Major participants commonly have a formal introduction, whereas minor participants do not. A FORMAL INTRODUCTION is linguistic material that instructs the hearer not only to activate the
participant, but also to be prepared to organize a major part of the mental representation around him or her. This prominence can be signaled either on the level of the proposition through
presentational or other nonactive sentences or on the level of the concept e.g., with a special indefiniteness marker.
Four main strategies for introducing participants are found in eastern Bantu languages: locative inversion, existential verb plus a suffixed locative clitic, existential verb, and verb of arrival; all of these
involve post-verbal subjects or obliques. Bena uses a mixed construction in which two existential verbs occur in sequence, followed by a post-verbal subject. The four main strategies and the mixed
construction will be illustrated below, along with some minor strategies.
4.2.1 Locative inversion
In locative inversion, a verb usually ‘be’ or a copula takes a locative subject marker, and the participant being introduced occurs post-verbally. Digo, Fuliiru and Rangi use locative inversion to introduce major
participants. In Fuliiru, the usual locative subject marker is class 16 ha-, although class 18 mu- can be used when
preceded by a class 18 locative phrase indicating the location in which the narrative is set. Fuliiru Van Otterloo 2011:492
23 Há-àli ri-ir-i
umu-tabana mu-guma ú-ka-looz-a uku-yang-a umu-kazi. 16-
P
3
COP
-
RS
-
FV
1-young_man 1-one 1-
P
2-want-
FV INF
-marry-
FV
1-woman ‘There was a certain young man who wanted to marry a woman.’
Fuliiru Van Otterloo 2011:492 24 Mu=ki-shuka mw-âli ri-ir-i
i=ki-nyuni ki-hamu bweneene. 18=7-bush 18-
P
3
COP
-
RS
-
FV AUG
=7-bird 7-large very_much ‘In the bush there was a very large bird.’
In Rangi, only class 17 ku- is used to introduce participants, and this provides subject agreement on two verbs: ‘be’ and ‘have’, unless a comitative marker is used see below.
Rangi Stegen 2011:104 25 Aho
kalɨ
ku-a-vij-áa kw-a-
ti̵ɨte … 16.
DEM
_
REF
long_ago 17-
PST
-be-
HAB
17-
PST
-have ‘Long ago there was…’
In Digo, class 17 ku- is the usual locative class used to introduce participants, and the verb is either kala ‘be’ or henda ‘do’ functioning in this construction as an intransitive copula.
Digo Nicolle 2015:26 26 Hipho
kare ku-a-hend-a mutu
na mchewe 16.
DEM
_
REF
long_ago 17-
PST
-
DO
-
FV
1.person
COM
1.his_wife ‘Long ago there was a man and his wife…’
Occasionally class 16 pha- or class 18 mu- occur in Digo, and other verbs can be used so long as these are unaccusative, in which the participant being introduced has the role of ‘theme’. In the
following example, where an episodic major participant is introduced, the verb tsupa ‘pass’ is used with class 16 subject agreement:
Digo Nicolle 2015:25 27 pha-tsup-a
chi-chetu cha kare 16.
PST
-
PASS
-
FV
7-female 7.
ASS
old ‘… there passed by an old woman.’
Since subject agreement on the verb is with a locative noun class rather than the noun class of the participant being introduced, the participant is not the grammatical subject of the clause. This accounts
for the fact that, in Digo and Rangi, the participant can occur optionally as part of an oblique phrase introduced by the comitative marker na. In Rangi, there is only one verb with a class 17 subject marker
when the comitative marker is used, instead of the usual two verbs.
Digo Nicolle 2015:3 28 Hipho
kare, ku-a-kal-a na mutu
m-mwenga 16.
DEM
_
REF
long_ago 17-
PST
-be-
FV COM
1.person 1-one ‘Long ago, there was one man…’
Rangi Stegen 2011:343 29 Hara
kalɨ
ku-a-vij-áa na
mʉ-falume 16.
DEM
_
DIST
long_ago 17-
PST
-be-
HAB COM
1.king ‘In times of old there was a king…’
4.2.2 Existential verb plus locative clitic