{"id":5540,"date":"2017-07-27T23:59:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T23:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=5540"},"modified":"2018-04-08T15:44:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T15:44:07","slug":"passive-voice-part-ii-dative-v-accusativeadditional-cases-mingling-with-passive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2017\/07\/27\/passive-voice-part-ii-dative-v-accusativeadditional-cases-mingling-with-passive\/","title":{"rendered":"Passive Voice Part II: Dative v. Accusative\/Additional Cases Mingling With Passive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last time, we went over the basics of the passive voice. That concept \u2013 when the object of the sentence becomes the subject of the sentence and takes the nominative case\u2013 is called <strong>nefnifalls\u00feolmynd<\/strong>. As the name implies, it is the \u201cnominative\u201d passive.\u00a0Today, we\u2019ll take it a step farther. Then, in my next blog, we\u2019ll conclude this chapter, talking about stem-changes in the participle and the use of \u2013st verbs to make a passive.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nominative passive, to recap:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In some sentences, the \u2018actor\u2019 or \u2018agent\u2019 isn\u2019t known, or doesn\u2019t matter, so we use the passive to convey information (it was done vs. I did it; <em>\u00dea\u00f0 var gert<\/em> <em>\u00c9g ger\u00f0i \u00fea\u00f0<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>The object takes the subject position, generally coming first in the sentence (in the above, this word is <em>\u00fea\u00f0<\/em>). When that happens, it takes the nominative case (nefnifall).<\/li>\n<li>If the object isn\u2019t possible to locate and move to the subject position, as with certain verbs like <em>hj<\/em><em>\u00f3la<\/em> (to bicycle) or <em>m\u00e1la <\/em>(to paint), use \u2018\u00fea\u00f0\u2019 as the subject (<em>H\u00fan hj\u00f3la\u00f0i \u00ed b\u00e6inn<\/em> <em>\u00dea\u00f0 var hj\u00f3la\u00f0 \u00ed b\u00e6inn<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Always use \u201cvera\u201d between the subject and the past participle, in agreement with the (nominative) subject\u2019s number and case.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jessica ate the chocolate vs. The chocolate was eaten<\/p>\n<p><em>Jessica bor\u00f0a\u00f0i s\u00fakkula\u00f0i\u00f0 <\/em>v. <em>S\u00fakkula\u00f0i\u00f0 var bor\u00f0a\u00f0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5731\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5731\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5731\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/animal-canine-carnivore-414249-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/animal-canine-carnivore-414249-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/animal-canine-carnivore-414249-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/animal-canine-carnivore-414249-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5731\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Pexler.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aukafalls\u00feolmynd<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2013 passive voice that includes a case other than nominative \u2013 can be brought about by the <em>case<\/em> that the <em>verb itself <\/em>governs. So when the object moves to the beginning of the sentence, it doesn\u2019t <em>always<\/em> take the nominative<em>. [Disclaimer: I don\u2019t know the term for this, as my graduate degree is in language and literature, not linguistics].<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>A\u00f0 stela<\/strong> (Kennimynd: stelur; stal, st\u00e1lu, stoli\u00f0) takes the <strong>dative (<\/strong><strong>\u00fe\u00e1gufall) <\/strong>case. If you steal something, you have stolen it in the dative case.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Orri stal b\u00edlnum &#8211;&gt; B\u00edlnum var stoli\u00f0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(Orri stole a car &#8211;&gt; a car was stolen)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, in addition to a vowel shift taking place in the participle (trusty kennimynd!), \u2018b\u00edllinn\u2019 is also in the dative case, even though it moved to the beginning of the phrase. That is because <em>a\u00f0 stela<\/em> governs the dative case. The case of <em>b\u00edllinn <\/em>doesn\u2019t, therefore, change, even though the phrase is now in the passive voice. The reason is simply that it is in a case other than the accusative.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You may also note that <em>stoli\u00f0<\/em> isn\u2019t in agreement with the gender\/number of \u2018b\u00edllinn\u2019. The past participle (l\u00fdsingarh\u00e1ttur \u00fe\u00e1ti\u00f0ar) is always in the neuter-singular when the subject of the sentence <em>is not in the nominative<\/em> <strong>in this instance. <\/strong>However, there is another way of constructing the passive in which the participle does change, which I explain below.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Meg sakna\u00f0i barnanna&#8211;&gt;\u00a0Barnanna var sakna\u00f0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(Meg missed the kids&#8211;&gt;\u00a0The kids were [literally, \u2018was\u2019] missed)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A\u00f0 sakna (kennimynd: -a\u00f0i), takes the genitive (eignarfall) case, and so \u2018barnanna\u2019 does not change when the phrase becomes passive. Note also that \u2018barnanna\u2019 is plural, but \u2018vera\u2019 is third-person singular. It doesn\u2019t agree, nor does it have to. This type of passive is passive aggressive and hates to argue :). #cheesyoneliners<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ingimar kasta\u00f0i fl\u00f6skunum&#8211;&gt;\u00a0Fl\u00f6skunum var kasta\u00f0<\/p>\n<p>(Ingimar threw the bottles)&#8211;&gt;\u00a0(The bottles were thrown)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is sometimes called the <em>impersonal passive<\/em> (\u00f3pers\u00f3nuleg \u00feolmynd).<\/p>\n<p>Finally, when there is more than one object in the sentence (Bowie loaned her money), the indirect object (dative), moves to the first position in the sentence; the second object, or direct object (of the verb), follows immediately after the verb phrase. So the transformation will look like this:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bowie l\u00e1na\u00f0i henni (INDIRECT) peninga (DIRECT)&#8211;&gt;\u00a0Henni (INDIRECT) voru l\u00e1na\u00f0ir peningar (DIRECT)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(Bowie loaned (to) her money&#8211;&gt;\u00a0To her was [literally, \u2018were\u2019] loaned money)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Note that \u2018vera\u2019 is suddenly and inexplicably in the third person plural past (\u00feeir). That\u2019s because it is responding to the pluralness of \u2018peningar,\u2019 which is now in nominative and serves as the \u00b4guide\u00b4for the sentence. It doesn\u2019t matter where the nominative noun in the sentence is located; the sentence grammatically follows it anyway, <strong>in this case.<\/strong> Think of the nominative as the Official Leader of Icelandic Sentences. Further, l\u00e1na\u00f0ur is in agreement with peningar [we will discuss this participle construction in the next blog].<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The paradigm for case changes when working, as above, a \u201ctv\u00edgild \u00e1hrifss\u00f6gn\u201d l (a distransitive verb, or a verb with both a direct object and an indirect object) into passive voice is as follows:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00deolfall (accu) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0&#8211;&gt;\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 nefnifall (nom)<\/p>\n<p>\u00de\u00e1gufall (dative) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0&#8211;&gt; \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00fe\u00e1gufall (dative)<\/p>\n<p>Eignarfall (genitive) \u00a0 &#8211;&gt; \u00a0 \u00a0 eignarfall (genitive)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00c9g gaf henni b\u00f3kina&#8211;&gt;\u00a0Henni var gefin b\u00f3kin<\/p>\n<p>(I gave (to) her the book&#8211;&gt;To her was given the book)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where b\u00f3kina becomes nominative (I always think of this as \u2018shifting\u2019 up one case), henni stays in the dative (indirect object\u2019s case doesn\u2019t change), \u2018vera\u2019 agrees with \u2018b\u00f3kin\u2019 (those books are always exerting their influence\u2026) and \u2018gefin\u2019 agrees with \u2018b\u00f3kin\u2019. Rule of thumb: accu \u00e0 nom, as in last week\u2019s entry; dative stays dative, genitive stays genitive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If something in a passive sentence is in nefnifall (nominative), then <em>vera<\/em> and the <em>l<\/em><em>\u00fdsingarh\u00e1ttur \u00fe\u00e1ti\u00f0ar\/<\/em>past participle follow\/agree with the nominative component of the sentence. Dative exists, doesn\u2019t try to influence things\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If that was unclear, please feel free to ask questions below. I know it is a little bit dense.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5543\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5543\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5543\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/IMG_1652-e1501199862580-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/IMG_1652-e1501199862580-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/IMG_1652-e1501199862580-263x350.jpg 263w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5543\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Happy to be home after a three week hiatus in the States!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"263\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/IMG_1652-e1501199862580-263x350.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/IMG_1652-e1501199862580-263x350.jpg 263w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/07\/IMG_1652-e1501199862580-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 263px) 100vw, 263px\" \/><p>Last time, we went over the basics of the passive voice. That concept \u2013 when the object of the sentence becomes the subject of the sentence and takes the nominative case\u2013 is called nefnifalls\u00feolmynd. As the name implies, it is the \u201cnominative\u201d passive.\u00a0Today, we\u2019ll take it a step farther. Then, in my next blog, we\u2019ll&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2017\/07\/27\/passive-voice-part-ii-dative-v-accusativeadditional-cases-mingling-with-passive\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":5543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[91175],"tags":[9931,3343],"class_list":["post-5540","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-grammar","tag-icelandic","tag-passive-voice"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5540"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5733,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions\/5733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}