The Old Babylonian Paronomastic Infinitive in -am

This article attempts to describes another type of Babylonian paronomastic infinitive, the parāsam iprus type, and to account for its function as an expression of (in)ability. This type has been shown to be different from the phenomenon called the inner object and has been compared with and distinguished from the so-called standard type of paronomastic infinitive, parasum(-ma) iprus. Among the functions discussed are topicalization or the marking of an element as topic, and focalization or the marking of an element as focus.