Breakdown of Margir borkjarnanna sanna sumar tilgátnanna.
margur
many
sumur
some (sumir, sumar, sum)
sanna
to prove
borkjarninn
the core sample
tilgátan
the hypothesis
Questions & Answers about Margir borkjarnanna sanna sumar tilgátnanna.
How does the phrase margir borkjarnanna show "many of the..." without using a preposition like af?
This sentence uses the partitive genitive, which is common in formal and written Icelandic. Instead of using a preposition, you express "[amount] of the [noun]" by placing the noun in the genitive case directly after the quantifier. Here, the masculine plural noun borkjarnar becomes the genitive definite borkjarnanna.
Why do the quantifiers margir and sumar have different genders?
Even in a partitive construction, quantifiers must agree in gender with the noun they refer to. Margir is masculine because it quantifies the masculine noun borkjarni (core sample). Sumar is feminine because it quantifies the feminine noun tilgáta (hypothesis).
Why is sumar in the accusative case while the noun that follows it is in the genitive?
The quantifier sumar acts as the direct object of the verb sanna (to prove), so it must take the accusative case. The noun tilgátnanna, however, is locked into the genitive case because it is the "partitive" half of the phrase (meaning "of the hypotheses"). The verb dictates the case of the quantifier, and the quantifier dictates the case of the noun.
How do we get the rather complex form tilgátnanna from the dictionary word tilgáta?
Tilgáta is a weak feminine noun. In the genitive plural, weak feminine nouns typically take the ending -na, making it tilgátna (of hypotheses). Adding the genitive plural definite article -nna (the) to that base gives us the final, double-n form tilgátnanna (of the hypotheses).
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