Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 13.07.1981, Page 71

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The case government of the Faroese preposition fyri
meaning of which is nevertheless probably still clear. The same applies
to (212) except that there an improbable interpretation is possible which
would render the dative grammatical: ‘they were summonsed while
before the court’. However, in many instances substitution of the one
case for the other leads most naturally to a different interpretation of
the fyri phrase. Contrast the Substitutive phrase in (211) with
(215) Jón Arason virkaði fyri abbatinum Sigvarði úr Þykkvibæar
kloystri
In either example fyri + dat. will mean working to further the cause,
career etc. of the person(s) concerned, while fyri + acc. will mean
working for them, as their agent or representative. A change of case will
also lead to a change of meaning in most of the acc./dat. contrastive
pairs above. There is a fundamental difference, for example, between
ábyrgd fyri eitt ‘responsibility for having done something’ and ábyrgd
fyri e-m ‘responsibility for doing something’. It may well be, in fact,
that the continuing use of plain fyri(r) in Faroese and Icelandic to ex-
press meanings which are now mostly expressed by for/för compounds
and/or alternative words in mainland Scandinavian has at least in part
been facilitated by the preservation of the acc./dat. distinction in the
two former languages.10
5.2 Vacillation
Sometimes the semantic distinction between a fyri + acc. and a fyri
+ dat. phrase is not very great. This can lead to uncertainty resulting
in vacillating case usage. It would be possible, for example, to substitute
fyri hana for fyri henni in (203). The meaning would then be: ‘as far as
she was concerned’ (Delimiting), which is not far removed from the
actual meaning: ‘to her’ (Locational). Further: in contrast to (149)
(Preparative) we find:
(216) Tað er ikki spælipláss fyri tey (Delimiting)
Vacillation is particularly common after verbs such as arbeiða, virka,
stríða(st), where the distinction between ‘work as the representative of’,
10 The following would have to or could be used in Danish, for example, to
translate fyri in some of the sentences included in this article: f<f>r, (hen) foran,
forbi, fremfor, udfor, i stedet for, formedelst, til trods for, udsat for, til œre for,
over(bord), pá grund af, pá —s vegne, til, i mine 0jne. This list is in no way ex-
haustive.