Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1985, Side 63

Language Shift in an Icelandic Child 61
Table 2.
1984 1982
nom. instead of dat. 21 10
acc. 11 7
gen. 4 2
nominativc total 37 (58.7%) 19 (47.5%)
acc. instead of nom. 10 7
dat. 12 3
gcn. 2 0
accusative total 24 (38%) 10 (25%)
dat. instead of acc. 2 4
nom. 0 5
dative total 2 (3.2%) 9 (22.5%)
gen. instead of dat. 0 1
acc. 0 1
genitivc total 0 2 (5%)
Altogether 63 40
nominative and accusative forms instead. This becomes more obvious
when it is considered how often other cases are used instead of the
dative. In 1982, 14 times or 35% of the errors involve the omission of
the dative. In 1984, 33 times or 52.4% involve omission of the dative.
The accusative is substituted by another case 12 times (19%) in 1984
and 12 times (30%) in 1982. The nominative is substituted 10 times
(15%) by anothercase in 1984 and 12 times (30%) in 1982.
The genitive case is the least used case. In the 1982 data from Baldur
the genitive is used inappropriately twice and three times omitted. In
1984 the genitive is never used but 7 times omitted. On the other hand
the code-switching data show that in 1982 the English ’s genitive con-
struction is three times used within an Icelandic sentence. For example
sentence (2):
(2) hann er í daddy’s trousers og í mömmunnar hatta
he is wearing daddy’s trousers and mommy’s hats