Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2002, Page 77

ÓPERSÓNLIG SAGNORÐ í FØROYSKUM
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Fig. 3. In thefirst column we list the Icelandic verb, the thematic nature ofthe subject and what kind ofverb we
are dealing with. Then we list the corresponding verb (meaning and/orform) in Faroese, and see the case of
the subject and object, and ifit can occur with an expletive. The last column shows where it is possible tofind
the examples in the text above.
Icelandic F'aroese Meaning Subject Case in Far. Object case in Far. Expletive subject Examplc (the nuniher in the text)
Experiencer subj.
Achivementverbs
heppnast eydnast ‘succeed’ dat. nom. + (21 a,b)
nom./dat. + f2lc.ht

dáma dáma ‘like’ dat. acc. (5a,19)
id id id nom. acc. + (5b)
gremjast gremjast ‘grieve' nom. acc. (27)
líka hóva ‘like' dat. nom./akk. + (22a,b), (22c),
(22d)
líka huga ‘like’ + (23a,b)
líka hugna ‘like’ dat. +
líka lfka ‘like’ dat. acc. + (24a,c,e)
lítast á lítast á ‘like’ dat. acc.
líka skríma ‘like’ dat. (25)
líka unna ‘like’ nom. acc. (26)
Verbs of cognition and perception
virðast berast fyri ‘seem’ dat. + (28)
sýnast sýnast ‘seeni’ dat. (29)
bykja tykja ‘seem’ dat. acc. (30)
bykja tykjast ‘seem’ dat. nom. + (31 a)
bykja tykjast ‘seem’ nom.. dat. (31 b)
We see also examples with a change from
dative subject to nominative subjects in
these constructions, and do indeed also
have examples with a nominative object,
just as in Icelandic, see also Barnes (1986)
for similar examples.
Concluding remarks
Faroese has lost ASC where the subject is
patient or a theme - that is in front of verbs
like bróta ‘break’ and droyma ‘dream’. It
does still have ASC in the cases where the
subjecl is an experiencer. The verb classes
are then psych-verbs, and verbs of cogni-
tion and perception. We see also a shift
from accusative to dative with verbs of cog-
nition and perception and psych-verbs, and
there are exantples with dative subjects and
nominative objects as in (3 lb). The overall
picture is although that there seent to be a
change in the colloquial Faroese to change
dative subjects with nominative subjects - a
matter than needs further investigations.
We will not, as mentioned in the beginning
of this paper, discuss the syntactic nature of