The introduction of brand new participants

56 5 Participant reference Participant reference in narrative, or in any discourse for that matter, is concerned with the linguistic means by which participants—characters and inanimate objects—are brought on stage and then tracked in a text. It is of crucial importance that the hearer knows at every point in the text who or what is being talked about. Otherwise the hearer will not be able to follow what the speaker is saying or will have difficulty in making sense of it. The way in which languages manage participant reference in a text depends on various factors, some of which are more or less universal, while others are specific to a language family or even a single language. This chapter consists of two major sections. Section 5.1 deals with the introduction of participants in a Godié narrative. Section 5.2 describes how participants, once introduced, are tracked in a narrative.

5.1 Introduction of participants

Two relevant pragmatic factors determine the linguistic form in which a participant is introduced into a Godié narrative. The first factor is whether or not the hearer already has a representation of the participant in his mind. If he does, the participant is identifiable for him; if he does not, it is brand new see Lambrecht 1994:105ff. The second factor is the role the narrator attributes to that participant in the story. This role can be minor or major, local or global. A participant with a major global role is generally the protagonist, or one of the protagonists, of the story.

5.1.1 The introduction of brand new participants

To bring brand new participants on stage, the narrator uses generic nouns, such as ny ɩkpɔ ‘human person’, ŋnɔ ‘woman’, and mnɛ ‘animal’. 109 wlä nyɩkpɔ ɔmɔɔ- 1 nöö- lä ɔɔ ŋwnɩä sɔ EVD person 3 S : TH : REL marry: CP LOP 3 S : GEN woman: PL two ‘They say a man had married two wives.’ [lueuzi 20–21] The noun ny ɩkpɔ ‘person’ introduces only male participants. Example 109 above is taken from a narrative where even though the women are the major characters in the story, they are introduced in relation to their husband. 2 More frequently than just the generic noun ny ɩkpɔ ‘human person’, the noun phrase ny ɩkpɔ -bhlogbe ‘a certain person’ is found to bring a brand new participant on stage, as in example 110. 3 110 nɩ nyɩkpɔ -bhlogbe yii lä soo nynä ADD 1 person one_single XFUT :1 SO LOP speak SP 2 ‘Then somebody said to me …’ [greve 65–66] The participant’s relative importance in the subsequent narrative is reflected in the amount and the type of linguistic material used to bring that participant on stage. In terms of amount, more linguistic material means greater importance, illustrating Givón’s principle of iconicity. In terms of linguistic type, the information structure see §4.1.1 of the clause in which the participant is introduced appears to give a cue as to the role of the particpant in the story. 1 The presence of the thematic pronoun here is due to the fact that the participant is the first to be brought on stage see §5.1.3. 2 It appears that female participants are preferably introduced in relation to a man, that is, as daughters, wives, etc. An exception to this rule seems to be old women, who can be introduced in their own right. 3 For the use of the future auxiliary in narrative found in this example, see §9.1.2. 1. Clause with predicate focus A clause with predicate focus is used to introduce a brand new participant with only a local minor role in the narrative, as in example 110 above. 2. PoD followed by a clause with predicate focus A point of departure, followed by a clause with predicate focus is used to introduce a brand new participant playing a local key role in the narrative, as in example 111. 111 n yɩkpɔ -bhlogbe ɔ -nʋ sää ɔɔ gɔlʋlɛɛ person one_single 3 S make: CP DP 1 3 S : GEN canoe: DIM : DEF ‘… a certain man, he took lit. made his small canoe …’ [greve 25] 3. PoD followed by a clause with global focus A point of departure followed by a clause with global focus is used to introduce a brand new participant who will be the protagonist, as in examples 112a and 112b. 112 a. - lɔɔ klää mnɛ - kʋ - mɔɔ ɛɛ - wʋ ghlü there forest: OBL animal BE 1: CP LOC NH 2: XNEG CNT 2 be_big ‘There in the forest, there is an animal. It is not big.’ [creation 27–28] b. nyibhlëa- - kʋ lä - lɔɔ nä kuŋnʋklä - kʋ -mɔɔ river: DEF : REL BE 1: CP LOP there SP 1 ghost_old_woman BE 1 LOC ‘That river lit. the river that was there, an old woman’s ghost was in there. amä plöö- lä nyibhlëa mnö -zlëë NH 1: TH BE 2: CP LOP river: DEF inside spirit She lit. it was her who was the river spirit.’ [kazo 7–8] 4. An event-reporting clause An event-reporting clause—that is, a clause with grammatical subject-predicate structure and a pragmatic global focus structure see §4.1.3—is also typically used to bring a brand new major participant on stage, as in example 113. The verb of the clause is then generally some verb of movement, such as go, come, appear, or pass. The incompletive aspect of the verb seems to be characteristic of the event-reporting clause in this particular function. 113 - zɩkää ylʋʋ kʋ nä ŋwadi mʋ ylä today: GEN day: DEF on SP 1 lad go: ICP now: LOP ‘Now one day lit. on the day of today a lad was coming along, ɔ bhɛɛ ɔɔ kazɔ 3 S hold: ICP 3 S : GEN raffia_washcloth he had with him lit. was holding his raffia washcloth.’ [kazo 15–17]

5.1.2 The introduction of identifiable participants