Spatial References in Icelandic: The Issue of Identity

• Main Author: Stephen P. Leonard
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.551.8433; http://www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/events/lingo/papers/stephen.leonard.pdf

ABSTRACT. Alongside orientation terms, the rich system of spatio-directional particles in Norse is explored here in the context of identity and the settlement of Norse colonies. The use of these terms in Old Icelandic texts shows a high degree of conceptual and semantic continuity between the Norwegians in Norway and the settlers of Iceland and Greenland. In modern Icelandic, the use of certain Norse spatio-directional particles and terms of direction that were introduced from Norway has given way to the terminology of the peculiar Icelandic system of orientation. 1 Spatio-directional particles in Icelandic The deictic devices in a language commit a speaker to setting up a frame of reference around him- or herself. Languages tend to carry an implicit division of the space around the current speaker, a division of time relevant to the act of speaking, and, via pronouns, a shorthand naming system for the participants involved in the talk. Aspects of these spatial frames of reference may be of particular relevance to social and linguistic identity in the context of early