Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2008, Page 90

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Ida Larsson
complexity of the construction can account for the availability of the
universal reading, but left the details for future work.
As noted, there is variation in the acceptability and interpretation
of vera búinn að in modern Icelandic. To some extent, the use of vera
búinn að in certain experiential contexts can be explained by changes
in the linguistic system of modem Icelandic. As we have seen, there
is variation not only between formal and informal contexts but also
between speakers. Whereas some speakers allow vera búinn að to be
negated by aldrei ‘never’, others find it ungrammatical, at least with-
out a special context. In order to gain a better understanding of the
development of the constraction, which might be about to become a
perfect, we need a larger investigation of the variation between indi-
viduals, historically and synchronically, as well as an account of how
the temporal-aspectual properties of the construction are derived. If
the construction with vera búinn að is developing into a perfect, we
expect it to become possible in past counterfactuals and to get the
same interpretation with all kinds of predicates. As far as the present
investigation shows, there is at present no variation in the acceptabil-
ity of counterfactuals nor in the interpretation of vera búinn að with
intransitive achievements like fara ‘go’.
CORPORA
Alþingi = Alþingisumræður (Discussions in Parliament), http://www.lexis.hi.is/cor-
pus/leit.pl. Recorded in 2004-2005.
ístal = íslenskur talmálsbanki (Corpus of Spoken lcelandic), http://www.lexis.hi.is/
corpus/leit.pl. Recorded in 1999-2000. Project leader: Þórunn Blöndal. See also
http://www.hi.is/~eirikur/istal/.
Samtöl = Samtöl ungs fólks (Conversations between Adolescents), http://www.
lexis.hi.is/corpus/leit.pl. Recorded in 2006 by Sigrún Ammendrup and Ásta
Svavarsdóttir for the project Hvernig tala ungir íslendingar i upphafi 21. aldar?.
See http://www.heima.is/atli/rannsokn/.
HEIMILDIR
Alexiadou, Artemis, and Elena Anagnostopoulou. 2008. Structuring Participles.
Proceedings ofWCCFL 26:33-41. Cascadilla Press, Somerville, MA.
Comrie, Bemard. 1976. Aspect. An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and
Related Problems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.