Sjálfs mín(s) sök?
ÚtdrátturSummaryThe Origin and Development of Icelandic sjálfs mín(s)Keywords: pronouns, sjálfur, language change, language variation, language standardization This paper discusses the use and historical development of the combination sjálfur ‘self’ + possessive pronoun. It is shown that in Old Icelandic, the possessive pronoun agreed in gender, number, and case with the noun that it modified, whereas sjálfur was in the genitive, agreeing in number and case with its antecedent. Already in Old Icelandic, however, there is tendency to have sjálfur in the genitive preceding the possessive pronoun and placing the latter also in the genitive. Thus, alongside the original eigu sinni (fem. sg. dat.) sjálfs (masc. sg. gen.) (possession her self, i.e. ‘her own possession’), we get eigu sjálfs (masc. sg. gen.) síns (masc. sg. gen.). From the 16th to the 19th century, the type sjálfs síns is the only one we find in written texts. Towards the end of the 19th century, however, we begin to find examples with sín instead of síns. This variant becomes dominant in the 20th century, and the other variant is then degraded and considered wrong usage. In Modern Icelandic, both the sín-variant and the síns-variant are very common— the latter especially in informal language. However, the variation is mainly found with the genitive form sjálfs, i.e. masc. and neut. sg.—in fem. sg. and masc./fem./neut. pl., where the forms are sjálfrar and sjálfra, respectively, the sín-variant is overwhelmingly dominant. In Modern Icelandic, it is also possible to find examples where the masc./neut. sg. form sjálfs refers to an antecedent in fem. sg. or in pl. The author concludes that the combination sjálfs sín(s) must be analyzed as a special pronoun, rather than a combination of two pronouns. | ||||
