Milli mála - 2021, Blaðsíða 177
176 Milli mála 13/2021
In the above examples, algerlega co-occurs with the adjectives nýr
‘new’ (5a), óviðunandi ‘unacceptable’ (5b), sammála ‘in agreement’
(5c), and ósammála ‘in disagreement’ (5d). Examples (5a,b) show
that the adverb can be used both positively and negatively.
Antonyms sammála (5c) and ósammála (5d), as well as háður ‘depend-
ent’ and óháður ‘independent’, also seem to indicate that algerlega is
used in both positive and negative contexts. Based on Table 2, the
adverb algerlega does not seem to be characterised by a particular
semantic prosody.
The frequent collocates of gersamlega are clearly different from
those of alveg and algerlega. In Table 2, many of its most frequent
collocates have either the prefix ó- ‘un-’ (óviðunandi ‘unacceptable’,
ómögulegur ‘impossible’, óþolandi ‘unbearable’, óskiljanlegur ‘incom-
prehensible’, óþarfur ‘unnecessary’, óverjandi ‘inexcusable’, ófær ‘im-
passable, impossible, incapable’, ólíkur ‘unequal, different’) or the
suffix -laus ‘-less’ (vonlaus ‘hopeless’, ástæðulaus ‘groundless’, þýðin-
garlaus ‘useless, insignificant’). These affixes might not always im-
ply a negative attitude by themselves (such as ódýr ‘cheap’ and
meinlaus ‘harmless’), but in the table, many of the collocates seem to
indicate an unfavourable attitude. The adjectives útilokaður ‘ex-
cluded, impossible’, fráleitur ‘absurd’, and úreltur ‘obsolete’ are also
in line with this statement. According to the above table, none of
the most frequent collocates following the adverb in question con-
veys a favourable attitude, and for this reason, it seems fair to state
that gersamlega has negative semantic prosody. This is not to say
that gersamlega never co-occurs with adjectives showing a positive
attitude, but rather that such co-occurrences are rare. In the RMH,
only ten cases of gersamlega frábær ‘absolutely excellent’ can be found
and two cases of gersamlega magnaður ‘absolutely powerful, magnifi-
cent’.
The following are examples of frequent collocates (6a–d):
(6) a. Það var að mörgu leyti gersamlega ómögulegt verkefni.
(Fréttablaðið)
it was towards many manner completely impossible task
‘It was in many ways a completely impossible task.’
SEMANTIC PROSODY IN ICELANDIC
10.33112/millimala.13.7