On the Syntactic Structure of the Middle Egyptian Emphatic Construction

A Comparative Analysis with Japanese Constructions

Abstract

In Middle Egyptian grammar, the construction known as the emphatic construction is a construction with a focalized adverbial adjunct. Two models have been proposed for the syntactic structure of this construction: the adverbial-sentence model (ASM) of H. J. Polotsky and the nominal-sentence model (NSM) of J. P. Allen.
Ex. sḳdd t3 ḫft wḏ=k (Peas. B1 298-299)
It is according to your command (ḫft wḏ=k) that the land sails (sḳdd t3).
ASM: S ⇒ [sḳdd t3]_NP [ḫft wḏ=k]_AdvP
NSM: S ⇒ [sḳdd t3 ḫft wḏ=k]_NP
(AdvP=adverbial phrase; NP=noun phrase)
Although ASM has a very great influence on current research, the guestion of the relative merits of the two remains controversial. This paper treats this problem through a new approach. It compares these two models and two focus constructions in Japanese: (a) the “wa” cleft sentence corresponding to ASM and (b) the “no da” in-situ focus construction corresponding to NSM. The above sentence can be translated into Japanese in the following ways:
ASM: kokudo-ga koukou suru na-wa, anata-no meirei ni shitagatte da.
 land-NOM sailing do NOMP-TOP you-GEN command to according COP
NSM: kokudo-wa, anata-no meirei ni shitagatte koukou sum no da.
 land-TOP you-GEN command to according sailing do NOMP COP
(COP=copula; GEN=genitive; NOM=nominative; NOMP=nominalizing particle; TOP=topic)