Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Lesson 1 Language and Writing
- Lesson 2 Unliteral Signs
- Lesson 3 Multiliteral Signs
- Lesson 4 Nouns
- Lesson 5 Pronouns
- Lesson 6 Adjectives
- Lesson 7 Adjectival and Nominal Sentences
- Lesson 8 Prepositions and Adverbs
- Lesson 9 Numbers
- Lesson 10 Adverbial Sentences
- Lesson 11 Non-verbal Sentences
- Lesson 12 Verbs
- Lesson 13 The Infinitival Forms
- Lesson 14 The Pseudo-verbal Construction
- Lesson 15 The Imperative and Particles
- Lesson 16 The Stative
- Lesson 17 The sdm.n.f
- Lesson 18 The sdm.f
- Lesson 19 The Other Forms of the Suffix Conjugation
- Lesson 20 Adverb Clauses
- Lesson 21 Noun Clauses
- Lesson 22 Relative Clauses
- Lesson 23 The Active Participle
- Lesson 24 The Passive Participle
- Lesson 25 Emphatic Sentences
- Lesson 26 Middle Egyptian Grammar
- Sign List
- Dictionary
- Text References
- Answers to the Exercises
- Index
Lesson 11 - Non-verbal Sentences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Lesson 1 Language and Writing
- Lesson 2 Unliteral Signs
- Lesson 3 Multiliteral Signs
- Lesson 4 Nouns
- Lesson 5 Pronouns
- Lesson 6 Adjectives
- Lesson 7 Adjectival and Nominal Sentences
- Lesson 8 Prepositions and Adverbs
- Lesson 9 Numbers
- Lesson 10 Adverbial Sentences
- Lesson 11 Non-verbal Sentences
- Lesson 12 Verbs
- Lesson 13 The Infinitival Forms
- Lesson 14 The Pseudo-verbal Construction
- Lesson 15 The Imperative and Particles
- Lesson 16 The Stative
- Lesson 17 The sdm.n.f
- Lesson 18 The sdm.f
- Lesson 19 The Other Forms of the Suffix Conjugation
- Lesson 20 Adverb Clauses
- Lesson 21 Noun Clauses
- Lesson 22 Relative Clauses
- Lesson 23 The Active Participle
- Lesson 24 The Passive Participle
- Lesson 25 Emphatic Sentences
- Lesson 26 Middle Egyptian Grammar
- Sign List
- Dictionary
- Text References
- Answers to the Exercises
- Index
Summary
11.1 Definitions
Lessons 7 and 10 introduced us to three kinds of Egyptian sentence: those in which the predicate is adjectival, nominal, or adverbial. In each of these sentence-types the predicate is not a verb, although English forces us to translate them with one, usually a form of the verb be. Because of this common feature Egyptologists group the three kinds of sentence together under the heading of “non-verbal sentences,” which is short for the more accurate designation “sentences with a non-verbal predicate” (see § 7.1). In this lesson we will look at the three kinds of non-verbal sentences together, and at some further features of them.
11.2 Basic patterns and meanings
As we have seen, each of the three kinds of non-verbal sentence can have many different forms, depending on what is used as the subject and predicate. In general, however, each type has a basic pattern and meaning.
Adjectival sentences have the pattern ADJECTIVE–SUBJECT, where the predicate is an adjective (masculine singular or masculine dual). They express a quality of their subject: for example, nfr sw“He is good,” where the predicate nfr describes a quality of the subject, sw“he”—namely, that he is “good.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Middle EgyptianAn Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, pp. 151 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014