Expression of threat

[Johanna Laakso]

Dear Alexander,

your example immediately reminded me of a piece of dialogue in a classic of
Finnish literature, Aleksis Kivi¹s play ³Nummisuutarit² (The Heath Cobblers,
1864):

IIVARI. En missään turmeluksen tiellä, äiti. Menin vaan Junttihuhtaan
koiranpenikkoja katsomaan, ja koska oli siellä sauna valmis, niin jäin
kylpömään ja makasin yöseen talossa.

MARTTA. Kyllä minä sinun penikoitsen ja kylvön. (Aikoo piestä häntä).

Iivari [the son who has not come home before morning]: No, [I was] nowhere
on the road of depravity, mother. I just went to Junttihuhta [name of a
farm] to see the dog¹s puppies, and since they had the sauna ready (heated),
I stayed there to bath and slept overnight at the farm.

Martta [the angry mother]: I will whelp and bath you! (Wants to beat him).

***

The verb penikoitse- Œto whelp¹ (derived from penikka Œwhelp, puppy¹) can be
understood as a transitive verb, but the transitive use of ³kylvön² ŒI bath¹
is certainly very unusual.

I wouldn¹t say that this construction is usual or normal in Finnish (at
least not in my native idiolect) -- this is probably why I remembered this
passage so clearly ‹ but I have no problems in understanding it as a threat.
In any case, Martta¹s threat also displays some other features typical of
threats in Finnish: object (sinun Œyou¹) before verb and the
sentence-initial ³kyllä² (Œoh yes¹).

Finnish also knows equivalents to the constructions of the type ³I¹ll teach
him to / show him² already mentioned here.

Best
JL

-- 
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso
Universität Wien, EVSL Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
Campus AAKH Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7
A-1090 Wien
johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at | http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/
Tel. +43 1 4277 43019 | Fax +43 1 4277 9430

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