Kuchigakatai wrote: ↑Thu Jan 05, 2023 1:17 am
Looking at Sally Caves' list as quoted by Jörg Rhiemeier, does anyone know what Semitic languages #5, #7, #11, #12, #13, #16 can be found in? I don't recognize them from what I know of Classical Arabic and what little I know of Akkadian, Ge'ez or Biblical Hebrew.
Quick and by no means authoritative comparison of her list to Akkadian:
> 1) Conjugated prepositions (prep. + pronominal object in a single word.
yes
> 2) Word order: VSO, N-Modifier, Prepositions
SOV
> 3) Relative clause linker: invariant particle, not relative pronoun
Equivocal! Old Akkadian ša was conjugated, later it was not.
.
> 4) Relative clause technique (oblique): copying, not gapping,
> i.e., "the bed, I slept in it," meaning "the bed that I slept in."
You can alternatively form a relative clause with the construct form, but this is more like saying "the bed of (I slept)"; plus the subordinate phrase is marked with the -u suffix.
> 5) Special form of the verb peculiar to relative clauses.
True, if that means the suffixed -u.
> 6) Polypersonal verb (subject and object both marked).
Yes, though this is pretty common worldwide, no?
> 7) Infixing/suffixing alternation: Object marker is infixed to
> the verb if there is a preverb, suffixed otherwise.
No.
> 8) Definite article in genitive embeddings may occur
> only on on the embedded noun: "house the-man" ="the man's
> house."
No definite article.
> 9) Nonconcord of verb with full-NP subject: verb can fail
> to agree with the subject, depending on word order.
Dunno, but I never heard of this.
> 10) Verbal Noun (Vn: object in genitive), not Infinitive
> (object in same case as with finite verb).
No, infinitive takes accusative. (I don't get the parenthetical, which seems contradictory.)
> 11) Predicative particle: in copular or nominal sentences,
> the predicate is marked with a particle homophonous
> to a "local" preposition: "He (is) in a farmer"="he is a farmer."
There is a predicative, but it's not linked to a locative.
> 12) Prepositional periphrastic: BE + Prep + VN, e.g.,
> "He is at singing" [TEONAHT'S "she is with singing"]
There is no copula.
> 13) DO periphrastic: DO + VN, e.g. "He does singing."
Dunno, don't think so.
> 14) Notional adverbial clause expressed as "and" + finite
> clause
Dunno.
> 15) Nonfinite forms usable instead of finite main-clause verb
I don't think so.
> 16) Word-initial change, expressing a variety of syntactic
> functions
No.
> 17) Idiomatic use of kin terms in genitive constructions, e.g.
> "son of sending" = messenger; "son of land" = "wolf"
Akkadian has a construct state, but I don't know that there's any special use of kinship terms.
