On Forms and Functions: Studies in Ancient Egyptian Grammar

This volume is the outcome of a workshop on ancient Egyptian syntax held in Liège in 2011. The contributions deal with several central topics in syntactic analyses – like coordination, raising, gradience or non-expression of participants –, but also investigate the relationship between syntax stricto sensu and other fields, from morphology to pragmatics (with a special attention to construction types and grammaticalization processes). The studies cover the whole Ancient Egyptian corpus, from Old Egyptian down to Coptic, with a striking common concern, which is to relate systematically the formal dimension to the functional one. Thereby, the papers go beyond the descriptive level and address numerous stimulating ‘why?’ questions.