Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2002, Side 66

64
QUIRKY CASE IN FAROESE
‘I had a dream’
(Colloquial Faroese)
c. *meg kitlar
me-acc. tickles-3sg.
d. *mær kitlar
me-dat. tickles-3sg.
e. eg kitlist
I-nom. tickle-refl.-lsg.
‘I am tickeling’
In addition to a change from accusative to
nominative, we see changes in ASC from
accusative to dative. The verb in (2) is in
third person singular, while the pronoun
teimum ‘them’ is in dative plural. The ob-
ject is, generally, in the accusative in
Faroese, although we have found examples
with nominative objects, see also Barnes
(1986). These examples will be discussed
in the following sections.
(2) teimum vantar dirvi at taka sær um
reiggj
them-dat. lacks-3sg. courage-acc. to
pull themself together
’They lack the courage to pull them-
selves together’
The verb vanta ‘lack’ requires accusative in
Icelandic. We presume this to be the origi-
nal pattern in both languages, and note, as
mentioned above, a change in Faroese from
accusative to dative, while the subject
theme is the same, the one of experiencer,
see Jónsson (1997/98) for lcelandic.3
Another verb that has taken the same
route is the verb leingjast eftir ‘long for’,
which takes acc. in Icelandic, dative or
nominative in Faorese:
(3) a. mær leingist eftir henni
me-dat. longs-refl. for her-dat.
‘I miss her’
b. eg leingist eftir henni
I-nom. long-refl. for her-dat.
‘I miss her’
Some verbs take either accusative or dative
subjects, as in (4) below. This will be de-
scribed in detail in Accusative and Dative
Subjects.
We have included (4b) and (4c), since the
sentences show a general pattern with im-
personal constructions in Modern Faroese,
namely that a nominative subject is un-
grammatieal, while sentences with an the
pronoun tað ‘it’ + verb + acc./dat. are gram-
matical.
(4) a. meg/mær lystir at vita
me-acc./me-dat. likes-3sg. to know
‘I would like to know’
b. *eg lysti at vita
I-nom. like-lsg. to know
‘I would like to know’
d. tað lystir meg at vita
it likes-3sg. me-acc. to know
‘I would like to know that’
Dative Subject Constructions are more
common in Faroese than ASC, allhough the
tendency is for them to be replaced by dif-
ferent expressions or nominative, or an ex-