ABSTRACT
This list comprises terms that may not be familiar to a student of language, as well as those that are not already explained in the text. Users should also consult the index for references in the text.
abstract nouns refer to unobservable notions, e.g. musik, påstand, vanskelighed (music, assertion, difficulty).
abstract sense is when the literal sense is no longer transparent. Compare the meaning of the verb in: Hun satte kartoflerne over, She put the potatoes on (literal sense) with: Hun oversatte bogen, She translated the book (abstract sense) (cf. figurative sense ).
adjective phrases consist of an adjective or a participle with one or more modifiers, e.g. Han er utrolig energisk , He is incredibly energetic.
adverb phrases consist of an adverb with one or more modifiers, e.g. Han kørte temmelig hurtigt , He drove quite fast.
adverbials (see clausal adverbs ) are words, phrases or clauses that function as adverbs. Adverbs, noun phrases, prepositional phrases and subordinate clauses can all be adverbials of different kinds (manner, place, time, condition, etc.), e.g. Hun sang smuk t (adverb, manner), She sang beautifully; Hun sang hele aftenen (noun phrase, time), She sang the whole evening; Hun sang i Det Kongelige Teater (prep. phrase, place), She sang in the Royal Theatre; Hun sang kun, hvis hun havde lyst (sub. clause, condition), She only sang when she felt like it.
affix is a prefix added to the beginning or a suffix added to the end of a word, e.g. ulykkelig, unhappy; godhed , goodness.
agent is the person or thing carrying out the action in both active and passive constructions, e.g. Pigen spiser kagen, The girl eats the cake; Kagen spises af pigen , The cake is eaten by the girl.
agreement is a way of showing that two grammatical units have a certain feature in common, e.g. mine hunde , my dogs; slottet er stort , the castle is big.
apposition is where two consecutive noun phrases, separated only by a comma, denote the same entity and thus have the same referent, e.g. Per, min bror, er rig, Per, my brother, is rich.
attributive is used to describe adjectives or pronouns that precede a noun and modify it, e.g. et stort hus, a big house; min taske, my bag.
blends are new words formed by omitting part of an existing word, e.g. m(erværdi)oms(ætningsafgift) → moms , VAT.
clausal adverbs are adverbs that modify the sense of the clause as a whole, e.g. Han er ikke dum, He’s not stupid; De er altid ude, They are always out.
clause is a syntactic unit that usually consists of at least a finite verb and a subject (though the subject may be understood, as in most imperative clauses, e.g. Hent lige avisen! Do fetch the paper, please!). There are two major types of clause: main clauses (MC) and subordinate clauses (SC), e.g. Middagen stod på bordet (MC), da jeg kom hjem (SC), The dinner was on the table when I got home (cf. sentence ).
clippings are new words formed by omitting the beginning or end of a word, e.g. automobil → bil , car; biograf → bio , cinema.
collective nouns are nouns whose singular form denotes a group, e.g. familie, family; hold, team; kvæg, cattle.
common nouns are all nouns that are not PROPER NOUNS, e.g. en hund, a dog; to borde, two tables.
complements express a meaning that adds to (or complements) that of the subject or object. They can be either an adjective (phrase) or a noun (phrase) , e.g. Dorthe og Sven er intelligente . De er gode venner (Subj.Comp.), Dorthe and Sven are intelligent. They are good friends; De slog ham bevidstløs (Obj.Comp.), They knocked him unconscious. (For ‘prepositional complement’, see prepositional phrase .)
complex verbs have two or more parts: Jeg har prøvet at spise snegle, I have tried eating snails; Cyklen er blevet stjålet , The bike has been stolen.
compound verbs are verbs consisting of a stem and a prefix or particle, which may be inseparable or separable from the stem, e.g. betale, pay; but deltage/tage del , take part.
conjugation denotes the way a verb is inflected, i.e. its pattern of endings, and the grouping of verbs according to their endings, e.g. past tense forms in: Conj. I leve – levede, live; Conj. II spise – spiste, eat.
copulas are verbs linking a subject complement to the subject, e.g. Pia er dansker, Pia is a Dane; Søren blev sur, Søren became bad-tempered.
correlative is the word or phrase that a pronoun replaces or refers to, e.g. Den tale is replaced by som in: Den tale, som han holdt, var kedelig, The speech that he made was boring.
count nouns are nouns that denote individual countable entities and therefore usually have a plural form (including zero-ending), e.g. bog – bøger, book-s; dreng – drenge, boy-s; æg – æg, egg-s.
declension denotes the different ways of INFLECTING count nouns in the plural, e.g. biler, krige, flag, cars, wars, flags. It also denotes adjective inflection, e.g. en rød bil, a red car; et rødt hus, a red house; den røde bil, the red car.
definite refers to a specified entity, cf. Tyven har stjålet cyklen, The thief has stolen the bike. Indefinite refers to a non-specified entity, e.g. En tyv har stjålet cyklen, A thief has stolen the bike.
derivative refers to a word derived from a STEM, usually by the addition of an affix , e.g. angå (concern), foregå (take place), and overgå (surpass) are all derivatives of the verb gå (go).
direct object denotes a noun phrase, a pronoun or a clause governed by a (transitive) verb, e.g. Drengen hentede bolden/den , The boy fetched the ball/it; Hun sagde, at hun var træt , She said that she was tired.
duplication involves the repetition of a subject, object or adverbial, usually in the form of a pronoun or adverb, e.g. Jens, han er kvik, Jens, he is bright.
ellipsis involves the omission of a word or word group in the sentence, e.g. Må jeg få en is? Nej, du må ikke /få en is/ , Can I have an ice-cream? No, you can’t /have an ice-cream/.
figurative sense is when the literal sense has been extended but is still somehow transparent, e.g. Han fulgte i sin faders fodspor, He followed in his father’s footsteps (cf. abstract sense).
finite verb is a verb form, which in itself shows tense (and sometimes mood and/or voice). There are three finite verb forms in Danish: the present tense, the past tense and the imperative, e.g. Jeg venter; Jeg ventede; Vent!, I’m waiting; I waited; Wait! (cf. non-finite verb ).
formal subject is der or det in cases when the real subject is postponed, e.g. Der (FS) sidder en gammel mand (RS) på bænken, There’s an old man sitting on the bench; Det (FS) er synd, at du ikke kan komme til festen (RS), It’s a pity that you can’t come to the party.
front is the position at the beginning of a main clause. It is usually occupied by the subject, e.g. Vi er sultne, We are hungry. But non-subjects, especially adverbial expressions of time or place, often occupy the front position, e.g. I morgen skal jeg i biografen, Tomorrow I’m going to the cinema.
gender may indicate sex: drengen – han, pigen – hun (the boy – he, the girl – she) or grammatical gender: en stol, et barn, et hus, (a chair, a child, a house).
idiom(atic) indicates a traditional usage that is not readily explicable from the grammar or from the individual elements.
imperative is a finite verb form identical in Danish with the stem of the verb, expressing a command, warning, direction or the like, e.g. Kom! Come on!; Vend om! Turn round!
impersonal constructions do not involve a person but usually det or der, e.g. Det sner, It’s snowing; Der snydes meget, There’s a lot of cheating.
indeclinable describes words that do not inflect , e.g. the adjectives moderne, good; fælles, common, mutual, which take no endings for gender or plural: et moderne hus, a modern house; fælles venner, mutual friends. Whole word classes may be indeclinable, e.g. conjunctions and prepositions.
indefinite (see definite )
indirect object usually denotes a person or an animal benefiting from an action (i.e. the recipient), e.g. Vi gav dem pengene, We gave them the money.
infinitive phrase is a phrase consisting of an infinitive accompanied by one or more modifiers, e.g. at skrive et brev, to write a letter.
inflect means to change the form of a word by means of (inflectional) endings, vowel change or in other ways, e.g. the verb skrive (write) inflects skriv, skrive, skriver, skrev, skrevet , etc.
inflection (see inflect )
interrogative is used of questions, e.g. interrogative pronouns and adverbs introduce a question: Hvem var det? Who was that?; Hvorfor kom du ikke? Why didn’t you come?
inverted word order denotes the order: verb – subject, e.g. I dag rejser vi , Today we are leaving.
matrix is that part of a complex sentence that remains when a subordinate clause is removed, e.g. Birthe lovede, at hun ville hente os, Birthe promised that she would meet us.
morpheme is the smallest part of a word expressing meaning: in the word bilerne (the cars) there are three morphemes: bil (‘car’), er (plural morpheme), ne (definite plural morpheme).
mutated vowel is one that changes when a word is inflected, e.g. o→ ø in fod – fødder (foot – feet); u → y in ung – yngre (young – younger).
nominal means a word or phrase functioning as a noun, e.g. Bogen er interessant, The book is interesting; At læse er interessant, Reading is interesting.
non-count nouns are nouns that cannot describe individual countable entities. They may be either singular words with no plural form, usually denoting substances (‘mass-words’), e.g. luft, air; mel, flour; sand, sand; or they may be plural words with no equivalent singular form, e.g. klæder, clothes; penge, money; shorts, shorts.
non-finite verb forms are those not showing tense, namely the infinitive and the participles, e.g. (at) løbe, (to) run; løbende, running; løbet, run.
noun phrases consist of a noun accompanied by one or more modifiers, which may precede or follow the noun, e.g. en dejlig dag, a lovely day; en dag, som jeg aldrig vil glemme, a day I shall never forget.
number is a collective term for singular and plural. The plural form is usually marked by an inflectional ending, e.g. en blyant, a pencil; to blyanter , two pencils.
part of speech means word class, e.g. noun, adjective, verb, conjunction, etc.
particle is a stressed adverb or preposition appearing together with a verb to form a phrasal verb with a single unit of meaning, e.g. ned in skrive ned , write down; på in se på , watch; ud in skælde ud , tell off.
partitive denotes a part of a whole or of a substance, e.g. en del af pengene, some of the money; en flaske vin, a bottle of wine; et kilo kartofler, a kilo of potatoes.
pejorative means deprecating, e.g. dit fjols! you idiot!
predicate is the central part of the clause, excluding the subject. The predicate comprises the verb plus any object, complement or adverbial: Han spiller (klaver hver dag), He plays (the piano every day).
predicative indicates the position after a copula verb: Skuespillet er svært , The play is difficult; De bliver gamle , They’re growing old.
predicative complement (see complement )
prepositional phrase consists of a preposition plus a prepositional complement (a noun (phrase), a pronoun, an infinitive (phrase) or a clause), e.g. pigen med det lange hår , the girl with the long hair; pigen tænkte på ham , the girl thought of him; pigen gik uden at sige farvel , the girl left without saying goodbye; pigen sørgede for, at bordet blev dækket , the girl saw to it that the table was set.
productive implies that a word class or method of word formation can still produce new words, e.g. the suffix -bar in vaskbar, washable.
proper nouns are names of specific people, places, occasions, events, titles, etc., e.g. Jørgen, Randers, Løgneren .
raising is the movement of an element from a subordinate clause to the front of the main clause, e.g. Det sagde Erik at vi ikke skulle gøre, Erik said that we should not do that.
real subject is the postponed subject, e.g. Det er dejligt at sidde i solen , It’s nice to sit in the sun (cf. formal subject ).
reciprocal indicates a mutual activity expressed either in the pronoun, e.g. De elsker hinanden , They love each other, or in the verb, e.g. Vi ses i morgen, See you tomorrow.
semantic denotes the meaning of words, phrases, etc.
sentence is a syntactic unit that contains a complete meaning and consists of one or more clauses (cf. clause ). Thus the following three examples are all sentences: Se der! Look there!; Hun tager bussen, når det regner, She takes the bus when it rains; Hvis du tror, at jeg kan huske, hvad han sagde, da vi besøgte ham i sidste uge, tager du fejl, If you think that I can remember what he said when we visited him last week, you’re wrong.
simple verbs consist of one word only (a finite verb ), e.g. Hjælp! Help!; (han) sover , (he) sleeps; (hun) gik , (she) went.
statement is a sentence or clause conveying information, as distinct from a question, exclamation or command.
stem is the part of the verb onto which inflectional endings are added, e.g. danse, danser, dansede, danset .
syllable consists of a vowel and usually one or more consonants, e.g. ø, rør, rød-e, in-du-stri-ar-bej-de-re.
tag question is a phrase attached to the end of a statement, which turns it into a question: Han kan lide laks, ikke sandt? He likes salmon, doesn’t he?
verb phrases consist of a finite verb form (optionally) accompanied by one or more non-finite verb forms in a chain, e.g. Han sover , He is sleeping; Hun må kunne løbe , She must be able to run.
