These are ‘topic frames’; that is, ‘fronted and left-dislocated topical information about a primary or secondary topic’ which set the frame within which the subject acts.
12
This is probably the same as Eaton’s ‘external topics’.
13
What we are seeing in Makonde is that they form a very strong link between two sentences, looking somewhat like a quasi ‘tail-head’ construction consisting of noun +-
demonstrative without a verb. They have many of the characteristics of a point of departure, and indeed they could simply be viewed as a special kind of pod, although certainly unusual ones as they stand
completely outside the grammar of the sentence, and bridge the usual pod categories such as referential, temporal, etc. Whatever terminology is used, these topic frames occur frequently and highly specifically
in Makonde narrative see below.
2.4.1 Topic frames relating to possessives
One context in which topic frames are very frequently used in Makonde narratives is where there is a possessive referring to a participant mentioned in the previous sentence. The topic frame stands outside
the normal grammar of the sentence, relating directly to the possessive phrase only. These topic frames occur most frequently in the orientation section or near the beginning of narratives, after a sentence
introducing either a main participant or key information such as location.
In the example from 01 Horned Animals 03 below, the topic frame vanyama vovava ‘those same animals’ consists of a noun + demonstrative phrase where the noun repeats the final constituent of the
previous sentence 02, and the postposed subject vanyama vadimembe ‘horned animals’. The topic frame also relates in 03 to the possessive wavanyama ‘of animals’. The subject of that sentence is nangolo
wavanyama, ‘the leader of the animals’ and the sentence could stand grammatically without the topic frame.
01 Horned Animals
2.
[AFTER VERB]
Vandípagwa vanyama
vadimembe. S They.existed
animals of.horns 3.
Napanelo vanyama vovava,
nangolo wavanyama
kwanjanga kulalika shikukulu.
Now animals
those.these elder of.animals began to.invite
feast. 2 Once there were animals with horns.
3 Now the leader of those horned animals sent out invitations to a party. In 02 Lion and Hamerkop below, the topic frame nae ‘he’ is an independent pronoun, referring back
to the subject of the previous sentence 01, Ntumi ‘Lion’, and relating forward in 02 to the possessive shake ‘his’. The subject of sentence 02 is shakulya shake, his food, although unusually the verbal
agreement is with the focus of the sentence, dinyama ‘meats’, rather than with shakulya. Again, grammatically the sentence could stand alone without nae.
02 Lion and hamerkop
1a. Ntumi
ava nkoko
Lion is
animal
12
See Floor, S. J. ‘From Information Structure, Topic and Focus, to Theme in Biblical Hebrew Narrative’, section 3.2.4.
13
See Eaton, Helen 2011 ‘Malila Narrative Discourse’ section 2.2.1.
1b. ánamamena
dinyama .
who.eats meats.
2. Nae
shakulya shake diva
dinyama. He
food his they.are
meats. 1 Lion is an animal that eats meat.
2 That’s just what he eats—meat. The example below from 09 Ákalimanya follows the pattern above; i.e., the topic frame is
Ákalimanya aju nae ‘this Ákalimanya he’. It is in the orientation section, and the sentence could stand without it. In addition, it relates back to the noun in sentence-final position in 03, Ákalimanya, and in 04
it relates to the possessive shake ‘his’.
09 Ákalimanya
3a. Palikaja apalá
[
AFTER VERB
] andípagwa nangolo jumo S
In.village that there.was
old.man one 3b.
lina lyake, ---
vashinshema Ákalimanya.
name his they.were.calling.him
Ákalimanya. 4.
Ákalimanya aju nae,
shimadengo shake
shishiva kulumbata.
Ákalimanya this he work his it.was.being
to.hunt. 3 In that village there was an old man called Ákalimanya.
4 Now Ákalimanya was a hunter by trade.
2.4.2 Topic frames not relating to possessives
