Headword
Language Norwegian · Bokmål selge · Nynorsk verb selje is the headword on Nynorskordboka
Four places · shared inventory with English sell · Norwegian cloth · working claim, revisable
Voice[Seller] + ApplHAVE(Buyer/Recipienttil+DP ∨ bare pronoun, Themegoods) + for-MeasurePPrice ⟨Amount, Denomination⟩
A sale has four participants: the Seller, the Buyer (Recipient), the Goods, and the Price. They are not four equal sisters of selge. Voice adds the Seller. Low ApplHAVE introduces the Buyer and relates the Buyer to the goods. The root’s object is that Theme of eHAVE. for selects one MeasureP whose inner arguments are Amount and Denomination. The Price is a prepositional phrase, not a second object, and the unit is not a sister of the verb.
What is different in Norwegian. English sell Paul the car and sold Chris a lawnmower put a bare full noun phrase in the first object, and the passive can make that buyer the subject (Chris was sold a lawnmower). Det Norske Akademis ordbok prints two buyer cloths on selge itself: noen selger (noe) (til noen), with hun solgte sykkelen sin til en kamerat, and noen selger (noen) (noe), with hun solgte ham sykkelen. The printed full DP sits in til. The printed bare buyer is the object pronoun ham. A bare full DP in that ham slot is unprinted. German spells a morphological dative (einem Kollegen) or an+accusative. Dutch’s bare indirect object of verkopen is the verb class in the ANS; no verkopen sentence with a bare buyer was in the entries that page checked, and aan is what is printed. Norwegian prints the bare pronoun on the verb, packages the full DP in til, and shows no dative ending and no aan.
Headline cut with betale. On live pay, Bokmålsordboka and Nynorskordboka print no Recipient: the object is the debt or the amount, and for+DP is what the money is paid for. A bare ham in published prose is not ranked there as a double object and not ranked against til. On selge, NAOB prints both til and ham as buyer cloths, and the object is the goods. When a for-phrase is present, it is the working Price here and Consideration there. A numeral for-clause of selge is unprinted in the entries checked.
Bokmålsordboka prints the commercial sense as overdra mot betaling eller vederlag; avhende, with de selger gården sin til naboen. NAOB’s sense 2 prints the two constructions and the two buyer examples above, plus han måtte selge varene under innkjøpspris. None of those lines is a lawnmower clause, and none is a numeral MeasureP. English puts the buyer and the goods in two bare noun phrases. Norwegian gives the verb one object, the goods, and introduces a full-DP buyer in til.
Printed buyer line · full DP inside til · goods the object · no Price in this sentence
✓ hun solgte sykkelen sin til en kamerat NAOB · sense 2 · example
she · sold · her bicycle · to a friend
Printed buyer line · bare object pronoun · goods the object · no til and no Price
✓ hun solgte ham sykkelen NAOB · sense 2 · example of noen selger (noen) (noe)
she · sold · him · the bicycle
Printed til-buyer · Bokmål · goods the object
✓ de selger gården sin til naboen Bokmålsordboka · selge
they · sell · their farm · to the neighbor
| Place | Introduced by (working) | Norwegian marking | Case status | English marking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seller | Spec,Voice (outer) | subject (hun, de, Pat) | structural · V2 | subject |
| Buyer / Recipient | low ApplHAVE | til + DP (til en kamerat, til naboen) · bare object pronoun (ham) · schema noen selger (noen) (noe) | oblique til for a printed full DP · the printed bare slot is a pronoun · a bare full DP in that slot is unprinted · no dative ending · the two cloths are not stacked as two buyers | bare first object (DOC) · to |
| Goods | complement of √SELL- (Theme of eHAVE) | the object (sykkelen, gården, varene, notes’ gressklipperen) | structural · under ikke the object stays · no genitive of negation | direct object in the to-frame · second object in the DOC |
| Price | for selects one MeasureP ⟨n, U⟩ | working for + the whole QP · printed sale-for is Ibsen’s for en slik · under innkjøpspris and Nynorsk over takst are other price-relation phrases | PP · one phrase · a numeral Amount+Denomination of selge is unprinted · hva … for / for hva on this verb is unprinted | for + MeasureP |
Marking map. One letter can belong to several heads. Read the head, then the marker.
Each row lines up one English slot with its Norwegian slot. The alignment type says what happens to the slot: = (same status), shift (DOC object ↔ til, or DOC full DP ↔ a printed bare pronoun), or a packaging change inside one status. Printed dictionary lines come first. Every other Norwegian sentence is constructed, modelled on a printed line. They show the working alignment, not frequency, and not a bilingual corpus.
| Slot | EN form | NO form | Align | EN example | NO example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seller | SUBJ | subject | = | She sold her bicycle. | hun solgte NAOB example |
| Goods | OBJ | object | = | her bicycle | sykkelen sin NAOB · gården sin Bokmålsordboka |
| Buyer (til) | to + DP | til + DP | = oblique · full DP inside the P | to a friend | til en kamerat NAOB · til naboen Bokmålsordboka |
| Buyer (bare) | DOC first object, a full DP | bare object pronoun | shift · the printed bare slot is ham · a bare full DP is unprinted | sold him the bicycle · sell Paul the car is a full DP | hun solgte ham sykkelen NAOB |
| Price (for) | for + MeasureP | working for + one MeasureP | = oblique · PP, not a second object · numeral unprinted | for twenty euros | for en slik NAOB · Ibsen · not a numeral MeasureP |
| Goods under ikke | object stays | object stays | = · no GEN-neg · contrast Polish | Pat didn’t sell the lawnmower. | Pat har ikke solgt gressklipperen. constructed |
| Four places | DOC + for, or to + for | til + object + working for | shift on a full-DP buyer | Pat sold the lawnmower to Chris for twenty euros. | Pat har solgt gressklipperen til Chris for tjue euro. constructed · numeral for unprinted · til modelled on til en kamerat |
The strip below is a set of small multiples. Each card holds one frame, with English on top and Norwegian under it. A full-DP buyer sits in til. The printed bare buyer is ham.
EN · NO · printed til
She sold her bicycle to a friend.
hun solgte sykkelen sin til en kamerat
NO · NAOB example · the English gloss is constructed from that line
Agree full DP inside til · Price not in the line
EN · NO · printed bare pronoun
She sold him the bicycle.
hun solgte ham sykkelen
NO · NAOB example · schema noen selger (noen) (noe) · the English gloss is constructed from that line
Move printed bare buyer is the pronoun · English sell Paul the car is a full DP in that seat
EN · NO · working four places
Pat has sold the lawnmower to Chris for twenty euros.
Pat har solgt gressklipperen til Chris for tjue euro.
constructed · til modelled on til en kamerat · numeral for unprinted · not a dictionary line
Agree full-DP buyer in til · Price is the PP for, one QP, unprinted as a numeral
EN · NO · ikke
Pat has not sold the lawnmower.
Pat har ikke solgt gressklipperen.
constructed · object stays · no GEN-neg · contrast kosiarki
Agree ikke follows finite har · the object is not rewritten
Argument difference. English can package the buyer and the goods as two bare objects, and the passive can make the buyer the subject: Chris was sold a lawnmower. German prints a morphological dative or an+accusative, and für on a numeral MeasureP. Dutch prints aan, and a bare indirect object of verkopen itself is constructed from the ANS class. Hungarian prints a dative -nak/-nek and a Price in -ért. Polish prints a dative buyer, one accusative of the goods, and za, and under nie the goods are genitive. Norwegian prints til for a full DP and ham as the bare buyer, keeps the goods as the object under ikke, and does not print a numeral for-MeasureP. See sell, sell · German, sell · Dutch, sell · Hungarian, and sell · Polish.
Dictionary frames and lines · checked · quoted as printed
å selge · selger · solgte · har solgt · selg! · overdra mot betaling eller vederlag; avhende · de selger gården sin til naboen · de solgte lodd til inntekt for skolekorpset · varen har solgt dårlig · oppdager de meg, er jeg solgt Bokmålsordboka · til naboen is the buyer · til inntekt for is purpose · være solgt is the idiom ‘be done for’ · no numeral Price · no ham
noen selger (noe) (til noen) · noen selger (noen) (noe) · hun solgte sykkelen sin til en kamerat · hun solgte ham sykkelen · han måtte selge varene under innkjøpspris · kommer ejendommene til auktion, så sælges de for en slik · jeg sælger min farm · uten objekt å kjøpe og selge · norsk laks selger bra i Frankrike NAOB · sense 2 is the commercial transfer · sense 4 is the middle · for en slik is not a numeral MeasureP · sælges is historical spelling
å selja / å selje · sel · selde · har selt · denne kaffien sel godt · ho selde brukte klede på nettet · dei fekk selt leilegheita over takst Nynorskordboka · verb selje · no til-buyer · no for-price · over takst is a price relation · fekk selt keeps the seller as subject
Strings below are constructed. They are not dictionary lines. Pat / Chris / gressklipperen continue the lawnmower series on English sell and on betale. til Chris follows printed til en kamerat. ham follows printed hun solgte ham sykkelen. for tjue euro is the working Price cloth. That numeral is unprinted on selge.
✓ Pat har solgt gressklipperen til Chris for tjue euro.
constructed · til modelled on NAOB · one object, the goods · twenty inside for · the numeral is unprinted
✓ Pat har solgt ham gressklipperen.
constructed · modelled on printed hun solgte ham sykkelen · one buyer · no til in this line
✓ Pat har ikke solgt gressklipperen.
constructed · ikke after finite har · the object stays · no GEN-neg
✓ Hva har Pat solgt gressklipperen for?
constructed · unprinted on selge · the whole for-phrase is one QP · hva … for on live belaste swipes Consideration, a different licenser
✓ For hva har Pat solgt gressklipperen?
constructed · unprinted on selge · for hva pied-pipes the whole Price QP · a split that takes the number out and leaves the unit is unprinted
ikke and the question words are operations on the same places. They do not add a participant. There is no Hungarian preverbal Focus host on this verb. Bokmål selge has no separable particle. The perfect is har solgt. The finite verb is what V2 moves.
Under ikke the object stays. Pat har ikke solgt gressklipperen keeps gressklipperen. ikke follows the finite verb, the place live betale already uses (har ikke betalt). Full DPs do not show an ending for negation to rewrite, and they do not show a genitive for negation to write. On sprzedać the same operation yields kosiarki, and that genitive does not enter za. The lawnmower clause here is constructed. This page does not star a Polish genitive as if it were a Norwegian word.
for is one phrase, and a numeral of it is unprinted. The working cloth is for on one MeasureP, parallel to English for, German für, and Dutch voor. NAOB’s commercial for is sælges de for en slik. That complement is not Amount plus Denomination. under innkjøpspris and over takst name a price relation without for. NAOB’s legge (varer) ut for salg is ‘for sale’, not a Price. Sense 2.1 for mat and sense 2.2 solgte seg for et par gram kokain are the figurative and reflexive readings, not the goods’ Price. On betale, for+DP is Consideration of the leftover thing.
hva … for and for hva are unprinted on selge. Live belaste prints hva … for as a swipe of Consideration (Hva belastet de Pat for?). That swipe strands the preposition and does not split the MeasureP. It is a different licenser. The constructed Hva har Pat solgt gressklipperen for? and For hva har Pat solgt gressklipperen? resume the whole for-phrase as one QP. A split that takes the number out and leaves the unit is unprinted. German wofür and Dutch waarvoor are not copied here as Norwegian forms.
V2 and the perfect. Bokmålsordboka prints present selger, past solgte, perfect har solgt, imperative selg. The participle table is solgt, den/det solgte, selgende. That table is morphology. It is not a passive clause. The constructed perfect puts the finite har in the V2 slot and solgt at the end of the verb cluster.
Passive of the goods is printed in historical spelling only. NAOB’s Ibsen line sælges de makes the properties the subject de. That is an -s passive, in the older spelling sælges, not modern selges. A modern Bokmål selges and a bli-passive (ble solgt / bli solgt) of the goods are unprinted in the entries checked. This page does not construct a checked bli judgment.
A buyer-subject passive is unprinted. English Chris was sold a lawnmower promotes the buyer. No such clause of selge was in the entries checked. It is not starred here. Nynorsk dei fekk selt leilegheita over takst has the seller as subject and the apartment still the object: they managed to sell it. It is not a få-passive that promotes the goods or the buyer. A få-passive of the buyer is unprinted.
The middle keeps the goods as subject of the active verb. Bokmålsordboka: varen har solgt dårlig. Nynorskordboka: denne kaffien sel godt. NAOB sense 4: norsk laks selger bra i Frankrike, kvalitet selger. No seg in those lines. selge seg is a different printed reading (give up one’s convictions, or prostitute oneself). være solgt is the idiom in oppdager de meg, er jeg solgt, not a stative passive of the goods.
Each sketch is a working drawing, not a locked analysis. The point of the entries checked is one object (the goods), a full-DP buyer inside til, a bare buyer printed as ham, and a Price inside for when that phrase is a MeasureP. Open one sketch at a time. Which theta role is the object in this low ApplHAVE domain is the revisable note Causative templates and argument selection. This page does not edit that note.
Printed declarative · and the constructed perfect has the same outer argument
[VoiceP hun Voice ← Seller = Spec,Voice … inner layers … solgte ]
✓ hun solgte sykkelen sin til en kamerat NAOB
✓ Pat har solgt gressklipperen til Chris. constructed · V2 finite har · participle solgt
The Seller is the external argument. Under ikke the goods stay the object. That negation does not add a participant.
[VoiceP Pat har ← finite verb in the V2 slot
[Neg ikke
… gressklipperen … ← goods · object stays
solgt ]]
✓ Pat har ikke solgt gressklipperen. constructed
One buyer · two printed cloths · not two buyers
[VoiceP hun Voice
[ApplP_LOW [PP til en kamerat] Appl_HAVE ← Buyer · HAVE the goods · til+DP
[VP √selge
[Theme sykkelen ] ]]] ← Goods · the object
[VoiceP hun Voice
[ApplP_LOW ham Appl_HAVE ← Buyer · printed bare pronoun
[VP √selge
[Theme sykkelen ] ]]]
NAOB prints the two constructions as alternatives: (noe) (til noen) and (noen) (noe). The examples are til en kamerat and ham. Bokmålsordboka prints til naboen. A bare full DP in the ham slot is unprinted. German’s match of the buyer is a dative ending or an. Dutch’s printed match is aan.
✓ hun solgte ham sykkelen NAOB · one buyer · the pronoun · one object
✓ de selger gården sin til naboen Bokmålsordboka · one buyer · til
One Price phrase · the preposition is on the whole QP · not a second object
for [ MeasureP [ Amount tjue ] [ N euro ] ] ← working cloth · numeral unprinted for en slik ← printed · Ibsen via NAOB · not this MeasureP hva … for = that whole QP · stranded P · unprinted on selge for hva = that whole QP · pied-piped · unprinted on selge
✓ sælges de for en slik NAOB · Ibsen · for on en slik · not Amount+Denomination
✓ for tjue euro constructed · one MeasureP under for · unprinted on selge
✓ Hva har Pat solgt gressklipperen for? constructed · the answer is the whole for-phrase · unprinted on this verb
tjue euro = one MeasureP. n and U compose inside that phrase. for is on the phrase. Orthography is not extra arity. There is no further argument “currency name.” Composition in this cloth is for(MeasureP), not V(n)(U). The numeral string is constructed. German für and Dutch voor are prepositions on the same kind of MeasureP, and those pages print numeral examples. Norwegian’s printed commercial for is for en slik.
Pat sold Chris a lawnmower for twenty dollars · working, parallel to English sell
[VoiceP Pat Voice ← Seller
[ApplP_LOW Chris Appl_HAVE ← Buyer = bare full DP
[VP √SELL
[Theme a lawnmower ] ← Goods
[PP for [ MeasureP twenty dollars ]]]]]
Structural case in the English double object goes to the applied buyer and, in the to-frame, to the goods. The passive can promote that buyer: Chris was sold a lawnmower. Norwegian’s printed full-DP buyer is inside til. The printed bare buyer is ham. The object is the goods, and under ikke it stays. The Price stays inside for in English and, on the working cloth, inside for in Norwegian. German uses a dative or an, and für. Dutch uses a bare indirect object (constructed on verkopen) or aan, and voor. A buyer-subject passive of selge is unprinted.
| Layer | sell (EN) | selge | betale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spec,Voice | Seller | Seller | Payer |
| person layer | DOC buyer, or to | til+DP, or bare ham as NAOB prints it · HAS the goods | dictionaries print no Recipient · a bare ham in prose is not ranked |
| object | goods (to-frame) · buyer is the other bare object in the DOC | goods · stays under ikke | the debt or the amount · stays under ikke |
| for / for | Price · for + MeasureP | working Price · for + one MeasureP · numeral unprinted · printed for en slik | Consideration · for+DP |
| pointing | the DOC passive can promote the buyer | historical sælges promotes the goods · modern bli and a buyer-subject passive are unprinted | bli promotes the MeasureP on that page |
On selge, the buyer comes to HAVE the goods, and a for-MeasureP would measure the price. On betale, the Recipient comes to HAVE the amount, and for+DP is what the money is paid for. Same preposition, opposite object. The numeral Price of selge is still the working cloth, not a printed line.
Working paper · October 2026 · Norwegian micro-entry · Beyond Index 2 · Group D
Four-place commercial transfer in Norwegian: Seller (Voice, subject), Buyer/Recipient (til+DP, or a bare object pronoun as NAOB prints ham), Goods (the object, Theme of HAVE; under ikke that object stays), and Price (working for on one MeasureP ⟨Amount, Denomination⟩; a numeral clause is unprinted). Same inventory as English sell. Bokmål selge, past solgte, perfect har solgt. Nynorskordboka prints the verb selje. On live betale the dictionaries print no Recipient and for is Consideration.
Same inventory as English sell, the Romance twins, German verkaufen, Dutch verkopen, Hungarian elad, Polish sprzedać, Japanese uru, and Mandarin mài. Not five-place. Not four sisters of one V. A flat grid would predict two bare objects of the English double-object shape, or a buyer that negation rewrites, or a Price that is a second object. Norwegian shows one object, the goods, a full-DP buyer in til, a bare buyer printed as ham, and a Price in for when that phrase is a MeasureP.
tjue euro = one MeasureP. See the MeasureP sketch. The numeral is constructed. NAOB’s for en slik is one printed for-phrase and not that MeasureP. hva … for and for hva, if they resume a Price of this verb, resume the phrase. They are unprinted on selge.
What Norwegian changes is the cloth of the buyer and the absence of a genitive of negation. What it does not change is the inventory. The goods are still the Theme of HAVE. The Price is still one MeasureP when it is a measuring phrase. HAVE of the goods is still what the applicative says. The Nynorsk verb selje is the same commercial gloss on Nynorskordboka, with its own inflection. That pair of written standards is not a fifth place.
In the constructed Pat har solgt gressklipperen til Chris for tjue euro, Chris comes to HAVE the lawnmower. That is give-geometry. The price measures the sale. It is not the object that is transferred.
Dictionary frames: Bokmålsordboka at ordbokene.no, article selge; Nynorskordboka at ordbokene.no, article selje; Det Norske Akademis ordbok at naob.no, article selge, sense 2 and sense 4. Those sources print the object of the goods, til for a full-DP buyer, NAOB’s bare ham, historical sælges … for en slik, and the middle with the goods as subject. They do not print a numeral for-MeasureP, a modern bli-passive, or hva … for on this verb. Constructed argument frames follow the lawnmower series already used on English sell and on Norwegian betale: Seller subject, goods = the object, Buyer = til+DP or ham, Price = for on one MeasureP, object stays under ikke. Index 2 does not list selge. Norwegian Transfer in Index 2 is bytte; gi.
Series placement: Norwegian sense×language twin of English sell, Spanish vender, French vendre, Italian vendere, Japanese uru, Mandarin mài, German verkaufen, Dutch verkopen, Hungarian elad, and Polish sprzedać. Records the four places, til and bare ham as NAOB prints them, and the object staying under ikke. Does not reopen causation-chain papers.