the way a participant is referred to may differ in different episodes orientation section, inciting episode, developmental episodes, peak episode, and denouement. The way major and minor participants are
referred to also differs. Major participants typically receive some specific introduction and are present and active throughout all or most of the narrative; in some narratives major participants play the roles of
protagonist the character which initiates most of the action and antagonist the character which reacts to the events initiated by the protagonist. Minor participants often just appear without any specific
introduction or are introduced as objects of a verb; they are only present for short periods and usually play a more passive role. It is also possible for a participant to be present in only one or two episodes,
but nonetheless to play an important and active role during this time; such participants are termed ‘episodic major participants’.
This section describes participant introductions and participant tracking in two texts primarily, with reference to other texts as necessary.
4.1 Nominal forms in Digo
In Digo, participants can be referred to using a variety of nominal forms, the most common are: • proper names such as Matsozi;
• descriptive noun phrases such as zimu ghost and mutu wa kani stubborn person; • noun phrases containing a demonstrative such as rira zimu that ghost and yuya wa kani that
stubborn one; literally: that of stubborn; demonstratives may be distal e.g. rira and yuya, proximal e.g. hiri and hiyu, non-proximal
5
e.g. hiro and hiye or metarepresentational
6
e.g. rino and yuno;
• noun phrases containing a relative clause such as mmwenga ambaye kala ana kani one who was stubborn;
• independent pronouns also referred to as ‘self standing pronouns’ referring to animate entities, such as iye she or he;
• additive pronouns, such as naye see section 3.2 for a discussion; • incorporated pronouns which consist of a prefix on the verb either referring to the subject such
as ri- in richifika it arrived—referring to the ghost and wa- in wahenda he did where wa- combines reference to a human subject with the past tense marker, or referring to the object
such as mu- in amurye eat him. The terms ‘prefix pronouns’, ‘agreement markers’ ‘subject marker’, ‘object marker’, ‘verb complement concord’, and others are also found in the literature
on Bantu languages.
To investigate participant reference in Digo we will refer primarily to Text 3 Mbodze na Matsozi Mbodze and Matsozi and Text 4 Mutu wa Kani The Stuborn Man. In both of these texts, references to
the major participants have been highlighted. We will begin with Text 4 Mutu wa Kani since this is a simpler text as far as participant reference is concerned, involving only a protagonist and an antagonist,
with a supporting cast of a group of hunters who are only ever referred to as a group. Text 3 Mbodze na Matsozi is more complex as it contains a pair of major participants, the girls of the title, who are almost
always referred to jointly using a plural reference; another major participant, a ghost; and an old lady, who is an episodic major participant, as she is present for only one episode but plays an active and
crucial role in the story. Some unnamed people at the start of the story and the ghost’s friends near the end of the story are minor participants.
5
This is an established term to describe demonstratives that indicate objects or places that are far from the speaker but near to the hearer. Cognate demonstrative forms in other Bantu languages are sometimes referred to as
‘referential demonstratives’.
6
Metarepresentational demonstratives are used to refer to entities that have not been previously mentioned but whose existence can be inferred, and in narratives when the narrator wishes to comment on part of the story. For
further details, see Nicolle 2007 and Nicolle 2012a.
4.2 Participant reference in text 4
