At 6:15:32 PM on Thursday, October 13, 2011, Hrafn wrote:

> Hello everybody :b

> I am working with "Jan Terje Faarlund - the syntax of old
> norse". On page 60, he uses the term "conceptual unit".
> And i would like to know what the definiation is.

> If you dont have the book, i can tell the section is about
> the genetive noun phrase. He point out the word order that
> a pronoun (determiner) in genetive, sometimes precides the
> noun.

> And then he says:

> This order is particularly common if the genitive and the
> noun make up a conceptual unit:

> (11)

> a.

> þar með gáfu Svíar honum Onundar nafn
> there with gave.3p Swedes.n him.d Onund.g name.a
> `In addition the Swedes gave him the name of Onund' (Hkr
> II.194.14)

> b. þat var á margra manna vitorði
> that was on many men.g knowledge.d
> `It was known by many men' (Hkr II.206.14)

I don't think that there is a clearcut, strict definition of
'conceptual unit': conceptual unity is a matter of degree,
not an either/or kind of thing. The idea is that the phrase
consisting of the genitive and the noun is a semantic unit,
that it refers to something that one might naturally talk
about. This seems to me quite clear in the first example:
people have names, and 'Onund's name' is a natural thing to
talk about. 'The tree's name' would be much less natural,
and I suspect that Old Norse would normally use <nafn
trésins>, not <trésins nafn>. 'Many men's knowledge' is
perhaps a little lower on the conceptual unity scale, but
it's still a pretty natural concept.

Brian