Re: Natlag: Middle English impersonal verbs

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Leigh" <thomas@...>

> 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!
Hey, Thomas.  Nice to see you, again.  I have a student who is in Iceland AS
WE SPEAK.  Her first trip.  As for me all jealous.  Yry... forgot the word.


>> 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".
You rock, kiddo.  I thought this was more like it.

>> "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!
Us needs more and more of these.

Sally