phrase Morphosyntax in Scandinavian Vernaculars. Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University: Stockholm.

Delsing, Lars-Olof. 1993. The Internal Structure of Noun Phrases in the Scandinavian Languages. A Comparative Study. PhD-dissertation, Lund University.

Delsing, Lars-Olof. 2003. 'Syntaktisk variation i nordiska nominalfraser,' in Vangsnes, Øystein Alexander; Anders Holmberg & Lars-Olof Delsing (eds.) Dialektsyntaktiska studier av den nordiska nominalfrasen, Novus, Oslo, 11-64.

Marklund, Thorsten. 1986. Skelleftemålet - grammatik och ordlista. Stiftelsen Skellefteå museum, Skellefteå.

Thráinsson, Höskuldur, Hjalmar P. Petersen, Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen, Zakaris Svabo Hansen. 2004. Faroese. An Overview and Reference Grammar. Føroya Fróðskaparfelag: Tórshavn.

Web sites:

Nordic Atlas of Language Structures (NALS) Journal: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals

Nordic Dialect Corpus: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nota/scandiasyn/index.html

Nordic Syntax Database: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nota/scandiasyn/index.html