Rökin og málflutningurinn — arguing a case

The light-verb layer

Icelandic argumentation runs on fixed verb + noun + preposition units. The noun is often a word you know — áherslan, ábyrgðin, áhrifin, tillitssemin — but the VERB that goes with it cannot be guessed, and the case after the preposition is fixed. Learn each unit whole.

unit	meaning	pattern
halda því fram	to claim	+ að-clause
gera ráð fyrir	to assume, to expect	+ dat / að-clause
leggja áherslu á	to emphasize	+ acc
gera grein fyrir	to account for	+ dat
taka tillit til	to take into account	+ gen
hafa áhrif á	to have an effect on	+ acc
bera ábyrgð á	to be responsible for	+ dat
vekja athygli á	to draw attention to	+ dat

Cause and consequence

to lead toleiða til (+ gen) is what causes do in writing; to reduce, to diminishdraga úr (+ dat) shrinks a thing; to be based onbyggjast á (+ dat) is what conclusions do on evidence; to be about, to revolve aroundsnúast um (+ acc) is what a debate is really about.

Using them

With the connectives you now have — hins vegar, engu að síður, þar af leiðandi, í stuttu máli — these units are the whole skeleton of an Icelandic opinion piece: state the claim (halda því fram), ground it (byggjast á), weigh the other side (taka tillit til), and say who owns the problem (bera ábyrgð á).