tense and no relative clause anticipating the theme of the story. There is, on the other hand, the use of the numeral baguma ‘ones’ translated as ‘certain’. Also, the hunters are not the main characters in the
story; rather, the leopard is. The leopard is presented in the object slot after the verb, and thus at the end of a clause banavyula ingwi ‘and they scared up a leopard’, which helps to recognize it in focus position.
36 Bahiivi baguma bakaba gweti bagahiiva, banavyula
ingwi,
Hunters certain were intentional hunting
and they raised up the leopard
banagiyimula.
and they chased it away
‘Certain hunters were hunting. They scared up a leopard and chased it away.’ T13
3.2 Placement of noun phrases versus prefix pronouns
It should be noted that the following rules do not apply to quoted speech but mainly to independent clauses, as well as dependent clauses that function as points of departure.
a. As can be seen in Table 6, noun phrases are typically employed at the beginning of a new paragraph. Thus the primary participant for that paragraph is set in the hearer’s mind. The common exception
to this occurs near the peak, where the participants are often not mentioned, as a technique to create vividness.
b. Once the primary participant of the paragraph has been established, it is typically referred to later in the paragraph by a prefix on the verb. This prefix matches the noun class of the subject being
referred to. c. There are cases where a participant is mentioned in the middle of a sentence or paragraph. This is to
mark that a participant is crucial to the theme of the story sections 4.2–4.3.
3.3 Function of default self-standing pronouns
Contrastive pronouns are not normally used unless there is contrastive focus involved. For example, in 37 the daughter of a certain king was available for marriage, and several young men were chasing her.
As they did, she would throw money over her back, and when they would stop to pick it up, she would escape. The use of the pronoun yehe reflecting the young man who was not distracted is being
contrasted with the others, who were distracted. Note that the pronoun yehe ‘he’ follows the noun mutabana ‘young man’, which proves that the contrastive pronouns are not used for identifying referents.
Rather, they are used to add meaning to the referents.
37 Uyo munyere,
anashubi mwagule ifwaranga, haliko
uyo mutabana
That girl again
threw down money but
that young man
yehe atanazitwaza.
HE
11
did not pay attention.
‘And that girl again threw down the money, but that young man HE did not pay attention to it.’
11
For contrastive and alternative pronouns, the focus is communicated by the use of capitalization in the free gloss line, e.g. ‘HE’.
In 38 the pronoun yehe ‘SHE in contrast to others’ refers to the twelfth wife of a certain king in a story. The other wives had all given birth to girls, but the twelfth wife yehe by contrast gave birth to a
boy, throwing the other wives into fits of jealousy. 38
Yabo bakaage booshi bakabuta
baana banyere. Si wi kumi na babiri
Those wives all
gave birth to children girls. But of ten
and two
yehe akabuta umwana mutabana.
SHE gave birth to child boy.
‘All those wives, they gave birth to girl children, but the twelfth SHE gave birth to a boy child.’ In 39 a woman had protected a leopard from hunters by hiding it in her house. By describing the
leopard with the contrastive pronoun yohe ‘IT in contrast to others’ the speaker is focusing on the fact that the leopard, by contrast, would not later protect the woman.
39 Yewe mukazi Wabisha iyo ngwi.
Haliko ugaabona yohe itagakubisha
Oh my woman You have hidden that leopard but you will see IT
will not hide you
kiri ulusiku luguma.
even day one.
‘Oh my woman You hid i.e. protected that leopard. But you will see IT will not hide you not even one day’
3.4 Function of alternative pronouns
