One of the commonest of these signposts is the use of points of departure: these are words or phrases placed sentence-initially sometimes after a connective, which are bidirectional. That is, they
present already established information and create a link between what follows with what has already been said. They signal the underlying segmentation of a text, which allows its division into paragraphs
or larger groupings. Levinsohn 2003 categorizes points of departure as marking either a switch, moving to a new constituent, or as a renewal, returning to an earlier topic. He analyses the
discontinuities that they mark as ones of situation time and place, reference participants and topics and action.
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Our task here is to identify the points of departure that are used as bridges over the discontinuities found in Makonde narratives.
2.1 Temporal points of departure
Temporal points of departure are frequently encountered in Makonde narratives, of which the commonest is probably muliduva limo ‘one day’, often used to mark the inciting episode see section 1.2
above and the example there from 05 Fisherman. In the example below, the same temporal point of departure with Kanji ‘but’ as a connective is used in 03 Hyena and Pied Crow at the beginning of the
first developmental episode, marking a discontinuity of time after the inciting episode.
03 Hyena and Pied Crow
7. Kanji
muliduva limo Nashove aninninga
Litunu. But
on.day one Pied Crow
he.tests.him Hyena.
But one day Crow decided to test Hyena. In the example from 05 Fisherman 30 below, we find liduva ali ‘this day’. This is functioning in the
same way as liduva limo ‘one day’ and does not refer to a day already mentioned, despite the proximal demonstrative dem1. The discontinuity of time is clear: there is a summary statement of how good life is
for the fisherman over a general passage of time at the end of developmental episode 1, then sentence 30 starts developmental episode 2 with this temporal clause, indicating that the general passing of time
has finished and a new episode is about to begin.
05 Fisherman
29a. Munu aijá aikele
maduva matatu nsheshe, mwedi
Person that stayed days three four, month
29b. kwanjanga kunyeta
began to.fatten.up 29c.
kwalala shana
became.beautiful very.
30a. Liduva ali
amwaulila ndyagwe
do: Day this
he.informing.her wife.his
thus: 30b.
wako tangwinga
myungulilo vyashumba ashilá
you give.me
keys of.room that
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See ‘Analysis of Narrative Texts’ by Stephen H Levinsohn, 2003 SIL International, section 3.1.
30c. nangu
nikashimule
I I.go.open.
29 Time went by—a few days, a month; the fisherman began to fill out and look good. 30 But one day he said to his wife, “Come on, just give me the keys to that room; I’m going to open it.”
2.2 Spatial points of departure
In Makonde, locative phrases are normally in post-nuclear position, and it would be tempting to analyse any left-dislocated locative phrase as a spatial points of departure. Sentence-initial locative phrases do
occur in Makonde, but it is doubtful whether they are actually spatial points of departure. In this text corpus and elsewhere, they do not seem to be marking discontinuities, and have probably been preposed
either as a topic frame see section 2.4 below, or in order to give prominence to a sentence-final constituent. It is worthy to note that no unambiguous examples of a spatial point of departure have been
found.
The example from 09 Ákalimanya 03 below shows an initial locative phrase palikaja apalá ‘in that village’ that is not a point of departure since there is no discontinuity; in fact, it is a repetition of
information just introduced with a distal demonstrative added. The locative phrase should be analysed as a topic frame in a presentational sentence introducing the main participant. Such sentence focus
structures commonly have highly marked word order see section 6.1.1.
09 Ákalimanya
2a. Mumwaka
wasamanini au nangu
nindípagwa likaja limo
In.year of.eighty this I I.was
village one 2b.
lyavashema Lishee.
of.they.calling Lishee.
3a. Palikaja apalá
[AFTER VERB]
andípagwa nangolo jumo S
In.village that there.was
old.man one 3b.
lina lyake, ---
vashinshema Ákalimanya.
name his they.were.calling.him
Ákalimanya. In 1980, I was in a village called Lishee.
In that village there was an old man called Ákalimanya. The following preposed locative phrase pashinu apalá ‘at that place’ could not in any case be
analysed as a spatial point of departure as it follows the subject, and so is within the nucleus of the sentence. There is also no discontinuity of place. However, it serves as an example of the preposing of a
locative phrase to give extra prominence to the clause-final constituent maduva oe namene ‘very many days’ i.e., the long time that the lion spends ‘in that place’ suffering with a bone in his throat. Normal
word order would place the locative phrase at the end of the clause.
02 Lion and hamerkop
4a. Nangolo
pashinu apalá
--- andílaga
maduva oe namene
Elder at.place that
had.suffered days many very
4b. ---
ashanga mwakulota
wondering how.to.want
4c. ---
kuumila ligwangwa
pangulo apa. to.remove
bone at.throat this.
Old Lion was there in awful pain for many days, at a complete loss as to how to get the bone out of his throat.
2.3 Referential points of departure
