Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 13.07.1981, Qupperneq 74

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M. P. Barnes
phrase in (79). Dative Concessive phrases, as exemplified by (233), are
not as common as their accusative counterparts, but they do occur suffi-
ciently frequently not to be counted an idiosyncrasy. The two appear to
be in free variation.
Also in free variation, in spite of many claims to the contrary, are
accusative and dative after framman fyri. Adverbs in -an are combined
with fyri to form complex prepositions with Locational function: uttan
fyri, oman fyri, norðan fyri, framman fyri etc. All except framman fyri
govern the accusative without exception. Lockwood (1955:99) asks us
to contrast the following: “eitt tr0ll stóð knappliga framman fyri honum
a troll suddenly stood before him, i.e. face to face with him, ein (sic)
trpll stóð framman fyri hann a troll stood in front of him, as in a crowd
or a queue!” He has the support of many native speakers in this. How-
ever, I can provide numerous counter examples from my material, and
also examples where the distinction has no relevance. Let the following
suffice:
(235) og har sá eg menn koma berandi eina kistu, framman fyri
henni gingu nakrir og sungu (as in a crowd or queue)
(236) Hann steggaði framman fyri eini stór, reyð timburhús (face to
face)
(237) nú sat hon framman fyri songini (face to face?)
(238) Hon stóð framman fyri speglið (face to face?)
Of the two other complex prepositions involving fyri which I have
come across, afturfyri ‘in return for’ and yvirfyri ‘vis-á-vis’, neither are
common, and both govern one case only: afturfyri the accusative and
yvirfyri the dative.
A great deal more could be said on the subject of vacillating case
usage after fyri12 and on the whole subject of the semantics and case
12 An interesting example is: Tœr verða oftast roknaOar fyri eina bygd, where
the complex transitive rokna, which is followed by an object and an object comple-
ment introduced by fyri, appears in the passive. The object of the active sentence
is now subject and nominative (Tœr), and since subject complements normally also
appear in the nominative in Faroese, even after fyri (cf. 2), it is surprising to find
eina bygd (acc.). This seems to be an instance of attraction of case, the accusative
of the active sentence being perpetuated in the passive construction, helped, per-
haps, by the presence of fyri, which, although it can govern the nominative, is
normally, like most prepositions, followed by some other case. The accusative
appears to be the usual case in constructions of this type.