voice in a number of languages. Nevertheless, when a language has a perfective- imperfective contrast, it seems to be the case that the imperfective aspect is used to relate
background information. If one looks at the use of the various tenseaspect suffixes in Arawak, there does seem to
be a very strong tendency for the imperfective to be used for background information. Ex- amples above already illustrate the use of the present imperfective suffix -bo to present de-
scriptive expansions of events concurrent with the foreground or main narrated event. This is exactly parallel to observations Hopper e.g. 1979:114 makes about Swahili and
other languages.
The difference between the sentences in the foreground...and the ones in the background...has to do with sequentiality. The foregrounded events succeed
one another in the narrative in the same order as their succession in the real world; it is in other words in iconic order. The backgrounded events, on the
other hand, are not in sequence to the foregrounded events, but are concurrent with them. Because of this feature of simultaneity, backgrounded events usu-
ally amplify or comment on the events of the main narrative. Hopper 1979:214
5.2.2 Other Kinds of Information in a Discourse
Like Hopper, Grimes 1975 also distinguishes the main succession of events in a narra- tive from other information. However, his taxonomy of those kinds of information is finer
grained. In particular, he 1975:51–70 distinguishes the following types of information in a narrative:
1. Setting Information: when, where, and under what circumstances actions take place.
2. Background Information: information which is not part of the narrative itself, but stands outside it and clarifies it.
3. Evaluative Information: information which tells how the speaker feels about the state of the world at a particular point in the narrative.
4. Collateral Information: information which, instead of telling what did happen, tells what did not happen.
Grimes points out that each of these types of information in a particular language may in- volve distinctive grammatical constructions. For example, he mentions that setting infor-
mation typically involves time and locative expressions, and collateral information often involves negatives, adversatives, and questions such as yes-no questions. Tense displace-
ment i.e. relative tense is also characteristic of certain types of information. For example, Grimes 1975:77ff. points out that it is characteristic of the antecedent events and fore-
shadowing used in presenting background information. Also, collateral information “in- volving questions and predictions regularly signals displacement into the future” p. 77.
In Arawak, the suffix -bia ‘future imperfective’ seems to be associated with background information in Grimes’ sense of the foreshadowing type. That is, it is generally used with
statements of very generic events which then provide the framework within which the ac- tual succession of events in the narrative are presented. For example, it is used twice in
the Bus Story. One of these times is in the last sentence of the introduction, just as the trip is about to start:
5.2 TenseAspect in Narrative Discourse 109
249 Taha
Java-nro wa-kisi-ka
osa-BIA. far.away
Java-toward we-try-PRES.PERF
go-FUT.IMPF ‘We tried to go all the way to the village of Java.’
All the events following this sentence, up to the breakdown of the bus, are covered by the word ‘go’ to which the -bia is attached. The second occurrence of this suffix is just before
the return home:
250 Ken
wa-sifoda-NBIA-the. and
we-turn.around-FUT.IMPF-BACK ‘And we started back.’
Again, the events following this sentence represent a spelling out in detail of the going back. Similarly, in the Jaguar Story, the sentence introducing the sequence concerned with
the successful killing of the jaguar is as follows:
251 Ken
l-osy-NBIA li
bikhidoliathi. and
he-go-FUT.IMPF the
young.man ‘And the young man set off.’
The whole of the hunting sequence that follows may be subsumed under this sentence.
5.2.3 Tension in a Narrative and TenseAspect
As has already been implied, the various types of information are not evenly distributed in a discourse. Thus, one obvious statement that could be made is that, in a narrative, one
would typically expect to find more setting information near the beginning of the narrative as a whole, or near the beginning of major sections in the narrative, than in the middle of
the heat of the action. The distribution of other types of information is not as obvious. Nevertheless, there are consistent patterns which emerge. For example, Labov and
Waletsky 1967 discuss the occurrence of what they call “evaluative” statements at the suspension point in English between the complication part of a narrative and the resolu-
tion. One way to describe parts of a narrative and the distribution of various types of information in them is in terms of plot structure.
A number of authors have dealt with plot structure. Perhaps one of the first to do a close analysis was Propp 1928 who dealt with the structure of folk or fairy tales. More re-
cently, others such as Grimes 1975 and Longacre 1976, 1983 have dealt with plot on a rather abstract level, and yet others e.g. various articles in Longacre 1984 have published
studies about, and relating to, plot structure in specific languages.
Longacre 1976:197ff. and 1983:20ff. posits the existence of both “surface struc- ture” and “deep structure” plots and a mapping of the one to the other. The deep
structure plot is viewed in some sense as a language universal for narrative dis- course.
5
The specifics of the surface structure plot may have language-particular characteristics, and may also show variation from narrative to narrative. In the fol-
lowing discussion, I assume an analysis of plot essentially like Longacre’s. 110
Aspectual Particles and the Contribution of Discourse to Arawak Syntax
5
This is not to exclude other discourse genres. “Something like plot characterizes other forms of discourse than narrative” Longacre 1976:212.
For example, he mentions: “There are plot-like elements in procedural discourse. We may think of the whole procedural discourse as reflecting a struggle to accomplish the goal of
discourse, to carry through an activity, or to produce a product” Longacre 1983:38.
