Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1985, Page 129

CHRISTER PLATZACK
Narrative Inversion in Old Icelandic
0. Introduction
In all Germanic languages, the prototypic yes/no-question has the
finite verb in first position, the prototypic declarative has the finite
verb in second position.* For certain reasons, the second generalization
does not pertain to Modem English, but it does pertain to English
roughly prior to 1500. However, the word order with the finite verb in
first position is also found in affirmative clauses in all Germanic lan-
guages — although this word order on the whole is more frequent in
older stages of these languages. This deviation from the otherwise
strictly upheld verb-second constraint in declarative main clauses has
naturally attracted the interest of scholars from different times and
different theoretical frameworks. Consider e.g. Alving (1916), Falk &
Torp (1900), Diderichsen (1941), Maurer (1924), Nygaard (1900,
1906) and several others.
Modem Icelandic differs from the other modem Germanic lan-
guages in making more than sporadic use of affirmative main clauses
with the finite verb in first position. Cf. Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson (1982)
and Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson (1983:123 ff.). As Sigurðsson shows,
this construction is used fairly often in certain narrative genres, like
biographies. Often, but certainly not always, the finite verb is preceded
by the coordinating conjunction og. This holds true also for Old Ice-
landic: consider the following example from Gísla saga (1943:65):
(1) Þórðr var mikill maðr vexti, ok bar hann hátt i sleÖanum\ hrós-
aði hann sér heldr ok þóttisk vegliga búinn.
With respect to Old Icelandic, this „narrative inversion“ has been dis-
cussed from several points of view. Among more recent contributions,
*I would like to thank Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson, Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson and Hösk-
uldur Þráinsson for valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.