Editing Hurrian language (section)

===Syntax===
Hurrian's basic [[word order]] is a matter of dispute. According to Speiser's 1941 grammar, the normal word order of a Hurrian sentence is essentially [[object–subject–verb]] (OSV). However, since Hurrian is an ergative–absolutive language, the syntactic roles of a Hurrian phrase do not exactly correspond to the "subject" and "object" of a [[nominative–accusative]] language (such as [[English language|English]]). For this reason, Speiser says that Hurrian's word order can be more accurately described as "goal–agent–action", with the absolutive case corresponding to the "grammatical subject" (i.e. [[specifier (linguistics)|specifier]]).<ref>{{Harvnb|Speiser|1941|pp=205–206}}</ref>

{{interlinear|number=ex:|glossing2=no|glossing3=yes
|šeniff išaš tatau
|šen-iff-Ø iša-š tat-au
|brother-my-ABS me-ERG.SG love-1.SG
|"I love my brother"
}}

[[Geoffrey K. Pullum]] (1977) is doubtful of Speiser's analysis. He argues that the available corpus of Hurrian text is not large enough to definitively determine its word order, and that it can only be identified as generally verb-final (i.e. either OSV or [[subject–object–verb|SOV]]). Pullum gives the following example of a Hurrian sentence with SOV order:<ref>{{harvnb|Pullum|1977|pp=262–264}}</ref>

{{interlinear|number=ex:|glossing2=no|glossing3=yes
|Immuriyaššan zalamši tanoša
|Immuriya-šš-an zalamši-Ø tan-oš-a
|Immuriya-ERG.SG-and statue-ABS make-PRET-3
|"And Immuriya made the statue"
}}

[[Maria Polinsky]] (1995) notes that the structure of Hurrian's [[ditransitive]] clauses is subject–object (as in SOV) rather than [[object–subject word order|object–subject]] (as in OSV). Specifically, the order is subject–indirect object–direct object–verb. However, she still refers to Hurrian as an example of an OSV language.<ref name=Polinsky1995>{{Harvnb|Polinsky|1995|p=190}}</ref>

Within [[noun phrase]]s, the noun regularly comes at the end. Adjectives, numbers, and genitive modifiers come before the noun they modify. [[Relative clause]]s, however, tend to surround the noun, which means that the noun the relative clause modifies stands in the middle of the relative clause. Hurrian has at its disposal several paradigms for constructing relative clauses. It can either use the relative pronouns ''iya'' and ''iye'', which has already been described under 'pronouns' above, or the nominalising suffix ''-šše'' attached to a verb, which undergoes Suffixaufnahme. The third possibility is for both these markers to occur (see example 16 below). The noun, which is represented by the relative clause, can take any case, but within the relative clause can only have the function of the absolutive, i.e. it can only be the subject of an intransitive relative clause or the object of a transitive one.

{{interlinear|number=ex:|glossing2=no|glossing3=yes
|iyallānīn šēniffuš tiwēna tānōšāššena
|iya{{=}}llā{{=}}nīn šēn-iffu-š tiwē-na-Ø tān-ōš-ā-šše-na-Ø
|REL.PRO{{=}}3.PL.ABS{{=}}truly brother-my-ERG.SG object-ART.PL-ABS send-PRET-3.SG.SUBJ-NOM-ART.PL-ABS
|"those, which my brother sent"
}}

As has been outlined above, Hurrian transitive verbs normally take a subject in the ergative and an object in the absolutive (except for the antipassive constructions, where these are replaced by the absolutive and the essive respectively). The indirect object of ditransitive verbs, however, can be in the dative, locative, allative, or with some verbs also in the absolutive.

{{interlinear|number=ex:|glossing2=no|glossing3=yes
|olaffa katulle
|ola-Ø{{=}}ffa katul-le
|other-ABS{{=}}2.PL.ABS say-OPT.1.SG
|"I want to tell you<sub>abs</sub> something else<sub>abs</sub>"
}}