Pluractionality in Hittite: a new look at the suffix -ške/a

The Hittite verbal system notoriously lacks the morphological distinction between perfective and imperfective stems common to most ancient Indo-European languages (Melchert 1997: 83), and in this language aspectual distinctions remain at a low degree of grammaticalization, as “[a]ny basic verbal stem in Hittite may be read as perfective or imperfective, provided that its inherent meaning and the context are appropriate” (Hoffner & Melchert 2008: 317). The overt encoding of imperfectivity is partly taken over by a number of derivational suffixes, whose function, in spite of the sizable number of studies devoted to them, remain controversial. In particular, scholars have long debated over the function of the suffix -ške/a-, with some authors interpreting it as a full-fledged marker of imperfective aspect (cf. Cambi 2007), or as a marker of different actional nuances including, among other things, iterativity, habituality, and distributivity (Bechtel 1936, Dressler 1968, Hoffner & Melchert 2008: 317-323). The connection of the suffix with imperfectivity is reflected by the fact that it is largely incompatible with stative verbs (Hoffner & Melchert 2008: 318), and by its occurrence with temporal adverbs meaning ‘in/for X time’ (Bertinetto & Cambi 2006). In this paper, we aim to review the traditional analysis of the -ške/a- suffix by grounding its interpretation on recent typological insights on aspect and verbal number. Drawing from a complete survey of verbs showing the -ške/a- suffix in Old Hittite texts, we investigate the aspectual construal of these forms according to Croft’s (2012) cognitive approach to verbal aspect, and show that they are by no means limited to the encoding of imperfectivity as defined by Cambi (2007). Moreover, we argue that -ške/a- can be better explained in terms of pluractionality, as the different functions that this suffix encodes are basically the same covered cross-linguistically by the so-called pluractional constructions (cf. Newman 1990). Specifically, we investigate to what extent the functions associated to the suffix -ške/a- can be arranged in a network that complies with the conceptual space of pluractional constructions put forward by Mattiola (2017). Finally, by also taking into account comparative evidence from cognate suffixes in other IE languages, as e.g. Latin -sc- (cf. Haverling 2000), we also set out to establish the original function of the Hittite suffix and explain the diachronic processes whereby the different functions developed out of this core meaning.

Anatolia Antica. Studi in memoria di Fiorella Imparati (LoGisma: Florence), 2002

Coilana eli stueli suile civilta deil'Oriente antico 11 ANATOLIA ANTICA STUDI IN MEMORIA DI FIORELLA IMPARATI a: Cl/!r1L eli 5'fe&t~Je M. e F1I,ra. Pea:/tJi DaJJ; LoGisma editore Firenze Q~

The Limits of Grammaticalization, 1998

This dissertation provides the first unified account for the distribution and interpretation of wh-words in Hittite as indefinites, interrogatives and relativizers. Based on cross-linguistic comparanda, Hittite wh-words display the typical behavior of indefinite polarity items, and are prosodically deficient. As such, I argue that the surface positioning of wh-words in Hittite involves the syntax-semantics interface, and the syntax-phonology interface. The non-standard word order of indefinites in Hittite is attributed to two factors. For an existential interpretation, Hittite wh-words must remain within the [vP] and are bound by the Rule of Existential Closure. For a presuppositional interpretation, indefinites undergo Quantifier Raising to IP. The final surface position of indefinites is determined by the syntax-phonology interface to satisfy prosodic restrictions: wh-words in Hittite are subject to Prosodic Inversion at Spell Out. As an interrogative, I argue that the wh-form consists of a phonologically null determiner plus the Hittite wh-word kui-. Hittite wh-in situ is triggered by an intonational Q-morpheme, and is underspecified as [Q: ], enabling it to license both yes-no questions and wh-questions, as in modern French. Based on experimental evidence from living languages, I propose that the accentual nature of wh-words in Hittite interrogatives is the outcome of the stress assignment by the intonational Q- morpheme. Finally, I offer the first alternative analysis to Held’s (1957) account of Hittite correlative clauses. I demonstrate that preposed “indeterminate” correlatives represent wh-conditional clauses, as in Mandarin Chinese, Serbo-Croatian, and early Latin. The accented nature of the wh-word in wh-conditionals is derived from the stress assignment by contrastive Focus. I show that the peculiar distribution of the wh-word in “determinate” preposed correlatives resembles that of indefinites: the wh-word is bound by the rule of Existential Closure and may be subject to Prosodic Inversion at Spell Out. I show that postposed correlatives may be restrictive or non-restrictive, and that Middle Hittite and New Hittite texts also exhibit embedded relative clauses.

On the basis of a contrastive analysis of all instances of the few -šša-verbs which coexist with non- affixed verbs of the same lexeme in Hittite, an attempt will be made to describe their distribution and semantics and determine the function of the -šša-suffix. In fact, a significant distribution may be recognized: the Hittite suffix -šša- is synchronically used as a marker for a low degree of object affectedness and in so far belongs to the domain of the category 'transitivity' as defined by Hopper/Thompson (1980).

We discuss the extraordinary syntax of the enclitic -(m)a: as different from other enclitics it does not cliticize to a set of words like nu, mān, etc. How- ever, as different from -pat with its free distribution within the clause -(m)a attests a very clear tendency to be positioned after the first stressed word. To make things even more complicated, in the focusing function it attests a seemingly free posi- tion in the clause. The paradox of -(m)a is that most of the details of its aberrant syntactic behavior, save some clause internal usage which we are demonstrating for the first time, are perfectly well known, but several pieces of evidence have never been brought together. The main of them is the fact that the set of words which does not host -(m)a as well as -ya is precisely the set of words which is not taken into consideration when the second position of such constituents as relative pronouns in determinate clauses, subordinators maḫḫan and kuit is determined. The paper also provides a unitary explanation of both topicalising -(m)a in the left periphery and focusing -(m)a in the preverbal position: the common feature might be the prosodic boundary to the left of both hosts triggered by information structure to the left of the host of both topicalizing -(m)a/additively focusing -ya in the left periphery and focusing -(m)a/ya preverbally.

Old Hittite sentence connectives nu, ta and šu display a significantly different distribution when connecting a preposed subordinate clause to the main clause with respect to their distribution between main clauses. Other distributional restrictions concern ta and šu in all syntactic environments, but do not concern nu. The discourse function of connectives when they occur between main clauses points to partly different roles by which they variously indicate event and/or participant continuity, and contribute to the grounding of information. Ongoing increase in the frequency of P2 clitics also called for the occurrence of connectives as hosts. Lack of distributional restrictions on the occurrence of nu made it multifunctional, and suitable as a host for P2 clitics while preserving at least in part its original discourse function: this brought about the onset of a change by which nu replaced other connectives. The discourse function of connectives is blurred between a subordinate and a main clause, as subordinate clauses explicitly indicate their relation to the main clause. Due to its multi-functionality, nu also extended more readily to this syntactic environment, in which it developed into a boundary marker. Uneven distribution of connectives in different syntactic environments is a consequence of gradualness in actualization of languages change.

Paola Cotticelli-Kurras & Velizar Sadovski (edd.), „In Participle We Predicate‟ - Contributions of the Comparative and Historical Linguistics to Grammar and Semantics of Participle (Indogermanische Textlinguistik, Poetik und Stilistik - Band 1), 63-95, 2017

It is now the communis opinio in the field of Anatolian studies that there is in Neo-Hittite no Ionger a formal distinction between the nominative and the accusative plural communis as there was in the older language (Old and Middle Hittite). Instead, a syncretic case form (Einheitskasus) with two allomorphs, either -eš (former nom.pl.c.) or -uš (former acc.pl.c.), is used for both functions. The two allomorphs are distributed with regard to the respective stem class. This system applies to ordinary nouns and to pronominal stems but not to participles. In this article it will be shown that there is a different system applying to participles: In the domain of verbal usage (predicative or adverbial function [= conjunct participle]) the participle only exhibits the syncretic desinence -ant-eš, whereas in the nominal domain (attributive or substantival function) there is still a distinction between -ant-eš, for the nominative, and -and-uš, for the accusative.

Old Hittite sentence connectives nu, ta and šu display a significantly different distribution when connecting a preposed subordinate clause to the main clause with respect to their distribution between main clauses. Other distributional restrictions concern ta and šu in all syntactic environments, but do not concern nu. The discourse function of connectives when they occur between main clauses points to partly different roles by which they variously indicate event and/or participant continuity, and contribute to the grounding of information. Ongoing increase in the frequency of P2 clitics also called for the occurrence of connectives as hosts. Lack of distributional restrictions on the occurrence of nu made it multifunctional, and suitable as a host for P2 clitics while preserving at least in part its original discourse function: this brought about the onset of a change by which nu replaced other connectives. The discourse function of connectives is blurred between a subordinate and a main clause, as subordinate clauses explicitly indicate their relation to the main clause. For this reason, nu extended more readily to this syntactic environment. Uneven distribution of connectives in different syntactic environments is a consequence of gradualness in actualization of languages change.

Diachronica , 2020

This article discusses two case studies of diachronic "voice flipping" in which the syntax of a participle appears to change from active or "subject-oriented" to passive (Ancient Greek-menos to Modern Greek-menos) and from resultative/stative to active (Proto-Indo-European *-nt-; Hittite-ant-vs. Ancient Greek-nt-). While the first type of change is the result of a diachronic reanalysis by which a functional projection (VoiceP) is lost, the second type adds an active Voice head. Both changes are the result of the simultaneous availability of a stative and an eventive reading in deverbal adjectival forms and could belong to a larger "participle cycle". However, unlike in other changes usually discussed under the label "cycle", unidirectional economy principles do not apply in these cases. Rather, they provide evidence that some types of morphosyntactic change, especially those related to event and argument structure, are driven by reanalysis of the feature content of functional heads under local structural ambiguity.