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COMPLEX SENTENCES (To be l'ead aftel' chaptel' 24) A complex sentence is one which is composed of two clauses: a dependent clause (en bisetning) and an independent clause (en hovedsetning). The two clauses are linked by a subordinating conjunction (en undel'ol'dnende konjunksjon), which always comes before the subject in the dependent clause. In the following examples, we will use these abbreviations to label the parts of the sentence. Note that capital letters refer to independent clauses. IND independent clause dep dependent clause S subject of independent clause s subject of dependent clause V verb (or first element of verb) in independent clause v verb (or first element of verb) in dependent clause sc subordinating conjunction Study these two sample complex sentences in English, paying attention to the parts which are labeled:¥ IND 1. I was sixteen, s v¥ dep I learned to <. V drive. 2. I learned to drive when I was sixteen. S V sc s v "- ....---IIll,.---'j "'-'-----.,.---"'j ..... ¥ IND dep Now we will look at how complex sentences are formed in Norwegian . One aspect to keep in mind is that conjunctions do not cause inversion of the normal subject--verb word order~ This holds for both co-ordinating conjunctions (en sideol'dnende konjunksjon) like og, men, e~~el', and fol', and for subordinating conjunctions like at, om, fOl'di, da, nal', and 8e~v om. Thus, in a dependent clause, the word order is always: sc s v. But dependent clauses cannot stand alone; they always join up with an independent clause to form a complex sentence. Word order in the independent clause is normal (S--V) when the independent clause begins the sentence: han ble sulten. s v Han spiste ,S V ~¥ IND da sc '-----~--_ ..... /¥ dep 165 COMPLEX SENTENCES If we move the dependent clause to the first slot in the sentence , the word order in the independent clause must be inverted (V--S): 4. Oa sc "han s ble sulten, v¥ dep spiste han. V S¥ !NO A comma separates the two clauses when the dependent clause comes first. The inversion in the independent clause of sentence 4. follows the same pattern as V--S inversion in these simple declarative sentences: 5. Frokost spiste han. V S 6. Klokka sju spiste han. V S 7. Oa spiste han. V S In examples 5-7, as well as in 4, something other than the subject of the sentence is in the first slot. We can think of dependent clauses filling the first slot in the same way that objects, prepositional phrases, and adverbs can fill ito The final aspect of word order in complex sentences deals with the placement of adverbs (like ikke) in dependent clauses. You recall that in independent clauses (and simple declarative sentences) ikke comes right after the V: 8. Han snakker ikke. S V adv In dependent clauses, however, ikke and some other adverbs come before the verb: 9. fordi han ikke snakker sc s adv v I~O vi videre. S / gikk 'V This word order occurs both when the dependent clause is first in the complex sentence: 10. Fordi vi ikke sa deg, ,"-sc h2v / T dep and when the independent clause comes first: 11. gikk videre V / fordi '"- sc vi ikke s adv ..... dep sa deg. v / 166 ...

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