A diachronic perspective on alienability splits in Icelandic attributive possession
Icelandic makes use of different morphosyntactic patterns for different kinds of possessive relations both in predicative and attributive possession. The fact that this differentiation is at least partly motivated by the semantics of the possessum suggests an alienability split in the Icelandic possession system (Stolz 2008). There are various approaches to explain the formal distinctions in the system, one of them depending on grammaticalization processes. Following this approach, a diachronic perspective needs to be taken in order to understand how splits arise. Accordingly, this paper presents the results of a corpus-linguistic and frequency-based analysis of the attributive pronominal possessive system of Icelandic. The most significant finding to emerge is that splits in the possessive system do not only manifest in a different synchronic behaviour but also in different degrees of susceptibility to language-internal and/or contact-induced changes.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Alienable and inalienable possession
- 3.Icelandic
- 3.1Pronominal possession in modern Icelandic
- 4.Diachronic analysis
- 4.1Alienable possession
- 4.2Kinship
- 4.3Body parts
- 5.Conclusion
-
Abbreviations
-
Notes
-
Source texts (Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus)
-
References
-
Online sources
References
Source texts (Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus)
eintal Arngrímur Jónsson
(
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Eintal sálarinnar við sjálfa sig.

indiafari Jón Ólafsson Indíafari
(
1661):
Reisubók Jóns Ólafssonar Indíafara
jartein
Jarteinabækur þorláks helga ‘Miracle Collection of Bishop Þorlákr’ (
1210)

leysing Jón Trausti
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mamma Guðmund Andra Thorsson
(
2008):
Segðu mömmu að mér líði vel – saga um ástir
ofurefli Einar H. Kvaran
(
1908):
Ofurefli
pislarsaga Jón Magnússon
(
1659):
Píslarsaga séra Jóns Magnússonar
sagan Pétur Gunnarsson
(
1985):
Sagan öll
skalholt
unknown author (
1680-1700):
Sögu-þáttur um Skálholts biskupa fyrir og um siðaskiptin.

thorlakur
unknown author (
1200-1220):
Þorláks saga helga
vilhjalmur
unknown author (
1450-1475):
Vilhjálms saga Sjóðs
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STUF - Language Typology and Universals 76:3
► pp. 331 ff.

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