Towards a Typology of Story Development Marking

Issue Date: 
2010
Extent: 
pages 143-151
Abstract: 
Markers of development signal “a new burst of closely related actions” (Heimerdinger 1999:124) or the “introduction of a new phase in the action of the narrative” (Revell 1996:61). In particular, they “constrain the reader to move on to the next point... they indicate that the material so marked represents a new development in the story or argument, as far as the author’s purpose is concerned” (Dooley and Levinsohn 2001:93). Cross-linguistically, story development may be marked on two axes: the linkage axis and/or the agent axis (Levinsohn 1976). Many SVO languages mark development primarily along the linkage axis by means of appropriate conjunctions (e.g. English ‘then’ and ‘now’). Many verb-final languages, in contrast, mark development along both axes. This paper shows that some Bantu languages (e.g. Chewa―Bantu N31, Malawi, Zambia & Mozambique) also mark story development on both the linkage axis and the agent axis. However, other Bantu languages (e.g. Fuliiru―Bantu J, Democratic Republic of Congo) mark story development primarily along the agent axis.
Publication Status: 
Preprint
Content Language: 
Field: 
Work Type: 
Nature of Work: 
Is Part Of: 
Karsten Legère and Christina Thornell, eds., Bantu Languages: Analyses, Description and Theory. East African Languages and Dialects Volume 20; Cologne, Germany: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. 9783896457059
Entry Number: 
68373