Background material in text 6 Foreground material in text 6

Peak episode 46a–b 46c 47a 47b 48 49a–b 49c lion lion trap lion hare all lion past, consecutive present consecutive consecutive passive present consecutive past speech speech anterior Denouement 50 51 52 lion man hare you 2 SG past, anterior copula ni, imperative anterior, present, past Denouement 53 59 woman woman man past passive closed conversation thru 58 past continuous negative past Conclusion 60 story consecutive

5.2.1 Background material in text 6

Foreground and background material are mixed in almost every episode. Background material contains a variety of tense and aspect forms, of which the anterior perfect is the most common; this is typically used to describe events that had already occurred prior to the start or continuation of the event line. In 6.17 and 6.20 the anterior is followed by the presentcontinuous; the anterior describes the first event or events in 6.20 and the presentcontinuous describes an events or events which occurred afterwards, but still not on the event line. 6.17a Ligundzu a-ka-fik-a hipho ni saa mbiri, morning 3 SG - ANT -arrive- FV 16. DEM _ NP COP hour two 6.17b hiyu mutu na=ye a-redz-a saa mbiri na dakika kumi. 1. DEM _ PROX 1.person COM =3 SG 3 SG -come. PRES - FV hour two COM minutes ten ‘In the morning he lion had arrived there at eight o’clock, the man also came at ten past eight.’ In 6.38 the anterior functions as part of a tail-head linking construction: 6.38 Phahi tsungula wa-kpwedz-a a-ka-fik-a hipho wa-amb-a... so hare 3 SG . PST -come- FV 3 SG - ANT -arrive- FV 16. DEM _ NP 3 SG . PST -say- FV ‘So the hare came and having arrived there he said...’ The same construction is found in 6.3 and 6.49. 6.3a states that the man went to the forest using the past tense, 6.3b states that ‘having arrived’ anterior, he saw past tense animals. Similarly 6.49a describes people leaving using the consecutive tense, and this information is repeated in 6.49b with the anterior to indicate that ‘those people having left’ the lion died past tense there. This construction is also found four times in Text, 1 in lines 1.4b, 1.21a, 1.23a, and 1.32b, but not at all in Text 2, Text 3, Text 4, Text 5 or Text 7.

5.2.2 Foreground material in text 6

In the foreground material, past and consecutive are the most frequent tenses. The first foreground clause in each paragraph uses the past tense, but the past tense is also used at other points on the event line in most paragraphs. Past tenses are typically found after long speeches for example in 6.3a, following the long internal monologue in 6.2b–g, after the anterior used as a linking device described above in 6.3c, 6.38c and 6.49c, and with the speech verb amba say in 6.28, 6.35, 6.38, and 6.45. The presentcontinuous is also fairly common: in 6.3d, 6.22b, 6.31a, 6.44b, 6.46c, and 6.48a it is used with the verb amba say to introduce direct speech, including internal monologues. In 6.19b-c the present tense is used to describe two closely related actions that the man performed: taking the meat from the trap and carrying it to his wife. 6.19a Yuya mutu na=ye a-ch-edz-a 1. DEM - DIST 1.person COM =3 SG 3 SG - CONS -come- FV 6.19b–c a-na-hal-a zira nyama a-na-phirik-ir-a mche-we. 3 SG - PRES -take- FV 10. DEM - DIST 10.meat 3 SG - PRES -take- APPL - FV 1.wife-1.3 SG . POS ‘That man also came, took the meat and took it to his wife.’ In lines 6.24d and 6.25a the present tense is used to give heightened vividness to the ‘preliminary peak’ episode, in which the man’s wife is caught in the trap and found by the lion. Texts 1, 2 and 3 also use the present tense for foreground information occasionally, whereas Texts 4 and 5 do not use it in this way, except with the verb amba and in direct speech.

5.3 Tense and aspect in Text 7