Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 13.07.1981, Page 65

61
The case government of the Faroese preposition fyri
The basic sense of such expressions seems to be: ‘to respond (in the way
specified) with the feelings or the mind to (i.e. when confronted by) an
external impression’. Formally these expressions differ considerably:
fyri may be used in conjunction with noun, adjective, verb or adverb
phrases of varying shape; semantically they show a great uniformity: in
virtually all the examples in my material fyri relates to some word
denoting awareness, interest, concem, sympathy, respect, love, joy,
sorrow, fear or contempt. The following examples will suffice to show
the formal and semantic range:
(170) ansurin fyri móðurmálinum var vaknaður
(171) so at bprnini fáa áhuga fyri tí
(172) Útkomuni stúri eg einki fyri
(173) Heldur sprongdist hennara barmur, enn hon læt á sær kenna,
at hon bar sorg fyri Brandi
(174) vit em tá bygdarfólk, skuldu ikki verið so fremmand hv0rt fyri
0ðrum
(175) tey fingu virðing og samkennslu fyri honum
(176) Tummas hevði soleiðis sum so nógv fólk ein seran alsk fyri
leikum
(177) Teir h0vdu jú júst bedýrað sína gleði fyri f0roysku útgávuni
(178) Eg eri ikki bangin fyri hasum
(179) Tað var av ótta fyri Norðurlendingum, at teir avgj0rdu hetta
Clearly to be included in this category are also:
(180) eg orki ilcki fyri hesum tvídráttinum
(181) Niklas er ikki so nógv fyri tílíkum
(182) Tí mugu eisini onnur . . . hava eyga fyri tí, sum sigur frá goml-
um d0gum
In (180) we have extreme distaste, rather than any of the reactions
mentioned above, while the expression at vera fyri ‘to be in favour of’
in (181) indicates a positive response to an external stimulus. The verb
+ noun phrase + preposition phrase idiom of (182) is very similar in
meaning to expressions like hava ans fyri, vísa ansni fyri etc., which
themselves form close units resembling a verb semantically (ansa). The
difference between hava eyga fyri and hava ans fyri lies in the figurative
use of eyga which renders the former expression idiomatic (within my
definition, cf. note 4) while the latter can be interpreted more or less
literally.