Orð og tunga - 01.06.2005, Page 122

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Orð og tunga
The origins of this process seem to be simple: The Old and New Icelandic verb
hervæða 'supply with armour, arm' is itself a regularly formed denominative from
herváð(ir), 'armour', a compound noun composed of her 'army' and váð 'cloth, cover-
ing'. (The simple verb væða, probably never common, can now be considered nearly
defunct.) So far, this formation has received little attention in the literature but see
Gustavs (1989).
The type hervæða became the model for neologisms already in the forties when
forms like iðnvæða 'industrialize' and rafvæða 'electrify' are first attested. Now, it seems
that constraints on the use of -væða as a general verbalizer in compounds have been
almost totally dropped and -væða has become highly productive at the present time
according to the corpora of the Institute of Lexicography at the University of Iceland
and other sources. So, it could easily be argued that the formation has not only at-
tested itself but also become very productive.
Many of the words in question are rather "learned" like hnattvæða 'globalize' and
tölvuvæða 'computerize', others less so as ADSL-væða 'supply with ADSL', bloggvæða
'bloggify' and so on. Most of the verbs in -væða have the meanings 'supply with',
'equip with', 'introduce X',' provide with X'. Nominalization is automatic: Any verb
in -væða yields a fem. noun in -væðing.
The question arises whether Icelandic has acquired a new suffix "-væða" (primary
compound), i.e. -væða has acquired the status of grammaticalization, or whether verbs
in -væða should be considered as incorporations (synthetic compounds). From the
diachronic point of view the process is clear; we have been able to follow it since its
beginning. Synchronically, the two solutions, the compounding or derivation suffix,
seem equally arguable. But if/when væða acquires the status of suffix it will be the
first Icelandic verb to do so. A number of other verbal second parts of compounds
might provide an interesting object of investigation.
Keywords:
-væða/væðing in compounds, Icelandic, word formation, neologisms
Margrét Jónsdóttir
Hugvtsindadeild Háskóla íslands
IS-101 Reykjavík
mjons@hi.is