The data in this exercise are from Icelandic, a Germanic language which is related quite closely to English, and are taken from Siguresson (2006).
Task: All these examples illustrate a single, specific, grammatical difference between English and Icelandic. What is this? You should use the correct grammatical term, which is given earlier on in this chapter. If you find other syntactic differences between the two languages in any example, list these too. Finally, in what specific ways can you see that Icelandic is syntactically similar to English? Use the correct terminology wherever possible. NB The Icelandic alphabet includes some characters that are not used in English, but this has no bearing on the answer.
(1) Kona sat a bekk. woman sat on bench ‘A woman sat on a bench.’
(2) Eg keypti skemmtilega bok i morgun. I bought interesting book in morning ‘I bought an interesting book this morning.’
(3) Olafur er professor. Olafur is professor ‘Olafur is a professor.’
(4) Tae er maeur i gareinum. there is man in garden. the ‘There is a man in the garden.’
(5) Sa sem er ae tala er Islendingur. the.one who is to talk is Icelander ‘The one who is talking is an Icelander.’