Faroese long-distance reflexives face off against Icelandic long-distance reflexives

Abstract

Long-distance reflexives (LDRs) in Faroese are often compared to those in Icelandic, and are even considered to have the same distribution (Thráinsson et al., 2004). In this paper I evaluate the extent to which this is true. The results from recent fieldwork show that there are clear differences between the LDR in the two closely related languages, in particular that Faroese speakers often reject LDR sentences that contain a non-third person, and that Faroese LDR is often completely acceptable out of a non-complement clause. In addition, initial findings suggest that there may be dialectal variation with respect to at least these two aspects of LDR in Faroese.

Keywords

• Faroese
• long-distance reflexives
• syntax
• Scandinavian
• LDR
• Icelandic