eignarfallsgrein

An eignarfallsgrein is a term in Icelandic grammar describing a genitive construction, a phrase in which possession or close association is expressed by the genitive case. It typically involves a head noun that denotes the thing possessed or related, accompanied by a possessor noun or pronoun inflected in the genitive. This construction is used to mark ownership, kinship, origin, material, or other relationships between nouns, and it can function as a noun phrase within a larger sentence.

In Icelandic, the possessor is marked for genitive and the entire phrase functions as a unit that modifies the head noun. The order is commonly possessor-genitive followed by the head noun, though variations exist in historical texts or in stylistic usage. The phrase can be head noun with a genitive attribute, as in “king's crown” or its Icelandic equivalent, illustrating a clear possessive relation. The term is distinct from using a prepositional “of” phrase (such as “the color of the sky”), which expresses a similar idea but with a different syntactic construction.

The designation 'eignarfallsgrein' appears in traditional Nordic grammar and remains a standard label in descriptive grammars for a possessive noun phrase that leverages the genitive case to express relationship. It is one of several means to express possession in Icelandic and interacts with adjective agreement and noun morphology.

See also: eignarfall (genitive case); possessive constructions in Icelandic; grammar terminology.