Re: Question re sjálfr

Languages are quirky things and very often show redundancy. (Just think of all the semantic redundancy in a language that inflects, say, adjectives for gender, case and number.) It isn't always possible to know why a particular form of words is idiomatic in one language, in preference to another form of words that seems perfectly reasonable to speakers of another language.

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, CalecM@... wrote:
>
> I am confused by the use of the word sjálfr. In Guðlaugsson and
> Þorgeirsson, the chapter on reflexive pronouns has in an exercise the sentence, 'The
> earl´s hawk sees itself.' It translates this as 'Haukr jarls sér sjálfan
> sik.' How is this any different from 'Haukr jarls sér sik'? Or from
> 'Haukr jarls sér sjálf? I understand that sjálfr can be either noun or
> adjective. I´m just confused by what appears to be a redundancy in this sentence.
>
> Thanks for your help
> Alec MacLean
>