The Sumerian noun phrase consists of five structural positions, see Table 3.1 below. P1 and P2 may be occupied by a variety of structural units. P3 may be filled either with a noun phrase in the genitive or with an enclitic possessive pronoun. The possessive pronoun in P3 and the elements occurring in P4 and P5 are enclitics, i.e., affixes being added to phrases but not to lexical heads.
Table 3.1: The Sumerian nominal template
In ex. (11) the human dative case-marker attaches directly to the head of the noun phrase. In ex. (12), however, it follows the genitive case-marker of the noun phrase in P3.
(11) Gudea Statue B 7:24 (Lagash, 22nd c.) (P232275)
dnin-ŋir₂-su-ra
P1ninŋirsuk=P5ra
P1DN=P5DAT.H
“for the god Ningirsu”
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
HEAD MODIFIER POSSESSOR PLURAL-MARKER CASE-MARKER
(12) Ur-Bau 1 3 (RIME 3/1.1.6.1) (Lagash, 22nd c.) (P231808)
dumu an-na-ra
P1dumu P3[P1an=P5ak]=P5ra
P1child P3[P1DN=P5GEN]=P5DAT.H
“for the child of the god An”
The noun phrase occupying P3 may have elements in up to four of its five positions, and then there may be four structural units between the head (P1) and the case-marker (P5) of the main noun phrase as in ex. (13) below.
(13) CUSAS 17, 13 3:8 (unknown, cca. 23th c.) (P251599) nam-til₃ šeš-a-ne-ne
P1namtil P3[P1šeš=P3ane=P4enē=P5ak]=P5ø
life P3[P1brother=P33.SG.H.POSS=P4PL=P5GEN]=P5ABS
“the well-being of his brothers”
In exx. (14) and (15) below, the noun phrase occupying P3 contains yet another noun phrase in its P3. In ex. (15) the embedded noun phrase is an appositional construction.
(14) Iri-kagina 1 3:18 (RIME 1.9.9.1) (Lagash, 24th c.) (P222607)
sipad udu siki-ka-ke₄-ne
P1sipad P3[P1udu P3[P1siki=P5ak]=P5ak]=P4enē=P5e
P1shepherd P3[P1sheep P3[P1wool=P5GEN]=P5GEN]=P4PL=P5ERG
“the shepherds of sheep of wool (= wool-bearing sheep)”
(15) Shulgi 2046 1’-3’ (RIME 3/2.1.2.2046) (Ur, 21st c.) (P226193) nam-til₃, dšul-gi, diŋir kalam-ma-na-ka-še₃
P1namtil P3[P1šulgir P1diŋir P3[P1kalam=P3ane=P5ak]=P5ak]=P5še
P1life P3[P1PN P1god P3[P1land=P33.SG.H.POSS=P5GEN]=P5GEN]=P5TERM
“for the well-being of Shulgi, the protective god of his land”
As the elements in P4, P5, and the possessive pronoun in P3 are enclitics attaching to the final word-level constituent of the noun phrase, all these elements cumulate at the right end of the phrase in simple and double genitive constructions like exx. (13), (14), and (15).
P1 may be occupied by simple nouns, compound nouns, pronouns, non-finite verbal forms, and clauses with subordinate non-finite verbal forms. P2 may be occupied by non-finite verbal forms, relative clauses, noun phrases in the genitive case (see Lesson 4, section 4.1), noun phrases in the ablative case (see Lesson 13, section 13.1), cardinal numbers, and demonstrative pronouns.
A noun phrase may have more than one modifiers. P3 may be filled either with LESSON3
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a noun phrase in the genitive case or with an enclitic possessive pronoun, see table 3.2. below. The enclitic possessive pronoun is therefore a pronoun that stands for a noun phrase in the genitive case. Note that the 3rd ps. sg. non-human enclitic =/be/may also be used with a plural reference.
Table 3.2:The enclitic possessive pronouns
P4 may be filled only with the plural-marker =/enē/. This enclitic is used only with noun phrases whose head belongs to the human class, but its use is not obligatory. The exact conditions of its use are unclear. Its meaning may involve individualising. The plural marker is not used with human head nouns modified with numerals or functioning as the subject of a copular clause. The plurality of noun phrases whose head belongs to the non-human class is usually not overtly marked.
Both human and non-human head nouns may undergo full reduplication;
human head nouns with the plural marker may also be reduplicated, see ex.
(16) below. The function of this morphological process is certainly to mark some sort of plurality; its exact meaning is, however, unclear, but often involves a notion of totality, as in ex. (16) below:
(16) En-metena 1 1:1–3 (RIME 1.9.5.1) (Lagash, 25th c.) (Q001103)
den-lil₂, lugal kur-kur-ra,
“Enlil, the king of all lands, the father of all gods”
The nominal slot P5 accommodates the markers. Nine enclitic case-markers may be distinguished in Sumerian: =/ø/, =/e/, =/(’)a/, =/ra/, =/ta/,
=/da/, =/še/, =/ak/, =/gen/. The case-markers are enclitics that function to distinguish cases. In Sumerian cases are distinguished, however, not solely by nominal case-markers, the verbal affixes also play an essential role in the
1ST PERSON 2ND PERSON 3RD PERSON
SG -ĉu˳˲ (=/ĉu/) -zu (=/zu/) h. –(a)-ne˴ (=/ane/)
The nominal template and the non-adverbial cases
identification of cases. Three of the nominal case-markers (=/ra/, =/(’)a/, and
=/e/), and one of the verbal affixes (/i/or /e/in S10) are used as markers of more than one case. Based on the correspondences between nominal case-markers and verbal affixes eleven cases may be distinguished in Sumerian:
Table 3.3: The Sumerian casesystem
The twelve cases may be classified into three groups: i) ergative and absolutive, encoders of Agent, Subject and Patient, the primary syntactic functions;
ii)adverbial cases; iii)adnominal cases. The uses of the adverbial cases will be discussed in detail in Lessons 12–14 below. The absolutive, the ergative, and the adnominal cases are discussed in the remaining part of this lesson.
Several scholars assume the existence of an adverbiative case. Instead of the adverbiative case — which signals a grammatical relationship between two words — this textbook proposes a derivative morpheme, which turns an expression into an adverb of manner. It will be discussed in Lesson 5, section 5.2.
CASE NOMINAL CASE-MARKER
VERBAL AFFIX
human non-human
ergative =/e/ =/e/ final pronominal prefix (S11)7 and pronominal suffix (S14) absolutive =/ø/ =/ø/ final pronominal prefix (S11)
and pronominal suffix (S14) adverbial cases
dative =/ra/ =/e/ /a/ (S7)
comitative =/da/ =/da/ /da/ (S8)
ablative — =/ta/ /ta/ (S9)
terminative =/še/ =/še/ /ši/ (S9)
locative1 — =/(’)a/ /ni/ (S10)
locative2 =/ra/ =/(’)a/ /i/ or /e/ (S10) locative3 =/ra/ =/e/ /i/ or /e/ (S10) adnominal cases
genitive =/ak/ =/ak/ —
equative =/gen/ =/gen/ —
LESSON3
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7 Verbal structural positions will be referred to as “slots” (= S) throughout this book to distinguish them form the structural positions of the noun phrase, referred to as “positions”
(= P).