| The Modal System of Old Babylonian Contributor(s): Cohen, Eran (Author) |
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ISBN: 1575069210 ISBN-13: 9781575069210 Publisher: Brill OUR PRICE: $45.60 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2005 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Foreign Language Study | Arabic - Language Arts & Disciplines | Alphabets & Writing Systems - Language Arts & Disciplines | Handwriting |
| Dewey: 492.156 |
| LCCN: 2004020546 |
| Series: Harvard Semitic Studies |
| Physical Information: 240 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This monograph is a corpus-based description of the modal system of epistolary Old Babylonian, one of the best attested Akkadian dialects, using the European structural method. The study strives to match a concrete exponent (i.e., an array of formal features, morphological and syntactic) with a semantic value, in using syntactic criteria. The book treats: 1. the asseverative paradigm (used for insistence, concession and oath), explaining the syntactic mechanism behind these forms; 2. the various precative-based paradigms in various syntactic conditions: the directive group, the wish group and the interrogative group; 3. the same forms occurring in special syntactic patterns-the sequential precative and the concessive-conditional precative; 4. the paratactic conditional; and 5. the modal nominal syntagm sa para: sim. Together with this description, some additional problems are addressed for which solutions are developed: the focus system of Old Babylonian; the general linguistic issue of "emphatic assertion" (using an English corpus); and a way to describe the syntactic nature of paratactic conditional structures. |
