Norwegian Verb Particle Constructions as Causative Constructions

Abstract

In this article I argue that Taraldsen's (1983) analysis of verb particle constructions cannot be maintained because it predicts a considerable subset of the grammatical particle constructions to be ungrammatical, as well as some ungrammatical particle constructions to be grammatical. In my analysis of verb particle constructions as causative constructions, I borrow the device of reanalysis from Taraldsen. This reanalysis is crucially taken as a licensing condition for the rule of particle movement, but it does not constitute a sufficient condition for the possibility of particle movement, since I will also argue that this rule is subject to essentially non-syntactic restrictions so that its output cannot be wholly deduced from GB syntax subtheories.