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