947 a Keke’enku’a ra-wlari-wia
child 3p-ran-PERF
‘The children ran.’ b R-rora
r-la’awa 3p-two 3p-go
‘The two of them went.’ movement of actor to new episode and location 9.1.4
Action continuity
Active verbs carry the event-line forward in narrative texts as well as do sequential connectors. In procedural text the use of the connectors which mean, ‘after that then’, keeps the continuity as one
action immediately follows after another.
948 R-la’a demade
ra-mtatna 3p-go
then 3p-sit
‘They went and then they sat.’
949 Ir-wotelu ta’eni
tahan-nana wau-wau
dewade ir-hopliala krita
they-three cannot endure-ABIL RDP-current then
3p-throw away octopus
‘The three of them could not swim against the current and then threw away the octopi they had gathered.’
950 N-pona wehla pa
na-p-lok-lokar na’nama
la nhi’
ud liola
woru 3s-sharpen knife till
3s-STAT-RDP-sharp just then went make
banana trunk two
‘He sharpened the knife till it was sharp and then went and made two pieces of banana trunk.’
951 Na-mtatna nampa r-huri
arak pa
r-emnu 3s-sit
then 3p-pour
whiskey for 3p-drink
‘They sat and then they poured whiskey for them to drink.’ 9.2
Peak 9.2.1
Logical relations at peak
The peak of narrative discourse in Luang is characterized more by interpersonal tension rather than intense action. Concession-contraexpectation and contrast type clauses or paragraphs tend to occur at
peak heightening the tension.
9.2.2 Tense-Aspect-Mood at peak
In peak points of a text, as the tenseness increases, the number of modality and aspectual markers also increases which in turn increases vividness. In discourse, aspectual and modality markers seldom occur
in setting or background information. However they are used much more often in the story line especially at peak to make the action more vivid. Along with the increase in aspectualmodality markers
there is an increase in elision, metathesis and other morphophonemic processes across word boundaries. An extra line second has been added in the examples below so that these morphophonemic processes
might be more evident to the reader. See §2 for an explanation of morphophonemic processes in Luang. Progressive aspect may be indicated at peak either by aspectual markers following the verb root,
cliticized pronouns occurring on the beginning of the verb root, connectors or the use of the demonstrative de ‘that’ being used at a variety of levels indicating that everything is happening right
now.
Following are twelve sentence examples that are taken from one peak point from a text. Sentences 952–955 are just the build up to the peak. Sentences 956–963 are the peak. From the second line
on there are few morphophonemic processes going on, only those that always occur between roots and their affixes. From 956 onward one can see a large amount of reduction of final vowels. In sentences
952–955 there are no markers occurring. From 956–963 one can see either doini the completitive marker or eti the definitive marker used frequently. From examples 952–955 one can observe a
number of different beginning connectors or conjunctions alternating with each other for good discourse style. In 956–963 the connector demade ‘then’ takes over and is used exclusively throughout. It
indicates action taking place in rapid succession. The de ‘that’ which follows demade ‘then’ also indicates intensity, and progressive action. Examples 959 and 963 are not interlinearized due to the fact they
are so long because of being direct quotes. However, they serve as an example of direct speech at peak.
Peak of Story 952 Noka
am-ni n-pona
wehla noka
ama-ni n-pona
wehla then
father-POS 3s-sharpen
machete ‘Then their father sharpened his machete.’
953 Na’nama l-la
n-hi’a udi
lola woru
na’nama n-la
n-hi’a udi
lola woru
then 3s-went
3s-did banana trunk two
‘Then he went and cut a banana trunk in two.’ 954 Ma
n-keni-a gera
la lari
woru and
3s-put-OBJ water
in cup
two ‘And put water in two cups’
955 pa n-keni-a
la dudu
gen-ni wawan-nu
pa n-keni-a
la dudu
geni-ni wawna-nu
to 3s-put-OBj
on bed
place-GEN top-GEN ‘to put them on top of the bed.’
956 Dewade na-mat-doini-a
a’na woru
dewade na-mata-doini-a
a’na woru
then 3s-woke up-COMP-OBJ
child two ‘Then he woke up the two children.’
957 Na-’ala wehla
pa r-rah-yeti-a
udi lol
id wa na-’ala
wehla pa
r-rahi-eti-a udi
lola ida wa.
3s-took machete
to 3p-cut-DEF-Obj
banana trunk one PERF
‘He took the machete to really cut one banana trunk’ 958 Demade
de n-hur-doin-la
ger lari
id la demade
de n-huri-doini-la
gera lari
ida la then
that 3s-pour-COMP-out water
bamboo one there
‘Then he completely poured all the water from one coconut.’ 959 Demade hawni niwra: “Hniakarmi hade mmiati-mmiati keke’en maka edon ka’unna-kamta’ata inni
nor amni.” ‘Then his wife said: “That is what you get, you die, you die, children who do not obey your
mother and father.”’ 960 Demade
de n-a-’owan
la wehla
demade de
n-ala-owa’ana la
wehla then
that 3s-take-again DO knife
‘Right then he picked up the knife again’ 961 Pa
n-dawr-eti owan
udi lola
idwa pa
n-dawra-eti owa’ana udi
lola ida wa
to 3s-cut-DEF
again banana
trunk one PERF
‘to really cut again the banana trunk’ 962 Demade
de hnurdoini
gera lari
id-lawa demade
de n-huri-doini
gera lari
ida-la-wa then
that 3s-pour-COMP water
bamboo one-there-PERF ‘Right then he completely poured out all the water from one coconut’
963 Demade de hawni niwra: “Hniakarmi hade mmiati-mmiati” ‘Then his wife said: “That is what you get, you die you die”’
9.2.3 Increased frequency of adverbs and adjectives