975 Keke’en di na’ala nnu’nu wo’a ‘This child took a banyan fruit.’
Happe’a niwra ‘Old woman said, “”’
keke’en di na’ala nnu’nu wo’a ‘This child took a banyan fruit’
Happe’a namkekla heyana ‘Old woman looked up’
Keke’en di nerun ‘This child came down’
Kakni de elernan makhuri maha-ktorleli ‘His older sibling had found a jewelry maker’
9.3.3 Repetition of clauses in tail-head linkage
In procedural text each action in the procedure is shown to be finished before the next action occurs. This is done through the use of tail head-repetition. This is good procedural style.
976 Ramehra demade rpolu, rpolga a pena ailiawa ‘When she was in pain they called me, they called me then I went.’
977 Nanina pena namehrawe, namehra demade nala’awua. ‘She sleeps, then she is in great pain, she is in pain then she walks.’
978 Totpena hade nernu, nernu wa demade… ‘In order that one comes down, comes down then…’
979 Apaduli inni, apaduli ini pa nhorwua noma ahgopna na’ana, na’ana pa nhorwua noma ahgopna nanina.
‘I give the mother medicine, I give the mother medicine and when I am finished doing that then I tell her to eat, she eats till she is done then I tell her to sleep.’
In narrative text, repetition of clauses often occurs at episode boundaries where the speaker is trying to move the actor from one episode to the next. This is done through tail-head repetition.
Repetition also may occur in peak, to create the sense of being in the middle of the action which is happening at that point. Note from the above §9.2.2 the repetition of similar words and actions.
Repetition-moving of participants to new location for new episode:
980 Dewade amawallia Lgona. Dewade amtonla Lgona. La’pa ationla Lgona dewade ama’mu nkoreri a’u. ‘Then we returned to Luang. Then we harbored at Luang. When I harbored at Luang my mother
came and hugged me.’ 981 a Kek’enku’a rawlar wia, rrora rla’awa rodi gerni-wareherni
‘The children ran away, the two of them went bringing along their food for the journey.’ b Noka rrora rala’awa, rala’aw, rala’aw rala’aw rala’a neka
‘Then the two of them went, they went and went and went and just kept walking.’
Repetition of the clause occurs in hortatory and expository text as well. Sometimes this is because of the heavy information load. Sometimes it is because the same idea or action is being discussed
throughout the whole text. However in hortatory and expository discourse the repetition of the clauses cannot be made with the identical verb continually occurring. Frequently when the same action is
referred to in close proximity it must be referred to by a synonym.
9.3.4 Connectors
