Indefinite pronouns (words like English anyone, anything, someone,
something, etc.) have been recognized as components of Ugaritic grammar
since 1934, but they have not yet been subjected to close semantic
analysis. Their relative neglect in grammatical and textual studies is
not surprising, as indefinite pronouns occupy a peculiar semantic area
that places them somewhere between the grammar and the lexicon—a
situation that has resulted in a similar neglect in grammatical
treatments of many languages appearing over the last several centuries.
Yet certain dimensions of their morphological, syntactic, semantic, and
pragmatic properties have attracted significant attention among
linguistic theorists over the last several decades, and a number of
useful models and approaches are now available for their more thorough
analysis. Simultaneous advances in the field of Ugaritology have now
brought the opportunity to apply such linguistic models to the study of
Ugaritic indefinite pronouns within reach. The formal diversity of
Ugaritic Indefinite Pronouns (which are more numerous and varied than
those found in any other Northwest Semitic language) and their
literarily significant textual distributions render their study both
appropriate and necessary.
In this study, I provide a linguistic description of the syntax,
semantics, pragmatics, morphology, and diachrony of Ugaritic indefinite
pronouns that is grounded in recent typological linguistic and formal
semantic research. I situate this analysis against a diachronic
(comparative Semitic) background and contextualize it by considering the
social and textual distributions of Ugaritic indefinite pronominal use.
The study is designed to contribute to our understanding of an
important feature of Ugaritic (and Semitic) grammar and to our ability
to describe the linguistic and literary contours of the Ugaritic textual
corpus.
Publication Date
2021-08
Language
en
Record Created
2021-09-29
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