Delt infinitiv i dansk

Abstract

In the standard register of the Danish language, negations and adverbs that are part of the infinitive phrase are placed before the infinitive particle, as in German and Dutch, whereas in standard Swedish, such elements are placed between the infinitive particle and the infinitive form of the verb: hence Danish ikke at være ‘not to be’ vs. Swedish att inte vara, ‘to not be’. However, in modern Danish a ‘split infinitive’ in which an adverb or a negation is placed between at and the infinitive is sometimes encountered in written as well as spoken genres, and this phenomenon is also attested in earlier stages of the written language and in many of the so-called traditional dialects. In this article, the distribution of the Danish split infinitive is investigated, and the possible consequences for the analysis of infinitive clauses in Danish are discussed. It is argued that the field analysis of the syntax of Danish should allow for a degree of flexibility with regard to the position of the infinitive particle.