1. science
2. social science
3. philosophy

Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax
39
Sten Vikner
MODALS IN DANISH AND EVENT EXPRESSIONS
Department of English
lmiversity of Geneva
22 Blvd des Philosophes
CH-1205 Geneve
Switzerland
June 1988.
l. Introduetion
Modals In Danish and Event. E.xpressions
In this paper I will discuss the effects t.hat a Danish modal verb of deontic
Contents
obligation has on the VP with event interpretation that. it may govern. These
l . Introduetion . .. ... .. ....... . . . . .. . . . . .. . .. . . . . . .. . ... . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
VPs with event interpretation differ from VPs with event interpretation
2. Modal Verbs . . ... ......... .. . . .. . . . ... . . . .. . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
.bl.iYe ("become"), and one of the two types of kQrome ("come"), tut require
governed by other modals in that they do not. allow the event verbs .få ( "get"),
2. 1 Two types of meaning: Epistemic vs. root . . . . . . .... ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
either the state verbs haYe ("have") ,
2.2 Differences between epistemic and root moelals . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ... 6
(bare adverbial of direction or 6-passive). l
("be") or some special construct.ion
Section 2 is an introduetion to modals in Danish, especially w. r.t. the dis­
2. 2. l Tenses . ... . .. . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . .. .. . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. .... .. 6
2. 2. 2 Empty categories as subjects . .. . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . ... . .... .. . . . . 8
Yære
tinetion epistemic/root. Before the central data are set forth in section 4,
2.2. 3 Ordering and combination . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
section 3 introduces the basic idea of the analysis, that some verbs, although
2. 2.4 Pronominal complements . . . . . . . .... ... . .. . . . . . ... .. .... . . .. .. .. .. 10
they do not take any arguments (i. e. t.hey do not assign any thematic roles),
2. 2. 5 Pseudo-clefts . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . ... .. . . . . . . . . . .. ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
assign an "additional" thematic role. Section 5 and 6 analyse t.he data and
attempts an account in terms of the analysis suggested in section 3. Section 7
3. Analysis . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3. 1 9-roles and Additional 8-roles . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . .. . . .. .. . . . .. . ... ... . . 12
lists a series of further facts that the proposed analysis accounts for
straightforwardly, before the conclusion in section 8.
The different types of data discussed in this paper were first. b:rought
3. 2 Raising or Control . .. . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . .. . . ..... . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 13
together and discussed in a very interesting paper by Erik Hansen ( 1972), and
4. Data
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15
in the appendix I comment specifically on a proposal of his, the so-c�lled
"interessee"-construction, in that I suggest that it does not exist as such.
5. State Expressions Replace Event Expressions: ;!:å + NP, .bl.iYe + AP
.
. . . . .. .. 19
6. Special Constructions: Motion and Passive . . .. . . . . . . .. .... . ... .. . . . ... . ... 20
6. l K&!mme vs. Bare Adverbials of Direction . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 20
2
Modal Verbs
6. 2 Illi.Ye-passive vs. 6-passive . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 23
I will consider the following verbs to be modals in Danish: Yllle , � .
Jlåt:!& , lwnne , burde , :tl.l..l::d.e , and �. As for their translations and use, see
6.3 Perfect Infinitives . . . . .. . . .. .. .. . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
(5)-(11) in section 2. 1 below.
Here I will briefly state three (sets of) properties that these verbs have:
7 . Some Other Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 26
i) They may be followed by infinitives without the infinitival marker at
7 .l Idioms . . . . . .. . . . ... . .. . . ... . . . .. . . .. .. . .. ... .. . .... . . ......... . . . . . . . 26
7. 2 Source phrases .... .. . . . . ... ... . .. . . . .. .. ... .. .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. 26
(l) a.
7. 4 Preposed Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . .. ... . .. . . .. . ... ..... ... . ....... .. 27
7.5 Adverbials of Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. .. . . ... . . . ... .... . . . .. .. . . 28
Jeg ill (*at) gå hjem nu
"I want to go home now"
7. 3 Agent Ambiguity .. . . . . .. . . .. . . . . .. . .. . . . . . .. . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 27
b.
Jeg r6rul.lrer *Cat) gå hjem nu
"I wish to go home now"
7.6 Adverbials of Duration ... . . . . .... . . . . .. .. . . ... . .. .. . . ... .. . . . . . . .. . . . 28
8. Conclusion .. ... ... .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . .. .. . . . ... . .. .. . ... .. ... 29
(2) a. Jeg gider: ikke (at) læse mere
"I do not feel like reading anymore"
b. Jeg overkomroer ikke *(at) læse mere
Appendix: The "Interessee"-Construction . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
"I am too exhausted to read anymore"
A . l 'ii.lll;: . . . . . . ... .. . . . . .. . . . . ... . . . . . . . .. .. .. . .. . .. . .. .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
A. 2 Sw.lle
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References .. ........... . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . ...... .. .. . . . . . ... 32
l
I am very grateful to Carl Vilmer for help and comments. I should also like
to thank the following: Christer Platzack, Ian Roberts, Jane Grimshaw, Niels
Davidsen-Nielsen, Paul Harrison, Lars-Ake Henningson, Ramona R�isch, and
audlences at the University of Lund in March 1988, and the Univerflity of TromsØ
in May 1988.
Part of the research for thifl paper was made pollsible by a grant from the
"Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique", Berne, Swit..erland.
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32
Erik Hansen (1977) reports that both :tl.!rdf: ("dan:�") and � ( "feel inclined
to") are beginning to accept infinitives with a.t (hence the lack of a star
Below I list the modale in Danish, giving examples of their epistemic and
inside the bracket in (2a)), whereas � ("need"), which is not treated as a
modal in the present paper, is beginning to be accepted with infinitives
their root use. Only when relevant in this art.icle have I made a further dis­
tinetion between more than one epistemic or bet.ween more than one root use. As
shown by Davidsen-Nielsen (1988), many more such distinctions are possible.
without a.t.
ii) Modals also behave differently from (most) other verbs w. r. t. tag ques­
(Note that the examples are listed as to their preferred interpretation. Almost
all may be ambiguous given the appropriate context.)
tions, as shown in Lundskær-Nielsen (1983: 8). Most frequently tags are just
� ("not'') for postive statements and :iel for negative ones, but real tag
questions like the ones used in English are also poesible, and here the verb
im ("do" l must be inserted in all cases, except. haY:e ("have"), Yæ.re ("be"),
b.
Hun haJ: ikke læst min artikel, hat:!*� hlm vel?
"She has not read my art.icle, has/does Bhe?"
Han el: gået' w*� han ikke?
( 6) a.
(4) a.
b.
skulle (report.)
Han skal tjene mange penge
c.
skulle
Han skal gå i skole hver dag
"He must go to school every day"
of money"
Han kan svømme, k.an/*� han ikke ogsl\?
"He
d.
vi..lle.
Han vil læse lingvistik
"He wants to read linguistics"
"He is said to make a lot
"He is gone, is/does he not?"
c.
b.
"He will survive the chock"
and the modals where it eannot be inserted :
(3)a.
ROOT
EPISTEMIC
(5) a . vi..lle.
Han vil overleve chocket
can
swim, can/does he not (too)?"
b.
Hun Yil ikke sove godt i nat, Yil!*� hun vel?
"She will not sleep well tonight, will/does she?"
Han fik malet huset, gjQrde/*fik han ikke også?
skulle (promise)
Jeg skal nok rydde op efter mig
"I shall clean up after myself"
( 7) a
.
!llåtte.
b.
!llåtte. (obligation)
"He got the house painted, did/got he not (too)?"
Hun måtte sove tungt
Han må selv tage ansvaret
Hun bleY alligevel ikke syg, �*bl.eY hun vel?
"She had to be sound asleep"
"He must take the responsibility
himself"
"She became not ill anyway, did/became she?"
c.
Hun lw.m ind på universitetet, �*&:m� hun ikke?
d.
Hun 1.æa:te min art.ikel, �*læa:te hun ikke?
"She came into the university, did/came she not?"
c.
!llåtte. (permission)
Hun må låne min bil
"She read my art.icle, did/read she not?"
"She may borrow my car"
iii) Finally, modals are often said to be morphologically deficient, in that
( 8) a
they do not have e.g. an imperative or a present part.iciple. This is not unique
ltu.nn.e
Det kan let gå galt
to modals, as it also goes for e.g. få ("get"), haYe ("have"), beaidde., e.iJa
"Things may easily go wrong"
.
b.
kunne (ability)
Han kan ikke svØmme
"He eannot swim"
(both "possess"), � ("owe"). The question iB also whether this is really a
morphological phenomenon, as it could be argued to be more of a sernantic one,
c.
especially as regards the imperative.
ltu.nn.e (permission)
Du kan låne min c')'kel
"You may borrow my bicycle"
2 l Two types of roeaning: Eoistemic ys root
The distinction between epistemic modals and J�t modals is a well-known
one. As a brief summary of this distinction, let
me
quote Platzack ( 1979: 44) ,
(9)a.
�
b.
Han burde opfØre sig pænt
"That ought to be enough"
"He ought to behave"
who says that "the epistemic sense . . . qualifles the truth value of the
sentence containing the modal", and that "the root sense ... expresses neces­
sity, obligation, permission, volition, or ability
on
behalf of an agent which
usually, but not necessarily, is expressed by the . . . subject of the sentence".
- 4 -
�
Det burde slå til
- 5 -
(l O ) a.
:tJ..u:de2
Det turde være en overdrivelse
:tw::de
Han tØr ikke gå ud alene
"It is probably an exaggeration"
"He dare not go out alone"
b.
(13) a. ?Han bar skullet bo i Arhus
"He has been said to live in Arhus
=
He is said to have lived in
Arhus"
b.
(11) a. *ltide.
t.tilie.
Han gider kun at se TV
b. ?Der hal:: måske nok � være tale om en fejl
"There has maybe probably could be talk about a mistake
"He only feels like watching TV"
The root modals may be divided into two groups, deontic (Yil,k, akuJ.le,
=
It might have been a mistake"
He is therefore lead to say that epistemic modals "do not normallv occur in the
o:åt:l&l , irurme (permjssion), b.mie) and non-deontic (kurme labilHyl, :tl.l.rde ,
past participle" (my emphasis).
gide_). The deontic modals may be further divided into those =ncerned with
obligation (Yil,k, akuJ.le, måtte (obligation), b.u::deJ and permission (o:åt:l&l
modals, really is the perfect o f the main verbs. One argument is that (13a, b)
( reil!lissionl, kurme (permission)).
However, the main two groups to be distinguished below are one consisting of
In my view the perfect in (13), although clearly realised on the epistemic
mean exactly the same as ( 14a, b), where it is the main verb that cx:ccurs in the
perfect tense:
deontic obligation modals (y:jj,k, l3.kl.ll.l.fl, måtte (obligationl, b.mie) and
another one consisting of all the others (måtte (ooil!lissionl, lrunne (oormis­
(14) a.
ciQnl , kurme (abilityl' :tl.l.rde , gide_).
Han skal have boet i Arhus
"He is said to have lived in Arhus"
b.
Der kan måske nok have været tale om en fej l
"There can maybe probably have been talk about a mistaks
2 2 Differences between eoistemic and root moctals �
=
It might have been a mistake"
The five subsections below diseuse different distinctions between epistemic
and root modale. This is done mainly so that the :reader may see on what I base
Another argument is based on the interpretation of (13a) when an adverbial like
the classification of a particular use of a modal as epistemic or root. This is
"since 1983" is added:
particularly relevant in the appendix.
In other words, all that sections 2. 2.l
-
2.2.!5 amount to is a diseuseion of
various tests for epistemic vs. root. Although it obviously is desirable, I
(15) ?Han har skullet bo i Arhus siden 1983
"He has been said to live in Arhus since 1983"
will not try to explain the data, but content myself with grouping them for
classificational purposes.
The interpretation of (15) clearly is that his living in Arhus reportedly
started in 1983, and not that the reports of his living in Arhus started in
1983. In other words, the adverbial modifies the main verb, not the modal. As
2 2 l Tenses
Whereas epistemic modals eannot occur in perfect or past perfect, root ones
in (16) , I again find that, in spite of appearances, it is the main verb that
may:
is in the perfect rather than the modal in (13) and (15) .
(12) a. *Han bar villet tjene mange penge
"He has been going to earn a lot of money"
(16) a.
b.
Han hal:: yjllet tjene mange penge
"He has wanted to earn a lot of money"
However, Davidsen-Nielsen (1988:ch. 2, p. 26) lists the two following exam­
ples of eplstemles in the perfect (13), which admittedly are not completely
unacceptable (my underlining and juclgments):
an adverbial like "since 1983" can only modify a perfect tense,
as c.an
be seen
Han skal haye boet i Arhus siden 1983
"He is said to have lived in Arhus since 1983"
b. *Han skal w i Arhus siden 1983
"He is said to live in Arhus since 1983"
The two views make two different predictions w.r.t. the possibility of both the
modal and the main verb occurring in the perfect: If the modal is poesible in
the perfect, both verbe should be possible in the perfect, whereas if the per­
fect somehow is misplaced from the main verb to the modal in the examples
a bove, then both verbe should not be possible in the perfect. To my ear two
2
I agree with Skyum-Nielsen (1971:213) that the epistemic use of :tJ..u:de is
archaic, and below I will simply aseurne that :tw::de has no epistemic use in
modem Danish (as does Davidsen-Nielsen (1988:ch. 2, pp. 26-28)).
- 6 -
perfects are not possible, and this is compatible only with the latter view:
- 7 -
(21) a.
(17) a. *Han har skullet have boet i Arhus
Det ser ud til t at ville blive godt vejr i eftermiddag
"It seems to will become nice weather this afternoon
"He has been said to have lived in Arhus."
b. *Der har måske nok kl.lno.e:t have været tale om en fejl
=
This afternoon seems to be going to be nice"
b. *Hun forekommer mig t at måtte have sovet under forelæsningen
"There has maybe probably could have been talk about a mistake"
"She appears to me to must have slept during the lecture"
c.
This analysis might suggest that the occurrenc:e of epistemic modals in per­
fect or past perfec:t is not prevented by a syntactic condition
as
such,
as
( 13)
Han ser ud til t at ville gØre alting på en gang
"He seems to want to do everything sirnultaneously"
does occur, but rather a restrietion of a different kind, perhaps a sernantic
one.3
2 2 3 Ordering and combination
Epistemic modals may not be embedded under root ones, (22b),
2 2 2 Empty categories
as
subiects
modale may be embedded under epietemic ones,
Epistemic modals eannot have PRO as subjec:t (�orhether it is arbitrary PRO,
whereas root
(22a):
as
in (18), or not, as in (19)), whereas root modalE; can:
(22) a.
De flkal Yill.e bygge et hus
"They are said to want to build a house"
b. *De ill gerne� have tjent en milion"
(18) a. *Ilet er behageligt PRO at ville tjene mange penge hurtigt
"It is pleasant to be going to
b.
earn
"They would like to be said to have made a million"
a lot of money quickly"
Det er moderne PRO at ville tjene mange penge hurtigt
A modal eannot be combined with iteelf, not even in ite two different read­
"It is fashionable to want to earn a lot of money quickly"
inge:
(19) a. *Han drØmte om PRO at kunne være reJst tH London
(23) a. *Han flkal � gå til lægen hver uge
"He dreamt that he might have gone to London"
b.
"He is said to have to see a cloetor every week"
Han drØmte om PRO at kunne svØmme
b. *Hun kan � svØmme længere end du tror
"He dreamt about being able to swim"
"She might be able to swim further than you think"
Both kinds may have a !ID-trace
as
subject,
As for the combination of two epistemic,
(20) a.
b.
(24a-d),
or two root modals,
Hvem t kan have sendt de 50 rØde roser?
(24e-h), it seems that both are possible, but only if the sec:ond of the two
"Who might have sent the 50 red roses?"
modale is � (Cf. also Østkjær Jense.n (1987: 28) and the ex. in Thråinsson
Hvem t kan svØmme over Kanalen?
(1986:262,
n13)):4
"Who is able to swim across the Channel?"
Though this kl.Jl:lne , as well as the one in the following example is tmdoub­
tedly epistemic, it seems that it may appear in the perfec:t tense , cf. sec:tion
2.2.1. I have no satisfactory explanation to offer:
4
whereas the pieture is less clear when it comes to havi.ng an NP-trace
ject (i.e.
as
sub­
being embedded under a raising verb). Here the epistemic seems to
vary somewhat, (21a,b):
(i) a.
Det måtte have kunnet stå på en side
"It must have been poesible to fit it onto one page"
b. ??Det måtte have kunnet have stået på en side
"It must have been poesible to have fitted it onto one page
(ii) a.
Der ville let have kunnet gå noget galt
"It would easily have been poesible that something went wrong"
b. ??Der ville let bave kunnet være gået noget galt
"It would easily have been poesible that something had gone wrong"
In the framework of Vikner (1985:93-96), such a restrietion could be said
to rule out interpretations of sentences involvir�g epistemic modals where the
event point precedes the second point of reference. Of course the question of
why these representations should be ruled out is still unanswered. Also unans­
wered is the question of why the perfec:t of the epistemic in (13) is better
than the one in (12a) .
3
- 8 -
Det må have kunnet regne i dagevis i det gamle Rom, at dØmme efter...
"It must have been poesible for it to rain for days in ancient Rome,
judging from ... "
b. ??Det må have kunnet have regnet i dagevis i det gamle Rom,
"It must have been poesible for it to have rained for days in ancient
Rome, ..."
(iii) a.
- 9 -
(see also Hansen (1972:24) and Østkjær Jensen (1987:53)).5
(24) a.
Det må � stå på en side
"It must be possible to fit it onto one page"
b.
Der Yil let kunne gå noget galt
"It will easily be possible that something goes wrong"
c. *Han Yil 6lmll.e have læst bogen
2 2 5 Pseucio-clefts
Root modals may occur in this construction, (26), epistemic ones eannot,
(27) (cf.
Thrainsson (1986:255), Davidsen-Nielsen (1988: ch. 2, p. 13)):
"He will be said to have read the book"
(26) a.
d. *Han 5kal ri.lle opfØre sig pænt
Det eneste han Yil er at svare på sPØrgsmålet
"He is said to be going to behave"
e.
"The only thing he wants to is answer the question"
Han 5kal kunne svØJmJe for at få jobbet
b.
Det eneste han 5kal er at svare på sPØrgsmålet
c.
Det eneste han absolut må er at svare på sPØrgsmålet
d.
Det eneste han g<Xl.t må er at låne min cykel
e.
Det eneste han godt kan er at låne min cykel
f.
En af de ting han ikke kan er at svØmme over Kanalen
g.
En af de ting han absolut w er at svare på sPØrgsmålet
h.
En af de ting han ikke � er at svØmme over Kanalen
"One of the things he dare not is swim across the Channel"
i.
En af de ting han ikke � er at svØmme over Kanalen
"The only thing he has to is answer the question"
"He must be able to swim to get the job"
f. ?Hun Yil � forstå fransk
"The only thing he absolutely must to is answer the question"
"She wants to be able to understand French"
g. *Han Yil turde gå op i Eiffeltårnet
"He wants to dare to go up in the Eiffel Tower"
"The only thing he may is borrow
h. *Hun 5kal gide at gå på indkØb
"She must feel like doing the shopping"
"The only thing he can is borrow
my
my
bicycle"
bicycle"
"One of the things he eannot is swim across the Channel"
2 2 4 Pronominal comolemente
This is actually not a difference between epistemic and root modals, as I
disagree with Platzack (1979:46), who claims that only root modals may have det
"One of the things he absolutely ought to is answer the question"
("it") as complement (in Swedish). I do not find this to be the case for
Danish, both kinds may have this complement.
The examples show that epistemic
"One of the things he doesn't feel like is swim across the Channel"
modals do indeed have "it" as a (substitute for t.heir) complement:
(25) a. Han vil være hjemme hele dagen. M vil hun desuden også.
"He will be at home all day. So will she. "
b. Han skal være rejst til London. - Nå, dm< skal han? Jeg har ellers lige
set ham.
"He is supposed to have gone to London. - Oh, he is? I just saw him."
c. Jeg lover Dem, aviserne skal afslØre denne valgsvindel. Og � skal de
elektroniske medier også.
"I promise you that the papers will revectl this election fraud. And so
will the electronic media"
d. Klokken må have været g<Xl.t halv ti. - Ja, det må den vel.
"It must have been araund 9.30 - Yes, I guess it must have."
e. De må have været te�m�elig berusede. Og det må vi egentlig også.
"They must have been rather drunk. And so must we . "
f. Kan brevene være kOI!Illet allerede i mandags? - Ja, de!. kan de g<Xl.t.
"M:ight the letters have arrived already �!onday? - Yes, they might."
g. Pengene burde række. - Nå, så de!. burde de?
"The money should be enough. - Oh, they should?"
- 10 -
5
For some unknown reason, det has to be in topicalised position (Specifier
of CP), as in the (a) examples below, and eannot occur in normal object posi­
tion, cf. the (b) examples below. This is different from main verbs, (iv), and
also from the main verb use of � ( "can") , (iii) :
(i)
a.
(ii)
a.
(iii)
a.
(iv)
a.
Det
"It
Det
"It
Det
"It
Det
"It
skal han ikke
shall/is-said he not"
kan han ikke
may/can he not"
kan han ikke
knows he not"
hØrte han ikke
heard he not"
b. *Han
"He
b. *Han
"He
Han
b.
"He
b. Han
"He
- 11 -
skal det ikke
shall/is-said it not"
kan det ikke
may/can it not"
kan det ikke
knows it not"
hØrte det ikke
heard it not"
(27) a. *Det han vil i 100rgen er at tabe kampen om mesterskabet
"What he will tomorrow is lose the fight about the charopionship"
b. *Det han efter sigende skal er at stemme på de Konservative
"What he is said to is vote for the Coru3ervatives"
c. *Det han nok skal er at rydde op efter s.i.g en anden gang
all event verbe that are the counterparts of the state verbe l:laYe ("have"),
� ( "be"). The difference between the two sets is thus that the event verbe
ass:ign an additional 9-role to their subject, and the stat.e ones do not. This
corresponds to the intuition that the event expressions have all the irnplica­
tions of the state ones plus some 100re.
"What he shall is to clean up after himself another time"
d. *Det hun måtte var at have sovet under foredraget
(28) a.
b.
Han har tre biler
Han får tre biler
"He gets three cars"
"He has three cars"
"What she must was have slept during the talk"
e. *Det hun kan er at have sovet over sig
"What she might is to have overslept"
(29) a.
b.
Han er professor
Han bliver professor
"He becomes a professor"
"He is a professor"
f. *Det hun l::urde var at have vidst det
"What she ought to was have known it"
(30) a.
b.
Han er i London
3
Han kollliller til London
"He arrives in London"
"He is in London"
Analysis
3 l 9-roles and Additional B-roJes
Thematic roles, or G-roles are roles that are assigned by verbs, preposi­
tions, or adjectives, to argument NPs. Examples of G-roles are agent, theme,
3.2 Raising or Control
In accordance with the thematic properties set out above, i.e. that IOOdals
do not assign normal G-roles, I will follow Zubizarreta's (1982:133--34) sugges­
goal, source, experiencer. The assignment of 9-roles is constrained by the
tion (given for French) that IOOdals are like raising verbs: The subject of a
G-criterion, which says a) that each 8-role must be aBelgned to one and only
one argument, and b) each argument must receive one and only one G-role.
IOOdal is base-generated somewhere else, and moved into the subject position.s
This has often been IOOdi fied by the addition of other kinds of roles to the
(31a) is an example of a raising verb and (3lb) of a modal (in this case
ambiguous w.r.t. epistemic/deontic)
ones constrained by the G-criterion, e.g. Zubiza:rreta (1982) or Grimshaw
(1986), to mention but a few.
Here I want to suggest the existence of what I will call an "additional
(31) a.
r-0---,
Hani ser ud til ti at more sig
"He seems to enjoy himself"
G-role". The idea is that this kind of 8-role is aBelgned by obligation root
IOOdale and also by få ( "get"), � ( "become"), and one of the two types of
lwmme ( "come").
b.
This additional G-role may be assigned to an argument that alr�eady has a
"He is said to/must enjoy himself"
G-role, cf. the idea in Zubizarreta (1982:41,123) that 8-roles exist that are
invisible for the G-criterion. However, as opposed to Zubizarreta, I want to
suggest that one additional G-role may be assigned to euch argument, BUT NCYI'
,o-,
Hani skal ti 100re sig
An alternative would be to analyse modale as parallel to control verbs:
TWO . The intuition is that two additional 9-roles would give the argument too
much "8-burden", much like an argument eannot receive 100re than one normal
G-role, which again suggests that additional G-n)les are not completely
(32)
,-G�
,-G---,
Hani lovede hende PROi at more sig
"He promised her to enjoy himself"
invisible to the G-criterion.
Thus one half of the G-eriterion see.ms to hold completely for additional 8roles as they IWBt be assigned to one and only one argument. The other half of
the G-criterion only holds halfway, as an argument may not receive 100re than
one additional G-role (in addition to a normal 8--role), but it may receive less
than one additional G-role. Furthermore, as will be discussed in connection
wi th (57), there is a case where an argument would seem to be grammatical
�dthout any normal G-role, surviving on an addit:Lonal El-role only.
The three verbe that assign an additional G-n)le (apart from the obligation
root modale), få ( "get" )
,
� ( " become " ), and one type of ko.mw.e ( "come" ) , are
- 12 -
It should be noted that raisins verbs and modale are different in important
ways, e.g. in that raisins verbs allow exPletive subJects, and modalB do not:
( i)
Det ser ud til at han morer sig
"It seems that he amuses himself"
( ii) *Det skal at han morer sig
"It is said/must that he amuses himself"
- 13 -
AB my analysis in the following sections is built on a prohibition against
assigning more than one additional G-ro le to an argument,
I have to adopt the
raising analysis, where there is only one argument, the chain in (33a),
a control analysis would have three arguments, as.
by
hun, by the first PRO, and by the eecond PRO:
(34) a.
,ceJ1
,�;�,
(Obligation root)
"He must enjoy himself"
whereas
jn (33b), the chains headed
,-G,
b.
,-CGJ1
,-(O),
Han! skal ti more sig
Han! skal ti more sig
(Epistemic)
"He is said to enjoy himself"
,-e----,
(33) a. *Huni vil ti blive ti arresteret ti
4
,-e----,
1CGJ1
,-(9)1
b. *Huni vil ti blive ti arresteret ti
"She wants
Data
The hypothesis presented in section 3. l, that no more than one "addi tional
9-role" rnay be assigned to an argument, makes the prediction that none of the
different kinds of verbs that assign such an additional G-role role rnay be com­
to become arrested"
bined.
AB for combinations of (obligation) root modals with each other this has
already been mentioned above, (24g,h), and will not be discussed further.7
(AB discussed in section 4, this is an ungrammatical sentence, and I a=ount
Below I will concentrate on combinations of obligation root modals with the
for the ungrammaticality by assuming that (33a) is the right analysis, and that
three other verbs mentioned in section 3,
at most one !l-role (as assigned by arresteret ) and one additional 1;1-role (as
koiJ:Ime ( "come"). These data were originally brought together and discussed in
assigned by bliYe_,
Hansen (1972),
and also by ill in its root sense) may be assigned
chain. (33a) violates this as two additional !l-roles are assigned
but if the analysis of (33b) was on the right track,
to one
to the chain,
The constructions in the left column in (35) eannot occur embedded under an
obligation root modal, and they are replaced by the ones on the right:
I have no independent evidence
to offer at present. The characteristic dif­
ference between raising and control is that in raising constructions like (31a)
(35) a.
få NP
"he" has one role, the one of "amuser of himself"' which is assigned to the
b.
blive
trace by "amuse", whereas in (32) "he" has two roles, one of "promiser of some­
thing
to her", which is assigned to "he" by "promise", as well as one of
"arnuser of himself" which is assigned
coreference (the so-called "control") between "he" and
PROin (32), the
have NP ("have NP" )
by
være
c. komme Adv
("come Adv")
by
d. blive V-t
("become V-en")
by
as well as "someone whom something is reported of"/"someone who must some­
(36) epistemic
a.
roles is based on the intuition that there is such a role as "someone who must
b.
BOIIlething", as this is exactly what is represented by the additional 9-role
=
c.
(34,a).
To sum up, my suggestion (which admittedly is not based on strong
indepe dent evidence) is that a main verb, like
IIIQre ( "amuse")
V-e.
assigns a real
Yille
event
Indeed, the analysis that obligation root modale assign additional G­
flklJ.lle in its root use in (31b)
AP ("be AP")
Adv
Examples of this are
ende up with one role, that of "amuser of himself", or two, "amuser of himself"
d.
G-role, whereas an obligation root modal assigns an additional G-role, as in
(34a) (and so does
by
("become AP")
to the
modal construction, (31b), it is not so clear whether the subject of the modal
assigned by
("get NP")
AP
to PRO by '"amuse". Thanks to the
referent of "he" ends up with both these two roles. When comparing this
thing".
though some of them, especially the bare adverbial facts, also
had been notedin earlier works (cf. the references in Hansen (1972)).
I could not rule out the
sentence.)
U ( "get"), bliYe. ( "become"), and
state
Hun vil få tre biler i 1990
Hun vil have tre biler i 1990
"She will get three cars in 1990"
"She will have three cars in 1990"
Hun vil blive klog
Hun vil være klog
"She will become wise"
"She will be wise"
Hun vil komme hjem
Hun vil være hjemme
"She will come home"
"She will be home"
Hun vil blive arresteret
Hun vil være arresteret
"She will become arrested"
"She will be arrested"
få ("get"), bliYe. ( "become"), and one of the two types of
l:wll:lr.e ( "come" )), and a modal which is not an obligation root one, does not
assign any 9-role whatsoever, as in (34b):
7
As pointed out by Jane Grimshaw, this means that my analysis provides a
reason for the impossibility of combining an obligation root modal with another
one, but not for the impossibility of combining an epistemic modal with another
one. As the restrietions seem to be the same in the two cases, cf. section
2.2.3, this is not completely satisfactory.
- 14 -
- 15 -
(39) root � (obligation)
(37) root Yille (obligation)
event
event
a.
a.
stateB
Hun vil have tre biler i 1990
Hun vil have tre biler i 1990
"She wants to get three cars in 1990''
"She wants to have 3 cars in 1990"
Hun vil være klog
Hun vil være klog
''She wants to become wise··
"She: wants to be wise"
Hun vil hjem
Hun vil
"She wants to (go) home··
"She wants to be home"
Hun vil arresteres
Hun vil
''She wants to become arrested''
"She: wants to be arrested"
b.
c.
d.
være
være
b.
c.
hjemme
d.
arresteret
state
Hun må have tre biler i 1990
Hun må have tre biler i 1990
"She must get three cars in 1990"
"She must have three
Hun må være klog
Hun må være klog
"She must become wise"
"She must be wise"
Hun må hjem
Hun må
"She must (go) home"
"She must be home"
være
cars
in 1990"
hjemme
Hun må arresteres
Hun må være arresteret
"She must become arrested"
"She must be arrested"
(40) root måtte (gerne) (non -obligation, i.e. permission)
This
means
event
that for the first two canatruetions there will be ambiguity
statejevent in the obligation root construction,
(37a, b) & (39a, b),
to the epistemic canatruetion with the same verbs,
as
opposed
a.
( 36a, b) & ( 38a, b), and the
non-obligation root construction, (40a,b), in all of which there is a dif­
b.
ference between the state and the event. For the (c,d) constructions, the state
and the event
are
c.
distinct throughout.
event
b.
c.
d.
Hun må (gerne) have
"She is allowed to get 3 cars in 1990"
"She is allowed to have 3 .
Hun må (gerne) blive klog
Hun må (gerne) være klog
"She is allowed to become wise"
"She is allowed to be wise"
Hun må få tre biler i 1990
Hun må have tre biler
"She must get three cars in 1990"
"She must have three cars in 1990"
Hun må blive klog
Hun må være klog
"She must become wise"
"She must be wise"
Hun må kODJDe hjem
Hun må være hjemme
"She must come home"
"She: must be home"
Hun må blive arresteret
"She must become arrested"
Hun må være arresteret
biler ...
Hun må (gerne) være hjemme
"She is allowed to come home"
"She is allowed to be home"
.
.
"
Hun må (gerne) være arresteret
"She is allowed to become arrested"
state
tre
Hun må (gerne) komme hjem
d. ?Hun må (gerne) blive arresteret
(38) epistemic måtte
a.
state
Hun må (gerne) få tre biler i 1990
"She is allowed to be arrested"
The rest of this section is just going to be a list of the same canatrue­
tions with the other modals. In other words, you may wish to skip
to
p. 19.
(41) epistemic ekulle
event
a.
"She is said to get 3
"She must be arrested"
b.
c.
d
.
state
Hun skal få tre biler i 1990
cars
Hun skal have tre biler i 1990
in 1990"
"She is said to have 3 cars
Hun skal blive klog
Hun skal være klog
"She is said to become wise"
"She is said to be wise"
Hun skal komme hjem
Hun skal være hjemme
"She is said to come home"
"She is said to be home"
Hun skal blive arresteret
Hun skal være arresteret
"She is said to become arrested"
"She is said to be arrested"
(42) root ekulle (obligation)
event
a.
b.
s
Thoush the first reaction of many native speakers may be that this is not
so, obligation root modale are actually perfectly· compatible with state inter­
pretations as shown by e . g.
(i)
Jeg vil/skal være i London den 21. marts
"I want to/must be in London on March 21st"
- 16 -
c.
d.
state
Hun skal have tre biler i 1990
Hun skal have tre biler i 1990
"She must get three cars in 1990"
"She must have three cars in 1990"
Hun skal være klog
Hun skal være klog
"She must become wise"
"She must be wise"
Hun skal hjem
Hun skal være hjemme
"She must (go) home"
"She must be home"
Hun skal arresteres
Hun skal være arresteret
"She must become arrested"
"She must be arrested"
- 17 -
(47) root turde (non-obligation)
event
(43) epistemic �
event
a.
Hun kan få tre biler i 1990
"She may have three cars in 1990"
Hun kan blive klog
c.
"She may be wise"
Hun kan komme hjem
d.
"She may be home"
Hun kan blive arresteret
event
can
Hun tØr være hjemme
"She dare come home"
"She dare be home"
d.
Hun tØr blive arresteret
Hun tØr være arresteret
"She dare be=me arrested"
"She dare be arrested"
(48) root gide (non-obligation)
Hun kan blive klog
c.
Hun kan kOIIlllle hjem
can
a.
Hun kan være klog
become wise"
"She can come home"
"She does not mind having 3 ..."
Hun gider (godt) blive klog
Hun gider (godt) være klog
"She does not mind becoming wise"
"She does not mind being wiae"
c.
Hun gider (godt) komme hjem
Hun gider (godt) være hjemme
"She does not mind coming home"
"She does not mind being home"
d.
Hun gider (godt) blive arresteret
Hun gider (godt) være an-esteret
"She does not mind becoming arrested"
"She does not mind being arrested"
"She can be home"
Hun kan være arresteret
become arrested"
"She
can
be arrested"
(45) epistemic burde
event
statE,
a.
Hun bØr få tre biler i 1990
"She ought to get three cars in 1990"
"She ought to have 3 cars in 1990"
b.
Hun b;Sr blive klog
Hun bØr være klog
"She ought to become wise"
"She ought to be wise"
c.
Hun bØr komme hjem
Hun bØr være hjemme
"She ought to come home"
"She ought to be home"
d.
Hun bØr blive arresteret
Hun bØr være arresteret
"She ought to be arrested"
Hun bØr have tre biler i 1990
"She ought to become arrested"
5. State Exoressions Reolace Eyent Expressions: få + NP, blive t .AE.�
Eå and bliY.e are ungran:matical embedded under obligation root modals
(49) a. *Hvis du Yil få din lØn udbetalt kontant, så...
"If you want to get your salary paid out in cash, then..."
b. *Han 6kal bliY.e nummer et hver gang, ellers bliver han sur
"He must become number one every time, otherwise he gets cross"
c. *Han Yil bliY.e fotograferet hele tiden
statE,
Hun bØr have tre biler i 1990
Hun bØr have tre biler i 1990
"She ought to have 3 cars in 1990"
"She ought to get three cars in 1990"
Hun bØr være klog
d.
root modal:
(50) a.
Hun bØr hjem
"She ought to (go) home"
Hun bØr være hjemme
"She ought to be home"
Hun bØr arresteres
Hun bØr være arresteret
"She ought to become arrested"
"She' ought to be arrested"
Hvis du Yil � din lØn udbetalt kontant, så...
"If you want to have your salary paid out in cash, then... "
Hun bØr være klog
"She ought to be wise"
"She ought to become wise"
c.
(OK: a-passive, cf. 6.2)
"He wants to be photographed all the time"
Instead, it is poesible to have � and � embedded under an obligation
event
b.
as
would be predicted:S
(46) root burde (obligation)
a.
Hun gider (godt) have tre biler ..
b.
"She can be wise"
Hun kan være hjemme
state
Hun gider (godt) få tre biler i 1990
"She does not mind getting 3 ..."
"She can have three cars in 1990"
d. ?Hun kan b live arresteret
can
event
Hun kan have tre biler i 1990
get three cars in 1990"
b.
"She
"She dare be wise"
Hun tØr ko mme hjem
state
Hun kan få tre biler i 1990
"She
"She dare become wise"
c.
"She may be arrested"
(44) root � (non-obligation, i.e. permission and/or ability)
"She
Hun tØr være klog
Hun kan være arresteret
"She may become arrested"
a.
"She dare have three cars in 1990"
Hun tØr blive klog
Hun kan være hjemme
"She may come home"
Hun tØr have tre biler 1 1990
b.
Hun kan være klog
"She may become wise"
state
Hun tØr få tre biler i 1990
"She dare get three cars in 1990"
Hun kan have tre biler
"She may get three cars in 1990''
b.
a.
state
b.
Han 6kal � nummer et hver gang, ellers bliver han sur
"He must be number one every time, otherwise he gets cross"
s
Cf. also the appendix on p. 29 about Hansen's (1972) so-called
"interessee" -constructions .
- 18
-
- 19 -
This presents a serious conceptual problem: Not only is it poesible to sub­
( 52) a.
take on event meaning, as can be seen when comparing (50) with (49a,b). If
b.
event meaning follows from the additional G-role suggested in section 3.1, then
why is it not the event meaning that is ilDpoesible with obligation root modale,
tut only the event expressions? I have no satisfatctory answer to this ques­
Han 6kal lromm.e
"He must come"
stitute state expressions for event expressions, tut the state expressions also
Hun Yil kQmme hjem hver dag
"She wants to come home every day"
c.
Han må lmmme. til London ØJeblikkeligt
"He has to come to London right away"
tion. 10
Note that it is not the case that the state expressions are the "unmarked"
expressions that may be used both for events and continuities and that the
This may be a different kQmme, though, as it is ungrammatical with
an
adverbial
of direction that has a figurative reading:
event expressions are somehow "marked": This would predict that the state
expressions could have an event interpretation in all the constructions, not
only when embedded under an obligation root modal. This is not the case
((51a,b) are epistemic modals, (51c) is a deantic non-obligation one, and (51d)
is a non-deantic (and therefore also non-obligation) one) :
(53) a. *Han 6kal kQmme igang
"He has to get started"
b. *Hun Yil kQmme ind i Folketinget
"She wants to become a member of parliament"
c . *Han må lromm.e op på tæerne
(51) a. *Hvis ikke du skriver til forlaget, Yil tx:>gen ikke Yæi:e trykt
"He must get to be on his toes"
"If you do not write to the p..�blisher, the book will not be printed"
b. *Hun lOkal have � millionær på bare ft:>.m år
"She is said to have become a millionah-e in only five years"
c. *Hvis du er interesseret, kan du haJle din lØn udbetalt kontant
"If you are interested, you may have your salary paid out in cash "
d. *De gidei: ikke Yæi:e hjem
"They do not feel like coming (or going) home"
I shall therefore suggest the following: There
are
two types of komme, which we
might call an auxiliary lromm.e and a main verb kQmme.
The auxiliary kQmme does not occur on its own (as in (52a)), it only
occurs
with adverbials of direction, both "literal", as in (52b,c) and figurative
ones, as in (53). It assigns an additional Q-role to its subject. It may not
occur embedded under obligation root modals, cf. that ( 52b, c) and (53) are
grammatical without kQmme (though with a slightly different interpretation for
(52b,c), which may be due to deixis, cf. the diseuseion of (56) below).
6
Soocial Constructions: Motion and Passive
The main verb kQmme does not occur with figurative adverbials of direction,
tut only on its own or with "literal" adverbials, as in (52). It assigns
an
6 l Ko!mne ys Bare Adverbials of Direction
The situation w. r. t. lmmme is more complicated than the one w. r. t. få and
ordinary G-role to its surface subject. 11 The main verb lmmme. may oc--cur
embedded under obligation root modal s, cf. (52).
blive deseribed above. It is poesible to find kQmwe embedded under obligation
That lmmme. also exists as an auxiliary may be seen as supported by two sets
of facts of a more morphological nature. One is that it turne up as a .. real"
root modale :
auxiliary in some languages: Italian has a passive formed with venire , French
has a pas t tense formed with .lleniJ:: , and Swedish forms future with kQill!!lfl att :
10
From a comparative point of view, it is in��resting to note the following
in Swedish: Although the event oonatruetions themselves are not impossible in
the way they are in Danish (cf. (49) ), the etate expressions may take on event
interpretation in exactly the same cases as in Danish: if and only if embedded
under obligation root modale. The same goes for the construction with the bare
adverbial of direction, it is also poesible in �{actly the same con�s as in
Danish. (As for the f!-passive, it is much more widespread in Swedish anyWay and
is therefore poesible not only in the same contexts as in Danish but also e.g.
after epistemic modale) . This seerne rather difficult to account for, tut per­
haps a poesible analysis could be to simply say t.hat the event expressions are
not analysed as assigning an additional G-role in Swedish. The question of why
the state expressions may take on event interpretation in certain cases and not
in others is left unanswered as before, but is now even more of a mystery.
11
The surface subject of lmmme (which is an ergative verb) is basegenerated
as an object, whereas the surface subject of an intransitive verb like �
("sleep") is basegenerated as a subject (cf. Vikller & Sprouse (1988) and the
references cited there). This distinction is not crucial for the present analy­
sis.
- 20 -
- 21 -
(54) a. It.
all. Cf. that it never occurs without a modal either, (57b):
Il libro viene letto
''The book comes read = The book is read"
b. Fr.
(57) a. *fu kan hjem med det
Il vient de mourir
c. Sw.
(OK:gå hjemlkO!Wle hjem)
samme
"go hornejeorne home"
"You may home right away"
"He comes from dyi.ng = He just died"
Han kommer att lasa boken
(OK:gå hjem/kOJ!Ille hiem)
b. *Jeg så dem hjem
"go hornejeorne home"
"I saw (=watched) them home"
"He comes to read the boo k = He will read the boo k"
The other (perhaps more sp;trious) argument supporti.ng that auxiliary ls.o.DJr.le is
The intuition is that as the bare adverbial assigns no 9-role, the subject
somehow related to the (other) two event expressions få and � is the fol­
of (57a) receives no 9-role at all, hence the ungrammaticality. This implies
however, that in the cases of obligation root modals with bare adverbials (e.g.
lowi.ng:
(56b)), it is poesible for an argument to survive even though it is only bei.ng
(55) a. få
b. bliYe
is
""
bekQmmen ''
in German
is
''
beQQme ''
in English
assigned an additional Q-role and no normal one.
and
"deYenir"
in French
(57b) is ungrammatical for a parallel reason, dem receives no G·-role.
Although e! assigns a 9-role to its complement, the role of "what is seen",
The above analysis with its suggestion that two kinds of ls.o.D:m:le exist, an
thi s role is assigned to the whole constituent dem h Jem, cf. that in
auxiliary and a main verb, makes the prediction that (main V) kOl!llle should be
possible embedded under an obligation root modal whenever a bare place adver­
bial is
poesible there. There are many exceptions from this, but they may
(58)
Jeg så dem danse
"I saw them dance"
presumably all be accounted for by the well-known deictic requirements on
k.OJ!Ille, i.e. the movement deseribed by kOJ!Ille must be towards a place where
dem has the role of dancer(s), and dem danse the role of what is seen. In (58)
either the speaker or the hearer is (or may be) situated, cf. e.g. Fillmore
dem thus receives a G-role from d.!JJ:l.f!e, but dem in (57b)
(1975:50ff). This means that either the hearer or the speaker must be in London
hjem, as the bare adverbial assigns no tl-role.
can
get
no
8-role from
for (56a) to be a=eptable, whereas there is no such requirements on (56b):
(56) a. Han vil geme komme til London
"He would like to come to London"
6 2 Blive-pass ive vs s-passive
As far as embeddi.ng under root obligation modals are concemed, the
a-passive is parallel to the bare adverbial case: it is grammatical as
b. Han vil geme til London
"He would like (to go) to London"
predicted, as it does not assign any additional 9-role.
The potential embeddi.ng of the a-passive under non-obligation modals may
Thus, with the arnendment that there are two kinds of ls.Qmme , the analysis is
present more of a problem. These facts
are
rather different from the bare
able to account for the ungrammaticality of kQwme under obligation root modale
adverbial case in that the a-passive may occur on its own, and therefore eannot
in a way parallel to the account concemi.ng få, and bliYe .
be assumed to be "Q -deficient" in the way assumed for the bare adverbial of
As for the bare adverbial of direction embedded under an obligation root
dirRetion in the previous section:
modal, it is grammatical as predicted, as it presumably does not assign any
additional Q-ro le. '!'hus it is not poesible if embedded under a modal which is
(59) a.
b.
This is different from German, where the bare adverbials occur after all
roo t modals, inelucting the ones meaning permission and not obligation:
12
(i)
,
Nye opdagelser � hver dag
"New discoverles are made every day"
not an obligation roo t one, (57a),l2 presumably because it assigns no Q-role at
I England� grØntsager altid for længe
"In England vegetables
are
always boiled for too long"
Nonetheless, the a-passive is ungrammatical with epistemic modals:
dal3 Peter nur ein Mal im Jahr nach Frankfurt k&ln/da.d/�
", that Peter canjmayjwould like tojneed (go) to Frankfurt only once a year"
As for the other constructions, Østkjær Jenser, (1987:116-19,157,187) reports
that læiu ("be") may never replace � ( "becorne"), whereas llaben ("have")
often is an acceptable altemstive to bekoomen or � (both "set"), whether
it is embedded under an obligation roo t modal like mLl.l3en ("must") or under non­
obligation ones like .dl1!::ff:n ("may") or brauchen ("need").
- 22 -
(60) a. *Han vil udnævnes til professor,
men
han ved det ikke endnu
"He will be appointed professor, but he does not know yet"
b. *De skal forsendes hver for sig selvom det ikke er nØdvendigt
"They are said to be sent separately even if it is not necessary"
- 23 -
( cf . that Skyum-Nielsen ( 197 1 : 73 ) in his corpus has found two examples which he
Thi& may be because the bare adverbial and the a-passive have no past
qualifles as peculiar ( "ejendommelige" ) ) .
participle . Cf . the present tense version of ( 63 ) , where a past participle is
not necessary :
Furthei1DOre the a-passive breaks the pattern completely, as it may occur
embedded under two non-obligation root mcxials , lwnne. and måtte (oeuniseion) :
13
( 64) a .
(61) a.
Pakken kan � efter klokken tre
"He must get started now"
"The parcel can be pieked up after three o ' clock"
b.
Han llkal jgang nu
b.
Hun Yil ind i Folketinget
c.
Han llkal arresteres
"He must be arrested"
Pakken må ikke � fØr juleaften
" She wants to become a member of parliament"
"The present may not be opened before Ch.ristmas eve"
It may be interesting that these two non-obligation root modale are the two
deontic non-obligation ones , whereas the two non-obligation root modale which
In the cases where a past participle is necessary , the bare adverbial of
do not seem to allow the a-passive , turde and gide , are not deontic but what
direction and the a-passive are then replaced with constructions with været
has been called "dynamic" ( cf . e . g . Davidsen-Nielsen ( 1988 : ch . 3 , p . 2 ) :
( "been " ) , as appears when comparing ( 63) with the following ( I believe that
this observation was firet made by Jespersen ( 1932 : 206 ) ) :
( 62 ) a . ? ?Hun tØr ikke hejses op i flagstangen
(65) a .
"She dare not be hoisted up on the flagpole"
b. ? ?Han gider ikke klippes hver måned
Han .ekulle have været igang for længe siden
"He should have got started long ago"
"He doesn ' t feel like having his hair cut every month"
b.
Hun Yille have været ind i Folketinget
c.
Han .alrulJ.e have været arresteret
"She wanted to have become a member of parliament"
Both of these
are
fine with the bliYe-passive .
"He ehould have been arrested "
Summing up this section , we might say that the questions of why the embed­
dinge that were poesible under obligation root modale are not poesible under
other modale remain less than satisfactorily answered as regards the a-passive
Even if the ungrammaticality of ( 6 3 ) is accounted for by the (morphological )
facts , which do not follow the lines that have emerged so far , i . e . the parti­
unavailability of a past participle , another queetion remains : Given that være
tion between the obligation root modale on one side , and all the other modale
may occur in the cases where a perfect infinitive (of the bare adverbial or of
on the other .
the a-passive ) is called for , why can være not also appear in the present
tenee :
14
( 66) a . *Han llkal være jgang nu
6 3 Perfect Infinitlyes
"He must get started now"
When placed in a context that requires a perfect infinitive of the other
embedded verbs , the bare adverbial of direction and the a-passive are ungram­
b . *Hun Yil være ind i Folketinget
"She wants to become a member of parliament"
matical :
c . *Han llkal være arresteret
( 63) a .
*Han .alrulJ.e have jgang for længe siden
"He must be arreeted"
"He should have got started long ago"
b.
*Hun Yille haYe ind i Folketinget
I have no answer to this , but it is interesting to note the following : The
event interpretation of the etate expression ( i . e . the one with haYe ( "have" )
"She wanted to have become a member of parliament"
c.
or være ( "be" ) ) is poesible in all cases bt the two where there is an altema­
*Han .ekulle haYe arreateredes
"He should have been arrested"
tive way (of expreseing an event) which is not also interpretable as a etate :
the movement construction in present tense , as in ( 66a, b) where the unambiguoue
In ( 6 1 ) the bliYe-passive is not very good at all , cf . also ( 40d) and
( 44d) . With blive hentet and blive åbnet the examples seem to only really have
an epistemic interpretation .
13
- 24 -
r ·
•J
' ·
,,
"
'J
��
14
( 66a , c ) are fine with state interpretation , but it is the event inter­
pretation that we are concerned with here . ( 66b) eannot be interpreted as a
etate because of the directional adverbial , .l..nd.__Ul ( " into" ) , cf . section 7 . 5 ,
on p . 28 .
- 25 -
alternative is a bare adverbial of direction ,
( 68) a . *Hun haYde ingen penge af sine forældre
"She had no money of her parents "
( 64a , b) ; and the passive con­
atruetion in present tense , as in ( 66c) where the unamb:iguous al ternat ive is
the a-passive ,
( 64c ) . The same oonatruetions with a perfect infinitive , ( 6 5 )
b.
Hun fik ingen penge af sine forældre
c.
Hun Y.ille ingen penge haYe af aine forældre
" She got no money of her parents"
and ( 63 ) , are fine with the state expression having event interpretation , and
so
are
the two other oonatruetions ( with haYe + NP replacing få + NP , and with
Ylll.I:e + AP replacing b1.iYe
+
( OK without source phrase )
"She wanted to have no money of her parents "
AP) wi th a present as well as w ith a perfect
d. *Hun Y.ille ingen penge få af sine forældre
infinitive .
" She wanted to get no money of her parents"
7
Sqme Other Conseauences
7 3 Agent Amblguity
Below will be listed six properties that haYe (or Yænl) show when embedded
( Hansen ( 1972 : 27 ) , Wiwel ( 1901 : 18 0 ) )
under an obligation root modal , the ( c ) examples , oot not elsewhere , the ( a )
(69) a .
examples . As the same properties are regular properties of få ( or bliYe ,
� ) , cf . the ( b ) examples ,
Vi havde aflivet hunden
"We had killed the dog"
they are accounted. for by the analysis preseted
so far . It is also correctly predicted that the baYe ( or Ylll.I:e ) examples with
b.
V i fik aflivet hunden
c.
Vi oorde have aflivet hunden
"We got killed the dog"
these properties only have event interpretation .
"We ought ( to ) have killed the dog"
7 l Idioms ( Hansen ( 1972 : 26 ) )
� may not normally replace få in idioms ( 67a, b ) , oot embedded under an
obligation root modal it not only may ,
( 67c ) , it actually must ,
( 69b) can either have the interpretation "We put the dog to sleep" or "We
had the dog put to sleep (by someone else ) " , i . e . the agent of the participle
( 67d ) . The
that follows få may or may not be the same as the subject of få itself. This is
analysis predicts that få is out in combination Hi th obligation root modale ,
and IlllSt be replaced by haYe .
not the case with ha.Ye, the agent of the following participle must be that same
( 6 7 ) a . *Han har altid sin vilje
put the dog to sleep" , and eannot have the interpretation
b.
c.
as the subject of have , and therefore ( 69a) only has the interpretation "We had
"We had the dog put
''He always has his way"
to sleep (by someone else ) " . However , in just those cases where haYe is
Han få!.:: altid sin vilje
embedded under an obligation root modal , it is nevertheless poesible
to
have
"He always gets his way"
both interpretations , and therefore ( 69c ) may mean either "We ought to have put
Han Yil a ltid haYe sin vilje
the dog to sleep" or "We ought to have the dog put to sleep ( by someone else ) " .
"He always wants to have his way''
d. *Han Yil altid få sin vilje
7 . 4 Preposed Objects. ( Hansen ( 1972 : 28 ) )
� does not normally allow the object NP to occur before the participle ,
( 70a) , whereas få does ( 70b ) . Embedded under an obligation root modal , however ,
"He always wants to get his way"
Other expressions : få.....taly ( "get beaten up" ) , �.n:nJ.yd ( "obtain Bilence so
that one may be heard" ) , få
en
have does allow a preposed object , ( 70c ) . This i s a s predicted by the analysis ,
overraskelse ( "have a surprise " ) , etc .
få is out in cernbination with obligation root modale , ( 70d ) , and must be
replaced by have , and only in these circumstances does haYe behave exactly as
få, e . g . it allows preposed objects .
7 2 Source phraaes
� does not normally allow a phrase ( outside the object NP) that gives the
source
of the object,
( 68a ) , whereas få does ( 68b ) . Embedded under an obliga­
tion root modal , however , haYe does allow a source phrase, ( 68c) . This is as
predicted by the analysis , få is out in cernbination with obligation root
modale ,
( 68d ) , and must be replaced by ha.Ye, and only in these circumstances
does haYe behave exactly as få , e . g . it allows source phrases .
- 26 -
' ,l
- 27 -
( 7 0 ) a . *Vi ll.allde probleroet ordnet
( 7 3 ) a . *Hun ll.allde en ny sekretær i lØbet af en uge
"'She had a new secretary in a week ..
"'We had the problem fixed""
b.
Vi fik problemet ordnet
""We got the problem fixed""
c.
Vi må baY.e problemet ordnet
"'We must have the problem fixed' '
b.
Hun fik en ny sekretær i lØbet af en uge
"'She got a new secretary in a week "'
c.
Hun ill baY.e en ny sekretær i lØbet af en uge
"' She wanted to have a new secretary in a week "'
d . *Vi må få problemet ordnet
d . *Hun ill få en ny sekretær i lØbet af en uge
"'We must get the problem fixed"'
"'She wanted to have a new secretary in a week "'
7.5 Adyerbials of Direction
( Hansen ( 1972 : 29 ) )
( 7 4 ) a . *Htm
fll:
cand . mag . på fem år
"' She is an M . A . in five years "'
HaYe and Yære do not normally allow an adverbial of direction , ( 71a) and
( 72a ) , whereas få and � do , ( 7 1b) and ( 72b) . Embedded under an obligation
b.
Hun bli.Ye.!:: cand . mag . på fem år
c.
Hrm ekal Yære cand . mag . på fem år
d.
?Hrm ekal � cand . mag . på fem år
" ' She becomes an M . A . in five years "'
root modal , however, baY.e and Yære do allow an adverbial of direction , ( 7 1c )
and ( 72c) . This is as predicted by the analys is, få and lwmme are out in com­
"' She has to be an M . A . in five years "'
bination with obligation root modale , ( 7 1d) and ( 72d) , and must be replaced by
baY.e and Y<ere , and only in these circumstances do baY.e and Yære behave exactly
"' She has to be an M . A . in five years "'
as få and � . e . g . they allow adverbials of direction .
( 7 1 ) a. *Htm ll.allde alle brikkerne ned i æsken igen
"' She had all the pieces back into the box again"'
8
Conclusion
I have tried to show that the analysis of so-called '"additional"" 0 -roles
b.
Hrm fik alle brikkerne ned i æsken igen
"' She got all the pieces back into the box again"'
makes an account poesible of the intriguing facts conceming certain VPs with
c.
Htm Yi..lle baY.e alle brikkerne ned i æsken igen
event interpretation embedded tmder obligation root modals .
"' She wanted to have all the pieces back into the box again"'
d. *Hun Yi..lle få alle brikkerne ned i æsken igen
"'She wanted to get all the pieces back into the box again"'
I have also been lead to aseurne that there are two verbs lronlne (
) , an
ones concerning the distribution of the two different passives . On the other
hand a series of properties of the state expressions which
( 7 2 ) a. *Hun havde � mrez: til naboen
.. come " '
auxiliary and a main verb . Certain questions have been left rmanswered , notably
are
normally associ­
ated exclusively with event expressions have been accormted for .
"' She had been (over) to the neighbour"'
b.
Htm var kQmme1 mrez: til naboen
c.
Htm Wmlle. have � mrez: til naboen
"'She had come (over) to the neighbour"'
"' She should have been ( over) to the neighbour"'
d. *Htm Wmlle.
være
kQmme1 mrez: til naboen
"' She should have come (over) to the neighbour"'
AP.oendix : The "'Interessee"' -Construotion
Hansen ( 1972 ) suggests what he calls an "' interessee" ' -construction ( Da .
"' interessent-konstruktion"' ) to accormt for cases where obligation root modals
occur with the eYent expressions having event interpretations ( i . e . with få ,
�. and Jmmme. ) . According to him , this construction has a different inter­
pretation from the event interpretations of the state expressions , not w . r . t .
event/state ( in both cases the interpretation is one of event ) , h.tt w . r . t .
7 6 Adverbials of Duratioo
HaYe and Yære do not normally allow an adverbial of duration , ( 73a ) and
where the obligation comes from , in that the special feature of these
( 74a ) , whereas få and bliYe do ( 73b) and (74b) . Embedded rmder an obligation
of the sentence but from somewhere else ( Hansen ( 1972 : 12) ) .
root modal , however , baY.e and Yære do allow an adverbial of duration , ( 73c) and
interessee-constructions is that the obligation does not come from the subject
I disagree with this suggestion , as I do not think this kind of construction
( 7 4c ) . This is as predicted by the analysis , få and � are out in combina­
really exists . There are four potential sets of cases , as there are four
tion with obligation root modale , ( 73d) and ( 74d ) , and !DUBt be replaced by baY.e
obligation root modals , and below I will go through them one by one .
and
Y<ere,
and only in these circumstances do haYe and Y<ere behave exactly as få
and �. e . g . they allow adverbials of duration .
- 28 -
- 29 -
A l Ville.
Hansen ( 1972 : 1 1 ) gives the following examples , all of which he finels gram­
matical ( every time I cite an example from Hansen, the juclgments and the under­
Han 6kal lromme i Studienævnet
However, in none of these examples does clwl.k have an interpretation of
( 7 5 ) a . *Jeg ill gerne få det at vide
"I would like to get it to know
=
I would like to be told"
b . *Jeg ill gerne bJ.iE formand for Studienævnet
" I would like to become chairman of the Board of Studies"
c.
( 78)
"He will to get onto the Board of Studies"
linings are mine , not his) :
obligation, oot instead one of promise (by the speaker) . I think that here we
have a variant of epistemic clwl.k ( as indicated by
my
listing in ( 23d) ) , and
this is supported by the following syntactic properties :
i ) They are unacceptable in perleet (o r past perfect ) (cf . section 2 . 2 . l ) :
Jeg ill gerne kQli.IIIle hjem
"I would l ike to come home "
( 7 9 ) a . *Han har s&1llet få det at vide
d . *Jeg ill gerne bJ.iE undersØgt
" I would like to be examined"
"He has been going to be told"
b . *Han bar skullet blive student til somroer
As indicated by the stars, I find all these examples rather unacceptable
( Hansen admits that they are " realised very rarely" ) , with the exception of the
one involving lromme ,
( 75c ) . This was discussed in connection with ( 52 ) , where I
argued that there are two types of kæ,me , and only the auxiliary one is ungram­
matical under obligation root modale . As ( 75c) is interpretable as a main V
"He has been going to graduate this summer"
c . *Han har 5&1llet komme i Studienævnet
"He has been going to get onto the Board of Studies "
d . *Han har skullet blive hentet
"He has been going to be pieked up"
occurrence of kæ.me , it is thus not ruled out . If replaced by a kæ.me which
JWSt be an auxiliary occurrence , such as one with a figurative adverbial of
direction, cf .
ii) They eannot have PRO as a subject ( cf . section 2 . 2 . 2 ) :
( 5 3 ) , the example becomes just as una=eptable as ( 75a, b, d ) :
( 8 0 ) a . *Det er ubehageligt at PRO skulle få det at vide
( 76 ) *Jeg ill gerne kQI!Ille. i Studienævnet
" It is unpleasant to be going to be told"
"I would like to get onto the Board of Studies"
b . *Det er ubehageligt at PRO skulle blive student til sommer
" It is unpleasant to be going to graduate this summer "
Gerne locks :ti.l,le into its root interpretation, as it is an adverbial meaning
roughly "voluntarily" or "with pleasure" . I thus see adverbials as requiring a
particular thematic strueture rather than adding to it ( as opposed to Zubizar­
reta ( 1982) .
c. *Det er ubehageligt at PRO skulle komme i Studienævnet
" It is unpleasant to be going to get onto the Board of Studies"
d . *Det er ubehageligt at PRO skulle blive hentet
" It is unpleasant to be going to be pieked up"
The PRO has arbitrary reference here, oot the juclgments are the same if the
A 2 Skulle .
subject is a PRO that does not have arbitrary reference, i . e . if d!ll....eJ:.:
Hansen ( 1972 : 16 - 1 7 ) gives the following examples :
ubehageligt is replaced by han drØmte
om
cf .
( 18 ) and ( 19 ) ) .
iii) They do not allow the pseudo-cleft construction ( cf . section 2 . 2 . 5 ) :
( 77 ) a .
Han 6kal få det at vide
"He will get it to know
b.
=
He will be told"
"He will become a student this summer
c.
=
He will graduate this summer "
b . *Hvad han akal er at blive student til sommer
"What he is going is to graduate this summer
Han 6kal ko.wme ud
c . *Hvad han akal er at komme i Studienævnet
"He will come out"
d.
( 8 1 ) a . *Hvad han akal er at få det at vide
"What he is going is to be told"
Han 6kal bJ.iE student til sommer
"What he is going is to get onto the Board of Studies"
Han 6kal bJ.iE hentet
d. *Hvad han akal er at blive hentet
"He will be pieked up"
"What he is going is to be pieked up"
and in this case I agree with him , all the examples are acceptable, and this
would also go for one with ko.wme and a figurative adverbial of direction :
- 30 -
- 31 -
Lundskær-Nielsen, Tom (1983) : "The Grammar of Auxiliaries in Danish" . Ms ,
Cf. also that Davidsen-Nielsen (1988 : ch . 2 , p. 15-16) says that this kind of
� behaves synta�tically like an epistemic modal (though he finds it
lmiversity of Cambridge.
Østkjær Jensen , Helle (1987) : Eine kontrastive Analyse der dl.inischen Moctalver­
"semantically non-epistemic" ) .
ben "behqlve" und "måtte " und ihrer deut8cher1 Aquivalente "brayc.hen " .
"d.iirfen" , "!llOgen" und "milssen" . Odens e : llniversity Press .
Taking this � (of promise) te be epistemic also accounts for its dif­
ference in interpretation from the � of obligation : There is no additional
G-role assigned te the subject , and therefore the subject eannot be the origin
Platzack , Christer (1979) : The Sernantic Interpretation of Aspect and Aktions­
of an obligation.
arten : A Study of Internal Time Reference in Swedish . furdrecht : Foris .
Skyum-Nielsen , Peder (1971) : "Modalverberne i Nudansk " . Ms , lmiversity of
A 3 Måtte
Hansen (1972 : 20-21) gives the following examples , all of which he finde
Thrainsson , Hoskuldur (1986) : "On Auxiliaries , AllX and VPs in Icelandic" in
Copenhagen .
Lars Hellan & Kirsti Koch Christensen (eds . ) : Topjes in Scandinavian
� . pp. 235-265 . Dordrecht : Heidel.
granJDatical , but ag ain I disagree :
Vikner , Sten (1985) : " Reichenbach Revisited : One , Two , or Three Temporal Rela­
tions?" in Acta Linguistica Rafniensia , vol. 19(2) , pp. 81-95 .
( 82) a . *Han må få en reprimande
Vikner, Sten & Rex A. Sprouse (1988) : "HavWEe Selection as an A-Chain
"He must be reprimanded"
Membership Requirement" . Horking Papers on Scandinavian Syntax , no. 38.
Wiwel , H. G . ( 1901) : Synspunkter for dansk sproglære . Copenhagen : Nordisk For­
b. *Han må blive medlem snarest
"He must become (a) member very soon"
lag .
c . *Han må komme af med mindst 10 kg
Zubiaarreta, Maria Luisa ( 1982) : "On the Relationship of the Lexicon te
"He must get rid of at least 22 pounds"
Syntax " . Ph.D. , M . I. T.
d . *Han må blive opstillet til formandsposten
"He must become a candidate for the chair"
Hansen (1972 : 21) himself calls them "very rare " . According te ØstkJær Jensen
( 1987 : 23) such examples are rare , and also gramna.tical but unacceptable
(" . . . sind grammatikalisch korrekt aber scheinen vom Sprachusus abzuweichen" ) .
A 4 llirde
Hansen (1972 : 23) gives no examples , but says that "the facts . . . seem te be
rather unclear" . Skyum-Nielsen ( 197 1 : 200) has in his corpus found no examples
at all of � being followed by a passive with bl.m .
References
Davidsen-Nielsen , Niels (1988) : "On Tense and Mood in English and Danish" . Ms ,
Copenhagen School of Economics , llisiness Adlministration , and Modern
Languages.
Fillmore , Charles (1975) : Santa Cruz Leetures
on
Lle.ixifi , Bloomington , IN :
Indiana University Linguistics Club.
Grimshaw , Jane (1986) : "Nouns , Arguments and Adjulllcts ". Ms , Brandeis llniv­
ersity.
Hansen, Erik (1972) : "Modal interessens. Nu bØr det komme frem" in �
Studie.x:, vol . 67 , pp . 5-36.
Hansen , Erik (1977) : "BehØver vi at?" in Nyt fra Spro.gnæynet , vol 19 , pp, 1-4 .
Jespersen, Otte (1932) : Tanker
og
studier . Copenhagen: Gyldendal/Nordisk For­
lag .
' i
,,
- 32 -
- 33 -