Syntactic Change in Akkadian The Evolution of

Akkadian, an ancient Semitic language spoken in Assyria and Babylonia, is one of the earliest known languages, with a surviving written history from 2500BC to 500BC. Guy Deutscher investigates its development over these two millennia. He shows that changes in the language can be linked to the emergence of complex patterns of communication required by an increasingly sophisticated civilization.

Preface

xi

Abbreviations

xiii

Sources, Text Editions

xv

Part I Preliminary Chapters

Introduction

3

(4)

What is Sentential Complementation?

7

(10)

Complements and objects

7

(5)

Function and structure I: the `Functional Domain of Complementation'

12

(1)

Function and structure II: subordination, hypotaxis, parataxis, coordination

13

(1)

Function and structure III: structural change and functional replacement

14

(3)

Akkadian

17

(20)

Historical periods

18

(2)

Sumerian and Akkadian

20

(1)

Orthography

21

(2)

The language and style of the letters

23

(7)

Some points of Akkadian grammar

30

(7)

Part II Structural History: The Emergence of Complementizers and Quotatives

The Emergence of Finite Complements

37

(29)

The early life of kima

37

(4)

Semantic bleaching of the causal adverbial conjunction kima

41

(5)

When do `adverbial clauses' become `complements'?

46

(8)

The development of finite complements with the `proving verbs'

54

(6)

Structural parallels for the development of kima

60

(4)

Conclusion

64

(2)

The Grammaticalization of the Quotative Construction

66

(29)

Old Akkadian

68

(3)

Early Old Babylonian

71

(4)

Later Old Babylonian

75

(4)

Middle Babylonian

79

(3)

Neo-Babylonian

82

(2)

Recapitulation: from Old Akkadian to Neo-Babylonian

84

(1)

Bracketing of reported speech in the different periods

85

(2)

The development of umma in cross-linguistic perspective

87

(8)

Part III Functional History: The Changes in the Functional Domain of Complementation from 2500 BC to 500 BC

The Functional Domain of Complementation in Babylonian

95

(7)

The verbs in the FDC

95

(2)

The structures in the FDC

97

(2)

The difference between independent and subordinate clauses

99

(1)

Syntax-semantics correlations

100

(2)

Verbs of Knowledge, Perception, and Others

102

(22)

Overview: the main changes from Old Akkadian to Neo-Babylonian

102

(2)

Knowledge verbs

104

(7)

Perception

111

(4)

Speech

115

(3)

Proving

118

(1)

Fearing, mental states

119

(2)

`What have I done that you (should) treat me like this?'

121

(1)

Conclusion

122

(2)

Manipulation and Modality

124

(13)

Manipulation: non-past

124

(3)

Manipulation: past

127

(5)

On the distribution of infinitive and coordination

132

(2)

Modality

134

(3)

The WH-Functional Domain, Direct and Indirect Questions

137

(14)

Overview

137

(2)

Old Babylonian

139

(6)

Middle Babylonian

145

(1)

Neo-Babylonian

146

(5)

Part IV The Development of Complementation as an Adaptive Process

Functional Parallels for the Babylonian Development

151

(13)

Dyirbal

151

(2)

Tok-Pisin

153

(1)

Sumerian

153

(5)

Biblical Hebrew

158

(2)

Indo-European

160

(4)

The Development of Complementation as an Adaptive Process

164

(23)

What in language can be adaptive?

164

(1)

Complexity and subordination

165

(2)

Anything you can do, I can do better

167

(8)

Different strategies of cohesion: iconicity and subordination

175

(6)

The role of writing and literacy

181

(3)

Conclusion

184

(3)

Glossary

187

(1)

References

188

(9)

Index of Subjects

197

(4)

Index of Quoted Texts

201

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Syntactic Change in Akkadian The Evolution of Sentential Complementation

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials