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Title: The Original Function of the Hittite Sentence Particle -kan
Subtitle: Topic Reinforcer or Marker of Spatial Relations?
Author(s): GOEDEGEBUURE, Petra M.
Journal: Bibliotheca Orientalis
Volume: 64    Issue: 1-2   Date: januari - april 2007   
Pages: 31-63
DOI: 10.2143/BIOR.64.1.2021780

Abstract :
One of the vexing problems of Hittite grammar is the exact nature of the so-called sentence particles -kan, -ašta, -šan, -apa and -an. Although these particles have been the subject of several elaborate articles and even monographs, many aspects of their use and diachronic development still need further research. The work under review, Dynamics of Transformation in Hittite. The Hittite Particles -kan, -ašta and -šan (Innsbruck 2000) by Jacqueline Boley, addresses many issues dealing with the semantics of -kan, -šan and -ašta. Its main focus is the search for the original meaning of -kan. Of equal importance is the evolution of -kan’s usurpation of the semantic and syntactic domains of the other particles, a development that was accompanied by profound alterations in Hittite syntax.

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