Description of the different participant reference options

4.2.1 Description of the different participant reference options

Proper nouns, simple nouns and other nouns qualified by adjectives and possessives need no further description here. 4.2.1.1 Personalized nouns Personal pronouns are widely used in Makonde speech—usually in the plural—to express group identity; tu- ‘we+’ or va- ‘they+’, are often attached to a noun or proper noun; for example, vapatulu ‘Peter and his group’. 17 Among the narratives presented here, it is less common but the text using this feature most frequently is the true story 09 Ákalimanya, where the antagonist is the villagers acting as a group. These are frequently referred to as tuvanu ‘we-people’, rather than the simple vanu ‘people’. This reminds the listener that the narrator—although never isolated from the group of villagers during the event line— formed part of that group, which serves to authenticate the story. 4.2.1.2 Subject concord markers As in other Bantu languages, conjugated verbs specify the subject by means of a subject prefix slot before the stem agreeing with the noun class of the subject. Makonde has a full range of subject concord prefixes for its noun classes, and these are obligatorily used for all conjugated verbs, thus, in many cases in narrative indicating e.g., by a singularplural distinction which participant is being referred to. An object prefix before the stem is required for classes 1 and 2, and also for first and second person objects third person objects are treated as class 1 or 2. Objects in other noun classes do not take object concordance in the verb. In participant reference terms, this grammatical marking is therefore only useful for indicating human participants, or for distinguishing between human and non-human. In Makonde animal names may be formed in noun classes 3–11, and 14. However, they may in addition be personalized by a pre-prefix in noun classes 1 and 2. For example, inembodinembo ‘elephant, elephants’ may be formed in noun classes 9 and 10 with the prefixes iN-\diN- before the Bantu stem— tembo ‘elephant’. However, ‘elephant, elephants’ may also be referred to in noun classes 1 and 2 as nnembovanembo, formed by the addition of the noun class 1 and 2 pre-prefixes mu- and va- before the stem taken from class 9. In folktales animal protagonists are referred to throughout by personalized nouns taking class 1 and 2 agreements, as are human protagonists. Real animals in other stories, however, can be referred to either by animal names in the other classes or by personalized names in classes 1 and 2. In the true story 09 Ákalimanya, this is shown in the paired, parallel statements shown in the examples below: sentence 21 gives the first mention of the elephant that has fallen into the pit trap, referring to it in class 9, with the subject concord i- used on the verb indiinjila ‘entered’, and with no object infix in the verb nakodya ‘and found it’. Sentence 25 refers to that same elephant, when seen by the narrator and other villagers using the class 1 subject concord a- on the verb andiijila ‘he had fallen in’ and object infix nankodya ‘and found him’. The class 1 use is then continued in the rest of the narrative. 17 The personalized noun construction consists of the prefix va- plus the name [see Leach, M.B. 2010 p. 259 section 7.3.5]. This differs from associative nouns, which are formed by adding a connexive consisting of the possessive concord plus the associative marker -a to a noun, as in vadimongo ‘they-of-strength’ [ibid. section 7.3.6]. The distinction depends on a tonal argument in which the high tone of the prefix acts in different ways in the two constructions. 09 Ákalimanya first mention of the elephant in the trap using class 9 concord marking 21a. Muliduva limo tayali nakodya inembo On.day one ready and.find elephant 21b. indiinjila. it.entered. But one day, finally, he found an elephant had fallen into the pit trap. 09 Ákalimanya subsequent references to the same elephant using class 1 concord marking 25a. Tukawike apalá nankodya nnembo We.when .arrived there and.met.it elephant 25b. andiinjila it.entered, When we got there we found the elephant, fallen into the trap… 4.2.1.3 Zero reference marking Bantu verbs with subject concord markers can stand alone in clauses without any overt noun as subject, and subject marking is obligatory on most verbs. Where there is no overt reference to the subject of the verb—the reference being only in the subject concord marking—this is often represented as Ø, 18 and is described in various ways such as incorporated pronoun marking or zero reference marking. However, in Makonde, we have two separate situations in which there is no overt reference to the subject of the verb, and we therefore need to make a distinction between two different levels of marking, which we refer to as subject concord marking and zero reference marking. This is because the default narrative tense is the verb-noun form with the ku- prefix in class 15, which does not take subject concord see section 5.1.1 below. Although the default narrative can occur with nouns, it can also stand alone in which case it has genuine zero marking for participant reference. Contrast the two following sentence-initial examples from 03 Hyena and Pied Crow. In 6a the default narrative is used with the independent pronoun vanavo ‘they’, but in 20a there is zero reference marking. 03 Hyena and Pied Crow sentence-initial default narrative tense with independent pronoun as subject 6a. Aya mwiu vanavo kwadana Yes true they followed.each.other 6b. ---- kwadana. followed.each.other. And so indeed, they carried on being friends. 18 Levinsohn S.H. 2004 section 8.2.2. 03 Hyena and Pied Crow sentence-initial default narrative with zero reference marking 20a. Ø Kumeja ugwali took.a.bit maize.staple 20b. --- kubadula dimeme broke.off seasoning 20c. --- kulya. ate. Then he took a bit of the maize porridge, broke off some seasoning, and ate it. 4.2.1.4 Pronouns, including independent pronouns and exclusive focus pronouns In Makonde, there are two main sets of pronouns. There is also an additive pronoun, but it does not occur in this text corpus and will not be considered here. 19 The most commonly used pronoun is the independent or self-standing set of pronouns nangu, wako, nae, wetu, mwenu, vanavo; that is, ‘I, you sg, heshe, we, you pl., and they’, respectively. There is, in addition, the exclusive focus pronoun mwene ‘he himselfthe same one’, which can be personalized for example to nimwene ‘I myself’ see 09 Ákalimanya sentence 48b, or to the plural vene below: 07 Mother and child exclusive focus pronoun mwene in third person pl. form vene 6d. bai kutwa vana O --- kuvajanga popo so then children abandoned.them right.there, 6e. --- kuvaleka vene S left.them they.themselves 6f. --- kutukuta. fled. …the villagers began to flee and abandoned their children right there—the villagers left them behind and fled. Like the independent set of pronouns, the exclusive focus pronoun mwene—also referred to as an emphatic pronoun or a demonstrative—is also self-standing, although it can occasionally appear in combination with demonstratives or even proper nouns. It exists in a similar form in other Bantu languages; for example, in Kimwani as wenye and Swahili as –enyewe. 20 In Malila, it appears in the identical form to that in Makonde: mwene. 21 In order to avoid confusion when reading the texts, it is necessary to note that mwenevene in Makonde has two uses, both derived from the quantitative pronominal root -ene. The first use is as the exclusive focus pronoun described immediately above, and the second is as the noun mwenevene meaning ‘owner’. There is a good example of these two functions of mwene in 05 Fisherman where mwene is used twice in short succession within one sentence, the first time as the exclusive focus pronoun referring to the protagonist—a fisherman 03b—and the second time as the noun ‘owner’, referring to the owner of the boat to whom the protagonist has to pay hire 03c. 19 Compare Eaton, H. 2011, section 4.4. 20 Floor, S.J. 1998. 21 Eaton, H. 2011 section 4.4. 05 Fisherman contrasted uses of mwene as exclusive focus pronoun and with the meaning ‘owner’ 3a. Yomba jumo IO akannipe udeni O Fish one he.would.pay.it debt, 3b. junji aju O akanniele mwene na ndyagwe S fish this he.would.eat.it the.same and his.wife 3c. junji aju IO akannipe mwene ingalava O other this he.would.pay.it the.owner boat. With one fish he would pay his debts, another fish he and his wife would eat, and the third he used to pay the owner of the boat. For the discourse features of these pronouns see section 4.2.2.4 below. 4.2.1.5 Demonstratives In Makonde demonstratives normally follow directly after the noun. There are three primary sets of demonstratives, shown below with class 1 2 human sg. pl. agreement, although all demonstratives can occur in all classes: • the proximal 22 demonstrative set PD: ajuava • the referential 23 demonstrative set RD: ajoavo • the distal demonstrative set DD: aijáavalá There are also two secondary sets of demonstratives, derived from the referential demonstrative although with distinctive functions: • the continued reference demonstrative CRD: jovo a reduced form from the referential demonstrative • the same reference demonstrative SRD: jojovovo where the reduced CRD form above has been duplicated. 24 These demonstratives are used very flexibly. In addition to the five sets above, combinations of two demonstratives are used following common nouns, a ‘split’ around nouns, in place of nouns, with pronouns, and occasionally before other nouns. One of the demonstratives in a combination is always either CRD or SRD, and it is also possible to have both in a combination. Examples from this text corpus illustrate some of the possibilities. In 05 Fisherman below, mo mwingalava amu ‘here in this same boat’ combines mo CRD and amu PD around the noun. 05 Fisherman example of combined demonstratives ‘split’ around noun 35e. andiikala mo mwingalava amu kavili he.has.sat in.that boat this again …there he found himself sitting down back in his boat… 22 The proximal, referential and distal demonstratives are also known in Bantu literature as demonstrative 1, demonstrative 2, and demonstrative 3; this from lecture notes accompanying Levinsohn S.H. 2004, ‘Analysis of Narrative Texts’. 23 In Makonde the referential demonstrative is probably better described as the ‘contrastive’ or ‘separative’ demonstrative. For the sake of consistency with other write-ups, however, the designation ‘referential’ will be used here. 24 Leach, MB 2010; see section 6.2.5 on the structure and derivation of Makonde demonstratives. In the example below demonstratives shosho SRD + sho CRD are stacked together after the noun shinu: ‘this very same thing’: 09 Ákalimanya example of combined demonstratives after noun: 46a. Napanelo nangu O shinu shosho sho shiningunagwele namene Now I thing that.same that, it.pleased.me very Now all this was very good for me… In the following example, the demonstratives lolo SRD + ala PD ‘this very same’ stand independently: 05 Fisherman example of combined demonstratives standing independently 4. Kila liduva nae S kulya kwake madengo ake S avele lolo ala Every day he food his, work his was this.same this. So his daily work—and his daily food—were always the same. Below is an example of a demonstrative placed before the noun: aijá DD mwanagwe ‘that her childthat child of hers’. 07 Mother and child example of demonstrative placed before noun. 16a. Namwiu anímwambola aijá mwanagwe And.true she.saved.him that her.child And indeed she rescued her child… For the discourse features of these demonstratives see section 4.2.2.2 below.

4.2.2 Role within narrative discourse of the different participant reference options