Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

(63) Enki and Ninmah [1.1.2], ll. 53-55
53. d nin.ma˙.e d en.ki.ra gu 3
mu.na.de 2.e
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Ninmah calls to Enki:
54. me.dim 2 na.aœ 2.lu 2.ulu 3.ta sa 6.ge “Man’s body can be either good or
˙ul ma.al.la.a.kam bad,
55. ki ßa 3 gi 4.a.œu 10 na.aœ 2.tar Whether I make a fate good or bad
bi 2.ib.se 3.ge bi 2.ib.˙ul.e depends on my will,”
(64) Ninurta and the Turtle, segment B [1.6.3], ll. 49-51
49. œa 2.ra saœ.œiß ? .ra.œu 10.uß igi.zu You who have decided to kill me,
mu.e.œar.ra.≠am 3±
50. x bil 2.ga gal.gal di œa 2.e . . . who makes big claims: “I put things in
bi 2.≠ib 2±.œa 2.œa 2 œa 2.e bi 2.ib 2.zi.de 3
place, I make things right,”
51. za.e œa 2.ra a.gin 7 igi.zu From you who set your sights on me
mu.œar.ra like this,
At first glance these two examples do not seem to resemble the resultative secondary
predicates that were under discussion earlier in the chapter (“Julie painted the house
red”), but this is largely due to the fact that Sumerian is a verb-final language. In other
verb-final languages, it is the resultative secondary predicate (typically based on an
adjectival root) that occurs in final position in the sentence and bears the inflectional
morphology typically associated with a “main verb.” Thus the sequence of lexical verb