Linguistics question for all my Swedish speakers out there (or non-Swedish speakers that would like to share their thoughts and theories).
I just wrote down the following line of text
"skriv 1-2 sidor text [...]"
In English, this would translate to:
"Write 1-2 pages of text [...]"
And I cannot figure out why it is understandable and grammatically permitted to write the line as it is, what is actually happening grammatically when you write "sidor text"?
If we try to analyse this clause, the predicate-verb is quite obvious, but exactly what parts does "1-2 sidor text" consist of? 1-2 is simply a number adjective attribute for "sidor", but what role does the word "text" have? If we look at the English translation, "of"-constructions are often translated as compound words or genetive* constructions in Swedish. "Sidor text", however, is neither a compound (textsidor) nor a genetive (texts sidor) nor a prepositional phrase (sidor av text (no I don't believe anyone actually says that in normal speech)).
If we try to analyze this phrase as a direct object + indirect object construction, it also doesn't work. Since Swedish requires these kinds of phrases (for example: Kalle gav mig en bok) to have the indirect object first, the direct object second, we cannot analyse the phrase "skriv 1-2 sidor text" as a construct of that sort. We are writing two pages, not text dedicated to 1-2 pages (unless...?).
If anyone could explain what's happening here I'll gladly hear what your take is, if not, I'll simply have to email some professors.
*But swedish doesn't actually have a genetive case and you can fight me on that
Edit: other word combinations of this type I have thought of: en flaska rom/gin/saft etc; en bukett blommor; en kopp té/kaffe; ett flak öl/cider; and any sort of measurement, such as 3dl mjölk, 500 gram socker etc.
In all of these examples, they all seem to assign some kind of content: while a *vattenflaska* is a bottle designed or made for containing water, but can be emtpy, a *flaska vatten* always has water in it, no matter what kind of *flaska* it might be.
