Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 124

122
Hjalmar P. Petersen
3.2 Prepositional phrases vs. indirect objects
In this section I will first point out some differences between Icelandic
and Faroese and then present results from the judgment test mentioned
above. In addition, I will show how many tokens of the relevant con-
structions were found in the two databases mentioned above.
Comparison with Icelandic is interesting because Icelandic and Faro-
ese are often grouped together as Insular Scandinavian languages. As
mentioned above, however, the social setting of the Faroese language is
rather different from the Icelandic one, as Danish influence is much more
wide-spread on the Faroe Islands than it is in Iceland.
According to Höskuldur Thráinsson (2007), double object construc-
tions in Icelandic (indirect object (IO) followed by a direct object (DO))
sometimes alternate with prepositional constructions where the direct
object precedes a prepositional phrase (DO+PP) and sometimes not.
Thus (4a, b) are unacceptable whereas (4C, d) are fine. A relevant differ-
ence might be that in (4c,d) the PP denotes the endpoint of a motion:
(4)a. *María gaf bókina til Haraldar.6
Mary(N) gave book-the(A) to Harold(G)
‘Mary gave the book to Harold.’
b. *Hann sýndi bátinn til strákanna.
he(N) showed boat-the(A) to boys-the(G)
‘He showed the boat to the boys.’
c. Haraldur sendi ost til mín.
Harold(N) sent cheese(A) to me(G)
‘Harold sent cheese to me.’
d. Þeir föxuðu samninginn til mín.
they(N) faxed contract-the(A) to me(G)
‘They faxed the contract to me.’ (Höskuldur Thráinsson 2007:174)
Höskuldur Thráinsson et al. (2004:261) claim that in Faroese the double
object construction (IO+DO, i.e. a dative indirect object followed by an
accusative direct object) is the default construction for verbs meaning
‘sell’, ‘lend’, ‘give’, ‘send’, etc. Henriksen (2000: 68) points out, on the
other hand, that the indirect object may change to a prepositional phrase
in yngri máli ‘younger speech’, meaning presumably modern Faroese as
6 An anonymous reviewer points out that analytic constructions are also found
Icelandic with gefa when movement is clearly involved, cf. Gefa boltann til leikmartrtstn5
‘Send the ball to the player’ (lit.: “give the ball(A) to the player(G)”).