Signalling known facts in Medieval Icelandic texts
What is it about?
Medieval Icelandic texts frequently make use of particular time-phrase used at the beginning of new episodes in the story. I investigate the use of these time-phrases in detail for the first time and claim that they are used to mark information as a generally known fact. I connect this with the fact that these texts are derived from oral narratives, where creating an impression of shared knowledge rooted in tradition is very important.
Why is it important?
The time-phrase in question features a dummy element which has no meaning but is used to satisfy linguistic requirements separate to meaning. The findings challenge the received wisdom on such dummy elements and how they develop over time, showing that such elements can be employed for discourse-pragmatic reasons already at the very earliest stage in their development.