In the present data, there are 254 instances referring to the temporal origo, ‘now’: 174 instances of núna and 82 instances of nú. The distribution is displayed in Table 6.1:
Table 6.1: Distribution of temporal nú and núna in the data
Data Duration Temporal núna Temporal nú Total
N % N % N %
Reunion 90 min. 6 50% 6 50% 12 100%
Friends 146 min. 26 90% 3 10% 29 100%
PTC 78 min. 18 64% 10 36% 28 100%
ITC 17 min. 5 100% 0 0% 5 100%
Teens 100 min. 24 86% 4 14% 28 100%
Soul 310 min. 73 59% 51 41% 124 100%
Elections 110 min. 22 73% 8 27% 30 100%
Total 14 h. 11 min.
174 68% 82 32% 256 100%
As Table 6.1 indicates, núna occurs more frequently than the temporal nú. In fact, núna is more frequent in all the different subdata, with the exception of Reunion in
which the ratio is equal. Note that this distribution of nú and núna is dramatically different from the distribution in the Icelandic family sagas, which have 7,627 instances of nú (E. Rögnvaldsson, B. Kristjánsdóttir, and Ö. Thorsson 1996: 20), but only three instances of núna (see section 2.4). Although it is not without reservation that one can compare contemporary dialogue to written sagas, it is fairly safe to say that the usage of nú and núna has gone through a dramatic shift in the course of the last seven centuries (cf. also discussion by J. H. Jónsson 1982).
I will start by looking more closely at the temporal nú, which occurs almost exclusively in syntactic gestalts, right before or right after the finite verb. It is worth noting that nú in this syntactic position is often non-temporal and is used as a tone particle (see Chapter 7). In fact, nú functions more often as a tone particle than as a temporal marker. Table 6.2 shows the functions of the syntactically integrated nú:
Table 6.2: Functions of syntactically integrated nú
Corpus Dur. Nú as a temporal
marker
Nú as a tone particle
Unknown (repairs)
Total
N % N % N % N %
Reunion 90 min. 6 29% 15 71% 0 0% 21 100%
Friends 146 min. 3 11% 24 89% 0 0% 27 100%
PTC 77 min. 10 43% 13 57% 0 0% 23 100%
ITC 17 min. 0 0% 6 100% 0 0% 6 100%
Teens 100 min. 4 12% 29 88% 0 0% 33 100%
Soul 310 min. 48 10% 458 89% 3 1% 512 100%
Elections 110 min. 9 22% 29 78% 0 0% 37 100%
Total 14 h. 10 min.
82 12% 574 87% 3 0% 659 100%
As Table 6.2 illustrates, only 12% of syntactically integrated nús have clear temporal functions and therefore function as referential indexes. However, besides these temporal functions, referential indexes often have other non-referential functions, and the line between the temporal and non-temporal use of nú is not always easy to draw (cf. discussion by Wide 1998: 248).
Although temporal and non-temporal nú may both occur in the same syntactic positions, there is a striking difference between how they are distributed in authentic conversations. Table 6.3 shows how these two types are distributed in my data:
Table 6.3: Syntactic distribution of temporal and non-temporal nú
Nú as a temporal marker Nú as a tone particle
N % N %
Pre-verbal 76 93% 38 7%
Post-verbal 5 6% 536 93%
Without a verb (Conventionalized phrases)
1 1% 0 0%
Total 82 100% 574 100%
As Table 6.3 shows, the temporal nú has a clear preference for occurring pre-verbally, while the non-temporal nú has a preference for occurring post-verbally. The difference is striking: 93% of pre-verbal nú are temporal, and 93% of post-verbal nú are non-temporal. In addition, the temporal nú occurs in one instance without a verb, in the conventionalized phrase hvað nú ‘what now?’ The different syntactic positions of the temporal nú are illustrated in the following three examples which are simplified utterances from the main data: (i) is an example of a pre-verbal nú, (ii) shows a post-verbal nú, and (iii) shows a syntactically non-integrated nú:
(i) Nú er Palli hættur að syngja. ‘NÚ Palli stopped singing’ (Soul)
(ii) Sem heitir nú Heaven. ‘Which is NÚ called Heaven’ (Teens, see excerpt (6.4)) (iii) Hva nú? ‘What NÚ?’ (PTC, see excerpt (6.24))
As Table 6.3 illustrates, only a small minority of temporal nú occurs post-verbally.
Looking more closely at these instances, it becomes clear that they exist only in specific contexts: i) utterances with interrogative syntax; (ii) utterances with subordinate syntax; and (iii) as a part of conventionalized phrases, such as nú fyrst
‘not until now’ and hér og nú ‘here and now’:
(i) Á ég nú bara að klikka áðetta ‘Should I NÚ just click on this?’ (PTC)
(ii) Sem að heitir nú Heaven ekki satt? ‘Which is NÚ called Heaven isn’t it?’ (Teens, see (6.4))
(iii) Ég er nú fyrst að heyra þessar tölur ‘I’m hearing these numbers NÚ first.’
(Elections)
This limited possibility that a temporal nú will occur in a post-verbal position shows that there is a clear tendency for it to occur pre-verbally.
The difference in syntactic distribution is not only restricted to the temporal and non-temporal nú. The syntactic distribution of nú and núna is shown in Table 6.4:
Table 6.4: Syntactic distribution of temporal nú and núna
Núna Nú
N % N %
i Pre-verbal, in the front field 11 6% 76 93%
ii Post-verbal, in the middle field 0 0% 5 6%
iii Final, in the end field 153 88% 0 0%
iv Non-integrated (without a finite
verb) 10 6% 1 1%
Total 174 100% 82 100%
As Table 6.4 illustrates, núna has a clear preference for occurring in the end field. (cf.
also J. H. Jónsson 1982: 257–8). My data show that 88% of núna occur in this position and that there are no instances of final nú. Most instances of temporal nú occur before the finite verb. The only exception to this rule is the conventionalized phrase hvað nú ‘what now?’ which was mentioned above.
A few instances of núna occur in the front field, and a few instances occur syntactically non-integrated, either as an independent turn or in an utterance without any finite verb. The utterances below are examples of all the syntactic categories mentioned in Table 6.4:
(i)
Núna á að breyta því ‘NÚNA that is supposed to change’ (Soul) Nú er Palli hættur að syngja ‘NÚ Palli stopped singing’ (Soul) (ii)
Sem heitir nú Heaven ‘Which is NÚ called Heaven’ (Teens) (iii)
Helduru að við vinnum ekki núna? ‘Don’t you think we will win NÚNA?’ (Soul) (iv)
Núna? 62 ‘NÚNA?’ (Soul) Hvað nú? ‘What NÚ?’ (PTC)
A comparison of the syntactic positions of the temporal nú and núna shows that there are fundamental differences in the ways in which the two words correlate with other parts of speech. This analysis indicates that there might be functional differences between them as well. To find out what these differences involve, in the remainder of this chapter, I will offer a sequential analysis of nú and núna. My aim is to investigate the environments in which temporal nú and núna occur, and to describe what communicative work these two words may accomplish. I will begin my analysis by looking at instances in which the temporal meaning is clear and then work my way through to the other end of the spectrum, in which the temporal function is accompanied by non-temporal functions. I will begin this discussion by looking at núna as a time period.