Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1985, Page 68

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Bergljót Baldursdóttir
particular characteristics of Icelandic language acquisition. Icelandic
language acquisition has not been researched much but according to
Konráðsson’s (1982) study, Icelandic children, like children learning
other inflected languages, seem to learn first the distinction between
nominative and accusative. When considering Baldur’s acquisition, it is
likely that at the time the attrition process started, he had rather good or
considerable command of the nominative/accusative distinction but
the acquisition of the dative and genitive was probably not fully com-
plete. This could explain why the endings of the nominative and accu-
sative are taken up now as favoured suffixes in Baldur’s restructuring of
the noun case endings, at the same time as the dative and genitive end-
ings are disappearing. Furthermore, it can also explain why the unusual
regularity of the dative and genitive plural is not taken up as a favoured
suffix like the accusative suffixes above. (All nouns, strong or weak,
have the endings -um in dative plural and -a in genitive plural.)
The third factor mentioned here in relation to the changes occurring
in Baldur’s language is general tendencies in language change. When
considering other Scandinavian languages and the changes which have
taken place there through the centuries, Haugen (1976) points out that
in general the reduction of the cases of other Scandinavian languages
left their nouns with a nominative and genitive distinction. But
similarly as is occurring here in Baldur’s speech, there was frequently
produced a new base form which partly coincided with the nominative
and partly with the accusative as base forms. This phenomenon then,
although it can be seen to reflect his language acquisition, also shows
strong similarities to the changes which have occurred over the years in
related languages.
4.1.2 The use and the form
It must be emphasized that here the case endings are considered but
not the meaning these endings normally carry. For example, it is not
possible to say that Baldur’s Icelandic is simpler, because although he
has stopped using dative and genitive case inflections, he is still able to
express the meaning these endings normally carry. The endings them-
selves have been generalized but the meanings are still expressed in pre-
positional phrases. In the data the prepositions are never missing and
the meaning, normally carried by a preposition and case ending, is most