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Re: verb-subject agreement

From:daniel andreasson <danielandreasson@...>
Date:Monday, April 22, 2002, 14:28
Aidan wrote:

> > "John and I go." > > John[NOM] go[1st.pl.] > > John we-go.
> Old Irish does something sort of like this (and so does > Old Norse)
Yup. Constructions like these are quite common in Old Norse. Example: "En er their Erlendr váru miok komnir at landi [...]" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ en er their Erlendr váru miok komnir at landi and when DEM:3PL Erlend:NOM 3PL:PAST almost come to land 'And when Erlend & co. were almost ashore...' _Their_ (or rather _þeir_) is a 3PL demonstrative pronoun and the verb _váru_ is in the 3PL form. So the construction _their Erlendr_ 'them Erlend' basically means 'Erlend and friends/company'. I seem to recall constructions where either _their_ (or was it the name?) came last in the sentence. So you'd get sentences like _En er Erlendr váru miok komnir at landi their_ or _En er their váru miok komnir at landi Erlendr_. Though I can't find any examples of that right now. ||| daniel -- danielandreasson @ swipnet.se | http://home.swipnet.se/escape