Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2002, Page 42

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Joan Maling
The verb seinka ‘delay’ occurs with either dative or accusative in
Old Icelandic (henceforth OI), but only dative in modem Icelandic.
The verb Ijúka ‘finish, close’ govems only dative in modem Icelandic,
whereas OI lúka ‘close’ occured with either accusative or dative
according to Cleasby-Vigfússon. Indeed, it occurs with an accusative
object in lúka upp mína kistu ‘open up my chest’ but a dative object on
the very same page of Fóstbræðra saga, according to Cleasby-
Vigfússon: lúkrþá upp kistunni ‘opens(3sg) up the chest’. Verbs occur-
ring only with accusative objects in 01 but only with dative in the mod-
em language include deila ‘divide, share’,11 fækka (fœtkalfœtta)
‘decrease’, loka ‘lock, shut’ and 01 ripta (rifta) ‘annul, revoke, break
(an agreement)’. In (8) are given some 01 examples from Cleasby-
Vigfússon which illustrate the use of accusative on the verbal object:
(8) a. deila sér illan hlut af ‘deal oneself a bad share(A) from’
b. at fœtta skyldi húskarla ‘that should reduce in number the
menservants(A)’
c. Hann gekk inn í húsit ok lokaði innan hurðina.
he went into house-the and locked door-the(A) from the inside
d. Engi maðr á at ripta gjöf sína.
‘No man should revoke his gift(A).’
These objects, which are presumably themes, would be marked dative
in the modem language.
It is worth emphasizing, therefore, that it is an overstatement to
claim, as Halldór Halldórsson (n.d.) seems to, that all dative objects in
modem Icelandic have developed from case syncretism (e.g. the merge
of instrumental and dative) or from other grammatical functions.12 It
11 Cleasby-Vigfússon explicitly state that the verb deila in the sense of ‘deal,
divide’ never govems dative in Old Norse. As discussed by Þórhallur Eyþórsson
(2001:34), this change in case-assignment bears on the interpretation of the Runic
inscription on the Tune stone, which contains the forms DALIDUN ARBIJA.
12 Jóhanna Barðdal (p.c.) points to Reinhammar’s 1973 study of dative in Swedish
and Norwegian dialects, which indicates that the frequency of dative in Icelandic is at
least a common North Germanic inheritance. Kjartan Ottosson (p.c.) points to rele-
vant 19th century studies by Dietrich (1851) and Konráð Gíslason which I have not
been yet been able to obtain.