Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2002, Page 40

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Joan Maling
2.3 The spread ofdative case
Although default nominative and accusative are statistically the most
frequent cases on subjects and objects, respectively, it is noteworthy
that the use of the dative case actually seems to be spreading. The
best-known example of the extension of dative in Icelandic is the phe-
nomenon known as þágufallssýki ‘dative-sickness’ (cf. Ásta Svavars-
dóttir 1982, Halldór Halldórsson 1982, Ásta Svavarsdóttir et al. 1984,
inter alia), which affects the case-marking of non-agentive experi-
encer subjects. Lexically-govemed idiosyncratic accusative on expe-
riencer subjects of so-called impersonal verbs, e.g. langa ‘want’,
vanta ‘need, lack’, has been giving way to either dative or nominative
since at least the 19th century (Halldór Halldórsson 1982). Þágufalls-
sýki clearly reflects the psychological reality of the correlation
between dative case and the thematic role experiencer among native
speakers, despite the fact that most experiencer arguments bear
default case (cf. Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson 1983b). Even more striking
evidence comes from the instances of dative case replacing default
nominative on the subject of verbs like hlakka Took forward to’ and
kvíða fyrir ‘be apprehensive about’.9
Just as thematically predictable dative on experiencer subjects is
gaining at the expense of accusative (and occasionally even default
nominative), so too is dative gaining at the expense of default
accusative on verbal objects. Eirflcur Rögnvaldsson (1994) and Jó-
hanna Barðdal (2001b:180) have both noted an increase in the fre-
quency of dative case throughout the recorded period. Eiríkur
Rögnvaldsson (1994) observed that the relative frequency of the four
morphological cases has changed from Old to Modem Icelandic:10
9 For discussion of the historical changes involved, see Halldór Halldórsson
(1982), Holland (1993), Þórhallur Eyþórsson (2000, 2002), Jóhanna Barðdal (2001b),
Jóhanna Barðdal & Thórhallur Eythórsson (to appear). For a theoretical perspective
of dative-sickness in a number of Germanic languages, see Smith (1994).
10 The statistics for modem Icelandic are from the Islensk orðtíðnibók (Jörgen
Pind et al. 1991); for Old Icelandic they are based on the count of nouns in the
Icelandic sagas done by Guðrún Ingólfsdóttir and Bergljót Kristjánsdóttir. The results
have since been published as Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson (2000).