Daily speech Repetition of names or titles

d. Miru Lewan n-iwra na-wenan-wa Miru Lewan 3s-wanted 3s-kill-PERF ‘Miru Lewan wanted to kill him.’

9.2.6 Change of connector used

At peak there may be a switch in the type of connector used, from one that connects larger blocks of time together to one that connects events happening one right after another. Note the examples in §9.2.2 above where noka, na’nama, ma, pa are followed by demade, a connector indicating a quick succession of events.

9.3 Repetition and variation

Although repetition is used frequently in Luang, it must be used according to a certain set of rules.

9.3.1 Daily speech

In every day speech excessive repetition of verbs or nouns in a narrative story are common. However, if written down in this manner and reread, people will insist that the text is very poor. The following examples are not interlinearized due to their length. 971 Rahaka krita pa rahaka nana krita pa rahaknana Godtlipa stengah mati. ‘They searched for octopus and searched and got octopus and searched very hard to find Gotlipa.’ 972 Emkadi de lernana lernana noka nkawlia. ‘Like that he found her, he found her, then he waved.’ 973 Nhopna patke’ de nala la’a-mak la’a mai nmai kalau apnu namehra reh’a… ‘She orders that woman to walk here and there, here and there, she comes if her stomach hurts badly…’

9.3.2 Repetition of names or titles

In a story line, the name or title or description of a participant may be repeated as he shows up again in either the subject or object slot. However, when his name or title etc. are repeated they may be followed by de ‘that’ so as not to confuse him with another person by the same name, title or description. De however, is not needed if there is no one else in the text to get confused with. Unlike English where it is not uncommon to talk about the same person with a number of different titles or descriptions and still be able to track the participant through the text, this cannot be done in Luang because those hearing the text will assume that there are a number of different people on the scene rather than just one being referred to in different ways. Note the following examples of introductions and tracking of participants. 974 Yanulu nwawa Lay ‘Elder named Lay.’ Gari nwawa Ru’ru ‘Younger named Ru’ru’. Yanulu natiakrer iwu ‘Elder was guarding the fish.’ Gari nma nala wehla de ‘Younger came and got the knife.’ Yanulu na nolindoin iwu la ‘Elder took it to let the shark go.’ Garni nod wehla ‘His younger sibling took the knife.’ 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