Swedish: An Essential Grammar, 2nd edition

han, men studera vill han inte.
Translations: (Lit.: Terrible it is.) (Lit.: A newspaper we bought too.) That I can
never believe. Last year he died (not this year). (Lit.: Run after girls he can, but
study he will not.)
Weight principle
The weight principle is revealed in different structures in 12.7.3–12.7.7
below. It can be formulated as follows: unstressed familiar information (a
short element) tends to be placed to the left in the sentence, while heavy
new information (a long element) tends to be placed to the right in the
sentence. Thus the balance in most sentences is ‘right-heavy’.
12.7.2
1111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1011
1
12111
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
20111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
40
41111
Moving
elements
within the
main clause
193

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1 The principle means that elements losing their stress may move leftwards
(+/– indicates +stress/ –stress):
T
FV
S
CA
NFV
O/C OA
O– 
←⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
O+