Swedish: An Essential Grammar, 2nd edition

gubbe (RS) därborta, There’s an old man sitting over there.
F
RONTING
is moving an element to the beginning of the sentence, cf. Vi
älskar rödvin, We love red wine, and Rödvin älskar vi, Red wine we
love.
G
ENDER
can be by sex: pojken – han, the boy – he, tjejen – hon, the girl
– she, or grammatical gender: ett hus, ett barn; en matta (a house, a
child, a carpet).
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Linguistic
terms
231

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G
RAMMATICAL SUBJECT
(= 
FORMAL SUBJECT
)
H
OMOPHONE
is a word that is identical in sound to another word, e.g.
komma = either ‘to come’ or ‘comma’.
I
MPERATIVE
is the mood of the verb expressing command or warning or
direction, e.g. Kom!, Come on!; Rör om!, Stir.
I
MPERSONAL
constructions do not involve a person but usually the
impersonal pronoun det, e.g. Det snöar, It’s snowing.
I
MPLIED SUBJECT
is actually an object which functions as subject in a
non-finite clause, e.g. Vi bad honom skriva en rad, We asked him to
drop us a line.
I
NDECLINABLE
describes a word that does not 
INFLECT
, e.g. the adjectives
bra, good; utrikes, foreign; öde, deserted, which take no endings for
neuter or plural.
I
NDEFINITE
(cf. 
DEFINITE
)
I
NDIRECT OBJECT
is usually a person or animal benefiting from an action:
e.g. Vi gav honom pengarna, We gave him the money.
I
NFINITIVE PHRASE
is a phrase consisting of an infinitive accompanied by
optional words which modify it, e.g. att skriva brev, to write a letter.
I
NFLECT
means to change form by modifying an ending, e.g. the verb
skriva (write) inflects skriv, skriva, skriver, skrev, skrivit, skriven; the
noun bil, bilen, bilar, bilarna, bilarnas, the adjective rolig, roligt, roliga,
etc.
I
NFLEXIBLE
(= 
INDECLINABLE
)
I
NFLEXION
(see 
INFLECT
)
I
NTERROGATIVE
means question, e.g. an interrogative pronoun asks a
question: Vem var det?, Who was that?; Varför kom du hit?, Why did
you come here?
I
NVERTED
word order denotes verb–subject order, e.g. Idag åker vi, Today
we leave.
M
ATRIX
is that part of a main clause sentence remaining when the
subordinate clause is removed, e.g. Eva lovade att hon skulle skriva till
oss, Eva promised that she would write to us.
M
ORPHEME
is the smallest part of a word expressing some meaning: in
the word bilarna, the cars, there are three morphemes: bil, ‘car’, ar,
plural morpheme, na, definite morpheme.
M
UTATED VOWEL
is one that changes in different forms of the word, e.g.
o 
→
ö in son – söner, son – sons; stor – större, big – bigger.
N
OMINAL
means a word or phrase acting as a noun, e.g. Boken är intressant,
The book is interesting. Some verbs and adjectives can also be used
nominally: Att simma är roligt, To swim is fun; den gamla, the old
woman.
Linguistic
terms
232

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N
ON
-
COUNT NOUN
is a noun, often denoting an abstract or substance,
that does not usually take a plural, e.g. mjöl, flour; bensin, petrol; luft,
air; vatten, water; glädje, joy.
N
ON
-
FINITE VERB
forms are those forms not showing tense or mood, namely
infinitive, supine and participles.
N
OUN PHRASE
is a noun often accompanied by one or more words before
or after the noun which modify it, e.g. en vacker dikt som jag lärde
mig, a beautiful poem that I learned.
N
UMBER
is a collective term for singular and (usually marked by an
ending) plural, e.g. en penna, one/a pen, två pennor, two pens.
O
THER ADVERBIALS
(or content adverbials or sentence adverbials) are
usually an adverb, noun phrase or subordinate clause denoting manner,
place, time or condition, e.g. Han åker med tåg (Manner) till Stockholm
(Place) i morgon (Time) om han har tid (Condition), He will travel by
train to Stockholm tomorrow if he has time.
P
ARENTHETICAL
means bracketing, e.g. the prepositional expression för