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Rubbettino 2007 H XII Incontro Italiano di Linguistica Camito-semitica (Afroasiatica) ATTI a crrradi Marco Moriggi Rubbettino 2007 H. Satzinger Absolutestate and absolutive case in Afro-Asiatic In the pastdecades the ideahas spread that the Afro-Asiaticancestor lan- guagewas ofiginallyof the ergativerype. This view is basedon rhe observarion of somefeatures of variousindividual languagesand/or severalbranches that seemedto offer themselvesto suchan interpretationl,For Berber,A. Aikhen- 64 H. Satzinger vald hasclaimed that the accusativeor "free state"of the noun, aswell asthe "objectpronoun", representthe absolutivecase of an ergativecase system, an opinion that doesnot hold in this form2;what we are here dealingwith is the feature of an absolutestate, or case,a featurethat has nothing to do with an ergativecase system (nor with an accusativecase system, at that).Nevertheless, Lipiriski, inhis SemiticLanguages, refers in severalparagraphs to Berber as an unequivocalergative type languagel.Obviously, the two (near-)homonymous termsof "absolutestate (or case)"and "absolutivecase" have been con- f u se d by theseand other authors; this questionshall be the maintopic of this paper. The issueof Afro-Asiatic ergativityhas not only been met with agreement among scholars.Of the critical contributions,we will take into consideration the articleby M. \X/altisberga.However, the author seemsto havefallen for the very samemistake which thosemade whom he criticises,viz. the confounding of "absolutestate" and "absolutivecase". What. then, is an "absolutive case"?Itisoneof thetwobasic casesof an ergative-absolutivecase system, the other being the ergativecase. Absolutivecase is the caseof nounsin ergative-absolutivelanguages that would generallybe the subjectsof intransitiveverbs or the objectsof transitiveverbs in thetranslational equivalents of nominative-accusativelanguages such as English. Ergativecase is the caseof nounsin ergative-absolutivelanguages that would gen- erallybe the subjectsof transitiveverbs in the transladonequivalents of nomina- tive-accusativelanguages such as Englishs. \X/hat,on the other hand, is an "absolute state"?InSemit- ic studies,this term is usedin a two-fold way: (a) absolutestate vs. constfuct state,and (b) absolutestate as kind of "barenoun". In Hebrew grammar(but also,e.g., in Coptic grammaf),the absolutestate contrasts with the construct state:dabar <<a word>>, but dbar-'elohvm<<the word of god>; Coptic sotap<<to choose>>,but setp-hen-rome<<to choose men>>. But the term absolutestate is also used in a different sense,and this is where the confusioncomes in. Aramaichas, in additionto the absolutestate and the constructstale, a third one:the determinedor emphaticstate6. Mor- phologically,it is characteizedby an ending -7. In Biblical Aramaic, it is the expressionof the determinednoun in the nominative,accusative and genitive 2 A. Y. Aikhenvald,Split ergatiuity,cit., pp.l9-68. For a critical evaluationsee H. Satzinger, On the assumedergatiuity of the Berberlanguage(s), in Proceedingsof the 10th Meetingof Hamito- semitic (Afroasiatic)Linguixics (Florence,18 20 April 2001), ed. by P. Fronzaroli,P. Marrassini, Dipartimentodi Linguistica,Universiti di Firenze,Firenze 200), pp. 38i-189. r E. Lipiriski,SemiticLanguages, cit.,pp.261 262 (Sl2.l d). a M. \X/altisberg,Zur Ergatiuhypo th e s e, cit. 5See http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/\XrhatlsAbsolutiveCase.htm 6E. Lipnski, Sen itic Lan guages, cit., p. 2$ (S) 3.22). Absolutestate and ahsolutiue casein Afro_Asiatrc 6j functions. (Hence, this emphaticstate of Biblical Aramaicisthe equivalentof definite afticle + noun in Hebrew; Hebrew bad-d.abnr- Arumiic mill"tr_a, Hebrcw ha,bbtiyit; Ar-amacbayt-a,Hebrew ha*-*alkab - Aramaicmalkt-a.) TJlooses, though, this function of a marker of definitenessin the lut., ,tug., oi the language and becomesthe normalform of rhe noun: nalkauthe kinio, oa kinp. By this (reminiscent development of that of the B;.il. noun, whose generalgender/number prefixes are alsothought to go back to a definite arti_ cle) we are left **itk_) with the absolute state(nelek"< in uil ,ynru.tic situa_ tions orher rhan nominative(subject), accusative (object), or genitive(after nounsand prepositions): i.e.,in predicatefunction, in uo.utirrefunction, etc. In this way' the function of the Syriacabsolute state comes close to the absolute stateof Akkadian. The Akkadian absolutestate has the form of a "barenoun,',it showsnei- ther declension nor mimation:iar <kins>>,as oppos edto iarrum, iarrina,iarratn. It is regardedto be identical with the third personforms of the shtiveT. Femi- nine nounsend in -at: iarrat <<queen>>;<she is queeru>.plural and dualformsare mainly attestedin the stative;pl. m. _u, [. _a;du.m. _a,f , _ta8. As the absolutestate doesnot show any casemorphs u/e may expect it to be usedfor roles other than thoseof the argumen$of ihe verb (asthe nomina_ tive and accusative) and the expansionof noun and prepositio'(as the geni- tive).Actually, this is obviousfor manyof its uses: ' Predicative.In Akl<adianthis role coincideswith the stative:iar <<(he)is kinp; Aramaic'al-malkatab <<itiso.k. with the kine>. o Vocarive;Akkadian iar <<kinq!>> r Distributive repetitions, Akkadian a-na rna-a-atma-a-at.ma <<for every country>>. Idiomatic pairs of nouns,Akkadian sefurrabi dittle (and)bip. r Certainspecifications of placeor time,etc. ' Numbers, Akkadian iiten <<one>>,Syriac had <<one>;Akkadian silai iat qEmum<<three shut flour4 Sydactloto yrlin uth'rr",nonthroltlr. L, in Akka_ dian, Ge'ez and Epigraphic South Aiabiane.Arso for -"r;, ;;r"ing <<alb>, <<many>>,<<few>. t Il certainexpressions, ^ . after prepositionsl,,Akkadian anadar<<for ever>>; Syiac ba: gal <<inhaste>. 7 \{l von Soden,Grundrif! der akkadischenGrammatik,Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, Roma19953, ts 62c);p, 101(s n ]! zza);G. Buccellati,Aiinterpretario, o]"ii)"app"a*, s* tiueas..aNominalSentence,in<<JournalofNearEastern St"arr"r,Zi,tSid,;;;'_i; 8Bur seealso \{l vonSoden, Die zahlen2} 90 imsemitischen absolutus, <\x/ienerzeitschift in fiir dieKunde des Morgenlandes> )7, 196r,pp.24-2s ""Jaiisr*fo;;i;*non_verbal instancesof pl.f . a,beforea suffixpronouni _al_. eIbiden. 10S Moscatiet ali, An Introductionto thecomparatiue Grammar of the Phonology semiticLanguages. andMorphology,Harrassov/orz, W.rbuJ.'n tye9, p. 102(12.79). 66 H. Satzinger Under many of these conditions, English would make use of the "bare noun". Now Akkadian is a languagewith declension,without any articles, whereasEnglish has no declension,though both a definite and an indefinite article.Syriac has no declension,nor hasit (anymore)a definitearticle, nor an indefiniteone. It has,though, a marker of the non-barenoun, i.e., of nouns used as subjects,objects, genitives, etc., correspondingto declension(and mimation) in Akkadian. The definition of "bare noun" dependson the type of the languageto which it is applied:bare of articles?bare of declension?etc. Linguistic studies haveexamined the barenoun, apart from English,in all typesof languages,e.g. in Hebrew, in Turkish, even in Chineseand Japanesell,which have neither declension,nor articles,nor anything like the Syriac -a morpheme.Another languagethat can be comparedwith Akkadian and Syriac in respectto the absolutestate or bare noun, is Late Egyptian (the informal languageof the Ramessideperiod). The situation of this idiom is similar to that of English: it has no declension,although it has both definite and indefinite articles.The bare noun (more recent grammafsuse to call it the noun with zero article) is iound, inter alia, under the following conditionsl2:predicative expressions, Absolute state and absolutiuecase in Afro-Asiatic 67 In Egyptian, there could be a bare noun only after the definite und indefinite articleshad emerged. In a number of Cushiticlanguages Sassels has distinguishedan Absolute case, and a subject case, and he has pointed to correspondentfeatures in Betber,with its Absoluteand Annexed states, as rhe traditional rerms are. In Berberand alsoin Cushitic,the absoluteform encompassesthe function of an accusative case (directobject case). In Semidc,on the otherhand, the accusativehas several functions of an absoluteform (e.g.,it is the form of the predicativenoun of Arabic kana andits <<sisters>;under certainconditions the addressappears in the accusative).A particularcase is Akkadian:in this language,afotmal distinction is madebetween the accusativecase (in -a, etc.), andthe absolutestate (in zero).Nonetheless, <The Accusative case may proba- bly be rcgaded as a functional vailant of the Absolure form>>(Diakonofflrq . tt/altisberg Above, has been mentioned,who reports on Semitisticargu- mentspro ergativecase and pro absolutivecase. According to these data, the assumptionof ffacesor residuesof a Semiticergative case merelyrests on an equationof the nomin ativeand the locativecases15. The featuresadduced as 1r HJ. Sasse,Case in Cushitic,Semitic and Berber, cit. 1a I. M. Diakonoff , Semito-HaniticLanguages,cit., p. )g. 15 M. Waltisberg,Zur Ergatiuhpothese,-cit.,pp.2I_22(S2.1). tblui, pp.22-3 4 (S2.2). 68 H. Satzinger alia,a quotationform is found in languagesof a rather pure accusative-nomina- tive typelike Akkadian(form in -O) andOld Nubian (form in 'a). Address2o. 'ircrca22, o Predicative[orm21 , alsoafter thetic particleslike Arabic and after ^ 1. t,tt-)2 |\rabrc tlla". None of theseconditions has anythingto do with ergativity,or an ab- s o I u t i v e c a s e . On the other hand,they aretypical of the ab s o I u t e s t at e . In concluding,the followingmay
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