Orð og tunga - 01.06.2014, Page 91

Vnnessa Isenmann: Computer-mediated communication
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(12) A: Heyheyhey! Við ætlum nokkur á Vegamót á
morgun aðborða! (...)
B: Matur og Fylleri LIKE17
(13) A: Krakkar, hverjir eru til í eitthvað skemmtistuð um
helgina, fös eða lau??
A: like = já?18
Yet, in three examples like is adapted to Icelandic grammar though
not to Icelandic spelling rules, e.g. likeinu (cf. (1), relevant part repeat-
ed as (14)).
(14) (...)
A: róleg á likeinu
In (14), like is used as a noun. The stem retains its English form but the
word is adjusted to Icelandic grammar by attaching the dative article
(-inu) in accordance with the preceding preposition á.
In the other two cases, like is used as a verb, as for example in (15).
The spelling is English but the Icelandic infinitive ending -a is added,
with a dash.
(15) A: Kæra samstarfsfólk. Vilduð þið vera svo góð að
kíkja á krotið mitt, hugsanlega like-a og í mesta lagi
deila, ég verð ykkur ævinlega þakklát.19
Concerning the verb form, the mixing of English spelling and Icelan-
dic inflection (as in like-a) displays an exception since other verbs in
the corpus are adapted in both orthography and grammar (see for
example ströggla). Furthermore, the use of a dash to adhere the in-
flectional ending can only be observed for like. The English orthog-
raphy becomes especially interesting when taking into account that
the button to press says "líkar þetta" in the Icelandic Facebook inter-
face. However, Facebook was initially English speaking and the term
like as a Facebook-inherent act is entrenched across languages. The
preference of like over likar in the corpus may thus derive from the
endeavor to highlight the Facebook-related meaning in contrast to
the intrinsic semantics of líkar.20 Since the verb form of like is treated
17 In (12), A proposes dinner at a restaurant. B approves the idea.
18 In (13), A proposes to meet at the weekend and explains that pressing the like but-
ton means ycs.
19 In (15), A asks the audience to have a look at something, press the like button and
repost it.
20 This coincides with a tendency in colloquial Icelandic in general to use the bor-