Theemploymentofboth"bipartite"and"tripartite"nominalsentencepatternscontainingdemonstrativesofthen-seriesinMiddleEgyptian~1showsacharacteristicsufficientlyconsistenttowarrantthesuggestionthatasemanticconstraintisoperative:VIZ.,thatthosesentencesareemployedwithNPsthatare[-PERSON],not[+PERSON].Therefore,sentencessuchas~*R’/it.i/ink(pw)nn/nf(3)/n3/nwareexcluded.Inasentencesuc(?)asbit.ipwn3"Thisismycharacter/conduct"~2,bit.i"mycharacter/conduct"is[-PERSON],whereasonecouldnotsay,e.g.,~*s3.ipwn3"Thisismyson."Accordingtothishypothesis,allMiddleEgyptian
