Nordic word order

Abstract

This article gives an overview of the word order patterns found in the Nordic Word Order Database (NWD), providing maps that illustrate variation in argument placement and verb placement across the North Germanic languages. All investigated phenomena show variable word order in at least one of the languages, and categorical word order in other languages, considering at least one of the investigated variables. Apart from the differences between the languages, the data in NWD reveal little regional variation (apart from non-V2 in questions and particle-subject order in regional Norwegian). Instead, variation found within languages is very often within speaker variation. Different speakers can have different preferences, but the preferences are not geographically determined.