Possessing what you are

On phrases like 'helvítið þitt' and others similar

Abstract

This article examines two Icelandic possessive constructions in which the „possessor“ corresponds to the „property“, thereby differing from other possessive expressions:

a) X þinn (lit. ‘your X’), as in e.g.
— helvítið þitt ‘you bastard’ (lit. ‘your bastard’)
— þrjóturinn þinn ‘you rascal’ (lit. ‘your rascal’)

b) X á honum/henni (lit. ‘X on him/her’ ), as in e.g.
— helvítið á honum ‘(he), the bastard’ (lit. ‘the bastard on him’ )

The latter construction corresponds to a syntax closely connected to inalienable possession, e.g. in hárið á honum ‘his hair’, lit. ‘the hair on him’. Despite similarities between them, the two constructions differ in many respects. X þinn has a long history, as attested to by various examples in Old Icelandic, which shows greater syntactic variation than the modern language. This construction is extremely productive and is mainly used with nouns of abuse where any epithet seems to be valid. In Modern Icelandic, however, it is often used in positive contexts, even those containing high praise. X þinn has counterparts in other Scandinavian languages where these constructions are also occasionally used in positive contexts.
However, this is much less common than in Icelandic. X á honum/henni seems to have a relatively short history and similar constructions are unknown in related languages. By the same token, this construction is much less productive than X þinn. Additionally, it only occurs in negative contexts and the epithets associated with it are fewer than ten. Few of these expressions are well known.