Re: Natlag: Middle English impersonal verbs

Sally Caves skrifaði:

>> Auðvitað!  There are some verbs constructed with an accusative
>> > subject and a whole bunch that take a dative subject, though
>> _mig dreymir_ "I dream", _mig langar_ "I long for", _mér líkar_
>
> Sooo cognate with Old English.
I know! I'm currently on a serious Icelandic kick (augmented by having
gone there for a half-week's vacation a couple of weeks ago!) and the
similarities with OE are so striking. I wish I hadn't forgotten all my
OE, or I'd probably be making more progress with the Icelandic!

> Also in the "Wife's Lament,"  ond mec longade.
> And it longed to me/I was in longing.
Cool! I didn't realize (or rather, didn't remember, as I did read the
poem in OE class all those years ago) that OE had the exact same
construction, same verb!

> So, likar is cognate with
> lician, but it means "long for"?
_líka_ means "please", "be pleasing to": _mér líkar það_ "I like that".
Also _mér líkar vel/illa við hann_ "I get along well/badly with him".
_Langa_ means "want", "long to/for": _mig langar til að fara til
Íslands_ "I want/long to go to Iceland".

> "I like" are the only ones I can recall off the top of my head.
> _Mér tekur á bakið/haus/..._ "My back/head/... hurts" is a
> borderline case, I think.
The other one that springs immediately to mind is _mér finnst_ "I
think", "it seems to me" (lit. "it finds itself to me"). I'm sure a
perusal of the dictionary would find plenty more; Icelandic does seem to
like the impersonal verbs!

Thomas

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