20 Inheritance 28–29
Ku bhuyö hano
o-haaywë ëkëntö o-taka-ke-ser-a
hë. for 14.
DEM
_
REF
16.
DEM
_
PROX
2
SG
-give:
ANT
:pass 7.thing 2
SG
-
NEG
-7-refuse-
FV NEG
Ekesaka bha-kunyiir-a mo
emeremo gë-rë-ngë 7.bush 3
SG
-disregard-
FV
18.
EMPH
4.work 4-be-
HAB
‘Therefore, when you have been given something, don’t ignore it. The bush that is disregarded has a purpose.’
2 Paragraphs
Within a text, paragraphs mark the “thematic units,” which contains closely related material. Continuity of participants, time, place and theme are usually maintained within a paragraph or if there is a change
of time or place, this is usually an expected rather than an abrupt change, and so paragraph breaks correspond to places in the text where there is a discontinuity of some kind.
2.1 Paragraphs in “Inheritance”
Paragraph 1 1–5 makes up the orientation section of this narrative. This section introduces the three main characters, a father and his two sons, and presents the contrast between the two brothers, which is
important to the story line. The following paragraph break marks the shift from setting the scene to the mainline events.
Paragraph 2 6–13 contains the inciting episode and two developmental episodes. It begins with the first main event of the story in which the father becomes very sick 6. In the first developmental
episode of this paragraph, the first speech occurs when one of the sons tells his sick father that he is unable to come home 9b. The second developmental episode describes the father’s actions in response
to his son.
The third paragraph 14–18 consists of the third and fourth developmental episodes. The first dialogue 16–18 in the narrative occurs in this paragraph when the son receives a Bible as his
inheritance after his father’s death. The dialogue takes place between the son and one of his other family members who is never officially introduced into the story. The action of the story is temporarily
interrupted with this dialogue.
Paragraph 4 19–22 picks up the action of the story again when the son has a dream about his inheritance in which he is told to open the Bible to the book of Matthew 19c–d. The final sentence in
the paragraph relates the son’s actions following the dream. Paragraph 5 23–26 is also the peak episode of the narrative. In this paragraph the son is the only
participant mentioned, unlike other paragraphs where there are multiple participants involved in the action. Also, the phrase urusikö urwöndë ‘one day’ signals a change in the time sequence from the end of
the preceding paragraph to the start of this one. Paragraph 6 27–29 consists of the denouement and the conclusion of this narrative. It begins with
the connective këmwë ‘then’ and explains how the events of the story conclude. The switch from the main event line to summary information at the end of this paragraph is apparent as the tense changes
from narrative to present, and then the listener is presented with a moral.
2.2 Points of departure
