Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1960, Blaðsíða 84

82
UM „BOÐHÁTT LIDINS TÍMA“
be said to be the equivalent of two sentences, with two verbal forms, each of
which refers to a single event only, to this effect: Nú gajt jm góða gjöj, og ver
jtú allra drengja heilastr fyrir hana ,You have given a good present; may the
best of luck be with you for this‘.
The verbal construction of the two sentences may be analyzed as follows: A
semantic morpheme (gej- ,give‘) + [grammatical morphemes (e—>a + t ,2nd
sg. pret.‘) + a semantic morpheme (e. g., ver- ,be‘) +] a grammatical mor-
pheme (0 ,imper.‘). The imperative phrase under discussion (— the equivalent
of the two verbal phrases —), therefore, is an elliptical construction: What is
enclosed in square brackets in the above analysis is left out and the two remain-
ing morphemes are united into a single imperative form. Because of the high
amount of redundancy of the verbal meanings in this particular context, the
two morphemes may be omitted without any risk of misunderstanding. Their
meanings are implicit in the imperative phrase.