Swedish: An Essential Grammar, 2nd edition

Var det oppositionsledaren (W) som kritiserade regeringen?
Was it the Leader of the Opposition who criticized the government?
(cf. Kritiserade oppositionsledaren regeringen?)
Är det jag (W) som måste bestämma?
Is it me who must decide?
Är det öl (W) som han dricker?
Is it beer he’s drinking?
12.7.8
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Moving
elements
within the
main clause
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Subordinate clauses
Subordinate clause as an element in the main clause
sentence
1 Subordinate clauses usually constitute the subject, object or other
adverbial in a main clause sentence. As such they may occupy several
different positions. In looking at the main clause in this way we can talk
of first stage analysis (cf. 12.8.2):
T
FV
S
CA
NFV
O/C
OA
X
2
Subject clause:
Att du är frisk
gläder
–
–
–
mig.
Det
gläder
–
–
–
mig
–
att du är
frisk.
Object clause:
Han
sa
–
inte
–
–
igår
att han
skulle bort.
Att han skulle bort
sa
han
inte
–
–
igår.
Adverbial clause:
Vi
åker
–
–
–
–
när han 
kommer. 
När han kommer
åker
vi.
Translations: That you are better pleases me. It pleases me that you are better. He
didn’t say yesterday that he was going away. (Lit.: That he was going away he didn’t say
yesterday.) We’ll leave when he comes. When he comes we’ll leave.
Adverbial clauses also begin with: därför att, eftersom, fast(än), innan,
medan, om, sedan, trots att.
Note that:
(a) Subject and object clauses occupy the T or X
2
positions.
(b) Most adverbial clauses (time, condition, cause) occupy the T, CA or
OA positions.
(c) Some adverbial clauses (result) may only occupy the OA position:
12.8.1
12.8
12
Word order
and sentence
structure
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T
FV
S
CA
NFV
O/C
OA
Man måste
–
–
stödja honom
för att han inte ska
falla. 
Jag
var
–
–
–
så arg
att jag genast gick
därifrån.
Translations: One has to support him so that he doesn’t fall. I was so angry that I left
immediately.
2 A relative clause usually functions as an attribute to a noun (subject,
object) and begins with the indeclinable som (där, dit):
Han tittade på flickorna (O) som satt på bänken.
He looked at the girls who were sitting on the bench.
Filmen (S) som vi gick på var fantastisk.
The film that we went to was fantastic.
3 An independent clause is a subordinate clause which stands alone as a
sentence and does not form part of a larger main clause sentence. It is
usually an exclamation or wish:
Conj.
S
CA
FV
NFV
O/C
OA
Om
du
bara
visste
–
allt!
Att
ni
inte
blir
–
trötta!
Translations: If you only knew everything! (Lit.: That you don’t get tired!)
Subordinate clause structure
Subordinate clauses (which may be elements in main clause sentences)
also possess an internal structure of their own. In looking at this we may
talk of second stage analysis (cf. 12.8.1):
12.8.2
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Matrix
Conj.
S
CA
FV
NFV
O/C
OA
Vi åker
när
han kommer.
Vi frågade
om
de
inte
hade
packat väskan.
Eftersom
de
inte
(hade) sagt
ett ord, –
visste vi inget.
Vi tyckte,
(att)
det
inte
var
–
roligt
längre.
Om vi är
tysta,
och om
vi
inte
busar,
–
–
–
får vi se på TV.
Translations: We’ll leave when he arrives. We asked whether they hadn’t packed the
case. As they hadn’t said a word we knew nothing. We thought (that) it wasn’t funny
any longer. If we are quiet and if we’re not naughty, we can watch TV.
Notice the following characteristics of the subordinate clause:
1 There is no topic in the subordinate clause; the order is always:
conjunction – subject – CA – finite verb, i.e.
•
the clause always begins with a subordinating conjunction or other
subordinator (see 11.2 f).
•
the clausal adverbial comes before the finite verb. (Remember S-I-V:
Subject – Inte –Verb, 12.7.5)
•
the word order is straight (S-FV).
2 The subject position is always occupied.
3 The conjunction att may sometimes be omitted.
4 The auxiliary har/hade may be omitted when there is a supine (in the
NFV position). This omission of har is common in written Swedish, unusual
in normal spoken Swedish.
5 Notice also that the adverbial splits the infinitive in Swedish: