Studia Islandica - 01.07.1963, Side 101

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control texts, on the other. The frequency quotients in the column
to the left are arrived at as follows. The relation between svara and
all other saying verbs (“övriga”) in the control material as a whole
— 552/3624 — was given the value 1.0. Then the quotient for Egla,
for example, with its 18 instances of svara and 268 of other saying
verhs might be calculated thus:
18 552-x
-------- = -----------; X = 0.4.
268 3624
On this point, too, Laxdœla and Knýtlinga with their quotients of
3.2 and 3.4 respectively reveal a striking affinity. The highest figure
in the control material is that of Eyrbyggja (2.5).
Table 9 (p. 48) shows the distribution over 5000-word sections. In
the left-hand column for each text are registered the numhers of svara
and other saying verbs in the section, e.g. 9 and 16 respectively for
the first section of Laxdœla. In the right-hand column one will find
the corresponding quotient —- 3.7 in the case just mentioned. As will
be seen, the frequency of both Laxdæla and Knýtlinga throughout
is on a high level: no section in these sagas has a lower quotient than
2.0. On the other hand, some sagas with a very small swzra-quotient
reveal a corresponding homogeneity in the opposite direction: among
the sections of Egla and Njála, thirty-one in all, there are only two
.— one in each saga — which exceed the quotient 0.9. Such an even
distribution indicates that we have to do with an essential sign of
individual linguistic choice.
In the case of svara, too, the inquiry has been extended to include
more control material: seventeen various texts with a total of ca.
389000 words. The numbers and the quotients for each text are shown
in the list on p. 51. Compared with this new control material, Laxdœla
and Knýtlinga do not appear as unique on the point in question —
but that one could not fairly demand. Two texts, Fagrskinna and the
short Hœnsa-Þóris saga, reach considerably higher quotients. Only one
saga, FóstbrœSra saga H, is on the same level as Laxdœla and Knýtlinga.
The remaining fourteen texts fall more or less below that level.
On the whole, the inorc-statistics strongly support our previous
result, corroborating the special stylistic affinity between Laxdæla
and Knýtlinga.
5. A pair word inquiry: Knýtlinga confronted witli Egla, Lax-
dæla, Eyrbyggja, Njála and Grettla. (Pp. 51—59). The second main
stage in this inquiry consists of a statistical examination of “pair
words”, in accordance with a method set forth and expounded in Studia