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Gary HollandUniversity of California, Berkeley

Voice in Hittite non-finite constructions

Hitttite infinitives are generally considered to be diathetically neutral, and infinitivesfrom transitive verbs can be read as either active or passive depending on context(Friedrich 1960: 144; Hoffner and Melchert 2008: 332). In this paper I argue that somecontexts in which Hitttite infinitives are to be read as passive can be definedsyntactically, as in ex. 1.:

1. ITU KURuruK.BABBAR-til MUNNABTUM EGIR-pa piyanna L raabl nom prev inf neg advHatti fugitive back to give not permitted

'a fugitive is not right to be given back from Hatti' (KBo V 4 Obv. 38)

In such instances, the notional object of the embedded infinitive has been raised intosubject position of the matrix clause, here the L ra construction, presumably withdeleted form of e- be. Other examples which show comparable structures are thefollowing: and handi- determine (cf. Hoffner and Melchert 2008: 334).

2. n=a katta aanna kuit SIS-at n=an katta aahun (KBo IV 8 II 6f.)conn=nom prev inf conj 3sg conn=acc prev 1sgand=she to outlaw since establish and=her outlaw

'since she was established (by oracle) to be banished, I banished her'

3. nu=i GUD phugari p yawanzi IZI-it wahnumanzi MUEN.HI.Aconn=dat nom nom inf instr inf nomand=him ox substitute give/send fire burn birds

wahnumanzi SIS-at (KBo IV 2 iii 50f.; Gtze-Pedersen 1934, Lebrun 1985)inf 3sg burn establish

'and for him a substitute ox was established (by oracle) to be given/sent to be burned (and) birds to be burned'

To be sure, there remains a residue of cases in which the infinitive can be read as eitheractive or passive, but the ambiguities typically arise because the matrix verb already has asubject and hence does not allow raising into subject position. In spite of the presence ofa potential agent of the infinitive in an oblique case (ex. 4) or the lack of unambiguouscase marking on the notional object (ex. 4 and 5), however, nothing prevents us frominterpreting such ambiguous cases as passive, with the accusatives interpretable as thesubjects of (passive) infinitives, Patris counter-argument notwithstanding (2007: 148-9).

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4. BELI=NI =wa=nnaA uruarip iwaruruHattui ruwauwanzi l maniyah tivoc=poss=quot=acc gen postp dat-loc inf neg 2sglord=our =us Arip like Hattua plunder not hand ovet

r 'do not, our lord, hand us over toHattua to be plundered like Arip'(KBo IV 4 IV 20f.)

5. nu namma MAH AR dUTU=I argamua utummanzi L tarnaiconn adv dat-loc acc inf not 3sgand furthermore my majesty tribute bring not allow

'furthermore, he does not allow the tribute to be brought before my majesty'(KUB XIV 1 obv.

Structures comparable to exx. 1.-3. are found in Homeric Greek, Vedic Sanskrit, Avestan,and Lithuanian, thus seemingly guaranteeing the reconstructibility of this constructiontype.

The raising constructions discussed in this paper are by definition biclausal. Canonic passive constructions, on the other hand, are monoclausal. The obvious similarities between these two construction types arise because the raising to subject construction inHittite is limited to unaccusative matrix verbs:e - 'be',hand i- (SIS) 'establish (byoracle), (e -) natta ra 'be not right', and NU.GAL 'not be, not exist'. Further, theinfinitives in raising constructions withe - exhibit precisely the same voice alternationsas participles do that takee - as auxiliary: passive in the case of transitive verbs, active inthe case of intransitive verbs. Participial constructions with auxiliaries are also originally biclausal.

References

Cohen, Yoram. 2002.Taboos and Prohibitions in Hittite Society. A Study of the Hittite Expressionnattara ('not permitted'). Texte der Hethiter; Heft 24. Heidelberg: C. Winter.

Cotticelli-Kurras, Paola. 1991. Das hethitische Verb sein. Syntaktische Untersuchungen. Texteder Hethiter; Heft 18. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.

Davies, William D. and Stanley Dubinsky. 2004.The Grammar of Raising and Control . MaldenMA: Blackwell.

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Gtze, Albrecht. 1930. Neue Bruchstcke zum grossen Text des Hattuili und den Paralleltexten.Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatisch-Aegyptischen Gesellschaft; 34. Band = Hethitische Texte, HeftV. Leipzig: Hinrichs.

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Gtze, Albrecht and Holger Pedersen. 1934. Murilis Sprachlhmung . Det Kgl. DanskeVidenskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser; XXI, I. Kbenhavn: Levin &Munksgaard.Gterbock, Hans Gustav, Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., and Theo Ph. J. van den Hout (eds.) 1980 ff.The Hittite Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Chicago: The OrientalInstitute of the University of Chicago.

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Kammenhuber, A. 1989. Materialien zu einem hethitischen Thesaurus, Lieferung 11, Nr. 8. P.Cotticelli,hand i-. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Lebrun, Ren. 1985. L'aphasie de Mursili II = CTH 486. Hethitica 6:103-138.

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