Serial verb constructions

The Nordic languages have the possibility of so-called pseudo-coordination, as in (1) (see e.g. Josefsson 1991, Brandt 1992, Wiklund 1996, Johannessen 1998, Lødrup 2002, Vannemo 2003, Bjerre & Bjerre 2007, Kvist Darnell 2008, Nielsen 2011). Pseudo-coordination is typically used to express imperfective aspect (Tonne 2007). The first verb is either a positional verb like Sw. sitta ‘sit’, a verb of assuming a position (e.g. Sw. lägga sig ‘lie down’), change of location verbs like Sw. komma ‘come’ or gå ‘go’, the verb ta ‘take’ or a particle verb like hålla på ‘carry on’ (see further Lødrup 2002:122).

(1) a. Jag sitter här och tänker.(Swe.)Pseudo-coordination with posture verbs is possible in the Mainland Scandinavian and Faroese, but it is more restricted in Icelandic, where it is not accepted by all speakers (Wiklund 2007:191).
It is well known that although pseudo-coordination looks superficially like VP-coordination, it differs from ordinary coordinating structures in several respects.For instance, expletive subjects are possible independently of the second verb; cf.(2a) and (2b).Objects of the second verb can be extracted to sentence-initial position; see (3) (and e.g.Teleman et al. 1999/4:903.).
(2) a. 'She has been sitting writing on that article all day.' (Teleman et al. 1999/4:903) The first verb in a pseudo-coordination is often assumed to take the second verb in its complement, and it is sometimes taken to form a complex predicate with the second verb (cf.e.g.Josefsson 1991 andWiklund 1996 for discussion).For simplicity, I refer to och/og 'and' as a conjunction in the following.
In some Nordic varieties, there are similar constructions with BE or HAVE as the first verb followed by a tensed verb (typically a position verb) as the second verb; see (4  (Lindstad et al. 2009) are presented in section 2 below.In section 3, we consider other data sources, including the Nordic Dialect Corpus (Johannessen et al. 2009), and briefly discuss possible analyses of the constructions with HAVE and BE.For additional data and discussion, see e.g.Pedersen (2007Pedersen ( , 2011)), Andersen et al. (2011) andHåkansson (2012).

Pseudo-coordination without a conjunction
The following two sentences were included in the Norwegian and Swedish questionnaires: ( The sentences differ with respect to the nature of the subject of the embedded verb.Sentence (#528) has an indefinite DP subject, whereas (#532) has a pronominal subject.The instruction was that HAVE should carry stress.Neither of these sentences is grammatical in any of the locations where they were tested.

HAVE + tensed verb with a conjunction
The Danish questionnaire also included the following sentence which involves present tense of HAVE + a present tense stative verb, with a conjunction: (

BE + tensed verb without a conjunction
The Danish survey included the following sentence with BE + finite eventive verb without a conjunction: (8) der er en hund gør hele tiden.(#562) (Da.) there be.PRES a dog bark.PRES all time.DEF 'There is a dog barking all the time.' The sentence was not accepted in any location.

BE + tensed verb with a conjunction
Sentence (#561) is identical to (#562) but includes the conjunction: (  According to Ejskjaer, the variant without a conjunction is more common in Skåne than the syndetic one, whereas the variant with a conjunction is more frequent in Denmark.However, in the older dialect material, both versions are attested in both Denmark and Southern Sweden with HAVE as well as with BE as the matrix verb.It seems that examples without og were more common in previous stages of Danish.The results from the ScanDiaSyn survey suggest that with HAVE as the matrix verb, a conjunction is generally required in the present-day dialects, but also then, the tested sentences are often rejected by the informants.

Other data sources
A construction with HAVE + a tensed (position) verb also occurs in Central Sweden (see Nordberg 1977).Håkansson (2012) gives examples from the Nordic Dialect Corpus, where the construction can also be (sparsely) attested from other parts of Sweden.A couple of his examples are given in (13).

Theoretical issues relating to pseudo-coordination and HAVE/BE + tensed verb
The Danish construction with HAVE/BE has traditionally been taken to involve a subject-relative without a complementizer (see e.g.Jensen 1949, Ejskjaer 1964).This analysis is perhaps possible for examples like that given in (11a) above, with BE as the first verb, since it can be paraphrased with a relative clause.This is however not the case with the Central Swedish examples with HAVE, nor with all the sentences with HAVE tested in the ScanDiaSyn survey (cf.Nordberg 1977 for Swedish and Pedersen 2007 for Danish).Instead, the second verb form corresponds semantically to a present participle (as suggested by the translations).As pointed out by Pedersen (2007), the construction with HAVE as the first verb is more restricted than the construction with BE with respect to which verbs are possible as the second verb, but this has not been systematically tested.Like the corresponding examples with a present participle, the construction with HAVE expresses imperfective aspect, and it also seems to have a locative reading.
Moreover, the construction with BE does not require the two verbs to carry the same tense; cf. ( 13).
( Like Pedersen (2007), Håkansson (2012) suggests that the construction with HAVE should be treated as a type of pseudo-coordination, whereas the construction with BE involves subject-less relative clauses, but without going in to the details of the syntactic analysis.It is for instance not clear why the latter construction requires BE as the matrix verb.
In Swedish and Norwegian, the pseudo-coordinations tested in the survey require a conjunction, and in this respect they differ from the construction with HAVE + tensed position verb exemplified in (13).In Danish, the construction with HAVE has more in common with pseudo-coordination (at least superficially), since a conjunction is typically required.Lødrup (2002) argues that not all pseudocoordinations should be given the same analysis.For instance, pseudo-coordination with sitte/sitta 'sit' as the first verb allows the second verb to be in the passive with the first verb in the active, but this is impossible with ta 'take' as the first verb: he take.PAST and become.PAST hit.PART Intended: 'He was suddenly being hit.' (Lødrup 2002:135) The construction with HAVE + a tensed verb obviously differ from (all kinds) of pseudo-coordinations with respect to the relation between the embedded verb and the matrix subject: in pseudo-coordinations, but not in the construction with HAVE, the two verbs take the same subject.At the same time, pseudocoordinations share the requirement of tense-agreement with the HAVE-construction, as well as with (certain cases of) the so-called double supine (see Larsson 2014). 3In all these constructions, the second verb must have the same tense form as the first verb.
have the position verb sitte/sitta 'sit' as the matrix verb, and both lack a conjunction between the two finite forms.Sentence (#983) is a declarative, and (#985) a yes/no-question.Both sentences are rejected throughout Norway, Sweden and Finland, with only a couple of exceptions; see Map 1 and 2. The declarative sentence (Map 1) is accepted in one location in Oppland in Norway, and it gets a medium score in one location (Vang) in Oppland.The yes/no-question (Map 2) gets an intermediate score in two locations (one is Vang in Oppland), and it is accepted in one location in Skåne in Southern Sweden.Map 1: Pseudo-coordination without conjunction in a declarative clause in Norwegian and Swedish.(#983: Han sitter väntar.'He is sitting and waiting.')Map 2: Pseudo-coordination without conjunction in yes/no-question in Norwegian and Swedish.(#985: Sitter du där tänker?'Are you sitting there and thinking?')(White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).verb without a conjunction The Danish questionnaire included the following sentences, which involve present tense of HAVE + a present tense stative verb, without a conjunction: (6) a. Jeg har en moster bor i København.(#528) (Da.)I have.PRES an aunt live.PRES in Copenhagen 'I have an aunt living in Copenhagen.'

(
14) a. En mann sitter på kontoret og blir beundret av kollegaene.(No.) ).1Examples like these are attested in Denmark and southernmost Sweden.Sometimes, but not always, they have a conjunction.