The lexical profile of Swedish 43
with a human subject to refer to bodily locomotion in a number of specialized uses
which share the feature that they refer to weakly controlled and/or violent and fast
movement as in (16). Fara ut depicts the motion as more abrupt than gå ut ‘walk
out’ or springa ut ‘run out’.
(16) Hon for ut genom dörren och sprang runt på gårdsplan. (MF)
She rushed out of the door and ran round the yard,
In combination with the particle upp, fara can be used to describe a violent or
uncontrolled change of position to an upright posture. Neutral alternatives to (17)
would be resa sig ‘rise’ or stiga upp ‘get up (from bed)’.
(17) Han vaknade inte förrän tio i fyra och for upp med ett ryck. (PCJ)
He did not wake up until ten to four, and then he jerked upright.
Similar to what is the case with åka when it refers to ending up in an unpleasant
situation, many of these uses are realized as lexicalized (but usually partly flexible)
phraseological units, where fara is combined with a specific spatial particle or
appears in a special construction (e.g. with a formal subject det ‘it’). One use that
is characteristic primarily of news media and only appears a few times in fiction
texts is fara illa(/väl) ‘fare badly(/well)’ referring to the (usually rough) treatment
experienced by a human subject. This is one of the few cases where the English
cognate can be used as a translation (see 18).
(18) Man kan anta att det var de nomadiserande grupperna som for mest illa,
(ESPC: BTC)
It can be presumed that it was the nomadic tribes who fared worst,
Fara also has a number of more abstract or metaphorical uses. For example, the
subject can refer to an utterance of some type. In (19), det ‘it’ refers to an utterance
that was produced too quickly to be controlled.
(19) Jag tänkte mig inte för, det for bara ur mig. (ESPC: AP)
I was n’t thinking. It just flew out of me.
Thought and similar mental subjects are also conceived of as out of control and
swiftly appearing as in (20).
(20) och för ett ögonblick for tanken att han kunde ha rätt genom hennes huvud.
(MF)
and the thought that he might be right raced through her mind.
The list of examples is not exhaustive, but representative of the use of fara as a
non-vehicle verb in present-day Swedish. Basically, fara has two major uses in