137
fighting illustrated in 154 above. Half of Jii-Mlii’s speech acts 6 out of 12 do not contain a quote formula, whereas 2 out of 7 29 of Jii-Mpoon’s speech acts do not.
8.2.4 Pre-peak 2 Developing conflict 1—clauses 86-200
The second pre-peak episode begins with a flashback since it relates Jii-Mpoon’s spying on her younger sister when she takes the fish to the stream, an event narrated in
the previous episode. Since this episode does not follow the chronological order of events, it does not begin with the time adverbial phrase
+ ‘after that’, which begins every other episode. Several prominence-marking devices include a quote by Jii-Mpoon
to herself; two clauses on two separate occasions that describe Smelt-fish with a poetic style of speech; the thematic salience marker used for Smelt-fish in a marked word order
construction 156; an elaborate expression that creates a rhyming doublet to emphasize that Smelt-fish really did turn back into a fish 157; and two explicit addressee
references to the sisters’ mother in the quote formulas when Jii-Mpoon tattles on her sister.
Example 156 is an example of marked word order since Smelt-fish is already the current topic. By changing the normal word order of SVO to VS, Smelt-fish becomes
focal. 156 +
+ wow handsome 3S TSM
‘Wow, was he ever handsome’ [Fish 124]
138
The poetic language
37
that occurs in this episode and the elaborate expression in 157, all create very vivid descriptions of the fish.
157 K
original EQUAT fish truly fish EE ‘Just like before he was truly a fish.’ [Fish 141]
Fourteen speech acts occur in this episode, six of which have no quote formula. The speech acts that are highly confrontational make the addressee explicit. Example
158 gives the quote formula before the older sister relates to her mother what she has seen Jii-Mlii doing. She also asks her mother if she knows the person with whom Jii-Mlii
has had encounters, or from where he comes. The thrust of her speech is to try and get Jii- Mlii in trouble, but the mother responds that whoever or whatever he is, she does not
mind. 158
+ +
+ HHHH
DET sis.old 3S.POSS DEM3 former tell to DET mother 3S.POSS
‘Her older sister had told her mother...’ [Fish 191]
8.2.5 Pre-peak 3 Developing conflict 2—clauses 201-246
