Information management in relative clauses

The tense particle a ‘PST2’, which is otherwise used for events or states previous to another past state or event see §2.5.2, has also been found to be used for backgrounding minor events before a major event. In example 105 the backgrounded minor event is the meeting of the people at the morgue, whereas the major event is taking the deceased person to burial. 105 wa wlää- a - mɔɔ wlu nɩ wa - kʋ a - lɔɔ 3 P meet_together: CP PST 2 LOC VC head ADD 1 3 P BE 1: CP PST 2 there ‘They met together there and they were there in the morgue nɩ wa yio -kä wä - mɔɔ -sä a ADD 1 3 P XFUT CLU 3 PST 3 LOC take_away DP 4 and so they took him out of there, then.’ [decesrad 15–17] Note the presence of the discourse particle a ‘DP4’ in both examples 104 and 105. In fact these are the only occurrences of the particle in the whole data corpus for this study, so it seems that it is rather rare, which is why it hasn’t been discussed in a separate section. It is interesting, however, that in both examples, the particle occurs with events that are backgrounded in view of an upcoming, major event. Moreover, the events in question are expected events, as shown in example 104 by the presence of a yi clause, which is used for such events see §9.1.2. 4.3.2.3 The progressive aspect The progressive aspect is at present only rarely used in Godié narrative. In fact, in the narratives on which this study is based only the two instances in example 106 have been found, both of them in narratives produced by older speakers. The progressive aspect zooms in as it were on the action as a process, thus slowing the story down and increasing suspense. As it turns out, a major complication of the story comes up right away. 106 a. ɔ lä, nɔɔ yua sɔ -kʋ gämadä nä [sese] 3 S say my_friend child: PL : DEF two BE 1: CP play:place SP 1 NUPT ‘He said, “My friend, as the two children were playing together, naa - lɔɔ yä -naa yuo bhlä [sese] 1 S : GEN DPF XPER 2 S : GEN child: DEF kill NUPT my child lit. mine killed your child.”’ [sigo 317–318] b. ɔ -k ʋ paadä -aaa 3 S BE 1: ICP run:place until ‘He =Rooster was running until ɔ mʋ nyikpotütëa nëëdë ŋë -kää nä [-kpazebhleku] 3 S go black_ants:swarm: DEF : GEN middle arrive PUR SP 1 NUPT he arrived in the middle of the swarm of black ants nɩ ɔ yii gbɔtɔ ADD 1 3 S XFUT : NHP shake then he shook them =his wings.’ [kokoleko 154–155]

4.4 Information management in relative clauses

In Godié the semantic distinction between identifying and descriptive relative clauses see §2.4.2 appears to be of little relevance from a discourse-pragmatic point of view. Rather, both semantic types of relative clauses have the same pragmatic function in Godié, namely to recapitulate information already given earlier about their antecedents. 22 The term recapitulative relative clause is therefore suggested as a more appropriate term. The recapitulative relative clause in Godié narrative frequently occurs within a marked point of departure see §4.3.1.4. 23 This type of PoD does not bridge some gap in the narrative, nor does it remind the hearer of already established information that he now needs for a better understanding. Rather, it slows down the narrative, thus building up suspense and eventually giving more prominence either to the event that is about to happen or to the new participant that is about to come on stage. In other words, PoDs with relative clauses play a special discourse-pragmatic role in the area of highlighting. Recapitulative relative clauses sometimes have little semantic meaning, as illustrated by example 107. In 107a the relative clause merely recapitulates the existence of the river introduced in the preceding clause while in 107b the relative clause recapitulates the fact that the spirit lived in the river. 107 a. nyibhlëa- -k ʋ lä -l ɔɔ nä kuŋnʋklä - kʋ - mɔɔ river: DEF : REL BE 1: CP LOP there SP 1 ghost_old_woman BE 1 LOC ‘That river lit. the river that was there, an old woman’s ghost was in there.’ [kazo 7–8] b. kuŋnʋkla -a - kʋ ylä - mɔɔ nyibhlëa mʋ ghost_old_woman: DEF NH 1: REL BE 1: CP now: LOP LOC river: DEF OBL ‘The old woman’s ghost that was there in the river nɩ -a plöö- ylä - mɔɔ -zlëa nä ADD 1 NH 1: REL BE 2: CP now: LOP LOC : GEN spirit: DEF SP 1 and that was its spirit lit. the spirit of there, a yä k azɔɔ kʋ bhlü NH 1 XPER raffia_washcloth: DEF VPC take it has taken the raffia washcloth.’ [kazo 29–31] In the tracking of an activated participant by way of a full noun phrase see §5.2.2.1, a relative clause recapitulates significant information about the participant, thereby alerting the hearer that a significant event will happen next or that the climax of the narrative is imminent. Thus the relative clause in example 108 is not necessary to identify the referent unambiguously; rather, its presence indicates to the hearer that a key action will follow. 108 Jübënyëbluo - ɔ -bha lä - lɔɔ nëë nä Neyo:lad: DEF 3 S : REL leave: CP LOP there mouth: OBL SP 1 ‘The Neyo lad who had escaped, k ɔ -mö ɔ bäsɩ soo -kä ASF :3 S go: CP 3 S father: PL speak PUR he went to tell his elders …’ [neyo 37.1–2] 22 This is a more widely spread characteristic of relative clauses in African languages. Pope 1993 points out that relative clauses in the Waama [wwa] language of Benin show discourse-pragmatic restrictions. Levinsohn 1997 makes the same observation for African languages in general. Pope further claims that descriptive relative clauses are not natural in Waama. Translated as such from French into Waama, they are likely to cause misunderstandings. She further observes that in folk tales identifying relative clauses are fairly infrequent. 23 See Marchese 1976 and 1987 for a first description of this phenomenon in Godié. 56 5 Participant reference Participant reference in narrative, or in any discourse for that matter, is concerned with the linguistic means by which participants—characters and inanimate objects—are brought on stage and then tracked in a text. It is of crucial importance that the hearer knows at every point in the text who or what is being talked about. Otherwise the hearer will not be able to follow what the speaker is saying or will have difficulty in making sense of it. The way in which languages manage participant reference in a text depends on various factors, some of which are more or less universal, while others are specific to a language family or even a single language. This chapter consists of two major sections. Section 5.1 deals with the introduction of participants in a Godié narrative. Section 5.2 describes how participants, once introduced, are tracked in a narrative.

5.1 Introduction of participants