first look at the paragraphs in Text 2, Mwiya anatiwa dibwani ni mkaza ise Mwiya is put in a pit by his father’s wife.
2.1 Paragraphs in text 2 Mwiya anatiwa dibwani ni mkaza ise
Text 2 can be found in full at the end of this paper. In this section, the content of each paragraph and the kind of discontinuity that exists between paragraphs will be described.
Paragraph 1 2.1–2.4 and paragraph 2 2.5–2.6 comprise the orientation section. Paragraph 1
introduces the major participants, and paragraph 2 introduces the theme of the story the senior wife’s plan to kill the junior wife and her child. The discontinuity between these paragraphs is therefore in the
kind of information which they contain. Paragraph 3 2.7 constitutes the inciting episode. It begins with a change of time—more than a
week has passed—and ends with a song. Paragraph breaks usually occur after a song or an extended conversation. Paragraph 4 2.11 begins with background information concerning the type of work
which the two boys used to do; as well as following a song, this paragraph begins a new theme work which leads into an account of how Mwiya is apparently killed by the senior wife. A new paragraph
could have been started at 2.13 which begins Phofika dziloni When evening arrived, but this was kept within paragraph 4, because the lapse of time is a natural one and the whole paragraph explains how
everyone believed that the senior wife had killed Mwiya thus, it constitutes a thematic unit.
At paragraph 5 2.16 there is an abrupt change of time, indicated by Siku mwenga One day and
also a change of major participant, as the elder Mwiya the senior wife’s son takes a more active role. This paragraph also ends with a song. Paragraph 6 2.19 continues with the elder Mwiya reporting
what he has heard to his parents. Although there is no abrupt change of participants, time or place here, a new paragraph has been started because of the discontinuity caused in the narrative by the song in line
2.18. This paragraph ends with a short concluding remark That child and his father kept quiet, they didn’t say a word. At paragraph 7 2.23 there is an abrupt change of time, indicated by Ligundzu ra
phiri On the second morning.
Paragraph 8 2.25–2.28 begins the peak episode. There is no change of participants, place or time,
but this is the point at which the boys’ father discovers the truth about his younger son, Mwiya. The paragraph begins by repeating information from the previous paragraph: Isengbwa ariphosikira hivyo His
father when he heard this. The noun phrase Isengbwa His father over-specifies the referent, since there has been no change of subject between 2.24 and 2.25, but this over-specification helps to indicate that a
new paragraph is starting. The peak episode ends with paragraph 9 2.29–2.31. In the ‘gap’ between 2.28 end of paragraph 8 and 2.29 start of paragraph 9 we can infer that the father has reached home
and told his friends and his wife what he has discovered, and that they have all returned to the place where the two boys are singing to each other. There has therefore been an abrupt change of time. The
paragraph ends 2.31 with a summary ‘Then people knew that it was she who did these things.’
Paragraph 10 2.32 begins the denouement by describing a new series of events beginning with the unearthing of Mwiya. In paragraph 11 2.34 the theme changes from the description of how the
boy Mwiya had been buried by the senior wife to the punishment that the senior wife received. This is indicated by the text-structuring connective Phahi So see section 3.4 and by fronting hiye mchetu
adabuye that woman her punishment in which hiye mchetu that woman is a left-dislocated topic and adabuye her punishment functions as an external topic or Theme see section 6.3. Since the
punishment is in fact new information although inferable from the context, it is ‘set up’ as a topic by making the senior wife the first topic before mentioning her punishment: Phahi hiye mchetu adabuye,
wazolwa phara kaya So that woman her punishment, she was chased away from her home. Paragraph 12 2.35 consists of a formulaic conclusion.
2.2 Points of departure
