Text Summary of text
Mariro Mariro’s cows are stolen by a group of cannibalistic women. He has to outsmart them
to get away. Well
The animals have a drought so they dig a well. Hare doesn’t help dig, but he tries to steal water. The other animals try to guard the water, and eventually the tortoise cuts
off Hare’s tail.
Manyasi True third person narrative about a man named Manyasi who is badly injured by a
buffalo during a hunting expedition. Cows
True first person narrative about a man’s family and cows. Girl
A girl didn’t grow breasts, so her parents took her to live in a certain house where she meets some spirits.
1.2 Structure of narrative texts
A narrative text can usually be divided into a number of sections, each of which serves a particular function. The structure of a typical climactic narrative text is provided in Table 4.
Table 4. Sections of a typical narrative text
Section Function
Typical linguistic features Orientation section
introduction and setting the scene
- Introduces major participants - Provides a timeplace setting for
the story - Foreshadows story purpose
- Presentational formula for major participants
- Often a relative clause hinting at story theme
- Typical background tenseaspect - General time and place markers
Inciting episode - Gets the story moving
- Use of point of departure POD. Often the phrase ‘one day’ or equivalent
- Often a verb of movement
Developmental episodes
- Develops the conflict - Episodes paragraphs that develop a
conflict needing to be resolved. - Often multiple paragraphs
- Usage of a narrative tense
Peak episode - Maximizes tension, bringing story
to a climax - Heightened vividnessdetail
- Usage of ideophones and direct speech - Shift of tense
- Suppression of transitional markers
Denouement - Resolves tension
- Often includes predictable elements
Conclusion - Explains moral
- Moral stated directly or with a proverb Table 5 shows how this structure can be seen in four climactic texts in the Jita corpus. The numbers
in the table refer to sentence numbers in each text.
Table 5. Sections of a typical narrative text
Section Chameleon
Chicken Tests
Mariro Orientation section 1–5
1–7 1–4
1–3
Inciting episode 6–19
8–9 5–8
4–9
Developmental episodes
20 21–22
23–25 26–29
10–15 16–20
21–29 9–14
15–16 17–18
19–22 10–11
12–14 15–18
19–20 21–24
Peak episodes 30–45
46–51 52–68
69–74 30–33
34–37 23–30
25–28h
Denouement 75–76
38–41 31–32
28i–28m
Conclusion 77
42–43 33
29 Table 6 focuses on one text in particular, describing its structure in more detail.
Table 6. Description of sections in “Chameleon”
Section Sentences Description
Orientation section
1–5 There were two neighbors, Chameleon and Hare, and Hare despised
Chameleon.
Inciting episode
6–19 Hare tells Chameleon that Hare is better in every way, and
Chameleon might as well be dead.
Developmental episodes
20 Chameleon goes home with a lot on his mind.
21–22 Chameleon wants Hare to know that Hare is not the best in every
way. 23–25
The next day, they see each other and decide to race to see who is best. The winner will cut off the other’s tail.
26–29 They decide to race the next day.
Peak episodes 30–45
They meet at the field. Chameleon tells Hare to stand in front. As they begin, Chameleon holds on to Hare’s tail. Hare runs fast, reaches the
end and thinks he won. 46–51
Hare tries to sit and sits on Chameleon. Chameleon says he was there first, so Hare wants to race again.
52–68 They race again. Chameleon grabs Hare’s tail. Hare arrives and waits.
69–74 Once again, Hare tries to sit and discovers Chameleon is already there
and then falls to the ground in defeat.
Denouement 75–76
Chameleon laughs and then takes a knife and cuts off Hare’s tail.
Conclusion 77
That is why Hare has a short tail.
1.3 Linguistic features in Jita narrative texts
