Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

BNBV class will be proposed, but in this section the diagnostic test is specified and the
set of lexemes defined by the diagnostic characterized.
Before attempting to explain why the BNBV diagnostic is a useful distributional
class and forms a relatively coherent, semantically-defined group, I would first of all like
to contrast the syntactic behavior of the BNBV class with several other types of verbal
construction in Sumerian. In each of the following two pairs, examples (8) and (9) as well
as examples (10) and (11), the first example is a member of the BNBV class, while the
second is not, even though the verbs mean very nearly the same thing.
(8) Gilgamesh and the Netherworld [1.8.1.4], l. 302 (Karahashi 2000, 121, ex. 25) 9
lu 2 izi.la 2 igi bi 2.du 8.am 3 igi nu.mu.ni.du 8
lu izi-√la-r igi [b] 5/6-[i] 10-√du-am
person fire-hang-Dat eye Inan-Dir-hold-Cop
igi [nu] 1-[mu] 2-[n] 5/6-[i] 10-√du
eye Neg-Vent-Anim-Dir-hold
A: Did you see a man who had burned (to death)?
B: I didn’t see such a man.
9 Shaffer also records a slightly different verbal prefix in one variant: nu mu.de3.du 8.am 3.
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