Pre-NO Pre-NI
S V
OC Post-NI
Post-NO
8a U-Seluhanga aalolasiidze
P2 kuno na kuno
D:Ref
Seluhanga she.looked.around
there and there
8b neke
--- avone
CNS.S kungaya muunu
then she.saw
there.is.no person
9 ---
Ikwingilaga CNS
mu kaaye ya mufwile yula
D:Dist
she.entered in home of widower that
One day she passed by someone’s home. This person lived alone, what’s more he was a widower, his wife died many years ago. Seluhanga looked around and saw there was no one. She went into the widower’s home.
After the initial sentence of this example, there is a backgrounded section sentence 7 and then the event line continues with a far past perfective 8a and then two different consecutive verb forms 8b
and 9. Other examples of the first use of consecutive verb forms appearing in the inciting episode can be seen in Child and Big Bird 2b and Spider and Hare 3b. Further examples of kigono kimwinga ‘one day’ are
found in Dog and Leopard 4 and Ndegenyi 3a.
1.3.3 Developmental episodes
Developmental episodes may start in a variety of ways and the text corpus does not suggest that there are particular linguistic features which are associated with the start of developmental episodes, as
opposed to the start of other types of narrative sections. When narrative sections in general are taken together excluding text-initial orientation sections, it is more likely to find a temporal point of
departure in the initial sentence than to find one in sentences which do not occur initially in such sections. Several examples of this can be seen in Dog and Leopard, such as the following:
5 Dog and Leopard 23a–23b
Pre-NO Pre-NI
S V
OC Post-NI
Post-NO
23a Ikigono kya wuvili ---
vaafwimile P2
kitambulila kiinu
day of two they.hunted
without.being.successful thing
23b ---
vaagonile P2
kitaliya
they.slept without.eating
The second day they hunted without sucess and went to sleep without eating. See also 24a and 29 in the same text.
In terms of tense and aspect, there are two main strategies seen in developmental episodes. In one, the main event line is expressed by the far past perfective with the occasional use of consecutive verb
forms and in the other, the main event line is expressed by consecutive verb forms only, as is discussed in section 5.2.
1.3.4 Peak episode
Peak episodes show a slight tendency to contain more examples of the connective neke ‘then’ and the consecutive subjunctive verb forms than other types of narrative episodes see section 3.2 for further
discussion of this connective. In Child and Big Bird, for example, three of the six examples of neke in the text occur in the peak episode. Similarly, in Ndegenyi, two of the four examples of neke in the text occur
in the peak episode. In Dog and Leopard, the peak episode begins with an example of the connective neke.
6 Dog and Leopard 48a–48d
Pre-NO Pre-NI S
V OC
Post-NI Post-NO
48a Neke avange ukulagidza
CNS.S amaligo makomi ku Mbwa
then he.started to.throw
insults big at dog
48b ---
itigila PRES
[48c–49c]
he.says
48c [Uveeve ve wilagwave
--- ulatangana
F2
yousg yousg trickster yousg.will.meet
48d na
kiki kikumile ANT
with what it.should.swallow.yousg
Then he started to throw big insults at Dog, saying, “You trickster you, what will you meet with that should swallow you?
A further example of the connective can be seen in the peak episode of the Seluhanga text. 7 Seluhanga 17a–18
Pre-NO Pre-NI S
V OC
Post-NI Post-NO
17a Umunya kaaye amwibite
P2
one.with home he.caught.her
17b neke
--- amubamidze
CNS.S paasi
then he.slammed.her
down
18 Umuhiidzi yula
D:Dist aadeenyike
P2 ilivoko nu mugongo
thief that she.broke arm and back
The home owner caught her and then slammed her down. That thief broke her arm and back.
1.3.5 Denouement