Two genitive constructions of Old Babylonian

Bibliographic Data

ID2813061
AuthorsIlya Arkhipov (0000-0002-2743-8876, National Research University Higher School of Economics, corresponding author), Sergey Loesov (0000-0002-1547-3404, National Research University Higher School of Economics, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume82
Issue3
Pages395-403
Publication date2019-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0041-977X • E-ISSN: 1474-0699
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0041977x19000648
OpenAlexW2997568334
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

The paper shows that there is a pattern in the distribution of synthetic (šēp šarrim"the king's foot") vs. analytical (kaspum ša awīlim"the boss's money") genitive constructions in Old Babylonian. The choice depends on the lexical feature of head nouns known as (in)alienability. Old Babylonian kinship and body part terms, as well as some other substantives, are "inalienable", which means they take only the synthetic construction. All other Old Babylonian nouns are "alienable", which means they admit both the synthetic and the analytical construction (kasap tamkārīandkaspum ša tamkārī"the merchants' money"). In the latter case, there is no general rule to predict the choice, yet in certain cases the two constructions display a non-random frequency distribution

Boss · Distribution (mathematics) · Feature (linguistics) · Genitive case · Head (geology) · Kinship · Linguistics · Noun · Sociology · Ancient Near East History · Engineering · Geology · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Mathematics · Philosophy

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