Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

internal relative clauses such as these). Since, again, the *bi-√ prefix predicates are not
BNBV inal, their meaning is causative: “put (things) in place = cause (things) to be in
place,” and “make (things) right/straight” respectively. In the light verb construction in
(69b), however, the meaning of the expression is somewhat more difficult. The ETCSL
translation of the expression saœ ßu ZI bi 2.ib 2.du 11.ga is simply “malformed.” But this
translation follows almost entirely from the fact that the series of epithets are all negative
characterizations of Bird’s appearance and the word saœ, “head,” appears in this
particular epithet. The ETCSL transliteration offers some insight into the particular way
that ETCSL editors imagined the head in question to be malformed: ETCSL transliterates
ZI as zig 3, meaning “to rise up” and forming a syntagm saœ √zi(g) that has generally
positive connotations in Sumerian literature if not elsewhere (cf. the story of the
cupbearer and the baker in Genesis 40). The parallel that I have drawn in (69), however,
would necessarily interpret ZI as the verbal root √zi(d), “to be straight; to be just,” and I
would interpret the epithet to mean that Bird’s head (including its beak) is straightened
and angular as opposed to the gracefully curving head of Fish. My interpretation would
seem to be in line with Fish’s generally negative attitude toward the angular body-parts of
Bird, if the ETCSL translation of line 86, ka ur 2 gu 2 guru 5 giri 3 su.ul.su.ul ka ˙a.la eme
sal.sal as “[c]hopped-off beak and legs, deformed feet, cleft mouth, thin tongue!” has any
merit.
Although the number of cases in which the same adjectival root appears in both the
bi 2.in.˙ul 2.le construction and the ßu ADJECTIVE bi 2.in/ib.du 11.ga construction is
164