The syntax of reduced nominals in Akkadian
This thesis investigates within a generative framework a cluster of morphological and syntactic facts in the Old Babylonian variety of Akkadian, whose common property, despite many divergences, is the occurrence of structurally reduced nominal constituents. Akkadian nominals, whilst in their normal morphosyntactic form fairly rich both inflectionally and in their capacity to support complex nominal constituents, appear in various restricted syntactic contexts in reduced forms, entailing the loss of affixal expression of features (especially case, as well as gender and number), the barring of modifiers, as well as other restrictions. These phenomena may be divided into several major categories, one of which has clear parallels in well-studied Semitic languages (the nominal-internal 'construct state'), and others which do not have such parallels, including nouns in the construct-state morphological form as heads of relative clauses and the 'stative' (a peculiar form of nominal predication). Each of these phenomena is described, investigated and analysed in successive chapters, both individually and in terms of their interrelations and differences, and their possible implications for various aspects of generative
Henry, Mark James
The syntax of reduced nominals in Akkadian. This thesis investigates within a generative framework a cluster of morphological and syntactic facts in the Old Babylonian variety of Akkadian, whose common property, despite many divergences, is the occurrence of structurally reduced nominal constituents. Akkadian nominals, whilst in their normal morphosyntactic form fairly rich both inflectionally and in their capacity to support complex nominal constituents, appear in various restricted syntactic contexts in reduced forms, entailing the loss of affixal expression of features (especially case, as well as gender and number), the barring of modifiers, as well as other restrictions. These phenomena may be divided into several major categories, one of which has clear parallels in well-studied Semitic languages (the nominal-internal 'construct state'), and others which do not have such parallels, including nouns in the construct-state morphological form as heads of relative clauses and the 'stative' (a peculiar form of nominal predication). Each of these phenomena is described, investigated and analysed in successive chapters, both individually and in terms of their interrelations and differences, and their possible implications for various aspects of generative
syntax reduce nominal akkadian investigates within generative_framework cluster morphological_syntactic fact old variety akkadian whose common property despite_many divergence occurrence structurally reduce nominal constituent akkadian nominal whilst normal morphosyntactic form fairly rich capacity support complex nominal constituent appear various restrict syntactic context reduce form entail loss expression feature especially case well gender number bar modifier well restriction phenomenon may_divide several_major category clear parallel well_studied semitic language nominal internal construct state others parallel include nouns construct state morphological form head relative_clause stative peculiar form nominal predication phenomenon describe investigate analysed successive individually term interrelation difference possible implication various_aspect generative