Das Sogenannte Narrativ/Kontinuative Jw=F Ḥr (Tm) S d m

Abstract

Reconsideration of the ‘non-initial main clause’ in Late Egyptian. Its main features (specific negation, being marked for temporal/narrative sequence, and being the ‘sentence’ part of closed sentential complexes) may be explained synchronically, as particular uses of the ‘circumstantial first present’, and/or as the result of diachronic interference. It is argued that the different modes of clause negation are syntactically of no, and semantically of little, significance on the sentence level. The sequential/continuative usage can be subsumed to ‘co-ordination’ as part of the functional pattern of circumstantials. The uses of the form in closed complexes following temporal wnn=f Ḥr sdm, and after adverbials and jr-constructions, are mere survivals of Middle Egyptian patterns. There is a short discussion of the position of Late Egyptian in the language's history, and of problems of ‘contrastive’ (translational) correspondences.