Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2002, Page 73

ÓPERSÓNLIG SAGNORÐ í FØROYSKUM
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Summarizing the data we see that it is only
an experiencer subject that occurs with
ASCs in Faroese. The case of the subject
may have changed to dative or nominative.
In cases where Icelandic has a patient
theme, that is with verbs like bróta ‘to
break’,/y//a ‘to fill’, we fínd nominative
subjects in Faroese. The same is the to be
observed with themes as subjects hefja
‘start’ in Icelandic, although we find an id-
iomatic expression in mær barst fyri ‘it oc-
curred to me’, with a dative subject mær
‘me-dat.’ in Faroese. The semantic verb
classes we have found are: psych-verb,
verbs involving the body and verbs of cog-
nition and perception verbs, and we note
that verbs of involving the body take, as a
general rule, nominative in Faroese.
Dative Subject Construction
DSCs are more common in Faroese than
ASCs, although they are, sometime linked,
to certain discourses or are to be found in
high style like the language of the Bible, or
who people like to give the impression of
scholarship. The rnost common DSC is
with the verb dáma ‘like’, as in (19) with a
dative subject, the verb in 3 person singular
and the object in the accusative.
(19) mær dámar mjólkina
me-dat. likes-3sg. milk-the-acc.
‘I like the milk’
Subject is Experiencer
The only thematic role with DSCs is expe-
riencer, just as in the case of ASC, and the
verb classes are roughly the same as those
we found in ASC. We may illustrate the ex-
periencer subject in DSCs with the expres-
sion berast fyri ‘seem’, an idiomatic ex-
pression that is not uncommon in the collo-
quial language, and we see in (20b) that
nominative subjects are ruled out, while
(20c) shows the use of an expletive. Note
also the dative subject and the ‘expletive’
object in (20d).
(20) a. mær barst fyri
me-dat. seemed for (FD)
b. *eg barst fyri
I-nom. seemed for
c. Tað barst mær fyri
It-expl. seemed me-dat. for
‘I thought’
d. Mær barst tað fyri
me-dat. seemed it-expl. for
‘It seented to me’
Subject is Experiencer, achievement verbs
We ftnd in Faroese the synonyms eydnast
and lukkast ‘to succeed’, which take a da-
tive subject as well as a nominative subject,
and an expletive. Note that the object is in
the nominative in (21 a) and presumably
also in (21 b).
(21) a. mær eydnaðist gongutúrurin
me-dat. succeeded walk-the-nom.
‘the walk turned out OK for me’
b. mær eydnaðist ikki lopið
me-dat. succeeded not jump-the-
nom.
i did not manage to jump' (FD)