113
Table 34: Distribution of N3 category for the Life story
N3 Lon Nol’s soldiers
Khmer Rouge Mlong Chon’s kinfolk
Total NP
1 1
2
KIN+POSS 1
1
Total: 1
1 1
3
7.1.8 Non-subject is not mentioned in preceding clause N4
The N4 environment necessitates more lexical coding since this environment considers all non-subject participants that are not mentioned in the previous independent
clause. The default in this environment is some type of explicit noun phrase referring expression. Each story will be discussed separately.
Table 35: Distribution of N4 category in the Cow story
N4 Cow owner Bull owner
Elders Elders cattle owners
Total PRO+RC
1 1
2
NP 2
1 3
Total: 1
1 2
1 5
The Cow story contains only five examples of non-subjects that fit the N4 category. Part of the reason for this is that the story basically has four participants. The
two main participants, the cow and the bull owners, and their interactions make up the first half of the story. Another factor affecting this category is that a participant may be
brought back on-stage using a motion presentational construction which allows the subject to occur postverbally, but does not fit the N4 category. The typical method of
restaging a participant in the N4 environment is postverbally, in the object slot. Example 126 illustrates a newly activated participant,
‘people’, in the second clause that fits the N4 category.
114 126
+ uncle REL graze cow
male hear rabbit say like.that
‘Uncle who grazed the bull heard rabbit say like that.’
K +
+ K
+ tell
people say go
defecate ‘He told the people saying, “I am going to defecate.” ’
[Cow 153-5]
Table 36: Distribution of N4 category in the Fish story
N4 Jii-
Mlii Jii-
Mpoon Smelt-
fish People Uncles Mom
of sisters
Parents of
sisters Mom
of fish
Total Ø
2 3
4 1
1 11
NP 2
1 2
1 3
1 10
NP+DEM 2
2
NP+TSM 1
1
KIN+POSS 1
1
KIN+POSS+ DEM
1 1
DET+KIN 1
1
DET+KIN+ POSS
1 1
2
DET+KIN+ DEM
1 1
DET+KIN+ POSS+DEM
2 2
1 5
Total: 7
5 11
1 4
2 3
2 35
The Fish story contains 11 examples of a zero referring expression in this category, six of them are addressees in a quote formula. When the participant is an
addressee, the participant is either active or readily understood from the context. Otherwise, all other referring expressions in the N4 category are explicit. In some
instances, the participant is active, but takes an explicit referring expression to disambiguate it from other participants that are also part of the episode. Since the N4
category consists of non-subjects, this category includes brand new participants or
115
participants that have been off-stage and become re-activated postverbally 127. After being brought on-stage, the participant can then be established as topic.
127 K return arrive to house above
‘Jii-Mlii arrived back up to the house.’ +
+ +
HHHH DET sis.old 3S.POSS DEM3 former tell
to DET mother 3S.POSS
‘Her older sister told her mother.’ [Fish 190-1] Even though there is little data from the Life story, the default is a noun phrase in
the N4 environment. Table 37 lists the N4 referents and their referring expressions.
Table 37: Distribution of N4 category for the Life story
N4 Villagers
Khmer Rouge Cambodian people
Total Ø
1 1
NP 1
1 2
Total: 1
1 1
3
From the historical context, the zero referring expression that fits the N4 environment is unambiguous. The narrator is speaking about how Hun Sen and his army
freed the Cambodian people from Pol Pot’s dictatorship 128. 128
V0 K
K K
K +
NMLZ pity NMLZ miss help free from palm hand tiger
+ customarily control customarily grip
‘The pity and compassion helped to free us from the palm of the tiger that used to control and dominate us.’
[Life 20]
116
7.2 Non-default codings
