Table 3. Climactic and episodic texts
Text Type
Summary of climax
Crocodile climactic
A man is bitten by a crocodile while wading through water.
Origin climactic
Msimbiti marries one of Iryenyi’s daughters. Mgendi
climactic One of Mgendi’s companions decides to commit suicide.
Water climactic
A husband realizes that one of his wives has deceived him.
Buffalo climactic
A young man hunts and kills the buffalo that killed one of his cows.
Inheritance climactic
A son finds a bank check inside a Bible, which is his inheritance from his father.
Birds climactic
Elderly men go to fetch water and are distracted by large, singing birds. When they return home, they find
all their possessions has been stolen. Simbiti People
episodic none
1.2 Structure of narrative texts
A narrative text can usually be divided into a number of sections, each of which serves a particular function. The structure of a typical climactic narrative text is provided in Table 4.
Table 4. Sections of a typical climactic narrative text
Section Function
Typical linguistic features Orientation section
introduction and setting the scene
- Introduces major participants - Provides a timeplace setting for
the story - Foreshadows story purpose
- Presentational formula for major participants - Theme of the story often presented in an
independent clause or in a relative clause. - Typical background tenseaspect
- General time and place markers
Inciting episode - Gets the story moving
- Use of point of departure PoD - Often a verb of movement
Developmental episodes
- Develops the conflict - Episodes paragraphs that develop a conflict
needing to be resolved. - Often multiple paragraphs
- Usage of a narrative tense - Use of thematic development markers to
highlight the important events of the story
Peak episode - Maximizes tension, bringing
story to a climax - Heightened vividnessdetail
- Usage of ideophones and direct speech - Shorter sentences with rapid action
sequences
Denouement - Resolves tension
- Often includes predictable elements
Conclusion - Explains moral
- Moral stated directly, or with a proverb Table 5 shows how this structure can be seen in these Suba-Simbiti climactic texts. The numbers in
the table refer to sentence numbers in each text. A detailed analysis of one text is then presented in Table 6.
Table 5. Sections of climactic narrative texts
Section Crocodile
Origin Mgendi
Water Buffalo
Inheritance Orientation section 1
1–5 1–3
1–4 1–5
1–5
Inciting episode 2–3
6–8 4–6
5–6 6–7
6
Developmental episodes
4–7 9–12
7–14 15–21
7 8–15
8–10 7–10
11–13 14–15
16–18 19–22
Peak episodes 8
13–17 22–24
16–18 11–14
23–26
Denouement 9–12
18–24 25–30
19–21 15–17
27
Conclusion 13
25–26 31–32
– 18–19
28–29 Table 6. Description of sections in “Inheritance”
Section Sentences
Description Orientation section 1–5
A father had two sons who went to school. One, who went to Europe, was loved more by his father. The other became a trapper
on a nearby island.
Inciting episode 6
The father becomes very sick.
Developmental episodes
7–10 11–13
14–15 16–18
19–22 The father writes to his sons and tells them he is very sick, but
neither one returns home. The father writes his will and leaves his cows to be divided between
his son the trapper and the other members of the family. He leaves the son in Europe a Bible.
The father dies and his cows are divided between the trapper and the other members of the family.
The son from Europe comes and is angry to find that he has only been given a Bible.
One night, the son from Europe has a dream and is told to open the Bible to the book of Matthew, but he doesn’t. Another night, he has
the same dream.
Peak 23–26
The son opens the Bible to Matthew and finds a bank check for a large amount of money. He immediately quits his job and returns
home where he builds a house.
Denouement 27
He has become rich, and even to this day he is helping his family.
Conclusion 28–29
Moral: If you are given something, don’t refuse it because it may have value.
1.3 Linguistic features in Suba-Simbiti narrative texts
