新エジプト語i.sḏm=f構文の主節における意味・機能

抄録

Since the pioneering work of H. J. Polotsky in 1944, the Late Egyptian i.sḏm=f-construction has been generally regarded as a construction with a focalized adverbial adjunct. Recently, P. Cassonnet called attention to an aspect of modality which this construction expresses; she analyzed its functions as follows:
 Focus: the adverbial adjunct
 Modality: “will (volonté),” “wish (souhait),” “injunction (injonction)” or “obligation (obligation)
 However, the currently accepted analysis seems to be observationally inadequate because there are examples where the adverbial adjunct contextually can not be interpreted as a focus (e.g. Taking of Joppa, 2, 11). This paper tries reanalyzing the i.sḏm=f-construction on the hypothesis that this construction corresponds to the Japanese modal no da-construction thus:
 Focus: the whole sentence
 Modality: explanatory modality, which is equivalent to that of the Middle Egyptian Spw-constructions (cf. BSNESJ 49/ 1).
 In order to examine this hypothesis, the following points are discussed in this paper:
(1) the semantic and functional correspondence between the i.sḏm=f-construction and the Japanese modal no da-construction,
(2) the negative form of the i.sḏm=f-construction,
(3) the i.sḏm=f-construction with an interrogative adverbial,
(4) the i.sḏm=f-construction without an adverbial adjunct (Wenamun, 2, 4-5).
The results of the examination indicate that the analysis suggested in this paper fits the data better than the currently accepted one.