9 Discourse pragmatics
The following discussion of discourse pragmatics deals with the way whole texts or discourses are put together. These things are important as they are the methods by which the speaker or author
communicates effectively to the listener or reader.
9.1 Continuity in discourse
In language there are methods of tracking referent continuity, temporal continuity, location continuity, and action continuity throughout a discourse in order for the listener to understand the story or text.
9.1.1 Referent continuity
In Luang, main participants are usually introduced in the beginning of the text, often with their name and who they are related to. After this they may be referred to by their name or title followed by the
anaphoric tracker de ‘that’ in order to avoid confusing them with someone else. If it is clear who the actor is, when they are in focus they may be indicated by a free pronoun or sometimes a name and de
‘that’ to indicate that it is the same person as discussed earlier and not another person with the same name. If they are not in focus or already understood they are indicated by a pronominal prefix on the
verb only see §9.10 below.
New information is usually spelled out carefully with full word forms not much morphophonemics between word boundaries. Participants and props are referred to by full noun phrases etc. Once the
information is either repeated or presumed to be known or already understood it appears in a more reduced or abbreviated form often closely connected phonologically to other words. The two examples
below are taken from text, the new information occuring a clause or two before the old and referring to the same constituents. 935a and 936 a indicate new information whereas 935 b and 936 b
indicate old information.
935 a Am-ni n-saini-a
a’na-ni r-ora father-POS 3s-pity-Obj
children-POS 3p-two ‘Their father felt sorry for his two sons.’
b Mere am-ni n-saini-a-r But father-POS
3s-pity-Obj-3p ‘But their father pitied them.’
936 a N-keni gera
la lari
woru 3s-put
water PREP coconut shell two ‘He put water in two coconut shells.’
b N-keni-a la
dudu geni-ni wawna-nu
3s-put Obj PREP sleep place top-POS ‘He put it on the bed.’
Key participants are generally introduced in the subject slot of the clause. Non-key participants often first appear in the object slot of the clause. Their name may be given but usually no other
information is given about them unless it is pertinent to the story line. Participants who have very little importance may be referred to only in relative clauses. Usually there are just a couple key participants in
a text. To drop participants one just stops referring to them. They do not need to be taken off stage in any particular manner. When the subject is in focus he is referred to by both the free pronoun or
cliticized pronoun and the required person marker on the verb at the same time. Focus in the object slot is indicated by a direct object marker followed by an object NP. Quite often this occurs in the object slot
at peak points of the story. Note the following examples:
937 Lera ida
na Rarlay
e-na-mehra
day one
na Rarlay
3s-3s-sick
‘One day Rarlay, she was sick.’ 938 Dewade
de na-mata-doini-a
a’na-ni woru
then that 3s-wake-Comp-Obj
child-POS two
‘Then he woke them up, his two children’
9.1.2 Temporal continuity
