Types of narrative texts

Table 2. Chart labels Verbs Demonstratives Label Description Label Description CND Conditional Prox Proximal F1 Future Ref Referential HAB Habitual Dist Distal IPFV Imperfective NAR Narrative NAR.IPFV Narrative imperfective P1 Near past P3 Far past P3.IPFV Past imperfective P3.NAR Past narrative P3.PRF Past perfect PRF Perfect PRS Present SUBJ Subjunctive

1. Constituent elements of narrative texts

1.1 Types of narrative texts

The narrative texts in the corpus are listed and briefly summarized in Table 3. Of the ten narratives in the corpus, three constitute factual accounts “Canoe,” “Manyasi” and “Cows”. The other seven are fictional stories, some of them animal tales “Chicken,” “Chameleon,” “Watermelon” and “Well” and others about human quests “Tests,” “Mariro” and “Girl”. With regard to narrative type, most of the texts are climactic, i.e. they relate a problem or conflict, which is resolved at the climax of the story. Two of the stories “Canoe” and “Cows” are episodic, i.e. they describe a series of related events rather than an escalation or climax of one particular problem or conflict. Table 3. Summaries of texts in corpus Text Summary of text Chicken Chicken and Hare are neighbors, but Hare eats Chicken’s children. Chicken and his wife then deceive Hare, telling him that in order to be a guest at a wedding, they must cut off his head. Chameleon Hare hates Chameleon and tells him so, but then Chameleon outsmarts Hare in a race and cuts off Hare’s tail. Canoe True third person narrative about a man whose wife drowned just after their wedding. The narrator encourages young men to marry girls they know close to home. Watermelon Hare eats Hyena’s watermelons. Even after Hyena catches Hare using glue, Hare deceives Hyena and gets free. Tests A man must pass many tests in order to get a wife. He helps others along the way, and then they help him later to pass the tests. Text Summary of text Mariro Mariro’s cows are stolen by a group of cannibalistic women. He has to outsmart them to get away. Well The animals have a drought so they dig a well. Hare doesn’t help dig, but he tries to steal water. The other animals try to guard the water, and eventually the tortoise cuts off Hare’s tail. Manyasi True third person narrative about a man named Manyasi who is badly injured by a buffalo during a hunting expedition. Cows True first person narrative about a man’s family and cows. Girl A girl didn’t grow breasts, so her parents took her to live in a certain house where she meets some spirits.

1.2 Structure of narrative texts