Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

96. kalag.ga me.en niœ 2 nam I am a strong one, it is not just one thing I
pa bi 2.i.e 3
(21) Proverb Collection 17.b2, ll. 8-10
[ Topic (za.e) [ Focus lu 2 nam [ Presupposition bi 2.ib.til.e]]
283
have made appear,
As for you, It is not A MAN who brings about your end, (but rather THE GODS),
8. ≠piriœ±.gin 7 ne he 2.gub May you establish yourself like a lion,
9. x.zu œiß kiri 6 a ˙e 2.eb ? .gub . . .
10. lu 2 nam bi 2.ib.til.e It is not a man who brings about your end,
Overall, the foregoing examples demonstrate the relatively wide applicability of the
construction in different syntactic conditions, but a concentration of the exemplars in the
epic and wisdom literatures, both of which derive from the Ur III period at the latest—an
early version of Shuruppak’s Instructions, for example, dates to the ED IIIa period—may
suggest that the use of the construction was already archaic and poorly understood prior
to the Ur III period. The absence of exemplars from texts composed in the Old
Babylonian period would suggest that the Old Babylonian scholars no longer had
productive use of the construction.