Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2008, Page 112

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THE BORROWING SCALE AND DANISH IN FAROESE
the model language has such a structure3.
Next we shall consider existential sen-
tences such as (11). The sentence is taken
from the K8 Corpus.
(11) Tað er eini trý hol... (K8)
there-nom.sg. is-3.p.sg. a three holes-
nom.pl.
'There are three holes....'
No agreement exists between the DP eini trý
hol, which is in the nominative plural, and
the verb er 'is', which is in the singular. In-
stead, there is agreement with the expletive
tað 'there’ and the singular of the verb.
It is possible to view language contact as
a possible trigger behind this phenomenon,
as Danish has er in the singular and the plu-
ral: Jeg er 'I am', du er 'you are', han er 'he is',
vi er 'we are', / er 'you are' and de er 'they are'.
Other analyses also exist such as the small
clause analysis of Dikken (2001), Multiple
Agreement, (Radford 2004:319, 364, 381)
and the feature analysis of sentences, though
admittedly not quite the same as above, like
You ones was a .... by Adger (2006).
Another possible candidate that has
come about as the result of language contact
is a cleft sentence like the one in (12a). In
(12a), the DP ein nýggjan motor 'a new en-
gine' is in the accusative instead of the ex-
pected nominative ein nýggjur motorur 'a
new engine' (12b).
The sentences in (12c) and (12d) are
Danish. Case is only seen in the personal pro-
noun, as exhibited by (12c). Danish only al-
lows for the oblique case in personal pro-
nouns in clefts and not the nominative as
seen in (12d).
(12a) Tað er ein nýggjan motor, sum bátinum
tørvar.
it-nom. is-3.p.sg. a new engine-acc.sg. that
boat-the-dat. needs-3.p.sg.
‘It is a new engine that the boat needs.'
(12b) Tað er ein nýggjur motorur, sum bát-
inum tørvar.
it-nom. is-3.p.sg. a new engine-nom.sg.
that boat-the-dat. needs-3.p.sg.
'lt is a new engine that the boat needs.'
(12c) Det er dig, som Jon behøver. (Dan.)
It is you-obl., who John needs-3.p.sg.
'lt is you, who John needs.'
(12d) *Det er du, som jeg behøver (Dan.)
it-nom. is you-nom. who John needs-
3.p.sg.
'lt is you, who John needs.'
The judgment test shows that a sentence like
(12a) is preferred.
Although Danish influence is possible in
(12a), other possibilities also exist, one being
the influence of the un-clefted sentence, in
which the DP nýggjan motor is in the accu-
sative.
(13) Bátinum tørvar ein nýggjan motor
boat-the-dat. needs-3.p.sg. a new engine-
acc.sg.
'The boat needs a new engine’.
(13) is old-fashioned and has basically be-
come extinct in the spoken colloquial. It is
replaced by a pure Danish construction, bá-
turin manglar ein nýggjan motor 'boat-the-
nom. needs-3p.sg. a new engine-acc.sg. 'the
boat need a new engine’. Impersonal subject
constructions are only found in spoken
Faroese with the verb dáma 'like' (Petersen
2002). A change in progress is also evident
here, as people say eg dámi mjólkina 'l-nom.