SumerianGrammar

144 CHAPTER TWELVE
But a more important criterion for determing the syntactical character
of the nominal element is the form taken by an “object” depending
on a compound verb, whether as an independent part of speech
or as an infixed particle.
If the nominal element is in the absolutive, there cannot be a second
absolutive as a second “object” (or “subject” where the meaning
of the verb is intransitive). It will have to stand in a dimensional
case. Put the other way round, this means that if a second “object”
(or “subject”) is in fact in a dimensional case, it may be taken as
proof that the nominal element of the compound verb is in the absolutive.
This argument applies equally to dimensional indicators in
the verbal chain (see 12.8).
tukumbi “u mu-ri-bar-re(-n) “if I set you free” Prov. Coll. 5.55:3
(E. I. Gordon, JCS 12 [1958] 46).
Here, the “object” of “u bar “to set free” is in the directive [(e)ri],
and “u stands in the absolutive.
Note: For “u bar (< ba§r) see Krecher 1993, 113.
ninda [ninda-e] ∞ge“ ha-ba-ni-tag “I (”ulgi) indeed offered (bread =)
food” ”ulgi A 55.
Whatever the original meaning of ∞ge“ tag (touching wood in a
ceremony), ∞ge“ is in the absolutive.
nam ge 4 -rí-íb-tar nam-du 10 (-g) gú-mu-rí-íb-tar “let me make a firm
promise for you, let me make a benevolent firm promise for you”
”ulgi D 384 f.
nam is in the absolutive, the “object” in the directive [(e)ri].
é-e ∞gál ba-an-taka “he (loosened the ...at the house =) he opened
the house”.
∞gál (meaning unknown) is in the absolutive, the “object” in the
directive.
Note: The nominal element ∞gál is—graphically—the same as ig “door”. It was
also used for the abstract notion ∞gál “to be, to exist”.
urdu-dè lugal-ni [lugal-(a)ni-e] zà(-g) mu-da-DU-àm [mu-n-da-n-DUam]
“the slave (had it with him that he set the side next to his master
=) was allowed to go side by side with his master” Gudea Stat.
B vii 32–33.
zà(-g) “side” is in the absolutive and lugal-ni in the directive.
si-a d Inana me-kur-ra-ke 4 “u al-du 7 -du 7 “be silent, Inana, the ordinances
of the Netherworld are absolutely perfect” Inana’s Descent
132, etc.