Orð og tunga - 26.04.2018, Page 73

62 Orð og tunga
internationally recognizable – the wonders of technology, potential
of nuclear energy, and fear of nuclear proliferation in the changing
world of the Cold War, as well as the idea of the fundamental building
blocks of matter, the “real nature” of things. In the Icelandic case,
there was a specific convergence between these changes in the 1940s
and the emergence of a modernist poetic movement. The atom poets’
use of the label represents “reclaiming” of Halldór Laxness’ satirical
name.
The element atóm- became sufficiently iconic for this whole cluster
of connotations that it could be combined with a wide range of second
elements to form compounds with metaphorical meanings that draw
on different aspects of the above complex of associations.
These words are to some extent marked as distinct from non-
metaphorical uses by the consistent preference for the foreign atóm
over the native calque frumeind; the latter tends to “decompose” to its
literal meaning ‘basic unit’ when used in other contexts and not carry
the connotations of atóm. At the same time the word’s very foreignness
is iconic, as the idea of foreign influence and the presence of global
politics and global technology reshaping Icelandic society is a central
part of the ethos.
References
Adrjan, Pawel & Javier Muñoz-Basols. 2003. The Sound of Humor: Linguistic
and Semantic Constraints in the Translation of Phonological Jokes. SKY
Journal of Linguistics 16:241–248.
Aldrei fór ég suður – hörku rokk á heimsmælikvarða – Gúanó stelpan hans
Mugisons. Pressan 20 April 2014. http://www.pressan.is/Menningar press-
an/Lesa_tonlist/aldrei-for-eg-sudur---horku-rokk-a-heims maelikvarda--
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Alfræðasafn AB. 21 vols. 1965–1968. Reykjavik: Almenna bókafélagið.
Ari Páll Kristinsson. 2012. Language Management Agencies Counteracting
Perceived Threats to Tradition. Language Policy 11(4):343–356.
Ari Páll Kristinsson & Amanda Hilmarsson-Dunn. 2015. Implications of
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Linguistics, pp. 55‒67. Linguae et Litterae. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Arnon, Imbar & Neal Snider. 2010. More than Words: Frequency Effects for
Multi-Word Phrases. Journal of Memory and Language 62(1):67–82.
Árni Óskarsson. 1980. „Vinna sofa éta þegja…“ Athugun á textagerð um
sjómennsku og vertíðarlíf. Tímarit Máls og menningar 41:187–201.
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