Cover not available
Part of
Perfects in Indo-European Languages and Beyond
Edited by Robert Crellin and Thomas Jügel
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 352] 2020
► pp. 377–410

Chapter 11
The Hittite periphrastic perfect

| University of Pavia
| University of Pavia

In Hittite, the meaning associated with the Proto-Indo-European perfect, i.e. to indicate a state resulting from a change-of-state event, was covered by compound verb forms consisting of the -ant- participle plus the finite forms of the verbs ḫar(k)- “have” and eš- “be”. The origin and the function of this construction have been a matter of debate. In this chapter, we review the standard description of the Hittite periphrastic perfect, and reassess its status and function based on an analysis of its occurrences in texts ranging from Old to New Hittite. We argue that periphrastic forms involving ḫar(k)-/eš- and the participle instantiate three different constructions: the stative construction and two distinct auxiliary verb constructions, i.e. the passive and the perfect. We also suggest that the stative construction was probably the most ancient, and that the perfect construction, which functions as an anterior, constitutes a later development.

Keywords: Hittite, anterior, passive, resultative, auxiliary verb construction
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Aims and structure of the chapter
    • 1.2The Anatolian verbal system in an Indo-European perspective
  • 2.Periphrastic perfect constructions in a cross-linguistic perspective
    • 2.1Typology of periphrastic constructions
    • 2.2Aspect and actionality
  • 3.Current research and open issues
    • 3.1ḫark- and eš- constructions
    • 3.2Semantics of the Hittite participle
    • 3.3The periphrastic passive construction
    • 3.4Formal aspects of ḫark- and eš- constructions
    • 3.5Relationship between ḫark- and eš- constructions
  • 4.AVC or stative construction?
    • 4.1Imperative
    • 4.2Indicative
      • 4.2.1With ḫark-
      • 4.2.2With eš-
    • 4.3Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 23 September 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.352.11ing
References
Anderson, Gregory D. S.
2006 Auxiliary verb constructions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benveniste, Émile
1962 Hittite et indo-européen: études comparatives (Bibliothèque archéologique et historique de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie d’Istanbul 5). Paris: Maisonneuve.Google Scholar
Bertinetto, Pier Marco
1986 Tempo, aspetto e azione nel verbo italiano. Florence: Accademia della Crusca.Google Scholar
Bertinetto, Pier Marco & Valentina Cambi
2006 Hittite temporal adverbials and the aspectual interpretation of the ške/a- suffix. In Raffaella Bombi et al. (eds.), Studi linguistici in onore di Roberto Gusmani, 193–233. Alessandria: L’Orso.Google Scholar
Boley, Jacqueline
1984 The Hittite ḫark- construction (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 44). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft.Google Scholar
1992 The Hittite periphrastic constructions. In Carruba (ed.), 35–59.Google Scholar
2001 An intransitive ḫark-? In Gernot Wilhelm (ed.), Akten des IV. Internationalen Kongresses für Hethitologie. Würzburg, 4–8 Oktober 1999 (Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten 45), 40–50. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Botne, Robert
2003 To die across languages: Toward a typology of achievement verbs. Linguistic Typology 7. 233–278. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boyer, James L.
1987 A classification of imperatives: a statistical study. Grace Theological Journal 8. 35–54.Google Scholar
van Brock, Nadia
1964 Les themes verbaux à redoublement du hittite et le verbe indo-européen. Revue hittite et asianique 22:75. 119–165.Google Scholar
Brosman, Paul W.
2010 The nt-participle and verbal adjectives in *-to- . Indogermanische Forschungen 115. 22–34.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca
1994 The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cambi, Valentina
2005 The Hittite adverb karū: ‘formerly, earlier; already’. In Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld, Angela Della Volpe & Miriam Robbins Dexter (eds.), Proceedings of the sixteenth annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. Los Angeles. November 5–6 2004 (Journal of Indo-European Monograph Series 50), 219–234. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man.Google Scholar
2007 Tempo e Aspetto in ittito: con particolare riferimento al suffisso ske/a- (Memorie del Laboratorio di linguistica della Scuola normale superiore di Pisa 6). Alessandria: L’Orso.Google Scholar
Carruba, Onofrio
(ed.) 1992 Per una grammatica ittita/Towards a Hittite grammar (Studia Mediterranea 7). Pavia: Iuculano.Google Scholar
Cennamo, Michela
2006 The rise and grammaticalization paths of Latin fieri and facere as passive auxiliaries. In Werner Abraham & Larisa Leisiö (eds.), Passivization and typology: form and function (Typological Studies in Language 68), 311–336. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cotticelli Kurras, Paola
1991 Das hethitische Verbum ‘sein’: Syntaktische Untersuchungen (Texte der Hethiter 18). Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
1992 Die hethitischen Nominalsätze. Carruba (ed.), 99–135.Google Scholar
2015 Periphrastic constructions, phasal verbs, and Aktionsart in Hittite. InVerbis 1. 43–62.Google Scholar
Croft, William
2012 Verbs: aspects and causal structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dardano, Paola
2005 I costrutti perifrastici con il verbo ḫar(k)- dell’ittito: stato della questione e prospettive di metodo. Orientalia 74. 93–113.Google Scholar
2014 Das hethitische Partizip – eine Frage der Diathese? In Piotr Taracha (ed.) with the assistance of Magdalena Kapeluś, Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Hittitology, Warsaw, 5–9 September 2011, 236–262. Warsaw: Agade.Google Scholar
Dempsey, Timothy R.
2015 Verbal reduplication in Anatolian. Los Angeles, CA: University of California dissertation.Google Scholar
Doiz-Bienzobas, Aintzane
2002 The preterite and the imperfect as grounding predications. In Frank Brisard (ed.), Grounding: The epistemic footing of deixis and reference (Cognitive Linguistics Research 21), 299–347. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang
1968 Studien zur verbalen Pluralität. Iterativum, Distributivum, Durativum, Intensivum in der allgemeinen Grammatik, im Lateinischen und Hethitischen (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 259, 1). Vienna: Böhlau.Google Scholar
Engerer, Volkmar
2014 Phases in verbal semantics. In Klaus Robering (ed.), Events, arguments and aspects: Topics in the semantics of verbs (Studies in Language Companion Series 152), 227–260. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frotscher, Michael
2013 Das hethitische -ant-Partizip und seine indogermanischen Grundlagen. Semantik, Morphologie, Syntax. Verona: Università degli Studi di Verona dissertation.Google Scholar
Garrett, Andrew J.
1996 Wackernagel’s Law and Unaccusativity in Hittite. In Aaron L. Halpern & Arnold M. Zwicky (eds.), Approaching second: Second position clitics and related phenomena (CSLI Lecture Notes 61), 85–133. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy
1982 Tense-Aspect-Modality: The Creole prototype and beyond. In Paul J. Hopper (ed.), Tense-Aspect: Between semantics and pragmatics. Containing the contributions to a Symposium on Tense and Aspect, held at UCLA, May 1979 (Typological Studies in Language 1), 115–163. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harry, J. E.
1905 The perfect subjunctive, optative and imperative in Greek. Classical Review 19. 347–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
1990 The grammaticization of passive morphology. Studies in Language 14. 25–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000 Periphrasis. In Geert Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan & Stavros Skopeteas (eds.), Morphology: An international handbook on inflection and word-formation (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 17.1), 654–664. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
HED = Puhvel, Jaan
1984 Hittite etymological dictonary, vol. 1–2 (Trends in linguistics. Documentation 1). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd
1993 Auxiliaries: Cognitive forces and grammaticalization. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffner, Harry A. Jr. & H. Craig Melchert
2008 A grammar of the Hittite language. Part I: reference grammar (Languages of the Ancient Near East 1). Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Houwink ten Cate, Philo H. J.
1973 Impersonal and reflexive constructions of the predicative participle in Hittite. In Martin Adrianus Beek, Arie A. Kapman, Cornelis Nijland & Jaques Ryckmans (eds.), Symbolae biblicae et mesopotamicae Francisco Mario Theodoro de Liagre Böhl dedicatae (Studia Francisci Scholten memoriae dicata 4), 199–210. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Huggard, Mattyas G.
2015 Wh-words in Hittite: A study in syntax-semantics and syntax-phonology interfaces. Los Angeles, CA: University of California dissertation.Google Scholar
HW2 = Friedrich, Johannes, Annelies Kammenhuber & Inge Hoffmann
2007 Hethitisches Wörterbuch, vol. 3.1 ḫa-ḫaz (Indogermanische Bibliothek: Reihe 2: Wörterbücher) Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Inglese, Guglielmo
2020 The Hittite middle voice: synchrony, diachrony, typology. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Inglese, Guglielmo & Simone Mattiola
Forthcoming. The Hittite suffix -ške/a- between verbal aspect and pluractionality: a typological approach. To appear in STUF - Linguistic Typology and Universals.
Jasanoff, Jay H.
2003 Hittite and the Indo-European verb. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 What happened to the Perfect in Hittite? A contribution to the theory of the *h2e-conjugation. In Elisabeth Rieken (ed.), 100 Jahre Entzifferung des Hethitischen: morphosyntaktische Kategorie in Sprachgeschichte und Forschung. Akten der Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 21. bis 23 September 2015 in Marburg, 137–156. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Kloekhorst, Alwin
2008 Etymological dictionary of the Hittite inherited lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 5). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W.
2008 Cognitive grammar: A basic introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LIV2 = Rix, Helmut
2001 Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Loporcaro, Michele
1998 Sintassi comparata dell’accordo participiale romanzo (Linguistica 17). Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier.Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia
1990 Old Hittite sentence structure. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
1997 Hittite (Languages of the World. Materials 114). Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
1998 I verbi ausiliari in ittita. In Giuliano Bernini, Pierluigi Cuzzolin & Piera Molinelli (eds.), Ars Linguistica: studi offerti da colleghi ed allievi a Paolo Ramat in occasione del suo 60. compleanno, 299–322. Roma: Bulzoni.Google Scholar
2010 Transitivity, intransitivity and diathesis in Hittite. ИНДОЕВРОПЕЙСКОЕ ЯЗЫКОЗНАНИЕ И КЛАССИЧЕСКАЯ ФИЛОЛОГИЯ [Indo-European linguistics and classical philology] 16. 133–154.Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia, Anna Pompei & Stavros Skopeteas
2005 Ancient Greek (Languages of the World. Materials 213). Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia & Claudia Parodi
2008 Key terms in syntax and syntactic theory. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Melchert, Craig. H.
1997 Traces of a PIE Aspectual Contrast in Anatolian? Incontri Linguistici 20. 83–92.Google Scholar
Melchert, Craig H.
2003 Language. In Craig H. Melchert (ed.), The Luwians (Handbook of Oriental Studies 1: The Near and Middle East 68), 170–210. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forthcoming. The medio-passive in transition from Old to New Hittite. To appear in a forthcoming Festschrift.
Nedjalkov, Vladimir. P.
2001 Resultative constructions. In Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible (eds.), Language typology and language universals, vol. II (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 20/2), 928–940. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Neu, Erich
1968 Das hethitische Mediopassiv und seine indogermanischen Grundlagen (Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten 6). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Reichmuth, Silvio
2011 Mita von Pahhuwa (CTH 146). In Robert Fischer, Detlev Groddek, & Henning Marquardt (eds.), Hethitologie in Dresden: Textbearbeitungen, Arbeiten zur Forschungs- und Schriftgeschichte (Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie 35), 109–143. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Schwyzer, Eduard & Albert Debrunner
1950 Griechische Grammatik auf der Grundlage von Karl Brugmanns griechischer Grammatik. Syntax und syntaktische Stilistik (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 2.1.2). Munich: Beck.Google Scholar
Sidelstev, Andrej V.
2015 The riddle of Hittite indefinite pronouns. Altorientalische Forschungen 42. 199–275.Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno
1957 Verbs and times. The Philosophical Review 66. 143–160. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zúñiga, Fernando & Seppo Kittilä
2019 Grammatical voice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Inglese, Guglielmo
2022. How do middle voice markers and valency reducing constructions interact? Typological tendencies and diachronic considerations. Folia Linguistica 56:2 ► pp. 239 ff. DOI logo
Inglese, Guglielmo & Simone Mattiola
2020. Pluractionality in Hittite. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 73:2 ► pp. 261 ff. DOI logo
Luraghi, Silvia, Guglielmo Inglese & Daniel Kölligan
2021. The passive voice in ancient Indo-European languages: inflection, derivation, periphrastic verb forms. Folia Linguistica 55:s42-s2 ► pp. 339 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.