Future at Issue : Tense, Mood, and Aspect in Middle Egyptian - Studies in Syntax and Semantics (Yale Egyptological Studies 4)

1990. viii, 228pp. Light foxing to top edge. Excellent condition with no inscriptions. Fourth volume in the Yale Egyptological Series, edited by William Kelly Simpson. "This book is an expanded and elaborated version of a seminar I held during the autumn of 1986 at Yale University at the kind invitation of Professor W.K. Simpson. I aim basically at putting forward some analyses that might enhance our understanding of tense, mood and aspect in Middle Egyptian. This has been a somewhat neglected field (see the sensible remarks of Allen, 1986a, 1-2 and 17-18). The main reason for such a situation is clear: semantic issues turn out to be all the more difficult with respect to a dead language such as Middle Egyptian, as substantiated in awkward documents. We have no informants, since the discovered mummies have so far stubbornly refused to speak and are not expected to change their minds in the near future. Moreover, the ancient scribes were selfish enough to write their records for their own uses only, without taking into account either the Egyptologists' requirements or even those of their own Late-Period successors, who were sometimes so puzzled by the ancient scripts that they added vocalized glosses to help the reading (Osing, 1987a, 65-71).".…