function as a PoD, it must occur at the beginning of a sentence not counting a conjunction or an interjection, which may precede it. The following sections look at three types of point of departure:
referential, temporal and spatial.
2.2.1 Temporal points of departure
A number of paragraphs begin with a temporal point of departure: Paragraph 2 2.5a Huya
4
mchetu ariphogbwira mimba That woman when she became pregnant, paragraph 3 2.7a Juma na chisiku After
a week and a bit, paragraph 5 2.16a Siku mwenga One day, and paragraph 7 2.23a Ligundzu ra phiri On the second morning. Some temporal points of departure take the form of dependent clauses in what
is known as ‘tail-head linkage’. In tail-head linkage, information which has just been mentioned is repeated in a dependent clause: paragraph 6 2.19a Yuya Mwiya mvyere ariphosikira hivyo When Mwiya
senior heard this and paragraph 8 2.25a Isengbwa ariphosikira hivyo His father when he heard this.
2.2.2 Spatial points of departure
A dependent clause also occurs in paragraph 9 2.29a Hinyo atu ariphofika hipho Those people when they arrived there, but in this case the information is new. The location, however, has already been
established, and this is an example of a spatial point of departure, in which the location is already established but the participants are new.
2.2.3 Referential points of departure
Referential PoDs are topicalized NPs which are “left-dislocated”; that is, shifted to the start of the sentence. Subjects in Bantu languages typically occur at the start of a clause, before the verb, but they
can also be left-dislocated. This is often indicated by, for example, a long pause between the subject and the verb, or the use of spacers a non-argument, like an adverbial, which intervenes between the subject
and the following verb. All of the referential PoDs in Text 2 involve the repetition of a referring expression. The referential PoD Yuya mwana That child occurs in paragraph 4 2.11a after a digression
a song. Referential PoDs also occur when the subject has not changed, as in paragraphs 10 and 11 2.34 discussed above. In paragraph 10 2.32a, the people are referred to with a descriptive noun
phrase, Hinyo atu ariokala akedza phara Those people who had come there even though this same group of people was the subject in the previous clause. This over-specification serves to indicate that a new
paragraph is starting.
2.3 Paragraphs in text 1 Mhegi wa Mihambo
