Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 13.07.1981, Page 43

M. P. BARNES
The semantics and morphological case
government of the Faroese preposition fyri
1. Introduction
Most parts of Faroese grammar are a murky mystery, to native and
non-native speakers alike. The only serious general attempt to make the
language yield up its secrets is Lockwood (1955), but this is a pioneer
work and is based chiefly on the author’s own impressions, supple-
mented by some inspired guesswork. The description we find there of
Faroese prepositional usage illustrates well the sort of difficulties he
faced. A keen learner will naturally be anxious to use the correct mor-
phological case after prepositions, but he will find that the amount of
help given is in roughly inverse proportion to the complexity of the
rules. Where these are clear and straightforward, as they are for millum
and til, Lockwood expounds them at length; where two or three pages
of explanation would be in order, as in the case of við and fyri, one
finds either a frank admission of ignorance or statements of limited or
doubtful validity, followed by examples that in most cases are irrelevant
to and in one case inconsistent with what is said.1 The persistent learner
may then turn to Jacobsen and Matras (1961) since this is the principal
dictionary of Faroese and dictionaries often attempt to systematise pre-
positional usage. Under við he will find that some effort to impose order
has indeed been made, but that it is largely unsuccessful (a) because
archaic and modern usage are not kept clearly apart and (b) because
the categories distinguished are too numerous and the distinctions too
often based on purely superficial differences (cf. Barnes 1977). The
1 Concerning við we are told: “It does not seem possible to formulate compre-
hensive rules about the cases governed.” Of fyri it is stated: “it governs the accusa-
tive when referring to time” and: “When the sense is ‘in front of’ the dative is
used.” The majority of examples are introduced by the enigmatic word “further”
and include: hann fór fyri borð, keyp hetta fyri meg, ansurin fyri f<j>royskum máli
and ein btpn fyri tœr which neither obviously refer to time nor have the sense ‘in
front of’. The penultimate example: fyri trirpum árum síðan(i) seems to invalidate
*he first rule.