1
Introduction
This account of the narrative discourse features of Digo takes a number of narrative texts as its data. The approach adopted here is global and inductive. By this, I mean that whole texts are analyzed in order to
determine how certain functions, such as indicating new paragraphs, tracking participants, and marking the event line, are realized. Generalizations are then made based on the analyses of entire texts, which
are then checked against other texts in the corpus.
A note on the texts
There are seven texts in total, six fictional third person narratives and one factual first person narrative, all of which are presented in the appendices. Text 1, Text 2 and Text 3 have a morpheme-based English
gloss with a free translation after each sentence. Text 4 has a word-for-word English gloss with a free translation after each sentence. In Texts 3 and 4, expressions referring to the major participants have
been color-coded see section 4 below. Text 5 is presented in charted form with a morpheme-based English gloss and a free translation after the text. Text 6 is the longest text, and it is presented sentence-
by-sentence with a free translation in English. Text 7 is a factual first person narrative and has a word- for-word English gloss with a free translation after each sentence. The various ways in which the texts
are presented partly reflects the purposes for which each text is used in this study, but is also intended to make the texts accessible and useful to a wide audience. Everyone, even people unfamiliar with Bantu
languages, can follow the word-for-word glosses and free translations into English, and for those interested in more detail, morpheme-based glosses are available for four texts.
All of the examples used in this paper are taken from these seven texts. Rather than number the examples consecutively, as is customary in linguistic papers, I have referenced the examples using the
text number followed by the sentence number. If a sentence contains more than one clause, letters are used, so example 5.6b is taken from Text 5, sentence 6, clause b.
1 Constituent elements of narrative texts
1.1 Types of narrative texts
Narrative texts differ in many ways, depending on the purpose for which they are told to inform, to entertain, to warn, etc., whether they are true or fictional, whether they are told from a first person or a
third person perspective, and so on. Some narratives involve a problem or conflict, and the point at which this problem or conflict is resolved or comes to a head forms the climax of the narrative. Such
narratives are termed ‘climactic’, and the section in which the climax occurs is termed the ‘peak episode’. Other stories involve a series of related events without a single problem or conflict and corresponding
climax. This kind of narrative is termed ‘episodic’.
In the small corpus of fictional Digo narrative texts, Texts 1, 2, 3 and 6 are climatic. In Text 1 Mhegi wa Mihambo The Setter of Traps, the problem is that the man meets a hyena dragging away the body of
a woman who had recently been buried and the hyena later hears the man planning to track him down and shoot him. The climax comes when, instead of ambushing the hyena, the man discovers that it has
magical powers and has a pack of hyenas at its command. The hyena curses the man, and he dies. In Text 2 Mwiya anatiwa dibwani ni mkaza ise Mwiya is put in a pit by his father’s wife, the problem is that
Mwiya’s stepmother tries to kill him by burying him in a pit. The resolution comes when his half-brother discovers him and alerts their father. In Text 3 Mbodze na Matsozi Mbodze and Matsozi, the problem is
that the two girls have been caught by an evil spirit which plans to eat them. The resolution comes when an old woman helps the girls to escape. In Text 6 Mchetu yesirya Sima The Woman who didn’t eat Ugali
the problem is that the man’s wife is caught in a trap and he has agreed to share any meat that he
catches with the owner of the forest, a lion. The resolution to this problem comes when a hare arrives and tricks the lion into stepping into the trap.
Text 4 Mutu wa Kani The Stubborn Man involves a series of events in which a powerful stranger gives instructions, which the stubborn man ignores. Each time, the stubborn man suffers the
consequences, but on the final occasion the stubborn man is blown away and never seen again. The structure of this story is episodic, although the final episode is the most important, and is similar to a
peak episode. The structure of Text 5 Mutu na Mamba The Man and the Crocodile is different in that the initial problem and its resolution are simply ways of leading up to the main problem of how the man
can avoid being eaten by the crocodile. It is hard to identify any episode as the peak in this narrative; instead there is a period of tension up to the point at which the man escapes from the crocodile. This is
followed by a summary of the story, which functions like a denouement.
The factual first person narrative, Text 7, is also climactic. It concerns an account of how the narrator encountered a lioness whilst walking to work one morning. There is no problem or conflict
involved in the story, but the narrator’s decision to leave home early precipitates the climax of the story, when he encounters a lioness. The lion roars but then leaves, and the story ends with the narrator
continuing to his work place, where he is reassured by his colleagues.
1.2 Structure of narrative texts
