Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1981, Page 96

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Karen C. Kossuth
Here the first appearance of bóndi is marked as new information by
einn, functioning here as an indefinite article. A sentence intervenes
and the second mention is definite. Four more sentences intervene and
the third reference to the landowner, a coreferential noun, is unmarked,
as is the last mention.
3.2 Diminished Topicality
Of course, the lowest topicality level is deletion, and both known and
indefinite noun phrases may be deleted. Fillmore’s statement (1971:
380) “for certain predicates silence (zero) can replace one of the argu-
ment expression just in case the speaker wishes to be indefinite or non-
committal about the identity of the argument”, applies to virtually any
sentence part in Old Icelandic, including indefinite subjects (cf. also
Keenan 1976:313 on the subject property of indispensability). Consider
below, where the focus in example (11) is on the resulting position of
the spearpoint rather than on who put it there, and example (12), where
the focus is on the act regardless of the one who acted:
(11) Sneri þá spjótskaftinu í jprð niðr . . . (Drop.:165)
3 Sg ADV DAT-DEF PREP PHR ADV
Then the spearpoint was turned down into the earth .. .
(12) þar klœi lítt. (Drop.:161)
ADV 3 Sg SUBJUNCT ADV
There would be little scratching
The ultimate lack of topicality coupled with the height of anaphora is
definite deletion. Consider this passage, where dœtr ‘daughters’ is
deleted after the initial mention, but jarl ‘earl’, being the topic, appears
as an unmarked noun or pronoun, then as a deleted subject. Both NPs
are known, they differ in gender and number in case of pronominaliza-
tion, and the proximity is roughly the same, but the differing topicality
of the two nouns accounts for their differing realization:
(13) þá gerðisk þat mjpk um jarl, at hann var ósiðugr
ADV 3 Sg NOM ADV PREP ACC CONJ NOM 3 Sg ADJ
then it frequently was the case with (the) earl that he was immoral
um kvennafar. Gerðisk þar svá mikit at, at jarl lét
PREP ACC 3 Sg ADV ADV PRO PREP CON NOM 3 Sg
in sexual matters. It developed to such an extent that (the) earl had