Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2008, Side 73

Becoming Perfect: Observations on Icelandic vera búinn að 71
evance’ in some sense (see Wide 2002 for discussion). In fact, the
choice between them is sometimes mainly stylistic and the distribu-
tion varies considerably between different situations and text types.
While quite uncommon in more formal texts, vera búinn að makes up
about a third of the perfects in informal discourse (see Table 7).14
Similar numbers are given by Wide (2002): 36% of the (non-finite,
present, and past) perfects in her main material contain vera búinn að
(2002:172). Professional written texts show the lowest frequency,
°nly 0.03 instances per 1000 words, to be compared to 1.4 in-
stances/1000 words in children’s books and 1.8 instances/1000 words
in radio discussions (Wide 2002:164). The main distinctions are thus
between more and less formal texts, and between written and spoken
language, rather than between adults and adolescents. Hence, the data
suggest that a generalization of the construction with vera búinn að in
ihe past has led to stylistic variation.
hafa vera búiinn aó % vera búinn að
f he Corpus of Spoken
Icelandic, ístal (1999-2000) Hiscussions in Parliament, 639 340 35%
Alþingisumræður (2004-2005) Conversations between Adolescents, 439 28 6%
Samtöl (2006) 124 61 33%
Table 7: Frequencies of present and non-fínite perfects with hafa and
vera búinn að in three spoken language corpora.
The observed variation is, however, not exclusively stylistic. As we
will see below, vera búinn að appears to have different implications
14 The data only include present and non-fmite perfects, and the distribution is
therefore not affected by the impossibility of vera búinn að in past counterfactuals.
However, the examples with hafa include also inferential perfects; if these were dis-
regarded the relative frequency of vera búinn aö would be slightly higher. The dis-
cussion mainly focuses on the present perfect, but should carry over to past perfects
as well.