Bisatsledföljden i äldre svenska – variation eller förändring?

Abstract

This article focuses on word order in subordinate clauses in the history of Swedish, mainly Old Swedish (1225–1526). In traditional descriptions of Old Swedish syntax it has been argued that the word order in main and subordinate clauses is identical with respect to the internal order between the finite verb and sentence adverbial. This marks a clear contrast to Modern Swedish with its particular subordinate clause word order marked by the pre-finite placement of the sentence adverbial. This article reports a quantitative analysis of a corpus of 12 Old Swedish texts (about 300,000 words), and in contrast to previous descriptions, it is shown that the Modern Swedish word order pattern also occurred in Old Swedish subordinate clauses. The most striking result of the study is however related to subject type: during 1225–1450 the Modern Swedish word order is restricted to subordinate clauses with pronominal subjects, whereas Modern Swedish word order can occur independently of the subject type in texts written after 1450. The possibility of using the Modern Swedish word order pattern independently of the subject type is described as an innovation creating two different grammars. During the Early Modern Swedish Period, one of these grammars becomes predominant. This change has previously been related to the loss of verbal agreement. In this article it is however argued that the change is dependent on the sociolinguistic situation in 17th century Sweden.