Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

verbs are also injunctive forms, and the verbs are connected either by -ma or, less
often, asyndetically . . ., the second and following clauses are often to be translated
as purpose clauses (i.e., ‘so that’, ‘in order that’, ‘that’). (Huehnergard 2000, 147)
But I would differentiate purpose clauses, which are regularly indicated in Akkadian by
the preposition ana + infinitive, from causal and result clauses. The traditional
description of linked non-indicative clauses, as rehearsed by Huehnergard above, does
use terms such as “purpose clause,” but it would be far better to characterize the relation
as a causal one: “A causes B” or “B results from A” without any imposition of
intentionality (or the deontic modality associated with it). Clearly the causal relation
between a series of events (“A, so B, so C”) is independent of the deontic modality coded
by what are traditionally called moods such as “precative” or “imperative.” I would argue
that the indicative form of a causal sequence in Akkadian (the unmarked term within the
system of deontic modality) is represented by iptaras, the Akkadian “perfect,” in
sequential forms. 20
Bearing this correlation in mind, I would like to propose that the Akkadian form that
should correspond to reduplicated achievement predicates in Sumerian is the iptaras form
in its cause or result functions. Such a correspondence would yield a rather elegant
system of secondary or adverbial reduplication in Sumerian: (a) reduplicated activity
predicates (Gtn-stem reduplications) would be similar to depictive secondary predicates,
(b) reduplicated achievement predicates (iptaras reduplications) would correspond to
20 The form corresponding to iptaras + ma in other older Semitic languages is clearly the use of wa- in both Eblaite and
Northwest Semitic; whether /ma/ and /wa/ are to be equated remains unclear to me, but it is certainly a possibility that
deserves further investigation. Particularly interesting in this regard is the apparent variation in Eblaite texts between
the use of WA and U 3 as clause-initial connectors.
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