Copular Clauses and Focus Marking in Sumerian

213 Pages·2014·3.884 MB·English

by  Gábor Zólyomi

Gábor Zólyomi
Copular Clauses and Focus Marking in Sumerian
sales series_De Gruyter Studium

Gábor Zólyomi
Copular Clauses
and Focus Marking
in Sumerian
Managing Editor: Katarzyna Grzegorek
Associate Editor: Anna Borowska
Language Editor: Allison Kirk
Published by De Gruyter Open Ltd, Warsaw/Berlin
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license,
which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the
author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.
Copyright © 2014 Gábor Zólyomi
ISBN: 978-3-11-040169-1
e-ISBN: 978-3-11-040170-7
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed
bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
Managing Editor: Katarzyna Grzegorek
Associate Editor: Anna Borowska
Language Editor: Allison Kirk
www.degruyteropen.com
Cover illustration: © Thinkstock, Clay bricks carrying the inscriptions of E-ana-tum, ruler of Lagash in
the 24th c. BC.
To Joachim Krecher, my teacher, colleague, and friend, who has taught me the value
of disagreeing.

Contents
Introduction    1
1 Sumerian in a Nutshell    4
1.1 Introduction    4
1.2 The Sumerian Nominal and Verbal Template    7
2 Non-verbal Predicates in Sumerian    17
2.1 Introduction    17
2.2 Copular Clauses: the Most Important Characteristics    17
2.3 Copula Dropping: Non-verbal Predicates without a Copula    22
3 A Typology of Sumerian Copular Clauses    27
3.1 Introduction    27
3.2 The Classification of Copular Clauses in Linguistics    27
3.3 Copular Clauses in Sumerian    30
3.4 The Typology of Copular Clauses in Practice    52
3.5 Summary and Conclusions    54
4 Attributive Copular Biclausal Constructions    56
4.1 Introduction    56
4.2 Attributive CBCs and the Paratactic Relativization Strategy    57
4.3 Attributive CBCs and Appositions    69
4.4 Attributive CBCs in Which the CC Functions as Reason or Concessive
Clause    81
4.5 Attributive CBCs Containing CCs with Left-dislocated Possessors    88
4.6 The Copula Functioning as Standard Marker    94
5 Specificational Copular Biclausal Constructions    101
5.1 Introduction    101
5.2 The Origin of the Sumerian Cleft Construction    102
5.3 Copula or Focus Marker?    112
6 Subordinate Clauses Followed by a Copula    152
6.1 Introduction     152
6.2 Thetic Sentences in Sumerian    154
6.3 Sentences with Polarity Focus    169
6.4 Summary and Conclusions    181
7 Summary and Outlook    182
References    186
Index of Quoted Texts    193
Index of Subjects    198
Abbreviations in the morphological glossings
~pl reduplication expressing verbal plurality
~pf reduplication expressing present-future tense
1sg first person singular
2sg second person singular
3nh third person non-human
3pl third person plural human
3sg third person singular human
a agent (subject of a transitive verb)
abl ablative case-marker or prefix
abs absolutive case-marker
acc accusative case-marker
adv adverbiative
anc anchor
ant prefix of anteriority
app appositive
com comitative case-marker or prefix
coor coordinator prefix
cop copula
cvn compound verb nominal element
dat dative case-marker or prefix
dem demonstrative pronoun
dn divine name
erg ergative case-marker
fin finite-marker prefix
gen genitive case-marker
Gn geographical name
h human
l1 locative1 case-marker or prefix
l2 locative2 case-marker or prefix
l3 locative3 case-marker or prefix
l4 the archaic locative enclitic -/ne/
m masculine
mid middle prefix
mod modal prefix
neg negative prefix
nh non-human
nom nominative
p patient (object of a transitive verb)
pf present-future, or the marker of the present-future
pl plural