The characterization of conditional patterns in Old Babylonian Akkadian
In this paper, a common paratactic conditional construction, found in the letter corpus of Old Babylonian Akkadian (~18th century bce), is given a syntactic characterization so as to differentiate it from other potential sequences. Several distinctive syntactic and semantic features unique to the construction are identified and discussed: polar lexical resumption between the protasis and its preceding co-text; negative polarity items in the protasis; special semantics of verbal forms; and divergence from the common modal-congruence. In addition, the structural variables are formulated, and eventually the construction itself is compared with another construction, the circumstantial construction.
The importance is twofold: first, to exemplify a relatively simple characterization of a construction, which is usable for the identification of the construction in question; second, to add a description which pertains to the non-uniquely-marked conditional constructions in the languages of the world, which are often ignored or underdescribed.
Article outline
- 1.Preliminaria
- 1.1General background
- 1.2The domains
- 1.3Literature review
- 1.4Terminology
- 2.Parameters
- 2.1Preceding polar directive: polar lexical resumption
- 2.2Negative polarity items: (otherwise) negative expressions and arḫiš ul
- 2.2.1The expressions “be negligent”
- 2.2.1.1aḫam nadûm
- 2.2.1.2nīdi aḫim rašûm
-
2.2.2arḫiš ul
- 2.3Special semantics: the temporal frame of ul iprus
- 2.4Diverging from modal congruence
- 2.5The pattern: forms and structure
- 2.5.1Forms and compatibility
- 2.5.2The connective particle -ma
- 2.6The respective function of the forms inside the pattern
- 2.7Summary
- 3.Distinction from other analogous patterns
- 4.Conclusions
-
Notes
-
References
References
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Aubrey, Rachel & Michael Aubrey
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