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"Akkadian language Modality."
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Conditional Structures in Mesopotamian Old Babylonian
No detailed description available for \"Conditional Structures in Mesopotamian Old Babylonian\".
eBook
Most Probably: Epistemic Modality in Old Babylonian
The system that any language uses to express evaluations,
judgments, estimations, and non-real situations tends to be
complicated and poorly understood, and this has certainly been the
case, historically, for Akkadian. In this study, Nathan Wasserman
presents the fruit of 15 years of study of the epistemic modal
system of Old Babylonian, which represents one of the better-known
and best-documented periods of the Akkadian language.
As Wasserman notes, the interplay of philology, linguistics, and
psychology that are involved in understanding any modal system make
coming to conclusions a difficult enterprise. And though many
questions remain unanswered, in this clearly organized and
presented monograph, he guides the reader through a study of each
modal word/particle, its etymology, syntax, and usage, on the basis
of an examination of most of the Old Babylonian examples published
thus far. He thus arrives at a general view of epistemic modality
in Old Babylonian.
Wasserman's monograph is a work that will add significantly to
our understanding of Old Babylonian language and the interpretation
of texts and will become the benchmark for further study of verbal
modality in Akkadian and other Semitic languages.
eBook
If Not, Or Else, and Maybe in Akkadian and Perhaps in Hebrew
The particle ulašūma ('or else') in Old Babylonian Akkadian is analyzed from a functional and syntactic point of view. In addition to its known functions as a pro-polar protasis ('if not, otherwise, or else') and as a disjunctive particle ('or'), it is also concluded to function as a conditional exponent. As such it is shown to belong with other expressions of epistemic modality (modal and conditional particles). Its most plausible diachronic source is determined, based on comparative as well as Akkadian material, to have been a non-verbal circumstantial expression *u lā šū ('it (is) not') ultimately meaning 'it not being the case…'. In the second part of the paper, a cognate origin (*ū lā hī 'it not being the case') is proposed for the Biblical Hebrew epistemic particle ʔūlay ('maybe/if'). Two possible paths are discussed—one is internal development and the other a result of language contact. Each path is considered, paying meticulous attention to the respective sets of difficulties. The difference in the synchronic function and meaning between the Akkadian and Hebrew particles is bridged based on the syntactic and functional analysis of the Old Babylonian particle, which shows it to be an epistemic particle.
Journal Article
The So-Called Preterite Prefix Conjugation in the Aramaic of the Bible and Qumran: The Beginnings of a New Synthesis of the Aramaic Verb
The Aramaic of the Bible and Qumran, unlike Imperial Aramaic, possesses a unique prefix conjugation that functions as a narrative tense. Aramaists have appealed to various notions of tense, aspect, text-linguistics, and even Hebrew and Akkadian influence to solve the conundrum of the so-called preterite prefix conjugation. A novel proposal is offered here, based on the semantic category of modality. By beginning with future functions of the prefix conjugation and working backward through the present temporal sphere to occurrences in the past, it is argued that modality accounts for the full range of the prefix conjugation's syntactic functions, even those in independent narrative clauses. Thus, a unified theory of the form's semantics emerges.
Journal Article
The Old Babylonian Paronomastic Infinitive in -am
A preliminary explanation is due: a verbal form has three basic components: 1. a subject index; 2. a verbal lexeme and 3. a nexus (the predicative link) between them.1 In an unmarked verbal clause, the verbal lexeme found in the finite verbal form is basically the rheme, or the entity which carries the new information in the clause. The first function is topicalization, i.e., the marking of an element as topic, a text-linguistic function whereby an entity serves as a discourse anchor in order both to maintain the reference to previous parts of the text and to represent what is being discussed, about which predication occurs: [1] t[em eqlim s]upram [kiam] unahhid-ma . . . tem eqlim. . . sa unahhid[u]ka saparum-ma ul taspuram \"Send me a re[port about the field]', [thus] I instructed (you) but . . . as to sending, you did not send me a report concerning the field ... (about) which I instructed you.\"
Journal Article