Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2022, Síða 86

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Lykilorð: hliðstæðuútvíkkun, færeyska, tíðni, útjöfnun, málnotkun
Keywords: analogy, Faroese, frequency, levelling, usage-based grammar

summary
‘On frequency as the determinant of levelling
Tracing inflectional changes in the nouns vøllur and
fjørður through Faroese language history’
The intricate vowel alternations exhibited by Old West-Nordic u-stems have mostly been
levelled in Faroese, as evident from the development of Far. vøllur. However, Far. fjørður
has both retained its old stem alternants and extended them within the paradigm, cf. e.g.
innovative dat.sg. fjørði and dat.pl. firðum. Typically, basic forms for levelling are identi-
fied on either of two theoretical premises: one places prominence on the effects of so-
called markedness, while the other posits the impact of frequency on memory as the deter-
mining factor. Faroese corpus data demonstrates that basic forms for levelling in the para -
digms of Far. vøllur and fjørður, both of which refer to topographical entities and occur as
complex place names, are established on the basis of frequency and not common seman-
tics. It is concluded that the lack of any significant frequency disparity between distinct
forms of vøllur facilitated levelling in favour of (nom./acc.sg., dat.pl.) vøll- to the whole
paradigm. Conversely, the high token frequency of dat.sg. firði triggered spread of the
stem alternant firð- to the dative plural through the context [í/á/úr + dat.]. Subsequently,
association of firð- with the plural, cf. nom./acc.pl. firðir, motivated an attempt to align the
meaning singular with the form fjørð-.

Jón Símon Markússon
Hugvísindasviði
Háskóla Íslands
jsm2@hi.is
Jón Símon Markússon86