Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

4.4 Focus-affected BNBV inal predicates
At present, I know of just one example of a focus-affected BNBV inal predicate in line 410
of the Ur Lament. Due to the fact that there is only a single example of the construction,
that it is formally anomalous in various ways and that it appears in a composition that
was, in all likelihood, composed in the Isin-Larsa period, I cannot exclude that possibility
that the postulation of a focus-affected BNBV inal class in the *XP nam bi-√ construction
is mistaken. Nonetheless, if the single example is valid to some degree, it is a very
interesting example and the following analysis proceeds on the assumption that it
represents some stage of Sumerian linguistic reality. The line numbers used here are
consistent with ETCSL’s numbering, but Römer’s new edition numbers my line 410 as
line 408.
(27) Ur Lament [2.2.2], ll. 407-410
(Kramer 1940; Jacobsen 1987, 473; Römer 2004, 82 and 166)
[ Topic uœ 3 saœ gi 6.zu] [ Presupposition [ Focus igi. ? nam] bi 2.ib.du 8]
As for your black-headed people, it is not YOU WHO SEE them (after the storm
has cleared, but rather THEY WHO SEE you, the moon-god, Nanna, in a night sky
free of storms)
407. u 4.de 3 u 4 kalam.ma The storm that causes the light of the land to
u 2.gu bi 2.ib.de 2.a.re disappear,
291