Translations of 'ergative' verbs

svensk/Norsk
Grammatikalisering etter Kemmer, 1993
Norwegian
Reflexive Proto Scandinavian * Sik
(1) Sik (reflexive) (2) sk (middle)
Developments in Old Norse
Sk- phonological reduction (erosion)
Sk – case distinctions lost (attrition)
Sk- agglutinated onto the verb stem
(coalescence or boundry loss)
Developments in ’recent’ Norwegian
Deponens - s- fossilized with some
verbs (not productive) (e.g sees,
minnes, OBS: mailes)
s- passive becoming associated (and is
productive) as habitual marker
(otherwise /-passive)
Seg – formerly a reflexive only but the
marker has spread into areas of
the middle
Swedish
Reflexive Proto Scandinavian * Sik
(1) Sik (reflexive) (2) sk (middle)
Developments in Old Norse
Sk- phonological reduction (erosion)
Sk – case distinctions lost (attrition)
Sk- agglutinated onto the verb stem (coalescence
or boundry loss)
Developments in ’recent’ Swedish
Deponens – s still productive (cf. Lyngfelt 2007)
s- passive unmarked passive (i.e. not restricted
to habitual situation )
Sig – formerly a reflexive only marker but has
spread into areas of the middle, but is in
sharper competition with deponens – s
and used in more restricted contexts than in
Norwegian (no potential Human Agent,
Negative semantic prosody – Control)