The semantics of the verb 'sdr' in the Coffin Textsactancy and aktionsart

Resumo

In this study1, it is argued that the verb sDr is consistently monosemic (‘to lie on the side’) in the Coffin Text Egyptian language, to judge by its spelling stability: ideogram ‘man-on-bed’ (and variants) plus absence of determinative. Meanings such as ‘lie down’, ‘sleep’, and ‘spend the night’ are thus better seen as translation effects in the target language than meanings in the source language (ancient Egyptian). The following meanings (or uses) will be discussed for the verb sDr as it occurs in the Coffin Texts: ‘to lie down’, so translated when no landmark (Langacker 1987: § 6.3), i.e. the expression of a space, follows or when the landmark is not a bed or a toponym; ‘to lay down’ (plus patient); ‘to spend the night’ (plus toponym or action); ‘to sleep’ (in relation with a bed or awakening); ‘to sleep with’ (plus preposition Hna and person). Finally, as previously remarked by kruchten (1982: 29), the verb sDr can also be used as a (semi-)auxiliary verb; not totally deprived of its basic semantism, sDr can then contrast with other «position (semi-)auxiliary verbs» such as aHa ‘stand up’ and Hmsi ‘sit down’, which also keep their essential semantics at a certain degree