Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

194. za.pa.aœ 2 kurun 2 lal 3 diri.ße 3
bala.bala.e na.aœ 2.ße 3
bi 2.ib.tar.re
155
The sound of choice beer and syrup poured
to overflow he decreed as your fate,
195. ib 2.si u 4 en 3.ße 3 er 2 gul.la e.ne “Enough!, lit. it is full!, It is time to stifle the
e.ra.an.du 11.ga lament,” he said to you himself,
(60) Nippur Lament [2.2.4] (Tinney 1996, 118-119)
279. œarza su˙ 3.a bir.a.bi si bi 2.in.sa 2
As for its disordered and scattered rites,
he put them in order,
280. ku 3.ku 3.ga ßub.ba ßu pel 2.la 2.a.ke 4 He restored the most sacred things,
ki.bi.ße 3 in.œar.ra neglected and defiled,
281. ßuku u 4 ßub.ba eßa zi 3 dub.dub.bu He ordains the offering of daily rations and
na.aœ 2.ße 3 bi 2.ib.tar.re the grinding of fine meal and flour,
282. œiß banßur ninda lu ninda ßar 2.re.da He decided to make bread plentiful at
ßa 3.ga.ni im.de 6.a table, to make loaves numerous!
These two cases are largely parallel and in both of them the direct object in a compound
verb construction, nam-√tar “to decide someone’s fate; to decree” is followed by the
allative postposition, even though there is no motion toward nam “fate.” Two other
examples (from a single passage) seem to show the same syntactic pattern: the
occurrence of the direct object of compound verb in the allative case instead of its usual
absolutive form in conjunction with a progressive/imperfective verb with the *bi-√
prefix.