4 Because the specific functions of many grammatical particles in Hani have yet to
be described in sufficient detail, the terms and abbreviations I use in the interlinearized glosses are tentative.
1.3 Definition of terms
In this section, I define some general terms related to this study.
1.3.1 Narrative discourse
The term “discourse” refers to “a connected series of utterances” McKean 2006:256. A narrative is a type of discourse which gives an “account of connected
events” ibid. 588.
3
In common parlance, narratives refer to stories – discourses in which one or more participants engage in a series of events. While a narrative discourse
may be told for purposes of instruction or exhortation, to the extent that it presents a series of actions by one or more specific participants, it can be said to belong to the
narrative genre.
1.3.2 Information structure
In this study, it is often necessary to refer to information structure as a parameter affecting both constituent order and participant reference. In Lambrecht’s work in this
area, he says that “information structure is concerned with the FORM of utterances in relation to assumed mental states of speakers and hearers” 1994:3.
4
His approach assumes that speakers form hypotheses about the information which their listeners
already know and their cognitive representations of this information at the moment of utterance loc. cit.. He contends that syntax reflects choices made by a speaker to
3
For a discussion of the parameters used in the classification of discourses into broad genres, see Longacre 1996.
4
Emphasis in quoted material is retained from the original, unless otherwise noted.
5 encode a message in a way that is most meaningful to the listener. Consider the
following sentences from Levinsohn 2008:21: 1a Dog and Hare made an agreement.
1b It was Dog and Hare who made an agreement. 1c Once there were a Dog and a Hare [who made an agreement].
Although these sentences are propositionally equivalent, in that they convey the same information, they present that information differently. A speaker’s choice to use
one of these sentences rather than another is based on his assumptions regarding which information needs to be conveyed. Lambrecht uses the term “allosentences” to refer to
such groups of propositionally equivalent sentences. In the following chapters, I will show that with Hani’s flexible word order and
varied choices for the encoding of participants, a variety of “allosentences” is possible in any given context. I will present the principles which have been found useful in
describing the use of one construction rather than another in given situations.
1.4 Overview
