Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2020, Side 94

Örn Ólafsson. 1998. Hæ og vei. Guðrúnarhvöt kveðin Guðrúnu Ásu Grímsdóttur fimmtugri
23. september 1998, bls. 102–105. Menningar- og minningarsjóður Mette Magnussen,
Reykjavík.
summary
ʻHaf góðan dag ‘Have a nice day’
The emergence of a new leave-taking term in Icelandic
in the light of Speech Act Theory’
Keywords: speech acts, greetings, leave-taking terms, historical pragmatics, pragmatical-
ization
Hafðu/Eigðu góðan dag ‘Have a nice day (ACC)’ is a prominent leave-taking term in
Modern Icelandic. Prescriptively, it has been deemed “improper Icelandic” due to its being
influenced by English Have a nice day. The use of Hafðu/Eigðu góðan dag is generally dis-
couraged and other leave-taking terms recommended instead.
In this paper, the leave-taking term Hafðu/Eigðu góðan dag is investigated from the
perspective of Speech Act Theory. The term is contrasted with the greeting Góðan dag
‘Good day (ACC)’, which has been around in Icelandic since medieval times. Interestingly,
Góðan dag was originally accompanied by a verb and could be used either as a greeting or
as a leave-taking term. However, the usage of a verb with Góðan dag was later dropped.
The phrase pragmaticalized and is currently only used as a greeting. In the leave-taking
term Hafðu/Eigðu góðan dag, the imperative verb is never left out.
Despite having a “foreign flavor” there are mainly three factors that favor the usage of
Hafðu/Eigðu góðan dag in Icelandic. First, the content of the leave-taking term is transpar-
ent. It contains a wish for the addressee to have a nice day. Second, the syntax is uncontro-
versial with the imperative of hafa ‘have’ or eiga ‘have, own’ assigning accusative case to the
NP object Góðan dag. Third, the leave-taking term forms a greeting-farewell pair with
Góðan dag. This is important since there seems to be a tendency for greetings and leave-
taking terms to convey similar content at the same time as they are kept formally distinct,
for instance by slightly different syntax. It is concluded that pragmatic factors, such as the
usage of this phrase in leave-taking contexts, may be responsible for the term being
frowned upon by prescriptivists.
Sigríður Sæunn Sigurðardóttir
Department of Linguistics
Yale University
P.O. Box 208366
New Haven, CT 06520-8366, USA
sigridur.sigurdardottir@yale.edu
Sigríður Sæunn Sigurðardóttir94