Syntactic variation in Swedish : Verb semantics and syntax in Long Object Shift

The term ‘Object Shift’ means that a weak object pronoun has been raised to a position to the left of a sentence adverbial. Primarily, there are two positions to which a weak object pronoun can be raised; one of them is called Long Object Shift. In this paper, I primarily deal with finite verb frequencies in sentences with Long Object Shift in Swedish. Also, in order to further define the verbs in these sentences I discuss verb semantic and syntactic valence in relation to the shifted object. Furthermore, I discuss the search methods which have generated sentences with Long Object Shift in written sources in Swedish; an equivalent study has never been done before. The most salient results of my study indicate that: verbs with physical denotation, and specifically vänta, möta and slå, frequently recur in sentences with Long Object Shift in written sources in Swedish; monotransitive verbs appear more often than ditransitive ones; shifted objects are most often assigned the semantic role of experiencer in the studied sentences; the search methods show divergent results, which indicates the significance of sentence adverbial initiating sentences with Long Object Shift. Lastly, the results show that semantic analyses, terminology and search methods need to be extended in order to further define the finite verb in sentences with Long Object Shift in Swedish