Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

248. [za].e tuß.a er 2 œa 2.e ga.tuß You, sit down and weep! (Gilgamesh:) I
ga.≠er 2± shall sit down and weep!
249. [x] ßu bi 2.in.tag.≠ga± ßa 3.zu …, which your heart rejoiced to touch,
ba.e.˙ul 2
250. […] ≠ßi ? ±.du.un bi 2.in.du 11
168
is …,
251. [… tug 2 sumun].≠a±.gin 7 u˙ Worms infest it like an old garment (?),
bi 2.in.≠tag±
Karahashi reconstructs the line as su.mu ßu bi 2.in.tag.ga ßa 3.zu ba.e.hul 2, “When you
touched my flesh, you felt happy,” but the line is broken and passage is difficult.
Nonetheless, if we can assume that the meaning of the verb ßu bi 2.in.tag.ga is “to touch,”
then it is clear that the ßu does not contribute to the lexical meaning of the verb since the
verbal root √tag alone also means the same thing. But since ßu would serve as a natural
semantic component of a verb meaning “to touch,” the precise lexical meaning of the
verbal root √tag is probably in need of further investigation.
One example is exceptional in that it is clear that the ßu does not play any particular
role in the semantics of the predicate, but the predicate appears with ßu even though it
contributes no lexical meaning to the predicate.