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
In the example from 07 Mother and child 3a below, the topic frame does not relate to a possessive, but in other respects is similar to the examples above. Ingondo ailá ‘that war’ at the beginning of clause 3a is
not grammatically part of the sentence it is not during that war but relates to the topic of war in both of the previous sentences and sets the context in which sentence 03 describes specific manoeuvres during
the war.
07 Mother and child
1. ---
Ngulota kuvalanganga maimyo apaingondo. I.want to.tell
story of.time.war. 2a.
Maimyo ala apaingondo
ni ingondo ailá itandi
Story this of.time.war
it.is war that first
2b. itandéke
akuno ku Moshambiki yavyaka
kumi. that.happened
here in Mozambique of.years ten.
3a. Ingondo ailá
vajungu vashindauma
po pa Mweda apa War that
white.people they.were.leaving
here at Mueda here 3b.
kupita passed
3c. vatenda
ingondo they.making
war 3d.
vavabyanga venentete
mmakaja. they.killing.them
people in.villages.
1 I want to tell a story about something that happened during the war. 2 This story took place at the time of the first war here in Mozambique—the ten-year war.
3 [During] that war, the Portuguese would make sorties from right here in Mueda, going out to fight and kill people in the villages.
In the following example from 09 Ákalimanya 06, there is a topic frame consisting of a preposed object, dinyama adi ‘these animals’. Grammatically this is therefore different, as the topic frame is
nuclear rather than pre-nuclear and is an essential grammatical component of that sentence. However, in every other way it corresponds to the other topic frames; i.e., it relates back to the noun standing in
sentence-final position in 05, it picks up this reference with a proximal demonstrative adi, and lastly it sets the topic frame in which the subject acts.
09 Ákalimanya
5a. Kila wakati
--- auma
na yuti yake Every time
--- leaving
with gun his 5b.
[mwanda] kundila
journey to.bush
5c. kubyaa
dinyama to.kill
animals 5d.
--- aidanavo.
coming.with. 6a.
Dinyama adi, nae ashindashulusha
Animals these he
he.used.to.sell 6b.
kwamba- ngidya
apate njuluku
in.order. that
he.should.receive money
5 He was always going off into the bush with his gun to kill animals and bring them back with him. 6 He used to sell these animals in order to get some money…
2.5 Tail-head devices
