Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1981, Page 92

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Karen C. Kossutli
Bolli svarar: “Kona heitir Þórdís,
NOM 3 Sg NOM 3 Sg NOM
Bolli answers: “(The) woman is called Thordis,
hon er dóttir Snorra goða .. .” (Laxd.:205)
NOM 3 Sg NOM GEN GEN
she is daughter of Snorri priest . . .”
In this text the word kona ‘woman’ appears three times. The first time
it is new to the conversation, and indefinite, so unmarked. The second
time, it is specified by the interrogative adjective, so still unmarked, but
the third time, when it is clear that Bolli has a particular woman in
mind, it is still not marked for definiteness. It is this third reference to
kona which exemplifies the unmarked definite NP under discussion in
this paper. It is clearly anaphoric, a specific woman is on Bolli’s mind,
and it is surprising that he does not suffix a definite marker to the noun
on this occasion.
2.2 The Anaphoric Progression
In general, Old Icelandic conforms to the anaphoric pattem of
European languages: An NP repeated within a clause or two of the
initial occurrence is likely to be pronominalized; somewhat more distant
repeated nouns are marked for definiteness; and unfamiliar members
of a known class are indefinite, or unmarked. If the time span between
references to a noun is more than the critical number of sentences,
probably two or three, then the pronominal momentum decreases and
the original noun must be repeated, usually as definite, but if the
distance is great, as the full NP. The order of NP repetition is: a pro-
noun reappears as a definite noun, and a definite noun as a full NP
with distinguishing modifiers. The following passage illustrates a typical
anaphoric progression:
(9) 1 Sigurðr konungr var eitt hvert sinn at búi sínu,
NOM NOM 3 Sg TIME PHRASE PREP DAT DAT
Sigurd (the) king was once at his home
2 en um morgininn, þá er konungr var klæddr,
CONJ PREP ACC-DEF ADV CONJ NOM 3 Sg ADJ
and in the moming when (the) king was clothed,