Generating Narratives: Interrelations of Knowledge, Text Variants, and Cushitic Focus Strategies 9783110872262, 9783110121414

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Generating Narratives

Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 52

Editor

Werner Winter

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Generating Narratives Interrelations of Knowledge, Text Variants, and Cushitic Focus Strategies

by

Klaus Wedekind

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

1990

Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.

® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Wedekind, Klaus. Generating narratives : interrelations of knowledge, text variants, and Cushitic focus strategies / by Klaus Wedekind. p. cm. — (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ; 52) Includes narrative texts in Gedeo, Burji, and Sidamo. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-89925-595-7 (cloth : acid-free paper) 1. Cushitic languages — Discourse analysis. 2. Discourse analysis. Narrative. I. Title. II. Series. PJ2491.W4 1990 493'.5 —dc20 90-13422 CIP

Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging in Publication Data Wedekind, Klaus: Generating narratives : interrelations of knowledge, text variants, and Cushitic focus strategies / by Klaus Wedekind. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1990 Trends in linguistics : Studies and monographs ; 52) ISBN 3-11-012141-7 NE: Trends in linguistics / Studies and monographs

© Copyright 1990 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-1000 Berlin 30. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printing: Ratzlow Druck, Berlin. — Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin. Printed in Germany.

Thanks and acknowledgements I want to thank Professor Bernd Heine for all advice he gave me, for his understanding and patience, and for his gracious way of making people work together and enjoy it. I also thank the friends and colleagues in his Institute for many helpful and enjoyable conversations. Professors Taddese Tamrat and Taddese Beyene I thank for their friendship and the warm attention they gave me whenever I needed help. It is only by the kindness and generosity of Taddese Beyene, Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, that it was possible to prepare this manuscript: I am grateful that I was able to use the Institute's facilities. Special thanks go to Tatek Samare who adapted the manuscript files to new software - a tedious task he undertook with extraordinary patience, diligence, and competence. I want to thank my colleagues of the Institute of Linguistics for supporting me in many ways. And I thank Charlotte.

Every discourse - a living creature. Plato, Phaedrus

Es gibt nichts Einzelnes in der Sprache. W. v. Humboldt

Contents

Part I Introduction and background

1

Section A Guides for the reader

1

1. Introduction

1

2. A survey of the study 3. Symbols and abbreviations 4. On reading the text charts

2 6 9

Section Β Background of the study

13

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Acknowledgments to those who provided language data The context of this study Brief notes on the language areas and the ethnic groups Gada and the Gedeo way of life today Linguistic descriptions of the three Highland East Cushitic languages 6. The classification of Sidamo, Gedeo and Burji

Section C Typological characteristics 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Phonological characteristics Morphophonemic characteristics Morphological characteristics Morpho-syntactic strategies Noun phrases in text and syntax An introduction to complex structures A sample grammar of two complex sentences (Gedeo) Representation of complex structures Representation of text scores with transitions

Section D Perspectives on discourse and text generation 1. 2. 3. 4.

The functional grammar model of Simon Dik Text generation Analysis of discourses of the narrative genre Psychology of sentence production

13 15 18 28 36 40 49 49 54 59 75 77 80 85 94 99 105 105 110 123 123

viii

Contents

Section E The present approach 1. Comparison of models 2. The components of narratives 3. The pragmatic notions "theme, topic, focus" and "coda"

Part II

Gedeo narratives

Section A Gedeo Text A: "A Story of Hyenas"

126 126 129 133

139 141

1. The worlds of texts as exemplified in text A

141

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

157 163 245 322 337

Steps in the production of text A Text rules: The "Semantic Frames Roster" of text A The complete "Semantic Frames Roster" of text A with signals The "Hyena" narrative in four surface versions Generating different surface forms for the "same" text

Section Β Gedeo Text B: "Nine Hyenas and One Lion" 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Remarks on text Β Notes on the lexicon of text Β Generating text Β The charts of text Β Actual surface form of text Β Hesitation patterns and notional units in text Β

Section C Gedeo-texts Cl, C2 and C3: "A House on Fire" 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Remarks on texts Cl, C2, and C3 Generating texts Cl, C2, and C3: A note on functors Text rules of texts Cl, C2 and C3 On the charts of text texts Cl, C2 and C3 The actual surface forms of texts Cl, C2 and C3

348 348 354 359 366 382 392

397 397 400 420 420 446

Contents

Part III

Buiji narratives

Section A Burji Text A: "Jackal and Hyena"

ix

461 462

1. Overall pattern and script of Burji Text A

462

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

472 475 500 564 568

The lexicon of Burji Text A Designing the story time-line Remarks on the charts of Burji Text A The actual surface form of Burji Text A Comparison of oral and written versions

Section Β Burji Text B: "A Journey to Debre Zeyt" 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Remarks on Burji Text Β Lexicon of Burji Text Β The "Semantic Frames Roster" of Burji Text Β Chart for generating the surface form of text Β Chart: The actual surface form of Burji Text Β

Section C Burji Text C: "Origin and Migrations of the Burji People" 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Remarks about Burji Text C Lexical list of Burji Text C The semantic frames roster of Burji Text C Developing the surface form of Burji Text C The actual surface form of Burji Text C

572 572 573 575 575 579 582 582 583 586 586 595

Part IV Sidamo narratives

603

Section A Sidamo Text A: "The Girl Arfu"

604

1. General remarks about Sidamo Text A

604

2. 3. 4. 5.

606 609 611 633

Word list, Sidamo Text A Remarks on the semantic frames roster of Sidamo Text A The charts of Sidamo Text A The actual surface form of Sidamo Text A

χ

Contents

Section Β Sidamo Text Β: "The Animal which was Beaten" 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Remarks on Sidamo Text Β Word List: Sidamo Text Β Scenes and participants of Sidamo Text Β The time-line of Sidamo Text Β The actual surface form of Sidamo Text Β

645 645 645 646 647 647

Part V Comparisons and summary

651

Section A Typological traits of Gedeo, Burji and Sidamo

651

1. Comparisons of syntax and text strategies

651

2. Comparisons of morphology and text frequencies

654

Section Β The present model of text generation

656

1. Modifications of the "functional grammar" model

656

2. Speakers' strategies and the presentation of texts

657

Section C Text dimensions: identification and predication

660

1. Text dimensions 2. Identification of participants: maintaining and highlighting 3. Predications andand their relations to eachofother Section D Qualities overall structures the narratives 1. Stylistic and representative qualities of narratives 2. Overall structures of narratives

660 661 663 668 668 669

Contents

Appendix Swadesh/Bender wordlist Notes References Index

xi

671 671 681 701 715

PART I INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

SECTION A Guides for the reader 1. Introduction When a story-teller "knows how to tell a story", what linguistic knowledge is he or she employing to tell it? And when a story-teller "knows a story", what exactly is it he or she knows? The main purpose of this study is to answer these two questions on the basis of narrative texts from Highland East Cushitic (HEC) languages, especially Gedeo. It is assumed here that these two kinds of knowledge can be simulated by the generation of actual narratives from their minimal representations - a generation strictly controlled by rules. So, given the necessary set of linguistic rules, and given the necessary lexicon - what else is there in a person's data base which enables him or her to narrate a particular story? The representation of this particular knowledge will be called a narrative's "semantic frames roster" (SFR, to use Afroasiatic mnemonics). In its minimal form, a Semantic Frames Roster consists of a sequenced list of predicate frames, and it carries all and only those text signals which are not predictable. In this regard, the semantic frames roster differs from Rosenberg's "story data base" (SDB, 1979: 97). To display a Semantic Frames Roster on paper, charts are used - similar to music scores which also represent a fabric of complex simultaneous structures. Statistically, a minimal semantic frames roster has about 25% the size of the actual narrative. The signals in the semantic frames roster trigger various kinds of rules: text rules, pragmatic rules, morpho-syntactic rules, and phonological rules; and step by step they generate the actual surface form. Rule ordering is surprisingly free, which actually corresponds to the freedom a narrator experiences as he or she narrates a story. Ideally, text rules of this kind should be valid not for one text alone, or one speaker alone, but for the language as a whole - and possibly beyond. Some narratives are therefore investigated in more than one surface variant, and the synthesis of texts in the Gedeo language is paralleled by syntheses of a few texts

2 ΙΑ. Guides for the reader

in the sister languages: Burji and Sidamo. The results are compared and summarised in the last section of this study. It is claimed here that the investigation of text strategies also sheds light on the typological traits of these languages: "Isolated and decontextualized sentences", says Hopper, "have only a limited validity in typological studies" (1986: 125). So in these SOV languages, the patterns of noun phrases - where certain modifiers can follow the noun - the patterns of NP topicalisation, focusing and avoidance, as well as other pragmatic functions, will all be analysed in relation to text building strategies. A second purpose of the present study was to make available as much of the linguistic material on Gedeo and Burji as can reasonably be included in a study of this kind. This material has so far only been made available to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Abeba University), but not elsewhere.

2. A survey of the study Part I, the introduction, mainly serves to give various views on the background of this study: on the context in which the languages were studied, on some of the characteristics of the three languages, on text and text generation, and on some of the assumptions made in this study, especially those related to Dik's "Functional Grammar". Parts II-IV are the main body of this work. Part II, its major part, is about Gedeo, a language so far not documented in any monograph. To give more profile to the findings about Gedeo, similar questions are asked about two related languages: How do Gedeo narratives compare with similar Burji texts (part III) and with Sidamo texts (part IV)? Part V, the final part, summarises the findings in a comparative and contrastive way. This includes items such as the treatment of transitions in complex sentences called "scenes"; different-subject and equi-subject chaining in relation to tenses and aspects and pragmatic notions, and the general treatment of participants. There are several appendices: word lists, notes and references, and an index. The word lists are Swadesh-based Highland East Cushitic word lists which were updated from recent publications. The notes are gleanings from contemporary works especially on Cushitic languages and discourse properties; they serve to relate this work to the relevant questions which are being asked presently. The index accesses particular aspects of the analyses which cannot be accessed from the table of contents alone.

ΙΑ.

Guides for the reader 3

To provide more detail about the main body of the present work, the pattern used in each of the parts II-IV will be outlined here: In the three main parts of this study (II on Gedeo, III on Burji, and IV on Sidamo), various texts are developed. They are identified as texts II A, II B, etc., Ill A, III Β etc., and they are comparable across the three languages: fables, reports on some real incident, and other narratives. All linguistic information about the three languages is presented in relation to the development of these texts. First a semantic abstract of the text is presented, called its "semantic frames roster" (SFR). This consists of a sequenced list of "predicate frames" into which participants and pragmatic text signals can be inserted. Later on text rules are applied, then follow syntax rules, morphological rules and finally some morphophonemic rules. In text studies, the presentation of texts for illustration is both a quantitative and a linguistic problem. To illustrate text studies, large amounts of text must be presented; and to present them as texts, they have to be printed coherently. But because of their length, not all texts can be presented in full. Some texts in this study had to be cut short. To make certain textual patterns visible, some manipulations are necessary which leave the flow of the text unchanged and still point out the properties which need pointing out. For this reason it was decided that the most adequate and most easy-to-survey presentation would be to separate four text components from each other, and each narrative is written in these four parts: (a) time-lines (foreground predicates, chained chronologically) (b) quotes (short texts, embedded as direct speeches) (c) argumentative predicates (predicate pairs, connected logically) (d) determination (single stative predicates, referring to participants) In Part II, the analysis of Gedeo Text A, provides a large amount of detail. For the next Text (II B), there is less to say: The majority of rules have already been illustrated with the first text - and with more material, progressively fewer rules are there to add. The list of function morphemes, for instance, is indicative of this quantitative phenomenon: Most of the function morphemes have already appeared when two or three texts have been discussed; the same is true for the morphophonemic rules. In Part III, Burji texts III A, III Β and III C follow, and in part IV, the Sidamo texts.

4 ΙΑ.

Guides for the reader

2.1 A detailed survey of rules Section 1 of the discussion of every text contains the general remarks about the respective text, especially about "the world" of this text (e.g. II A 1, II Β 1, III A 1, or III Β 1). Sub-section 1.1 then brings details about the sequence of scenes with their settings (SET). The events are related to TIME and place, under the perspective of the story-teller or main participant (x1), and sub-section 1.3 deals with the participants and their roles: The main participants (x1, x2) typically are < a n i m a t o and act as agents (AG) or patients (PAT). Section 2, especially 2.1, always presents the lexical fund of which the story teller makes use. Verbs in the lexicon have the pattern of "frames" into which the participants "fit", e.g., verb-form V (x1)AG (x2)PAT. These frames are the essential part of the lexicon, and together with the "terms" for participants they provide the basic building blocks of every text. Section 3 of every analysis starts from the predicate frames of the lexicon, and some of these predicate frames are selected to be sequenced and to form the foregrounded time-line of a story. In 3.2, clusters of events are grouped together as "scenes" or "paragraphs". Participants involved in the events are "inserted into" the verb frames by means of rules of 3.3. In the pragmatic rules of 3.4 it is reflected which relative "importance" the speaker assigns to each participant: 3.4.1 speaks about prominence and emphasis (EMPH) in general terms, 3.4.2 about topic maintenance, connections (CONN) between, and follow-up of different participants In 3.5, determination (DET) is discussed. This covers definiteness, the use of nouns vs. pronouns vs. verb suffixes (N; PRON, 3.5.4), it includes indefiniteness markers (INDF 3.5.1), determination by background information (DET 3.5.3), and nominal derivations (COLL PL SG 3.5.5). Some of these signals are "assigned" to the Semantic Frames Roster to reflect the intentions of the storyteller, others can be derived from the textual structure. (It would be a fascinating study to try and distinguish the two!) In 3.6 there is the assignment of "syntactic functions". Subsection 3.6.1 assigns subject (SUBJ) functions to certain phrases, in 3.6.3 the source (SOURCE) function goes to agents which are not subjects, and 3.6.4 states what is the unmarked syntactic norm. All semantic roles which later are expressed by "adverbial" forms are discussed in 3.6.5, and indirect speech ( > Q < for "quote")

ΙΑ.

Guides for the reader 5

in 3.6.6. The corresponding expression rules are in 4.6 on adverb markers, and in 4.7 on SUBJ/OBJ case markers. Section 3.7 of every analysis is about time orientation in relation to the assignment of verb tenses and aspects, including ancillary verbs. 3.7.1 presents the unmarked, normal assignment of tenses and aspects to foregrounded verbs which are part of the time line. 3.7.5 discusses backgrounded, stative predicates (STAT). Subsections 3.9.1-3.9.8 summarise the semantic relations between two events and their participants, and the form of transitions between them: same unit of activities (SU), same time (ST), same subject or different subject (SS/DS), same or different "expectancy" chain of events across scenes or paragraph boundaries (SC), and logical "argumentative" relations such as the contrast positive vs. negative (POSIT). Starting with section 4 of every analysis, the "expression rules" are applied to derive the text's actual surface form. These rules proceed from one text column to the next, e.g., rules of section 4.1.1 are about signals in column 4 of the text chart. Rules of section 4.1.5 derive what is textually predictable about relations between agents and verbs: on causative (CAUS), passive (PASS), comitative (COMIT) vs. mutuality (ALTER), and (auto-) benefactive or middle voice (BEN). Rules of 4.4.1 express predicate relations such as same subject, same time, same unit (SS, ST, SU), conclusive (CONCL), etc. The section 4.4.1 summarises all expressions of predicate relations. Rules of section 4.6 assign different markers to subjects, objects, and adverbs. Rules of section 4.7 are on the form of determination predications or terms. Rules of section 4.8 derive the person/number and tense and aspect suffixes of verbs from various kinds of text signals. Section 4.9 in every analysis contains the phonological rules, including rules about pauses and especially about verb morphophonemics. Section 5 of every analysis presents the resulting surface form of the text. Section 6 will add specific information which is of interest with reference to this particular text. Section 6 of part II A, for instance, is a discussion of the variants of text II A.

3. Symbols and abbreviations 3.1 Phonological symbols The phonological symbols are those commonly employed for transcriptions of Ethiopian languages, e.g. by Bender (ed.) 1976. Their phonetic values for

6 ΙΑ.

Guides for the reader

Sidamo, Gedeo and Burji are described in detail in Wedekind 1980. Most of the symbols therefore need no further comments here: abcdefghiklmnorstuw. The common linguistic conventions for Ethiopian languages do not follow the IPA in the following points: [j] the semivowel which IPA transcribes as [j] will be transcribed as y. [800

>200

>3.2 M. >800 Th. >200 Th. >50 Th.

>12.5 Th. >3.2 Th.

Underlined: languages of the present study Bold print: languages of the National Literacy Campaign

>50

2 8 IB.

Background of the study

4. Gada and the Gedeo way of life today 4.1 Remarks on the text "The Gedeo Way of Life" The following text describes aspects of "Gedeo Life" from the perspective of a Gedeo speaker. It includes much of the information which Guidi (1939), Jensen and Wohlenberg (1936), Jensen (1959), and Ernesta Cerulli (1956) have given in their descriptions of "gada" systems in general - and more specifically on "gada" practices in the Gedeo area a few generations ago (especially McClellan 1978). This description of the "Gedeo Way of Life" and the view of "baalle" and "gada" practices is especially relevant here because it has been given recently, it has been given with a well-informed evaluation attached to it, and under a distinct personal perspective: the speaker himself is the son of a modern Gedeo leader. The speaker was about 20 years old when the recording was made, and he speaks as the son of an influential personality: his father was highly esteemed as peacemaker, as an example of good conduct, and as a somewhat progressive leader and councillor. So, speaking as the close observer of a former councillor, the author is very conscious of social issues of his generation, and he evaluates the traditional Gedeo custom as a heritage which - although partly lost - still might have its contributions to make to a present generation. While the recording was made, other young Gedeo men of various backgrounds and convictions were present, and from their comments it was clear that the speaker did not express idiosyncratic, irrelevant opinions. The speaker focuses on those sectors of the "baalle" and "gada" system - about one third of the total structure - which are sociologically vital, while hardly any mention is made of ritual or religious components of the system. This also is true of the other sections of his presentation (only the first section of his presentation has been given in our present text). Note that there are five Gada grades. Five is a basic unit in Gedeo: days, years, generations, age groups all are five (Wedekind 1978: 137f.). Concerning the end of this text it should be noted that a very strong and positive value is attached to the social functions of the various classes called "Gada, Ja'laaba, Roga, Jalk'aba", and "Hayyo" - classes into which all young Gedeo men were able to enter, once they had reached the stage of "Luba" (Wedekind 1978: 138). As a closing remark, the speaker expresses his regret nostalgic but forcefully - that much of this institution would be valuable but now seems irrecoverably lost.

I Β. Background of the study

29

Concerning the presentation of the text, the following should be noted: The text is of the descriptive/procedural rather than the narrative genre. The transcription is phonemic. The interlinear translation here is word-for-word - not morpheme-bymorpheme as in the other texts of this study. The free translation is given sentence by sentence, identified by numbers (1-21). Because of their size and function, these "sentence" units are also called "paragraphs" elsewhere.

42 The Gedeo Way of Life Gedeinka Galduma 1. ta'a haaso'anneki, now what-we-will-tell gede'inka of-Gedeo

galduma way-of-life

hitta how

galammaatt'a life-was-spent

ged'i giddo. Gedeo in

What we will talk about now is the Gedeo traditions: the way Gedeo people lived. 2. majammarake'ni, at-first konnecci this

'edidarre before

gede'i 'baalle' Gedeo 'Baalle'

k'awwe Amharas

daggebaa came-not

'edidarre before

'ifitt'e 'afe'emmani; -custom its-own it-had hitta galaak'ic'o ha'no'ni ta'a how like-they-lived to-you-pl now

kula'enneni. I-will-tell At first, the Gedeo people had their own "Bale" custom; and I will tell you about the time before the Amharas came.

3. gede'i Gedeo

galaaki, how-they-lived

3 0 IB.

Background of the study

'baallete' hina'naa'a the-'Baalle'-custom they-call-it

mitte one

manji man

'insa'nee'e 'erga'neeki them who-serves

hed'ebaaki, such-was-not-there 'gadate' the-'Gada'-system gadate'ni in-'Gada'

hiyyendaatt'a which-is-called

baalle 'uggedd'eett'i, 'Baalle' having-been-instituted

marra'emma'ni songote'ni as-they-went in-the-council

songote'ni in-the-council

balleesseeka wh-was-wrong

'oPleett'i, seated

k'at'a'eett'i punishing

hed'aake wh-is-there

manjo. man

The way the Gedeo people lived in the so-called "Baalle" custom was not that one man gave orders, but in a system called "Gada" a man was there who sat at the council, and judged all wrongdoings. 4. kunni kinni, this however songote'ni in-the-council 'insa'ne'a to-them

'ofo'laaki sitting

marete a-leader

'ofo'laake sitting/living

manji man

'insa'ne'a 'uminssha to-them like-a-chief

kadeett'i, being

kadeett'i, being manjo. man

But this man who sat in the council was for them like a chief, he was there as their leader. 5. kunninna 'hayyiccake' and-this 'Hayyicca'

hiyyemaani. is-called

This man is called 'Hayyicca'.

IB. Background of the study 31

6. 'okko'ni from-there

kinni ke'nennett'e however us-starting

galdumi gede'inki way-of-life of-Gedeo

hayyoomiki 'Hayyo'

kaddoole, if-it-is c'alia only

hed'eekeba'a. it-was-not

However, if we start with matters there - the way of life of the Gedeo people was not just a life in the institution of "Hayyicca": 7. hayyiccinni over-the-'Hayyicca'

'iimidare above

waannake kade'e nugusinssha the-main being like-king he"eett'a yaane wh-is-there matter

kinni, however

'insa'nee'e them

galcaaki, wh-administers

duucca, all

rakko problem

daggoole, if-comes

solo'i famine

dagoole, if-comes

duucca all

mageno kad'ataaki, God wh-prays

gadate hiyyemaani. the-'Gada' is-called Above the "Hayyicca" there was one who for the people was like a king: If any problems arose, or if a famine came - the one who prayed to God on behalf of all of this, he is called the "Gada". 8. tenne this

gada hundidarre 'Gada' under

kinni, however

'ja'laabake' hiyemeett'i 'isinna gada mitte boonco hucc'a. 'Ja'laaba' wh-called and-he 'Gada' one place works-for-himself

3 2 I Β. Background of the study

Under this "Gada" whoever, there was one called "Ja'laaba", and he did the "Gada's" work in a particular area. 9. ja'labi Ja'laba

hundidarre under

'rogake' hiyyeme'e the-'Roga' called

kinni, however sase three

gosa clans

hujaake. wh-works

Again under the Ja'laaba there was one who works for the three clans called "Roga". 10. tinnì this

gosanna clans-and

suubbo, Suubbo,

hemba'a, 'ee, woyyito, Hemba'a, well, Woyyito,

riik'atakenna Riik'a-and

kinni, however

d'iibatake D'iiba

yik'irta, sorry:

liiko, Liiko

hiyyendani. is-called

These clans now are called "Suubbo, Hemba'a", well, "Woyyito", or rather: "Liiko, Riik'ata, and D'iiba". 11. tenne

sase

gosa

giddo

kunni

rogooti hujaani.

this

three

clans

in

this

Rogo

works

In these three clans, the "Rogas" work. 12. roginni under-Rogo

hundidarre under

kinni, however

jalk'abake hiyyemeett'i, 'Jalk'aba' being-called tenne this

sase three

gosa clans

giddo in

rogint'a Rogo-ship

hunna power

'add'eett'i, having-taken

I Β. Background of the study 3 3

welti together

huja manjoni. working man-is

Under the Roga, a man called "Jalk'aba" works together with them and holds the power of "Roga" over three clans. 13. jalk'abint'e of-'Jalk'aba'

huje kinni, work however

mitti one

dageett'e having-come

Ioli fight

bagedo war

'ergakkinna messenger-and

könne this

jalk'abani. is-Jalk'aba

kaddoole, if-it-is

bagedoke'ni to-war

'edo sa'e'e me"aaki, in-front passing wh-goes

Now the function of the "Jalk'aba" is this: If any trouble arises, the one who sends weapons and leads the warriors is the "Jalk'aba". 14. jalk'abinni under-Jalk'aba

hundidarre under

me'Mnenneett'e kaddoole, if-we-go if-it-is

'hulatike hayyicca' of-the-door Hayyicca

hiyyeme'naa'a, being-called

hayyicci Hayyicca

duucci'ahunna for-all power

'isitt'inni with-his

duucca'ni for-all

'ergaakinna, wh-sends-and

hayyicci Hayyicca

kinni, however

'aradda people

duucca'ni for-all

rakko dageett'a problemwh-came

yaane 'assaassha matter for-doing

'assaaki, wh-does

hayyicci Hayyicca

3 4 IB.

Background of the study

hulatike hayyiccani. of-the-door is-the-Hayyicca Considering now what comes under the "Jalk'aba" - it is the "Hayyicca of the Gate"; when problems arise, the "Hayyicca of the Gate" is the one who by his authority gives orders to all other Hayyiccas and tells them what to do for the people. 15. hulatiki of-the-door

hayyicci Hayyicca

'afeett'i, wh-he-has

mitte one

giddo in

gosa clan

gosa clan

mitte one

bicci'a hunnate'afe'enni. for-only power he-has

The power which a "Hayyicca of the Gate" possesses is the power over one clan only. 16. yaane matter

kinni 'insa'ne 'edidarre, however they before

'ikki these

shooli four

fed'eett'a every

yaane mittummati matter in-oneness

'insa'ne they

shoolekeni. are-four

manji man

he'neeki, being hunjaaki, they-work

But earlier, those four men: they are four who work together in unity in every matter whatsoever. 17. 'okkoo'ni from-there

kinni ke'nennete however if-we-go

kaddoole, if-it-is

mitti one

missaalete'ee for-instance

manjo ganeett'e man beat

manji man

mitte one

laddocie, if-it-is

IB. Background of the study 3 5

k'att'itaa straight

gadati boonco me"inabaani. of-Gada place they-don't-go

If we go on from there now - if, for instance, it happens that a man has beaten a woman - then people do not take the case straight to that Hayyicca. 18. hayyicciinboonco the-Hayyicca-place

yaane matter

'iyyemare'naa'a, bringing

hayyicciinboonci yaane the-Hayyicca-place matter

dande'a authority

hulatike hayyicca'ni of-the-door to-Hayyicca

'iyyemaraani. he-brings

gop'eett'e fail

kaddoole, if-it-is

If the matter does not go to the the Hayyicca - or if the Hayyicca does not have the power to handle it - then people bring it before the "Hayyicca of the Gate". 19. hulatiki of-the-door

hayyicci kinni, Hayyicca however

sase three

roogeboonco Rogo-place

'iyyemaree'naa'a, bringing

sase three

rogii'ni kinni yaane dandeesisa Roga-at however matter be-able

gada 'Gada'

'aa'ne'e dangee'naa'a, taking they-having-come

gadicci the-Gada

tennee'e yaane 'uudeett'i this matter having-seen

mitte one

gopp'oole, if-it-fails

boonco faradaani. place he-judges

The "Hayyicca of the Gate" however goes to the place of the "Three Roga". Only if the "Three Roga" are not able to deal with the matter will they take it to the "Gada"; the Gada then considers the case and judges it in a certain place. 20. galdumi way-of-life

gede'inki of-Gedeo

konnecci this

'edidarre iittatemma'a. before so-it-was

3 6 IB. Background of the study

ta'a now

'idakk'ett'e wh-brought

yaanebaani. matter-it-isn't

That is what the Gedeo way of life was like in the old days. 21. ta'a now

'oddo giddo middle in

ba"e malee'e, got-lost so-it-is

gede'i Gedeo

galdumi way-of-life

galaaki how-they-lived

konneccinni this 'iimidare above

'edo he"eett' e before wh-was

hed'o life

'elott'emmani. was-better

It is not a matter which has been brought into the present time. Life in the old days was superior to life now.

5. Linguistic descriptions of the three Highland East Cushitic languages Linguistic descriptions of the three southern Highland East Cushitic languages include comprehensive descriptions or notes on these languages as a group, and monographs of Sidamo and Burji. Among the studies of these languages as a group are the following: Zaborski has presented comprehensive studies of the verb (1975: 101-122), he has repeatedly highlighted sections of the history of Cushitic languages, and one of his recent studies includes a chapter on Highland East Cushitic nominal plurals and other nominal characteristics (1986: 217-244). Of the publications which contain original information on the group of Highland East Cushitic languages, Hudson's article "Highland East Cushitic" (1976) is still the most general and comprehensive introduction available. Hudson covers the essential phonological, morphological, and major syntactic properties of these languages. His work of 1981 is based on much of the same information but presents the distinctive properties of the five main languages of this group, again including Sidamo, Gedeo, and Burji. Using selected characteristic Cushitic linguistic features, Hudson arrives at conclusions about the gradual development

IB. Background of the study 3 7

of these languages which he describes as growth of a "vine", from roots in Burji in the south, to younger parts of the vine in Hadiyya in the north. Bender and Cooper's 1974 article on mutual intelligibility includes Sidamo and Gedeo, but Burji is treated somewhat more marginally. The article compares the linguistic relations between these languages under various aspects. Mutual intelligibility is tested by means of questions about texts from each group. Wedekind 1980 (written 1975) is a phonological analysis of Gedeo and Burji with reference to Sidamo and Guji; the three phonological systems of Gedeo, Sidamo and Burji are compared. Monographs of Gedeo and Burji are comparatively few.

5.1 Monographs of Gedeo Linguistic publications on Gedeo are few, and we will try to give an exhaustive list here, as far as this is possible. Until Hudson's chapter on Highland East Cushitic appeared, there were only two rather short articles to be quoted on Gedeo (or "Derasa", as it used to be called): Moreno's "Appunti sulla ligua darasa" (1937), and a chapter by Cerulli, "Nozioni grammaticali del linguaggio dei Darasa" (chapter 22, pp. 225-242 in Cerulli 1938). In his very short description of Gedeo, Cerulli follows the same outline as in his Sidamo work (see below), but it is a very accidental collection of data, with headings such as "Notes on Phonetics, Pronouns, The Verb, Articles", and "Some Phrases". The most extensive work on Gedeo to date still is Hudson's publication of 1976. More recently, some preliminary descriptions of Gedeo have been produced, including a preliminary version of a trilingual Gedeo "word book", with glosses both in Amharic (Ethiopie script) and English. The potential readership envisaged were the Gedeo speakers themselves, and Ethiopian linguists (Wedekind 1978, 180 pp.). The book contains some 4000 short bilingual entries and a minimum of information on the morphology, as well as some aspects of the Gedeo culture. A contrastive study of the phonologies of Gedeo and Amharic has been written by Lulsegged Erkihun (unpublished masters thesis, Addis Abeba University, 1981). There also are Gedeo primers produced by a team with Shunt'u Loie, of the Department of Adult Education, and there is a short collection of Gedeo proverbs written in Ethiopie script, which appeared in the work papers of the Language Academy (Zena Lisan).

3 8 IB.

Background of the study

S2 Monographs of Burji The Burji language was mainly known through Moreno's article of 1938, "Note di lingua Burgi". More recently, two basic works on Burji have been published by Sasse: The first is Sasse's description of 1977 - largely based on material transcribed by Straube - and the other, Sasse's etymological dictionary of 1982 - which includes material provided by Hayward. Ato Sallee Chota, a Burji speaker highly respected by his people as an authority in questions of Burji ethics and tradition, has gathered a voluminous collection of ethnological and linguistic information. It is to be hoped that this material will be made available at least to the Ethiopian public in the near future. Charlotte Wedekind's description of the verb morphophonemics (1985) includes general information on the verb system and its morphology. The article shows that Burji has many features of the Highland East Cushitic languages, but that there also are traits such as "focus" marking which are not typical for this group of languages.

5 3 Monographs of Sidamo The Sidamo language has been documented better than most Ethiopian languages of the South, and the main descriptions are those of the Italian linguists Enrico Cerulli, Mario Marino Moreno, and - more recent - the outstanding work of Abba Armido Gasparini. The three monographies by Cerulli, Moreno, and Gasparini follow the classical pattern of word class descriptions; apparently they cover much of the same ground and the contents of these three books can be compared in a survey of the relevant sections (cf. below), i.e., Cerulli's "La lingua Sidamo" (1938: 43ff), Moreno's "Manuale di Sidamo" (1948), and Gasparini's "Grammatica pratica della lingua Sidamo" (1978). But in spite of these chapter headings which are very similar to each other, the three descriptions differ in the amount of detail which they display, and in some of the conclusions. It should be noted that in Moreno's work it is especially the conclusion which has had a powerful influence on Cushitic studies: In the appendix of this work, Moreno offers a more satisfying classification of Cushitic languages, and he assigns some languages of this cluster called "Sidamo" to different groups anticipating later classifications.

IB. Background of the study 39

Cerulli 1938 paragr.

Moreno 1940 paragr.

Gasparini 1978 page

Part I 1 2 3 7 9 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Part II

Part I 1 3 5 5 7 9 9 3 2 4 6 12 12 Part II

Part I -

10 34 52 2 18 38 -

8 30 -

70 91 Part II

Phonetics, Morphology Phonetics Pronouns The Verb Verb Forms The Noun Demonstratives Relative Suffix Article/Singular Adjectives Numerals Adverbs, "Prepositions" Conjugations Complex Sentences Texts

Abba Gasparini's grammar modestly presents itself as a pedagogical grammar, but it contains new analyses which go beyond the linguistic work of the predecessors. Gasparini's work is based on broad, useful data collections, and some of these had also been made available earlier in a preliminary form (cf. Gasparin 1977). His "Sidamo-English Dictionary" (1983) with about 9000 basic entries contains all words of high textual frequency. It includes a large amount of ethnological information, compared with other linguistic dictionaries. Both the "Dictionary" and the "Grammatica Pratica" contain a wealth of new illustrative material, and all of the data are given in a consistent transcription which is based on sound analyses. Although the presentation of Gasparini 1978 follows a pedagogical outline, it contains all modules of a classical description (cf. the list of chapter headings Conti Rossini - Moreno - Gasparini which was presented above). In addition to these larger works, some linguistic publications on Sidamo can now be anticipated to come from younger scholars: Kjell-Magne Yri speaks the language, and in his work he employs the tools of modern linguistics (cf. Yri 1985).

4 0 IB.

Background of the study

Abebe Gebre-Tsadik of the Addis Abeba University Linguistics Department has written on various aspects of the Sidamo language, including derivation and verb morphophonology.

6. The classification of Sidamo, Gedeo and Burji A broad and balanced treatment of the internal and external classifications of Sidamo, Gedeo, and Burji is that of Hudson who quotes Bender (1971) extensively (1976: 236-247).1 He outlines how, in the last few generations of Cushitic scholarship, the classification of these languages has developed, and why it settled on "Highland East Cushitic". Using much of his 1976 material, Hudson follows this up (1981) with further conclusions about the history of these languages: He conceives of this development as of splits which divide the cluster of Highland East Cushitic (HEC) languages progressively, from south to north. Hetzron's "Rift Valley" or "East Cushitic" hypothesis has opened the discussion of the "HEC" issue again, because he considers the inclusion of the Agew languages further north - mainly on the basis of evidence from verb systems (1980: 101). With Zaborski, Hudson has recently pointed out the strong evidence (which he finds especially in pronouns) for a conservative grouping (Hudson 1984: 7). To the discussion of the various conceivable groupings, namely, either

HEC+Burji + Agew HEC+Burji HEC all-inclusive,

or or

the present study only contributes indirectly, and on a different level: Since the present work focuses on syntax and text properties rather than lexical cognation and morphology, we will not pursue the issue of various classificatory aspects any further. Instead, we will refer to the recent contributions by Hetzron, Hudson, Sasse, and Zaborski at this point. Sidamo, Gedeo (formerly Darasa), and Burji, the languages of the present study, have always been regarded as "Cushitic" languages. Greenberg 1963 - and with Greenberg, Bender 1971 also - divide Cushitic languages into three groups: North, Central (i.e., Agew), East, and South.

IB.

Background of the study

41

It is the "East" Cushitic languages which include the group we are interested in: "Highland East Cushitic" (HEC). The H E C languages as a group are put on the same classificatory level as "Lowland East Cushitic" (LEC), and the conservative picture of Cush can be presented in the following tree:

Cushitic: North Cushitic East Cushitic Lowland East Cushitic: LEC Highland East Cushtiic: HEC Hadiyya Kambaata Sidamo Gedeo Burji (or Burji as a branch of its own?) South Cushitic

Within the group of Highland East Clushitic languages (or old north-east "Sidama"), the placement of Sidamo or Gedeo has never been a problem. Already Cerulli (1925: 664) recognises Darasa as close to Sidamo, and therefore a member of some group comprising Hadiyya, Kambata and Sidamo. Moreno (1937) is, after Cerulli 1925, the second to write about Gedeo-"Derasa" and to include it with the group of Kambaata, Hadiyya, Sidamo, and Burji. Cerulli (1938: 247) then recognises that Sidamo and Darasa form a rather close group, but he does not welcome Burji into the cluster which we call Highland East Cushitic today.

6.1 Questions about the inclusion of Burji with Highland East Cushitic Where there have been questions about these languages' classification, they have mainly been questions about the position of Burji. Conti Rossini (1937: 221) already views Burji as part of what we today would call Highland East Cushitic, but this view has not always been too clear. Burji really holds an "in-between" position, and this is apparent in many publications. The decision where to put Burji follows from the decision which features or items to consider "characteristic" and "decisive": Should these be morphological features? A selected set of morphological rules? Vocabulary items? Phonological peculiarities? Data of recent publications are finer-grained than those of

4 2 IB.

Background of the study

a few years ago, and the question can now be asked at a more delicate level; but it still is the same question: What shall we call decisive? Moreno 1938 was the first to provide the Burji material which supports the inclusion of Burji in an Eastern subgroup - then called "Burji-Sidamo". Today it is hardly possible to improve on the reasonable conclusions Hudson drew 1976 (p. 243): "Burji, if not treated as a HEC language, would certainly not be grouped with Konso-Gidole either", and he leaves open the following alternatives for the place of Burji in East Cushitic (1976: 244):

Burji included with Highland East Cushitic Oromo etc. Konso etc.

or

Burji on its own Highland East Cushitic Oromo etc. Konso etc.

Sasse 1980 chooses a presentation of sets of languages, rather than a genealogical tree, to show the relations between languages in contact (1980: 64). This graph of 1980 was originally designed to show the position of Dullay, but it offers a very important perspective here: the view of a linguist who has worked closely both with Dullay and with Burji - as well as with other Cushitic languages. This 1980 graph, if I read it correctly, makes Burji a member of three synchronic sets: of LEC (Lowland East Cushitic), of HEC (Highland East Cushitic), and of a Dullay-Burji set:

IB. Background of the study 43

Saho etc. Somali etc. Oromo etc.

Dullay

Burji

HEC

When Sasse later, and more specifically, considers the position of Burji within East Cushitic under a historical perspective (1982:14, cf. Heine et al., ed. 1981b: 196ff.), he clearly puts Burji into a Burji-HEC group - and as such, on one level with other East Cushitic languages:

East Cushitic (1982: 14; Proto East Cushitic) Saho-Afar Omo-Tana Oromoid HEC/Burji Dullay/Yaaku

62 Dialect variations within each language As far as the issue "languages" vs. "dialects" is concerned, usually the five speech forms Hadiyya, Kambaata, Sidamo, Derasa (now "Gedeo"), and Burji are listed a solidly established minimum - granted some special treatment for Burji. This is the group to which we shall refer as Highland East Cushitic, and the present work is concerned with the three "southern" Highland East Cushitic languages. The question of dialect differentiation is settled for the three southern languages: Sidamo, Gedeo and Burji have only little dialect variation - but it is negligible especially when one considers the large area where Sidamo is spoken, or when one compares this with the dialect (?) variations in the HadiyyaKambaata area. Some of the questions about dialect variations in the northern group of Highland East Cushitic languages can probably be settled now, because new material has become available recently through the work of Korhonen, Saksa and Sim 1986.

4 4 IB.

Background of the study

For the three southern languages, Sasse gives the following lists of dialects (1981b: 198): Sidamo- the Habela and Janjam dialects of Sidamo Gedeo - the Northern and Southern dialects of Gedeo Burji - the Highland and Lowland dialects of Burji. Concerning Gedeo, dialect variations are found with relation to (a) the realisation of phonemes involving glottal stops (e.g., tt' vs. ", i.e., glottalized t vs. glottal stop), (b) the choice of word final vowels, and a few word medial vowels (e.g., ka'- vs. ke'- 'to arise'), and - possibly the most important aspect today (c) the use or avoidance of loans from different languages (Amharic, GujiOromo). Sidamo dialects vary in the following ways: (a) the final vowels of nouns (a, e, and o) can differ from dialect to dialect, (b) glottalisation, implosion (d, r), and (c) devoicing can vary from dialect to dialect. To some extent, this kind of variation is also found across the Sidamo-Gedeo language border. As far as Burji dialect variations are concerned, there are variations in (a) voicedness of consonants, (b) labial implosion, (c) vowel assimilation and (d) sources of loan words. These variations explain the more striking phonological differences between the "Upper" and the "Lower" Burji dialects (Ch. Wedekind 1985). Until recently, especially until the appearance of Sasse's and Hayward's work, Burji "dialect differences" had to be suspected where actually there were defects in the presentation of Burji data. But today, most Burji dialect differences can be described with a small number of phonological rules.

63 Other studies of differences in speech forms Apart from the consideration of subsystems - such as the study of the verb system or word classes (Zaborski, Hetzron), general features (Hudson), and lexicostatistics (Bender) - there are Bender and Cooper's 1971/74 measurements of "listening comprehension". It is sufficient here to state that their measurements relate "well" with other scales. No total averages of comprehension percentages are available for Burji. Actually, for a language as different as Burji, scores would have to be very low: On a first encounter, a Burji person would simply have no reason to try and understand the speaker of a different language of the Highland East Cushitic group without the help of an interpreter. Recent

I Β. Background of the study

45

dialect statistics indicate that there are close relations within the northern group (60-63%) - compared with the southern group (52-53%): Alaba 63%; Hadiyya 62%; Kambata 60%; Sidamo 53%; Derasa 52% (Burji: no data given). The actual figures of lexicostatistic and feature measurements are discussed in section 6.5 below.

6.4 Lexicostatistic and other comparisons According to Bender 1971, the three languages Sidamo, Gedeo and Burji share the following percentages of basic vocabulary: Gedeo and Sidamo 60% (present study: 70%) Gedeo and Burji 37% (present study: 43%) Burji and Sidamo 41% (present study: 47%) Usually these figures given by Bender (1971: 174) still are quoted where comparisons are made - although Bender himself has always treated his figures with caution, and has regarded them as preliminary (1971: 173; 288). They are based on preliminary lists by Cain (Sidamo), Fargher (Gedeo), Stinson (Hadiya, Kambaata) and had been provided in the 1960's on the basis of tentative analyses. Bender's wordlist consists of 98 items (1971:169) selected on the basis of Swadesh's "first hundred". The data which Bender has used (1971: 242-245) can now be revised, because more recent sources have become available: the new data used here include Korhonen, Saska and Sim for Hadiyya and Kambaata (part 1 1986: 31-32 and part 2 1986: 71-86), Gasparini 1983 for Sidamo, our own field notes for Gedeo, and Sasse 1982 for Burji, supplemented by notes of Ch. Wedekind. All of these languages have been described in much more detail after 1971, and transcriptions can now be based on comparable phonological principles. A phonemic presentation of the word lists is therefore easily possible, and has been provided in the appendix. Hadiyya and Kambaata have been included to provide a basis for comparisons, and thus make the Sidamo-Gedeo-Burji figures more meaningful. A revision of lexicostatistic lists is of some theoretical interest beyond the immediate interest in the Higland East Cushitic languages here: When a word list is made after the closer study of the language, there will be a shift of perspective; a review of lexicostatistic wordlists will inevitably bring to light different cognates than spontaneous lists at some earlier stage of linguistic work.

46

IB.

Background of the study

So there can be an increase of percentages, and the assessment of such increased percentages is a matter of opinion. The following figures are one way of viewing the data now: Number of comparisons Hadiyya 93 Kambaata 93 94 Sidamo 93 94 98 Gedeo 93 94 98 98 Burji Percentage of cognates Hadiyya 66 Kambaata 62 66 Sidamo 56 56 70 Gedeo 44 45 47 43 Burji Bender's figures (extracted from 1971: 174) are these, for comparison: Percentage of cognates Hadiyya 56 Kambaata 53 62 Sidamo 42 49 60 Gedeo 38 39 41 37 Burji These are the differences between Bender 1971 and the present list: Differences against previous statistics: Hadiyya +10 Kambaata + 9 +4 Sidamo + 14 + 7 + 1 0 Gedeo +6 +6 +6 +6 Burji Are there any new conclusions to be drawn? Not really. With more information available, all percentages could be set higher than originally. But it is interesting to see that those languages which had been analysed as being close

I Β. Background of the study

47

to each other now seem to be even closer, while Burji - always considered far away - has only gained relatively few percentage points.

6.5 Shared features comparisons A comparison of Hudson's "shared features" measurement (1981: 110-112) with the revised lexicostatistic data shows that there is more similarity now than before. Cf. especially the solidly "close" lexicostatistic relations 66-66-70, and 47 for Sidamo-Burji, vs.43:

Ge

56

Bu

45

Bu

47

Ka

56

Ka

45

Bu 44 Ha 66 Ka 66 Si 70 Ge 43 Bu 47 Si

62

Si

56

Ge

62

Ha

56

Ha

44

Ha

Hudson measures closeness in terms of "shared features" - i.e., phonological, morphological and lexical features characterising any of the pairs. The SidamoGedeo-Burji part of shared-features relationships looks as follows (adapted from 1981: 112):

Si 30 shared features Ge 14 shared features Bu 08 shared features (!) Si

4 8 IB.

Background of the study

The two measurements of similarities, i.e., the lexicostatistic and "shared features" measurements, are similar. This similarity is also confirmed by the new wordlists - but there is one notable exception which remains to be explained: Burji is lexicostatistically still closer to Sidamo than it is to Gedeo - maybe insignificantly, but reaffirmedly. It is interesting to compare this result with morpho-phonological measurements (cf. section I C.2.2): under that aspect, Burji also is closer to Sidamo than to Gedeo in certain features.

SECTION C Typological characteristics In the following presentation, the focus will be on those points which have been identified as distinctive, characteristic, or typologically interesting for these Cushitic languages. In the next sections we will therefore refer especially to Greenberg (1959: 24f., 1963), and Houis (1971), as far as earlier works on African languages are concerned.

1. Phonological Characteristics As far as the phonology of these three languages is concerned, it should be pointed out (with Greenberg 1959) as typologically interesting that there is a comparatively "rich" system of consonants. Actually, the only remarkable set of consonants within this system is the set of glottalised stops: p', t', c \ k', and the implosive d'. As for most Ethiopian languages, it seems appropriate to systematically include the affricates with the stops. In typological studies, the phonological system of these Cushitic counts as balanced and stable - so much so that this same system of obstruents has been postulated as the Proto-Indo-European system recently - plus labialisation, minus implosive and with a gap, as usual, in the series of labials (Gamkrelidze 1981, cf. Hock 1986: 612; Maddieson 1984: 37). So the full consonant inventory of Sidamo, Gedeo and Burji today can be presented as in chart 2.

50 IC. Typological characteristics

Chart 2: Consonants of the Southern Highland East Cushitic languages ··

t

c

k

b

d

j

g

ρ'

t'

c'

k'

sh

h

d' f

s *b

*c

m 1 r w

The asterisks mark differences between the phoneme inventories of the three languages: *(a) Burji has a ρ here; *(b) Burji has a ζ here; *(c) Burji has a palatal nasal here, which will be transcribed as ny. The latter may be at home in loans only.

In all other points, the three

southern inventories are identical. The above set of consonants of Sidamo, Gedeo, and Burji relates to the Proto East Cushitic system as reconstructed by Sasse (1979: 5, 1982: 18) in the following way:

IC.

Typological characteristics 51

Chart 3: Comparison with the consonants of Proto East Cushitic (?) b

(0 (t d z)

(?)

(d')

(0

00

(' ')

(kg) (k')

(g) (d· k>) (d')

f m

(s sh)

(s sh)

(k h H w)

η r

(w)

(y)

Some sounds in chart 3 of proto-phonemes are given without parentheses; this indicates that there are direct correspondences between the Proto East Cushitic phonemes and today's Southern Highland East Cushitic phonemes. Parentheses indicate that the relationship is more complex than that. E.g., there may be more than one Proto East Cushitic phoneme behind one single phoneme of today. As far as further characteristics of the phonology are concerned, both Greenberg and Houis would point out the CVC syllable structure as a typical trait. Again, this must not be understood as an indication of some extraordinary complexity: It certainly is true that Burji, especially in its Guji loans, has a larger number of consonants in the C 2 slot of C'VC 2 syllables than some other Cushitic languages. In the other languages of this study however, the syllable structure is not surprisingly rich at all: The C2 codas of all C'VC 2 syllables can only be filled with sonorants or glides: 1; m; n; r, or w; y; This is much less than e.g. Oromo has in the C2 set. For lexical phonology it should be noted that the overwhelming percentage of words start with h or ', and none with c or p' (cf. Booij 1984: 251 f.). Two remarkable exceptions to Cushitic and Afro-Asiatic constraints on syllable patterns have to be noted: (a) CCC sequences and (b) nasalisation, (a) Syllable patterns in Gedeo allow for CCC sequences (cf. Wedekind 1980: 141). The phonology of the language here really is in a dilemma between, on the one hand, maintaining the phonological ban on CCC sequences and, on the other hand, using gemination for imperative plurals. So if a verb already has a CC sequence where gemination (for imperatives) should produce one, then it is morphology which wins; cf. the CCC sequence in darbbe 'throw! pi.' of the verb darb· 'to throw". Sidamo and Burji do not have this particular rule of imperative

5 2 IC.

Typological characteristics

morphology, but R. Sim seems to find the same in the northern group of Highland East Cushitic languages (oral communication), (b) The other Cushitic irregularity concerns nasalisation. In a Cushitic language one would not really expect to find nasalisation in addition to CVN syllables (where Ν is the nasal m or n). Absence of nasalisation could even be considered typical for Cushitic languages, and Houis would note this as a contrastive feature where Afro-Asiatic languages are compared with languages further west. However, nasalisation does exist in some of these languages, as has been noted recently. It is very rare though, and there are only a few isolated nasalised vowels in some of these Cushitic languages. Cf., for instance, Gedeo hii'i 'take! (sg.)' which has a nasalised vowel ii. These few examples are somewhat disturbing because they cannot be explained away. They are not just part of an ideophonic subsystem (Wedekind 1980: 140, and R. Sim, oral communication).

1.1 A note on accent and pitch The absence of tone in these Afroasiatic languages counts as a typological contrastive trait for Greenberg (1959: 24f.). All pitch and accent movements can be explained on the basis of morphological shape and vowel length rather than tonemicity. Pitch movements in languages of this area must not be disregarded, as has been noted by various scholars. In certain Cushitic languages of Ethiopia, especially in languages like Afar, Saho or Borana-Oromo, pitch is an integral part of the suprasegmental complex, so much so that utterances with correct stress placement will be rejected if pitch is wrong. But even in these languages, tone is not contrastive on the phonological level (Weidert's level L2, Weidert 1983). The Guji dialect of Oromo is spoken in the area around Gedeo and Burji, and as far as stress/pitch phenomena are concerned, it does not appear to be very different from the Highland East Cushitic languages. In his recent study of a northern Oromo "tone system" (Owens 1985a: 49), it is obvious from the following remarks that the surface structure of this language can be puzzling indeed. Owens writes: "The basic tone on a nominal is unpredictable, though this statement is only partly correct." (p.29) The author calls the system a "tone system", but later he adds, "I think pitch-accent is the more accurate term" (p.35), and he concludes this description of what he calls both "tone system" and "pitchaccent system" by saying "it is perhaps not one which is commonly encountered in African languages, or indeed in many languages at all" (p.49). To conclude the discussion of suprasegmentale, it can be said that there is no categorial

IC.

Typological characteristics 5 3

difference between the behaviour of suprasegmentals in Guji or Borana on the one hand, and Highland East Cushitic languages on the other. These languages are not tone languages, but stress languages. For Burji, the conditions for stress placement can be exemplified in a straightforward way: Stress falls on the final vowel if the vowel is long, but on the penultimate, if it is short, and pitch goes with stress. "Length" here is the underlying length. (Wedekind 1980, Sasse 1982: 17, Ch. Wedekind 1985 all state the same rule, and so does Hayward, in terms of "mora" quantities.) In Sidamo the picture is not radically different, but it is complicated by the interplay between vowel length, consonant gemination and compensatory shortening of vowels. Part of the complication lies in the fact that compensatory lengthening or shortening does not apply throughout the whole language. In Gedeo, relations between length, stress, and pitch are basically the same as in Burji again; but the relations to underlying vowel "length" cannot be demonstrated as easily as for Burji. For Gedeo morphemes, the same stress rule applies as for Burji and some LEC languages of this area - with the additional complication however, that word final vowel length is not visibly contrastive in many cases (if one agrees to call it underlying "length").2 The rule for Gedeo is: Stress falls on the final marked vowel (underlyingly "long" or "heavy"). Where the final vowel is unmarked, stress falls on the penultimate. High pitch goes with stress (and is therefore predictable). The complications are: "markedness" or "underlying length" of final vowels is defined not only by phonology (inherent vowel properties), but also by morphology (morpheme class), syntactic function (case), and pragmatic function (theme, topic). The following examples should serve as illustrations. Some of them are minimal pairs across morpheme classes. Note that these words are acceptable when pronounced without any differences of pitch. But to disregard differences of loudness would make the pronunciation unacceptable or ambiguous. In all of these examples, the placement of stress is predictable as soon as vowel length, morpheme class, grammatical function, and pragmatic function are given. The latter is important: without pragmatic function, stress cannot always be predicted. Examples: Gedeo stress In the following examples, stress is on that syllable which is underlined. Note that instead of underlining, morpheme final vowel length could have been used as "marker". So instead of writing gedelo, it would also have been possible to

5 4 I C. Typological characteristics

write underlying word final length: gede'oo, to provide the sufficient basis for stress placement. (1) gede^o 'iso 'isoo'-o huje huj-e 'ise 'isee'-e lisi 'isi

Gedeo (name) 3.ps.sg.absol.; he 3.ps.sg-obj., him work (noun) work-PERF (verb) she, absolute 3.sg.f.-obj., her he, subject, non-topic, non-theme he, subject, topic or theme

Words have their lexical shape, and for non-final vowels, length is a matter of lexical phonology. For final vowels, it is the morpheme class and the syntactic/pragmatic function which determine vowel length - and via vowel length, stress placement - and via stress, pitch. Such morpheme classes are, for instance, nouns vs. ordinal numbers, nouns vs. verbs, or roots vs. affixes. So far, the stress rules have only been considered with reference to monomorphemic words. In complex words, the lexical and grammatical suffixes bring some turbulence into the otherwise calm and solid landscape of morpheme identity. But even for multi-morpheme words, the integrative adaptations of word medial pitch can still be derived from the constituent morpheme shapes.

2. Morphophonemic characteristics In the morphophonemics of Highland East Cushitic languages, the most unstable and most interesting spots are the end of the verb root and the end of the verb stem. Derivational and inflectional suffixes cause a number of changes in verbs. It is especially the verb theme final consonants which change, and all three of the southern group of Highland East Cushitic languages have large numbers of verb final consonant changes. The distinctive phonological behaviour of each language, as well as the relationships between the three languages, can be characterised by those rules which either concern all three of these languages, or which single out just one of them.

IC.

Typological characteristics 5 5

The transition from the rules of one language to the rules of another cannot be described as gradual replacements of one rule after the other -proceeding, for example, from south to north. Relationships between the three languages, and their various sets of rules, are more complex than a one-dimensional string of diachronic rule sequencing. So the morphophonemic viewpoint offers an interesting perspective on Hudson's claim that the Highland East Cushitic "vine" has split up in a series of uni-directional steps: the morphophonemic rules have not spread uni-directionally. The relationships of these rules will now be exemplified in the following sections. The data for the generalisations below have been found in Abebe Gebre-Tsadik's recent paper on Sidamo (1985). For Gedeo and Burji there are Ch. and K. Wedekind's descriptions of 1985, as well as unpublished field notes. In each language there are two derivation suffixes and two person/number suffixes which can be compared (imperative plurals could also be included here, but there are gaps in our information). In a generalized form, there are the following suffixes: -S 'causative' (where -S stands for -s or -ss); -D' 'middle voice', or 'auto-benefactive' (where -D' stands for an implosive d' or some underlying glottal element plus post-alveolar or alveolar articulation) -and there are inflection suffixes: -t '2sg/pl/3f as well as -n 'plural'. Theoretically, five groupings are possible: Either all three of the languages show the same changes - or Burji differs; or Sidamo differs; or Gedeo differs or all three differ from each other. The rules will be given in that order.

2.1 Rules concerning all three languages The only morphophonemic process which is identical for all three languages is the following form of the three-consonant rule: CC+n

-> CCin

where CC is any geminated consonant or consonant cluster, and i is the epenthetic vowel. (Note, however, that unlike epenthetic i in Ethiosemitic languages, the epenthetic vowel here is identical with the full short phoneme i both in quality and quantity.)

5 6 IC.

Typological characteristics

Also identical for all three languages are those cases where no real changes occur: η t 1

+ η -> nn + t -> tt, and + η -> 11

But this is already the full list of solidly identical rules - as far as these rules can now be documented for all three languages. A number of processes are optional in one language and obligatory in the other two - which leads to alternative forms. In some cases, Gedeo is the language having the alternative surface form, in other cases, Burji: Sidamo, (Gedeo and) Burji: η + S-> ns (Gedeo: also nc) r + S-> rs (Gedeo: also rc) Sidamo, CC + r + r +

Gedeo (and Burji): t -> CCit (Burji: also CCid) t -> rt (Burji: also rd) η -> rr (Burji: also rn)

22 Rules in which one language differs Rules in which Burji differs (cf. also 2.1 above) Most of the morphophonemic differences within this group of Highland East Cushitic languages are those where Burji differs. The causative, for instance, has the surface form -ss in Burji. In some dialect forms, Burji also allows for a larger number of consonant clusters (gs, sk, fs, etc). CC+ g + f + b + d + j + g +

S -> S -> S -> D'-> D'-> D'-> D'->

CCis gis fis pp' tt' cc' kk'

(Burji-> (Burji-> (Burji-> (Burji-> (Burji-> (Burji -> (Burji ->

CCiss) giss/gs/sk) fiss/fs/ss) dd'/bad'), also other vd. cons.: dad') jad') gad')

IC.

Typological characteristics

1 m η r

+ + + +

D'-> Ί D'->'m D'->'η D'-> dd'

(Burji -> (Burji-> (Burji-> (Burji->

Γ, Sidamo dialects), other sonor.: m', Sidamo dialects) η', Sidamo dialects) r', cf. N')

g b g m

+ + + +

t η η η

(Burji-> (Burji - > (Burji -> (Burji ->

dd) bin) gin) nn)

-> -> -> ->

gg nb ng mm

57

Rules in which Sidamo differs (cf. also 2.1 above) Gedeo and Burji: CC+ D'-> CVd'(Sidamo -> CCir) c' + D'-> c'Vd'(Sidamo -> c'ir) 1 + t -> Id (Sidamo -> It) Rules in which Gedeo differs (cf. also 2.1 above) Sidamo f + s + sh + h/k + Passv.

and Burji: D'-> fVD' (Gedeo-> D'-> sVD' (Gedeo -> D'-> shVD'(Gedeo -> D'-> hVD' (Gedeo -> -> -am (Gedeo ->

If), other vl. fricatives: Is) lsh) lk) -em)

Rules in which all three languages differ There are many cases where rules are different for each language. Not all of them can be listed. The following example is typical: Sidamo takes the glottal element of the underlying -D'; Gedeo - as the only language - has the postalveolar -1 surfacing (note that Gedeo has a retroflex 1), and Burji is conservative: Sidamo: t + D' -> tt' Gedeo: t + D' -> It Burji: t + D' -> tad'

5 8 IC.

Typological characteristics

23 Conclusions concerning morphophonemic differences So all of the five theoretically possible groupings have actually been found. Note that this includes rules which are common (only) to the two most distant languages. With its geographically remote location and its closer contacts to Omotic and Lowland East Cushitic languages - rather than Highland East Cushitic - Burji should display the largest number of differences against the other two languages - one would think. What is remarkable however is the fact that there also are a number of rules in which Burji is closer to Sidamo than to Gedeo (7 rules), and that these are more than the rules shared only with Gedeo (3 rules) - i.e., the language which is geographically closer: Sidamo 18 Gedeo 07 03 Burji These comparisons of language differences are based on the above lists of morphophonemic rules. The question is whether these lists are representative and whether therefore any quantitative comparisons are justified. The rules are representative only in the following ways: (a) they cover most of the processes now known to occur in these languages, and those rules have been left out where (accidentally?) the relevant facts were not documented for all three languages; (b) quantitative comparisons are possible, because no generalising symbol "C" was used for different sets of consonants behaving in the same way. As a conclusion, it can be said that this morphophonemic measure of language differences relates to the other measurements in the following ways: The relation Sidamo/Gedeo can be made the point of comparison which consistently is the largest relative difference. If this difference is made the maximum unit (1.0) for all comparisons (i.e., Sidamo:Gedeo is 1.0), then all other differences are smaller, with the exact figures as follows:

Sidamo/Sidamo/ Gedeo Burji 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.7 1.0 0.5 0.4 1.0

Gedeo/Measure Burji 0.8 Intelligibility 0.6 Basic Lexicon Selected Features 0.9 0.2 Morphophonology

Authors Bender et al. Bender 1971 Hudson 1981 (cf. above)

/ C Typological characteristics 5 9

So this morphophonemic result agrees with measurements of mutual intelligibility, basic lexicon, and grammatical morphemes - in that Sidamo and Burji are closer to each other than Gedeo and Burji. Hudson's conclusions on the other hand, based on comparisons of various diagnostic sets of shared features, agree with Bender and Cooper's measurements of root morphemes and geographical distance: they show that Gedeo and Burji are closer to each other than Sidamo and Burji.

3. Morphological characteristics To characterise the morphology of these Cushitic languages, Houis (1971) would point out the complex word structures as a typical feature. This is one of the contrastive traits of Cushitic languages, when seen in the overall African context. However, a global characterisation of Highland East Cushitic word forms as "complex" would not be true; nouns for instance are comparatively simple, and nominal compounding is minimal and - to my knowledge - unusual. The nominal morphology can best be sketched with reference to the syntax of the phrase, cf. sections 3.2, 3.4. From Hadiyya verbs, for instance, R. Sim (1985: 21) has some rather complex examples to offer, such as the following:

(2) 'anabbab-akk-o'o-(I)la-yyo-nnihe 'read-3PS:polite-0-tag-NEG-interrogative' 'you (polite) have read, haven't you?' Compared with Hadiyya, Gedeo may not even be a very complex language in this regard, and Gedeo does not have object suffixes or tag questions. But verb forms can be rather complex when several suffixes - derivational, inflectional and adverbial or sentence final mood suffixes - come together. The following forms have verbs at their centre. Both of these examples are not constructed ad hoc, but taken from texts: (3) bar-s:iis-annu-wwa-baa-'ni-nna 'learn-CAUS:CAUS-COLL-PL-PLACE-SOURCE-CONN' 'And by teachers' (Literally: 'and from the place of the group of many who cause to learn')

6 0 IC.

Typological characteristics

(4) bar:at-en-d-in-e-mma-ssha-n-de-mnia-ba-'a learn:DERIV-PASS-2PL-PERF-3PS:PAST-as-EMPH-IDT-PAST-NEG-CONCL 'It really wasn't like you (PL) had been made used to.' In the following section, the very regular pattern of verb construction will be sketched for an overview.

3.1 Verb word patterns Verbs are built according to a pattern of two, three or four layers of suffixations: The innermost kernel is the monosyllabic root. It can be extended by one or two derivations, and then there follow one or two layers of person-and-tense suffixes, plus pragmatic or modal suffixes. First the stem: The stem can integrate one or two derivational suffixes with its root, according to the following scheme and example. (5) Verb stem: Verb root -derivation (-derivation) 'ass-ed' 'do -fononeself A short subordinate verb form - whose Ethiosemitic parallels traditionally are called "gerund" or "short imperfective" - consists, minimally, of a stem with one person/number and one tense/aspect suffix. (6) Short verb: Verb Suffix series 1 Stem -PS/NUM -TNS/ASP 'ass--ed' -in -e do -BEN-PL -PERF 'they, having done for themselves' The finite and semi-finite verbs - which are the large majority - will add another "suffix" series to this. Under a different perspective it could be said that these verbs merge with a former auxiliary and its suffixes. One auxiliary of this

IC.

Typological characteristics 61

kind still survives in the Gedeo "verb of existence", hed'- 'be-there; exist'. So a second cycle of affixations is attached to the main verb, which embeds the main verb into the auxiliary. The remains of this auxiliary comes to the surface in certain forms; cf. the -'e in brackets here. (7) Finite Verb: Verb Suffix series 1 (AUX) Suffix series 2 Stem -PS/NUM -TNS/ASP -PS/NUM -TNS/ASP 'ass:ed' -in -e (-'e) -nn -e do:BEN -PL -PERF (exist) -IPS -ACTU 'we did it for ourselves' The majority of finite verbs however have more than these three suffix layers: Usually there is one more suffix which closes the verb and its proposition, leading on to the verb which comes. "This involves the use of verb-final particles which control the flow of discourse, such as topic-maintaining-switching particles, presupposed versus asserted modal particles, etc." This is how Givón describes the dynamics of such suffixes for a different language family - but from the same discourse perspective. Givón says this with reference to basic strategies of SOV languages of other parts of the world (Givón 1979: 276, footnote). In every "multipropositional discourse" (1979: 300), i.e. in most verbs which were not merely produced upon elicitation of paradigms, these Cushitic verb forms will end in suffixes which either indicate change of subject, flow of time, change of worlds, or change of attitude. In terms of actual suffix morphemes: There will be suffix signals such as "same or different subject" (SS/DS); adverbial signals indicating "same time" or "same chain of events" (ST/SC), signals indicating with which world the speaker now identifies (-MOOD), or determiner suffixes which signal that a referee is now considered fully described (-DET). In this way verbs can build up complex morphological structures. (8) Sentence final verb: Verb Verb suffixes Stem -PS/NUM-TNS/ASP'ass:ed' -in-e do:BEN-PL-PERF 'But we really have done it for

AUX-PS/NUM-TNS/ASP -'e-nn-e -be-lPS-ACTU ourselves!'

Sentence suffix -MOOD -kk'a -indeed

6 2 IC.

Typological characteristics

3.2 Characteristics of phrases and adjectives Sidamo, Gedeo and Burji are languages of an area of transitions, as far as noun phrase structures are concerned. Different types of noun phrase structures meet in this rift valley area, and Banti (1986) has pointed out that it is features such as the use of determiners ("definite" articles), gender agreement, and the order of noun phrase elements, which can differ from one East Cushitic language to the other. We will therefore use and build on Banti's highlighted characterisation of morphological NP types, rather than give a full description of noun phrases in this section. Where relevant data have been missing in descriptions of Highland East Cushitic languages so far, these will be added here, with comments. Constructions already described elsewhere will not be described in full again. Among other NP features, Banti distinguishes the characteristic attributive and predicative constructions of Sidamo and Burji. Chart 4 supplements Banti's summary characterisation of East Cushitic constructions (pp. 4, 7).3 It is known that in these Cushitic languages genuine adjectives are very few. This is obvious for each of these languages, especially when adjectives are contrasted with adjectival nouns - i.e. those (feminine) nouns which express semantic "qualities". Moreno had the perspective that stative and qualificative verbs compensate for the small number of Sidamo adjectives (1940: 90). If this section were only concerned with the few genuine adjectives, its size would be somewhat out of proportion. However, attributes such as stative verb participles or nominal genitives share many of the functional as well as structural properties of genuine adjectives.

Chart 4: NP Types, Adjectives Sidamo

Gedeo

Attributive: + (la) + *2ab + + *2cd - *1 + *la

+ *2cff + *2cff

Burji

+ 3b - *3b

Construction

[Noun Adjective] sequence [Adjective Noun] sequence [Def. Adjective] [Adjective-Def.] Gender Agreement

/ G Typological characteristics 6 3

Predicative: - (lb) + *4b

+

+

+

+ *4ab + *4ab

[AdjectiveJSent. [Def. Adjective] [Adjective-Def.] Gender Agreement

Chart 4 gives a survey of contrastive phrase features. 4 Items marked with an asterisk * are those which so far had not been identified, and they will be exemplified below. The numbers are those of new data below. The following remarks and illustrations refer to the starred numbers in chart 4.

3.2.1 Gedeo phrases Attributive constructions: (9) 2amanji 'eIo(o)-ki; manjo 'eIo(o)-tt'a 'a/the good man; a/the good woman (obj.)' 2bfad'acci mitti 'horse one

golalo(o)-ki white(a/the); a white horse (subj.)'

2c'elo(o)(-ki) manji; 'elo-tt'a manjo 'a/the good man (subj.); a/the good woman (obj.)' 2d mitte golalo(o) (-ka) fad'acco 'a white horse (obj.)'

Gedeo is an interesting case of balance or transition between the state of languages which have a phrase medial 'definite' -Κ (-T) suffix (e.g., Daasenech) and those which don't: In Gedeo, the suffix both is there and isn't. Note that the phrase medial masculine form of the 'definite article' suffix -kV has been put in parentheses, because it will be elided in normal speech. But it will be supplied in slow, careful pronunciation. So with masculine forms the suffix is understood even where it is not pronounced. In the marked, feminine form -It' the suffix is

(AlC.

Typological characteristics

always there, but in the unmarked, masculine form it is not. (For Daasenech a complete reverse of this state seems to be true, Banti 1986: 4.) Apart from other reasons which may lie behind the weakening of this suffix, reasons such as language contact or influence from the predicative construction, there certainly is a (simple?) explanation from phonetics: In Cushitic languages, a non-geminated k in intervocalic position tends to be weakened. A neighbouring vowel can be lengthened to compensate for this loss - and this process will lead to constructions which on the surface are like those in Burji or Sidamo. Concerning the meaning of these suffixes it must be said that the suffix kV/tfV usually is described as a "definite" suffix. But since (with reservations given above) it is "obligatory", it must be semantically void. It actually has so little "defining" power that the indefinite/numeral mitte in its discourse sense 'one, a certain, a' is compatible with the so-called 'definite article' suffix kV/tfV, as has been exemplified in phrases such as 2b and 2d 'a horse'. The functions of these "articles" will become clearer in discussions of discourse context (section A). Predicative constructions: (10) 4a 'isi 'elo-(k)e-ni; 'ise 'elo-tt'e-ni 'he/it is good; she/it is good.' 4b 'elo-(k)e; 'is it (m) good?

'elo-tt'e is it (f.) good?'

4c 0 (m) fayya-te; 0 (0 fayya-te 'it (m) is the-good (f);it (f.) is the-good (f).' 4d 0 (m) fayya-n-de; 0 (f) fayya-n-de 'it (m) is the-good (f);it (f.) is the-good (f).' (emphatic) 4e 0(m) fayya-ti-ke; 0(0 fayya-ti-tt'e 'it (m) is of-good (f); it (f.) is of-good (f).'

All illustrations of no. 4a-d can be translated as 'it is good' - but the first examples are "genuine" adjectives, the others, adjectival nouns. Genuine adjectives are few.

I C. Typological characteristics 6 5

So in Gedeo, the genuine adjectives have gender agreement also in predicative constructions, while adjectival nouns do not. Note that the intervocalic k can be elided - but this is less frequently the case here than in attributive phrase medial position. Note that in 4a there is a suffix -(n)ni which could be translated as 'Conclusive mood suffix". It can be viewed either as a stative verb 'to be', or as a mere sentence final suffix indicating "Conclusiveness". In questions (cf. 4b) it is not used. In all other environments this suffix does not have a stative-verb-like role but expresses sentence mood. Two examples of "adjectives" have been used here: in 4a-b 'elo- 'good' is of the "adjective" type which is closer to a verb, while the other example used (4c-e) is of the fayya 'fine, well' type. This is closer to a noun or nominal than words of the 'elo- type. Actually, apart from its semantics there are no reasons for calling this class anything else but a "noun", or a "quality noun". This is a word which is feminine in itself, even where it refers to masculine objects. This would explain why the 'feminine article' -te is used in constructions like "the man is good". Or is the Gedeo -te a stative verb after all? The corresponding form in Sidamo has been identified as a "verb" in some analyses of Sidamo. Instead of saying that the Gedeo word fayya is a feminine noun and therefore asks for feminine gender agreement by -te, one could of course say there are no gender distinctions in the "adjective" word class of the type fayya 'well'), and therefore the apparent feminine suffix -te is an undeclinable stative verb of no gender. This argument is not as empty as it may appear: It must be said here that all states and actions in Gedeo are "feminine" in the same sense as the English word "it", in "it is cold", refers to an undefined 3.ps.sg. "neutral" in English.

322 Burji phrases Attributive constructions:

(H) 3a dansaa ruuda; dansaa mandee; 'a good brother; a good girl' 3b dansaa rudee-gu 'the good brother'

66

IC.

Typological characteristics

In Burji, the adjective normally precedes the head noun, and no definite suffix is attached to it. This is true both in masculine and feminine (or plural) phrases. A "definite suffix" can however be attached to the end of a phrase, under conditions to be described with reference to texts (cf. line 3b -gu).

3.23 Sidamo phrases Attributive constructions: (12) l a shiima beetto;

shiimu beetti

'a/the little girl; a/the little boy (subj.)' (Gasparini 1978: 10)5 Predicative constructions: (13) l b 'isi/'ise lowo-te; duume-te; danca-te 'he/she is-big; is-red; is-good' The Sidamo examples no. l a show that there is no definite suffix but that there still is, in fact, gender agreement with genuine adjectives of the type shiima 'small'. However, this is linked case marking. The opposite is true for predicative constructions and for other kinds of words that could be called adjectival: With predicative constructions there is no gender agreement in Sidamo. Gender agreement in attributive constructions does not necessarily imply that there must be gender agreement in predicative constructions too.

3 3 Conclusions about phrases and "articles" The so-called "definite article" suffixes -kV 'masc.' and -tV or -tfV 'fem.' (where V stands for various vowels) have two functions: On the one hand, they seem to function as "definite" or "determination" markers - and on the other hand they just serve as phrasal glue. In phrase final position these suffixes are syntactic signals, but in phrase medial postion, it seems, they merely establish coherence. If these so-called "articles" do not really function to signal "definiteness", but syntactic borders, then they should be superfluous where structures are

IC.

Typological characteristics 6 7

straightforward: They could easily be elided - and they often are. In these SOV languages, functional signals are expected to come phrase final. So the sequence where a noun is followed by a definite suffix and an ajective does not occur. (Cf. 3.2 above). Languages then which have both constructions - i.e., (a) an adjective with a definite suffix followed by a noun, as well as (b) a noun followed by an adjective with a definite suffix - really are in a state where one suffix still functions in two different ways. A change of its morphological shape could be anticipated. In Gedeo this change already happens to be supported by the phonological weakness of -k /V_V. In all texts analyses below, the signal "DET", "Determination" (or "-DET" in the case of suffixes) will be used to refer to so-called "definite" articles and other "defining" phrases in all three languages. This assigns the same terminology to items which historically seem to be "the same". But it does not follow that the syntax of "definiteness" is the same in these three languages. If - as it appers to be the case in Gedeo - genuine "definiteness markers" are those which stand phrase final, then phrase medial "articles" are not necessarily "definite articles": The exact function of these two can only be defined with reference to entire texts.

33.1 Word classes around adjectives Adjectives often are a small class and tend to have properties of other morphological classes: either of verbs or of nouns. Adjectives will be discussed here as sets where class membership is a matter of clines. There are gradual differences between Highland East Cushitic "adjectives" and other morphological classes:6

noun > adjectival noun > adjective > middle voice verb > verb

33.1.1 The cline noun-adjective In Gedeo, there are a few "true adjectives", there are "adjectival nouns", and there also is a small group of verbs which can be viewed as de-adjectivals or middle-voice verbs. In Sidamo and Burji these matters are similar, but Gedeo adjectives will serve as examples. Adjectival words of the "nominal" kind will be regarded first, and adjectival verbs will be presented later.

6 8 IC.

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There are some semantic notions which could be expressed by morphological adjectives just as well as by nouns. The difference does not seem to matter, and this is reflected by the morphology: In the Gedeo morphology for instance, there are many constructions where no morphological clue marks adjectives vs. nouns. In such constructions, nouns which design qualities cannot be distinguished from adjectives, and slots open for adjectives can also be occupied by nouns. Consequently, the morphological differences are inconspicuous. The only construction where Gedeo adjectives differ from nouns - and this is a solid formal morphological test - is the descriptive NP. But even here it is only in the feminine gender that adjectives differ from nouns. Therefore the test works only where the construction is built around a feminine noun. This can be exemplified as follows: In expressions of the type "a-thing is of-quality-X", where the predicate "to be of-quality-X" can be expressed by an "adjectival noun" or a "genuine adjective", the adjective takes the suffix -tt'e 'it-is X' (description by quality assignment), while nouns take the suffix -te 'it-is X' (identification as a certain entity). In both cases, the semantic relation is a relation between an "item" and its quality. But the difference between an adjectival and a nominal construction will only be visible where the "item" happens to be a noun of feminine gender. Examples are given with the feminine noun yaane 'matter': Adjectival nouns, predicative (14) Pred.: yaane danca-te Attr.: yaane danca-ti-tt'a or: danca-ti-tt'a yaane True Adjectives: (15) Pred. yaane 'elo-tt'e Attr. yaane 'elo-tt'a or: 'elo-tt'a yaane

and attributive use: 'The matter is good (lit. is goodness)' 'a matter of beauty1 'a matter of b e a u t /

'The matter is good' 'a good matter' 'a good matter'

The difference between "true adjectives" and "adjectival nouns" does not show in constructions involving masculine subject nouns: Adjectival nouns: (16) 'isi danca-ke 'he/it is handsome (literally:) handsomeness'

IC.

Typological characteristics 6 9

True Adjectives: (17) 'isi 'elo-ke 'he/it is good' So where the noun is masculine, there is no difference between descriptive and equative clauses, i.e. between adjectives and nouns. Since the masculine subclass of nouns is the unmarked, larger set of nouns, nouns and adjectives will behave the same most of the time. Semantically, the "adjectival nouns" can function just like "proper" adjectives. There is a cline whose two end points are "noun" and "adjective", with "adjectival nouns" in the middle. There are, on the one end, those nouns which are not inclined to adopt adjectival behaviour: nouns which denote the solid objects of the world and which do not have the slightest connotation of "quality". In Gedeo, there are nouns which can have both genders - but the "very nominal" nouns tend to have only one lexical gender, and most of them, the masculine. (18) mine biso sano

masc. masc. fem.

'house' 'body" 'nose'

In the middle of the cline there are those Gedeo nouns which are similar to adjectives in that they can be feminine or masculine: especially singulative nouns with the suffix -cco 'singulative', and agent and instrument nouns with the suffix · a-n-jo 'agentive' behave this way: (19) 'akeekisanjo 'akeekisanjo hujallo hujallo

'masc.: 'femin.: 'masc.: 'fem.:

male leader' female leader(s)' hard worker' hard working woman'

Like these bi-gender nouns, the adjectives also take both feminine and masculine endings. The morphological difference between adjectives and bigender nouns is small, and where a Noun Phrase consists of an adjective alone, the construction is morphologically ambiguous: adjectives and nouns cannot be told apart. These word classes can be represented by the following examples:

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Typological characteristics

Adjectival Nouns: Qualities (20) dakkaama 'weakness, weak one' danca 'beauty, beautiful one' donna 'greed; greedy one' dooma 'barrenness, barren land, plant, or person' duuda 'dumbness, child not speaking yet' goofa 'tiredness, tired person' 'folded item' jacca'a jolola 'laziness, lazy one' t'uro'a 'dirt, dirty one' 'other' wele 'strong, brave man' worba 'cowardice, coward' yara Adjectival Nouns: Quantities (21) diddama '(a group of) twenty" d'ibba '(the quantity) hundred' kuma '(a group of) thousand' fakkana 'a lot, many"

33.1.2 Genuine adjectives On the other end of the cline, there are the "genuine adjectives". In Gedeo, they are few. The list below might well be exhaustive: The number of adjectives may be a few dozen only. It is mainly "qualities" such as colours, sizes, shapes of things, or moral qualities of animate things, which characterize the semantics of "genuine adjectives". Numerals are included here also, but they denote rank or order rather than quantity. Adjectives: Shapes, Sizes, Spatial Properties

(22) k'eerra haruma ba'la c'u'ma k'a'Ia

'long' 'short' 'wide - also: generous, foolish' 'narrow, tight' 'thin'

IC.

happ'a lumo shiit'o shik'o

'thin' (of paper or cloth) 'big, tall, much' 'small, little 'near, close'

Adjectives: Other qualitites (23) 'elo 'good' fuggo 'evil, bad' c'a"a 'clear' fayya 'well, sound' 'new5 haaro dulia 'old, worn' 'ink'a 'raw' k'iida 'cold' meeyya 'female' labba 'male' shakk'a 'weak, soft, kind' shamo 'wet, moist' sbolla 'light, not heavy5 Adjectives: Colour Terms (24) diimmo 'red' golalo 'white' haanja 'green' t'illo 'black, dark' Adjectives: Ordinal and (25) taakka / taakkeesso langa / langeesso sakka / etc. heeno yo'o

Indefinite Numbers '1st' '2nd, another' '3rd' etc. 'little, few5 'much, m a n /

Typological characteristics 7 1

7 2 IC.

Typological characteristics

33.1.3 The cline adjective-verb There is another cline, it leads from verbs to adjectives. Intransitive verbs especially the "middle voice" verbs which express qualities and processes - relate to adjectives not only semantically but also morphologically: Such verbs can be regarded as derivations from adjectives, by means of the derivative -d' or 'process, middle voice'. This derivation is not freely productive. Only a handful of examples can be adduced to illustrate this "adjectival" derivation: (26) shiitt'o 'small' shiitt'-ed''to become small, be small' (27) haruma 'short' hani'm- from harum-(e)d'- 'to become/be short' So in Gedeo, the small set of genuine Adjectives is semantically supplemented by "nominal adjectives" on the one hand, and by "middle voice verbs" on the other.

3.4 Syntactic characteristics with reference to morphology As far as syntax is concerned, the characterisation of these languages must start with the statement that Highland East Cushitic languages are SOV languages. A number of other characteristics relate to this. Most obviously, the general order of elements is that the determining (or dependent) element precedes its determined (or independent) element (cf. Hudson 1976: 275). Highland East Cushitic languages are largely - but not exclusively - "Head final": Subject and object precede their verb: (28) manji 'isoo'o 'uude 'the man saw him' Dependent clauses precede their independent clause: (29) 'isoo'o 'uddeett'i, 'ofo'le 'having seen him, he sat down'

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Typological characteristics 7 3

Relative clauses precede their head noun: (30) 'ofo'leeka manna 'the people who sat' Possessive NPs precede their head noun: (31) manjinki mine 'the man's house' Numerals and adjectives precede their head noun: (32) mitti golalooki fad'acci 'one white horse' Nomináis precede the relator: (33) manni-nni welti 'with the people' Concerning the position of determiners vs. the position of auxiliaries, these languages have, like "most languages of the widespread canonical SOV type ... determiners preceding the noun but auxiliaries following the verb, ..." (Comrie 1981: 8). So in addition to the general order - i.e., determining element preceding the determined element - it also is true that there are postpositions and suffixes: the bound functor morphemes (including former auxiliaries) follow their verb, and case and adverb functors follow their NP. (In Gedeo there are some interesting exceptions to this which have to be noted.) Most of the typological characteristics then are those of the "Sprachtyp ID" of Heine's more recent typology of African languages; languages with ChadEthiopia as their area of convergence (Heine 1976; Heine and Voszer 1981). The "D" of type ID here stands for the basic order S^O^V as well as for the order adverb-phrase^verb. The figure "1" of type ID stands for the presence of both: a noun class system, and a system of nominal case marking - a combination which always goes with verb derivation. The three languages Sidamo, Gedeo and Burji - like other languages of this group - have both, a minimal form of a noun class system, and a somewhat more elaborate case system: The classes are feminine vs. masculine

7 4 IC.

Typological characteristics

nouns, and the cases are nominative vs. accusative-or-citation plus other oblique cases (which lead off into the morphology of adverbial suffixes and postpositions gradually). The system of verb extensions and auxiliaries is quite productive, with some forms going through more than one cycle of extensions (cf. the section on verb characteristics, 3.1). This system includes morphological causative, passive, and middle voice. All verbs can be extended. Apart from the verb of existence, it is hard to conceive of any verb which would not take at least one of these extensions. Traces of different orders than that of type "ID" - new orders emerging or old ones fading out - may be noted. Most of these have been mentioned by Hudson (1976: 275). It is important to note that the basic "Head final" order serves as the unmarked background against which the marked orders stand out in sharp contrast and receive their communicative value: Subjects, for instance, can be rearshifted to form a coda, while objects as well as adverbs can be frontshifted - as would be expected - to a functional position identified as "theme". In addition, there are of course sentence adverbs (or adjuncts) functioning as "setting". These "deviations" from the strict SOV order account for such sequences as OV,S (with a pause after V) or 0,SV (with a pause after O), or even 0,V,S - orders some of which are so widespread and, communicationwise, so natural that one hesitates to call them non-orthodox for an SOV language of this type (Dik 1978: 20ff, 192). Another "non-regular" order of elements is this: Determining elements such as demonstratives (Hudson 1976: 275), possessives, relative clauses or even adjectives often follow the head noun. In Gedeo and Burji, demonstratives can follow the noun. The exact conditions and functions of these orders will be considered under II A.3.4, with reference to their textual functions. Highland East Cushitic languages are suffix languages - but again, there are a few marked exceptions: There are two prefixes; one is the negative, the other, the Gedeo pre-verb 'iyye- 'to take and'. For Sidamo, the negative prefix works with all negations (cf. Hudson 1976: 275). For Gedeo, the prefix is used with negative imperatives only, and it could also be regarded as a pre-verbal particle. (The regular Gedeo negative is not a prefix, but an old negative verb ba'- 'to not', which is an auxiliary glued to the 'main verb'.) Burji only has the straightforward suffixation of (-g)-ey'i 'not'. As far as the syntactic position of adverbs (here written as "X") in relation to subject S and object O is concerned - disregarding the sentence adverbs or adjuncts for the moment - these adverbs are found both before and after the

IC.

Typological characteristics 7 5

object. In Gedeo for instance, the norm is to have the adverbs following the object. The reverse order is used under certain circumstances only. Sentence adverbs or adjuncts normally precede the sentence (e.g., the time and location phrases which serve as "setting" for a complex sentence). This is only what would be expected. As a summary, this can be presented in a scheme: Unmarked:

S

Ο

Marked: Setting Theme Object Adverb Coda

X s o 0 S, O, S SXO S O

Total:

X, S X O

Χ

V

ν ν ν ν V, Χ

V,

X

In actual fact there hardly is any natural utterance which fills a full pattern such as SOXV, and it will have to be discussed why this is so.

4. Morpho-syntactic strategies The following is a rather extensive treatment of some aspects of the syntax of these languages.7 There are certain points where these languages would be expected to develop particular strategies - strategies appropriate to the particular communicative needs of an SOV "ID" type of language. For the languages considered here, such strategies would be needed at certain points, according to the following reasoning: It has been shown that in these SOV languages more than two, three or four noun phrases can follow each other. Note that there is no verb to separate them (as long as none is embedded): (X,) S O X V (NP,) NP N P N P

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Typological characteristics

But this is not the potential maximum of NP sequences yet: As intruders from the sentence level, there could be additional NPs of dependent adverbial sentences: X, S

O

X V S O X V NP, NP NP NP NP NP

This makes for a potential maximum of six or seven nouns in a row. To each of these NPs, a genitive NP could be attached, as intruder from the phrase level. Under natural conditions no such monstrosity will ever be used, however "correct" it may be. These speculations do however highlight the area of potential ambiguities in an S O V language of the present type, and they explain which kind of strategies are needed to disambiguate them: (a) a strategy to separate subsequent NPs from each other, and (b) a strategy to clarify their functions. The argument of "necessary strategies" should work both ways: For SVO languages and SVX languages - which do have an intermittent verb - it would appear to be unnecessary to signal NP boundaries and NP functions in the same way as for SOV languages. (In actual fact, case marking has not been found, or is non-existent, in African languages of this kind, cf. Heine and Voszen 1981). In the three languages discussed here, the following different strategies can be viewed as ways of avoiding potential NP ambiguities: (a) Case suffixes do the work of keeping NP roles clear. (b) The subject NP, in addition to having a special case vowel, is often kept separate from other NPs by means of a pause. This isolates the theme from other NPs, and it establishes the topic. So the subject NP can be set off from the rest of the NPs by pause and pause intonation. (c) NPs are differentiated into masculine and feminine NPs, by the noun class division. This however is not as strong a tool as it may seem, because feminine nouns are statistically fewer, and feminine nouns do not always indicate case. (d) Related to this is the fact that there is a high textual frequency of verbs. E.g., there are many participles which circumvent the necessity for NPs. Often it is verb forms rather than nouns which represent the main participants, and therefore such forms as "(she) who had come" can also be regarded as samples of NP avoidance: Verbs function in the place of NPs.

IC.

Typological characteristics

77

(34) dag-g-e-e-tt'i, 'come-F-PERF-3PS:ACTU-SS:which' 'the-female-one-who-had-come,'

5. Noun phrases in text and syntax There is yet another strategy relating to NP functions, a strategy which becomes apparent when texts rather than sentences are studied: In longer stretches of speech, the referents of NPs - especially the < a n i m a t o subject NPs - are left implied. Since most of the main participants are < human >, they usually are introduced with sufficient verbal pomp and circumstance anyway, to be made sufficiently prominent for a future topic, and so they remain readily accessible in the mind of the listener. This strategy used to be called "NP deletion" - a linguistic metaphor borrowed from the world of blackboards. In the more recent linguistic metaphorics, this would now be described as "topic maintenance", or "implicature", i.e., the "folding in" of participants into the text's textiles - which seems a more adequate way of speaking about actors on a stage. The practice of dealing with participants in this way entails that in a running text each action verb has only one or two participants "there",8 overtly expressed by a NP. The others are understood but left unexpressed; they are present, but invisibly or behind the curtains, they play along but have a tacet.9 This is important; it has various implications. At first it will be demonstrated that Noun Phrases are comparatively infrequent. The text about "the hyenas and the lion" (cf. section II A below) will serve to show this. The syntactic elements can be divided into "NPs" of various kinds, versus the "Verb": There are Subject NPs, Object NPs, Adjunct NPs (sentence adverbials which provide the setting), and various Adverbial NPs (including Quotes) - followed by the "Verb". However, there is no clause in any text (none has been found yet) which contains all of these four nominal elements. Not only this: In the entire sample text, there is only one single instance of a verb having more than two NPs. (And even this is doubtful: an alternative analysis could be defended which recognises only two NPs.) The sample text has about 100 clauses, and its style can be regarded as representative of good Gedeo narrative style - maybe of Cushitic narratives in general.

7 8 IC.

Typological characteristics

The distribution of NPs per verb is highly restricted and it will be presented in chart 5: clauses with no NP; clauses with one NP, clauses with two NPs, and a clauses with apparently three NPs.

Chart 5: Distribution of NPs per verb Setting,

Subject

Object Adverb Verb

Quantity NP-less verbs: 33 -

-

One NP per verb: 21 7 5 -

NP

Two NPs per verb: 5 6 3 2 NP

NP NP -

Three (?) NPs per verb: 0 or 1 (NP?)

V

NP -

NP -

V V V

NP NP -

NP NP NP

V V V V

NP

NP

V

Chart 5 displays the quantity of nominal elements per clause and indicate which functions they have, cf. the columns for setting, subject, and object. The text frequency of occurrence of each of these functions is given on the left hand side. So chart 5 shows that the most "normal" clause is a clause consisting of nothing but a verb (33 cases). A clause with a verb plus one adverbial NP is somewhat less frequent (21 cases), but all others are considerably less frequent (1-7 cases).

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Typological characteristics 7 9

Clauses with NPs are rare and "special": Even clauses including an object have only one third of the frequency of verb-only clauses. In the later sections of this study it will be observed that clauses which contain more than one NP fulfill special functions. The more nominal elements a clause contains, the less frequent it is. This is a distribution which must be considered "normal" on the basis of a large number of narratives. Note that among the least frequent clauses are those involving a subject. The strategy of "NP avoidance" has further implications: (1) The subject usually dominates the stage for the length of an extended sentence: a whole "scene". It will not be represented by a NP in every clause: Certain verb suffixes point at the subject, to keep its memory alive by "samesubject" suffixes (SS). But the topic can also be maintained without such pointers: (2) Since subjects will remain the same for a whole series of verbs, even the "person suffixes" of verbs can be minimal.10 Where nothing is said, it is assumed that the topic is maintained. It is the change of subject and topic, not its maintenance, which is signalled most conspicuously. (3) Verbs form close-knit chains, and the last verb of a longer chain tends to be thinned out semantically. Once a subject is established, it will be followed by a long series of dependent verbs, and for the last verb there is not much left to say: the last verb can be degraded to a carrier of suffixes - a functor void of lexical meaning and vague content. It takes on pragmatic functions instead: It serves as the speaker's disclaimer of responsibility, as a quotation marker ("sothey-said"), or as a full stop. (4) Finite verbs are not preceded by NPs, but by subordinate verbs. They tend to convey attitudes, volitions, tense, moods and aspect, to signal change of time or place. Many paragraphs end in semi-auxiliaries such as "could, tried, finished, started, came to, went to, meant, told" or simply "said".11 The next section will provide illustrations for much of what has been said of typical clause structures so far.

8 0 IC.

Typological characteristics

6. An introduction to complex structures In Highland East Cushitic languages syntactic complexity is the norm,12 as it is for Amharic: "Amharic narrative makes frequent use of sentences consisting of a series, potentially very long, of subordinate clauses followed by a single main clause", says Gasser (1983: 101). This can be viewed differently: What appears to be syntactic complexity is a normal, non-marked, straightforward strategy of clause-chaining. This will be exemplified with Gedeo data, but later comparisons will show that Burji and Sidamo narratives proceed in similar ways. It can be illustrated with many "complex sentences" or "paragraphs" from various Gedeo narratives and other texts. As an introduction, only one "complex sentence" will be presented. This happens to be the first sentence of the first Gedeo text, in its first version (this study will present four versions of the same narrative in section II A). The other versions of the same narrative are somewhat less complex, yet not considerably so. To focus on the multiple embedding of sentences and on the presence (or absence) of NPs as non-verb elements, some differences between NPs will systematically be disregarded here. E.g., adverbs, adverbial nouns, or adverbial phrases will all be treated like sorts of "NP", rather than more specifically as adpositional phrases or "PP". The first sentence of the first text has these eight clauses (seven verbs and one quotation):13

6.1 Gedeo Text A, version 1, first complex sentence 1.

woraabeessi mitteba bukki hiyyee hyenas one-at together do 'The hyenas assembled,'

2.

»- biniinci duucci gibe »- animals all refuse ' - what all animals refuse and'

3.

hunee -cco throw:away -SG 'what they throw awa/

-'e -SU

-tt'i... -SS

IC.

4.

no'o-n -de we -it:is 'it is just us'

5.

'indanno.« we:eat.« 'we eat it."

6.

hiyyee -tt'i, say:PAST -SS 'they said and'

7.

bukkiyya -'ni assembling -at 'gathered and'

8.

weli male -ni. each:other gave:advice -CONCL 'agreed with each other.'

Typological characteristics 8 1

Translation: 'The hyenas assembled and said: '- What other animals reject and throw away it is just us who eat it!' so they said; and they came together and held a discussion.' In the original, one of the verbs includes a long quotation. So the original sentence is actually longer than the form which is presented here, but it is not more complex. These verb relations can be presented as a structural tree with multiple embedding (cf. chart 6).

8 2 IC.

Typological characteristics

Chart 6: Complex sentence tree 8th verb finite I agree' 7th verb subordinate ¡gather' 6th verb subordinate

1st verb subordinate 'assemble'

5th verb subordinate 'eat' 3rd verb 4th verb subordinate subordinate I'throw* .'be' 2nd verb subordinate 'refuse' Noun phrases:

NPa

Verb no.:

1

Depth of embedding:

1

NPs

NPs

NPs

1

0

The noun phrases are indicated as NPs "subject noun phrase" and NPa "adverbial noun phrase". There is no object noun phrase. The following typical observations can be made: (1) The verbs outnumber the noun phrases: In this one complex sentence there are eight verbs, to which four noun phrases and one verb prefix have been linked. (2) There is no change of subject, except in the direct speech passage. (3) The depth of embedding is five levels below the finite verb.

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Typological characteristics 8 3

62 More details on complex sentences Another complex sentence or "paragraph" will be used to exemplify syntactic structures in more detail. As a sample sentence it may appear to be rather long and complex - but it is by no means extraordinarily long or complex for a Gedeo speaker. It contains a good statistical representation of frequent Gedeo structures and is, in this sense, representative. It consists of 14 lines of text; each Une is a clause which ends in a verb. Two lines contain direct speech, written as »QUOTE«. Only the last verb and the last verbs of the quotes are "independent" verbs. The transcription uses "-" also for morpheme boundaries which have no oneto-one relation with morphemes of the interlinear translation. Otherwise, the symbols are those presented in the general introduction (cf. A.3, in the introductory pages).

6 3 Gedeo Text D, first complex sentence S. 1

roobe-ti-tt'a gal(a)gala Friday-DET-DET evening 'Friday night kaba-nni mine-nni gal-l-e-nn-e-tt'i, here-COMIT house-COMIT stay-PL-PERF-lPS-ACTU-SS, 'when we had spent the night here in the house,

S. 2

beiti no'o-ki 'eia gib-e-mma-tt'ee'e, son our-DET-M health fail-PERF-PAST-REAS 'because our son was sick,

S. 3

belto konne-e'e 'aakime »danden-n-a-bo'no-ni« son DEM-OBJ doctors can-PL-IMPF-lPS-NEG-CONCL« 'and since the doctors had said to that child 'we can't do anything"

S. 4

hi-n-a-mma-le, say-PL-IMPF-PAST-REAS/COND 'since they had said,'

8 4 IC.

Typological characteristics

S. 5

»k'orsi kaba hed'-e-baa-ni« »medicine here exist-PERF-NEG-CONCL« "there is no medicine here"

S. 6

hi-n-a-mma-le, say-PL-IMPF-PAST-REAS, 'since they had said (that),

S. 7

'aaddis 'aabeba 'ad'-d'-in-e-'e Addis Abeba take-BEN-PL-PERF-SU 'that we take him to Addis Abeba and'

S. 8

me"-in-o-nna-'a go-PL-SJNCT-lPS-DIR 'that we go'

S. 9

'aassaanb-e-nn-e-tt'i, think-PL-PERF- 1PS-ACTU-SS 'we had thought, and'

S. 10

no'o, fad'anje tinnì me"-it-a-mma-tt'e we, foreigners DEM go-F-IMPF-PAST-DET-F '(we,) since these foreigners were going'

S. 11

kad-d-e-mma-tt'ee'e, happen-F-PERF-PAST-REAS 'because that happened (to be so),'

S. 12

'okko no'oo-nna 'iyyemar-t-e-'e there we-CONN take-F-PERF-SU '(for them) to take also ourselves there'

S. 13

geess-is[-it]-a-a-ssha, accompany-CAUS[-COLL]-IMPF-INTT-MANN, 'so that they should take us there' makiina kad'a-n-t-e-nn-e. car request-PL-PERF-lPS-ACTU. 'we asked for a car.'

S. 14

I C. Typological characteristics 8 5

Note: The oral version is different from the "edited" written version which has been given above. In line 14 of the oral version, no object was at first given overtly. The object followed as an afterthought or "coda" (or "tail", Dik 1978: 19), and it was added after a phonological pause: 'We asked for it. For a car.' S.14

kad'a-n-t-e-nn-e, request-PL-PERF- 1PS-ACTU , 'we made a request/we asked for it' makiina 'insa'nee-tt'a. car they-DET. '- for their car.'

7. A sample grammar of two complex sentences (Gedeo) The following formulae have been designed to cover all of the structures of this complex sentence and, in addition, to cover a wide range of Gedeo surface syntax and morphology including the complex sentence given earlier, in section 6. It is the "surface" which is presented here, so that basic patterns come into focus. Therefore syntax symbols have been chosen in such a way that they reflect surface structures: "SOXV" for instance is given as "NPs NPo NPa Verb", and the structure "noun attribute", is given just in those same terms: "noun attr". Ten formulae are needed to generate these complex sentences. Examples for each rule will be given below, under 7.2.

7.1 Ten generative formulae and a lexicon 1 QUOTE

Complex S. ...

2 Complex S

S. (moodsuff)

3 S.

= (NPa(NPa) (NPs) (NPa) (NPo) { (NPa)QUOTE) Verb

86 IC.

Typological characteristics

4a NPs 4b NPo 4c NPa

NP (vowelrule) (inclusfoc)(coordsuff) NP (vowelrule) (inclusfoc)(coordsuff) { {S. adv NP }(vowelrule)advsuff NP[+loc] }(inclusfoc)(coordsuff) }

5 NP

{ pron name S sng {(Attr) noun noun{Attr dem}}}

6 Attr

{pron Noun Det S }detsuff

7 Noun Det

noun

8 Verb

V Stem pssuff aspsuff (neg)(ps2suff asp2suff)

9 V Stem

det2suff

{derivpref vbroot vbroot (derivsuff)}

10 The Lexicon (Exhaustive for Two Complex Sentences) Note: "vowelrule" (cf. rule 4 above) refers to NP final vowel changes especially of mase, nomináis. The result of applying these rules has been indicated with certain lexical entries, e.g. as "-i/[JSubj."

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Typological characteristics 8 7

10a Roots; Open Classes: noun

=

'aakime; 'doctor; biniinca 'wild animal galagala; 'evening; mala; 'advice;

name

=

'aaddis 'Addis

vbroot =

'eia; belto (beiti/[JSubj; health; son (son nomin.); (biniinci/[_]Subj); fad'anje (nomin.); foreigner;' k'orsa (k'orsi / [ JSubj); makina; medicine (nomin.); car; mine; roobe; woraabeessa (-i/[ JSubj); house; Friday; hyena (nomin.);'

'aabeba Abeba'

'aassaab('aassaanb- /_pl); 'aad'('ad'-d' / benef.); 'think (pi); take (for self); 'it('ind-/_pl); dande'- (dandeenn- /_pl); 'eat (pi); be-able (pi.);' gal(gall- /_pl); 'spend the night (pl.); -geess(geess-is- / caus); '-(prepare)' gib-; hed'-; hiyy- (hin-/_pl); 'refuse; exist; say (pi);' hun-; kad- (kadd- / fem); 'discard; happen (f.)' kad'at(kad'ant- / pi); mal-; 'request (pl.); advise;' mar-; me"-; -te (-nde/_pron/Emph) 'go; go away; be-equal'

10b Roots, Closed Classes: adv

=

'okko; 'there;

bukki; kaba; mitte(-)ba; weli together; here; in-one-place each other'

dem

=

könne (kunni [ JSubj); 'that, m. (nomin.);

tenne (tinni [ JSubj); that, f. (nomin.)

8 8 / C. Typological characteristics

pron

=

no'o; (no'oo-'o [JObj/NPa) 'we (us)'

inclusfoc =

duucca (duucci [_]Sbj> 'all (nomin.)'

10c Affixes (a) Prefix derivpref

= 'iyye'take-and-'

(b) Suffixes advsuff

= -'a; 'to;

-'e; -'ni; when; at;

-le; if;

-nni; -ssha (-ffa /u_); with; like;

-tt'i; 'when/one-who' aspsuff

= -e; -a; -o; -e('e); 'perf; impf; juss; perf(aux)'

asp2suff

= -e; 'actual;

-a; -o (-a /_'a); past; intent'

coordsuff = -nna 'and' derivsuff

= -s (-is /CC-); 'causat'

detsuff

= -ka (-ki /[JSubj); 'det.masc (nomin);

det2suff

= -ki; -ti 'mase; fem'

-tt'a; -tt'e; det.fem'

-tt'ee'e; because,

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Typological characteristics 8 9

moodsuff = -ni; 'conclusive' neg

= -ba; (-bo' /_nno) 'not'

pssuff

= -t (-d/d_; -it/CC_); '2ps/3sg.f;

ps2suff

= -mm (a); '3.ps/2.pl.past;

sng

= -cco (-cci/[_]Sbj) 'one-which (nomin)'

-n (-in /CC-) pi'

-nn(a) l.ps.past'

12 Examples of Gedeo syntax and morphology The following examples are all taken from the same complex sentence. The numbers of rules refer to the ten rules above, which should allow for an easy comparison of these data and their superficial structures. Rule 1: QUOTE

= Complex S ...

(35) »k'orsi kaba hed'-e-baa-ni.« S. no.5 'medicine here isn't (there is no medicine here)' Rule 2: Complex S.

= S. moodsuff

(36) danden-n-a-bo'no 'we-cannot

-ni. S. no.3 -CONCL'

Rule 3: S. = (NPa(NPa))(NPs) (NPa)(NPo){(NPa) QUOTE}Verb

9 0 IC.

Typological characteristics

(37) S. = NPa NPo Verb 'okko no'o-'o-nna 'iyye-mar-t-e S. no.12 'there us-also taken' S. = NPa Verb 'aaddis 'aabeba 'ad'-d'-in-e S. no.8 Ίο-Addis-Abeba we-take' S. = NPa NPs QUOTE Verb belto konne-e'e 'aakime »...« hi-n-a-mma S. no.3 'child that-obj the-doctor '...' had-said' S. = NPa NPa Verb kaba-nni mine-nni gal-l-e-nn-e (cf. also sent.no.9) 'here in-the-house I-stayed' S. = NPs NPa Verb k'orsi kaba hed'-e-baa 'medicine here isn't' S. = NPs NPo Verb beiti no'o-ki 'eia gib-e-mma S. no.2 'son our health refused' S. = NPo Verb makina kad'ant-e-nn-e S. no. 14 'a-car we-requested' S. = QUOTE Verb »k'orsi kaba hed'-e-baa-ni« hi-n-a-mma S. no.6 "medicine here isn't' they-had-said'

S. = Verb me"-it-a-mma S. no.10, also cf. 4 'she/they-had-gone'

IC.

Rule 4: 4a NPs 4b NPo 4c NPa

Typological characteristics

= NP(vowelrule) (inclusfoc)(coordsuff) = NP(vowelrule) (inclusfoc)(coordsuff) = { {S. adv NP }(vowelrule)advsuff NP[+loc] }(indusfoc)(coordsuff)

(38) NPa = adv 'okko S. no. 12 'there' NPa = adv advsuff kaba-nni S. no.l 'here-at/with/EMPH' NPa = S. advsuff 'aaddis 'aabeba 'ad'-d'-in-e-'e 'to Addis Abeba taken that we beiti 'son

no'o-ki our

geess-is[-it]-a-a 'accompany

me"-in-o-nna -'a S. no.7 go -in-order-to'

'eia gib-e-mma-tt'ee'e, S no.2 health had-refused -because' -ssha, S. no.13 -such-that'

NPa = name 'aaddis 'aabeba S. no.7 '(to-)Addis Abeba' NPa = NP advsuff/objcase belto könne -e'e S. no.3 'son that-to' NPa = pron advsuff coordsuff no'o -'o -nna S. no.12 'us-for/obj also'

91

9 2 IC.

Typological characteristics

Rule 5: NP

= { pron name S. sng {(Attr)

noun noun {Attr dem }}}

(39) NP = name 'aaddis 'aabeba 'Addis Abeba' NP = Attr noun roobe-ti-tt'a galagala S. no.l 'Friday-of night' NP = noun Attr beiti no'o-ki S. no.2 'son us-of NP = noun dem fad'anje tinnì; S. no.10 'foreigners these' Rule 6: Attr = {pron Noun Det S. }det2suff (40) Attr = Noun Det det2suff roobe-ti -tt'a S. no.l 'Friday-F -of Attr = pron det2suff no'o -ki S. no.2 'us -of/DET'

IC.

Typological characteristics

Attr = S. det2suff me"-it-a-mma -tt'e 'gone -who/DET' S. no.10 Rule 7: Noun Det = noun detsuff (41) roobe -ti S. no.l Triday-F/DET Rule 8: Verb = V Stem pssuff aspsuff (neg)(ps2suff asp2suff) (42) Verb = V Stem pssuff aspsuff ps2suff asp2suff kad-d-e-mm-a S. no.ll 'happen-F-PERF-3SG-PAST' 'aassaab/n-e-nn-e; S. no.9 'think/PL-PERF- 1PS-ACTU' Verb = V Stem pssuff aspsuff neg ps2suff asp2suff hed'-0-e-ba-0-a S. no.5 'exist-3SG-PERF-neg-3SG-PRES' Verb = V Stem pssuff aspsuff 'add'-in-e S. no.7 'take-PL-PERF '¡yye-mar-t-e S. no.12 'take-go-F-PERF

Rule 9: V Stem

=

{derivpref

vbroot vbroot (derivsuff)}

93

9 4 IC.

Typological characteristics

(43) V Stem = vbroot derivsuff 'ad'-d' S. no. 7 'take-BEN' geess-is S. no. 13 'prepare/accompany-CAUS' V Stem = 'iyye'take-and-

derivpref vbroot mar- S. no. 12 go'

8. Representations of complex structures The following section characterises the typical "complexity" of Gedeo sentences, and the complex sentence which was given in section 6.3 above serves as an illustration again. It can be presented as a tree structure with one main clause and several dependent clauses, where clauses nos. 1, 9, and 13 would be directly dependent on the main clause. In addition to these three dependent clauses, there are ten more: they depend on dependent clauses, and so they are embedded more than once. So of the fourteen verbs in this complex sentence, thirteen are "dependent" in some sense, and the "depth of embedding", if considered real, goes down three levels (cf. verb nos. 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10). The example is the initial sentence of a narrative text, and since it is a discourse initial sentence, there is a large number of participants to be introduced. But even in this sentence, the verbs are not outnumbered by the noun phrases. If all postpositional phrases (PP or NPa) are included, the relation is just 14 NPs to 14 verbs. (It was 4 NPs to 8 verbs in section 6 above.) So this example illustrates what was said about NP/V relations: NPs NPs NPs NPo NPo NPa NPa NPa NPa Verb no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

NPs NPs NPo NPo NPa 9 10 11 12 13 14

Abstracting from further details, the main relations between these sentences can be drawn as in the tree of chart 7 below. The chart also shows which noun

/ C. Typological characteristics 9 5

phrases are inserted with which verbs: "NPs" stands for subjects, "NPo" for objects, and "NPa" for adverbial phrases.

Chart 7: Structure of the sentence given under 6 3 above

9 when we thought 4

13 ^that / they / / take

8 V since since that they /they /we said / said / go 2 3 as > Q < He I I was sick

6

5 7 > Q < while

Subjects: NPs NPs NPs Objects: NPo NPo Adverbs: NPa NPa NPa NPa Verb no.: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

NPs NPs NPo NPo NPa 9 10 11 12 13 14

In a traditional structural description, the structured tree would, after some reshuffling of basic constituents, be described in formulae like the ten rules given earlier, or rules of the following type: Sent.

=

NP (PP) VP

PP

=

{NP; Sent} + adverbial suffix, etc.

9 6 IC.

Typological characteristics

This kind of structural formalisation is helpful for characterising or re-tracing syntactic basic building patterns, and it has been used here for that purpose (cf. section 7 above). However, when it comes to the symbolic representation of a speaker's planning processes, the communicative functions and the perspectives on a discourse in its making, then tree structures may not be the best way of representing these aspects. On the one hand, tree representations overemphasise static complexities within the sentence, and on the other hand, they suppress transitional relations between sentences. The perspective on dynamic discourse progression is lost. For heuristic reasons, this is acceptable in syntax studies, as long as one is aware of these limitations. But the decision to regard syntax as autonomous has, in actual practice, led to the decision to regard passages of identical communicative functions like (a) and (b) below as altogether different: (a) "Because our son is sick, we want a lift to the hospital." (b) " / / / / / / / Our son is sick. We want a lift to the hospital." For the speaker of 6.3 above, these two passages are the same. Not only do they express the same reasoning, they also employ the same measure of complexity. In a tree representation, structural complexity comes into focus very strongly, while discourse transitions are suppressed. But it can be shown that for a Gedeo speaker, these apparent complexities are nonexistent: From the Gedeo data, it would appear that complex trees or multiple bracketings are no dominant realities to the speaker's mind. And for a description of the speaker's mental activities there is little to be gained from investigations of layers of embedding, thickness of sentence boundaries, or multiple bracketings. In SOV languages such as these Cushitic languages, the speaker is free to embed any number of additional layers and to do so in retrospect, when most of the sentence is over. In an adequate analysis, the speaker's decision "to embed or not to embed" should be noted at the point where the decision is made. It should not be projected back into some earlier part of the sentence. What is misleading about tree structure representations especially for SOV languages is that linguistic complexity is made to appear at those points where under a dynamic aspect it does not exist. Those points in a tree structure which look like occasions for hard mental work are not the points where the real efforts of discourse generation are made, and where they leave their traces (cf. section II Β 6). So in this sense, the multiple bracketing of the following example is not "real". Sentence no. 2 starts with a large number of initial brackets to be processed. There are nine of them, four of which are basic:

IC.

Typological characteristics

97

[[[[[[[[[belli 'son']N]NP]S Proposition i+1--transition-> etc. Such transitions can be overt or covert. They can be divided into chronological and logical relations. They can establish relations between propositions which follow each other immediately, and sometimes between utterances which are not adjacent to each other. The form of presentation will be discussed below.

9.1 The form of text presentation: semantic frames rosters For practical reasons (especially legibility), the arrangement will be by lines, like a roster of agents and activities: Proposition i -transition-> Proposition i+1 —transition-> Proposition i+ 2 —transition-> etc. There are initial text scores and final text scores. The initial text scores or rosters will emphasise the semantics. They are "semantic frames rosters" (SFR) comparable to Rosenberg's "story data bases" (SDB, 1979: 97) but they center around verb frames and they are sequenced. The final text scores will bring the actual syntactic and phonological realisation of the text as it is spoken. There are rules which gradually lead from the one to the other: Initial text score: Semantic propositions

I I

Rules Final text score: Syntactic/phonological forms

The initial text score is read as a roster of participants (especially agents) on the left hand side, and a sequence of events (especially actions) on the right hand side:

/ C. Typological characteristics 101

Initial text score (semantic frames roster): Agent Patient Other Verb frame (event) χ1 χ2 1. Frame χ1 χ3 2. Frame χ1 3. Frame etc. This text score is "what there is to say". The rules then specify "how to say it" and change the score to the final text score. The resulting syntactic and phonological text score then has the correct surface morphemes in their phonological form. It displays the syntactic categories SUBJ OBJ V in columns in the surface order: Final text score (surface sentences): Subject Object Adverb Verb noun 1 noun 2 1. Verb 01 noun 3 2. Verb 1 0 3. Verb etc. For the Cushitic languages of this study, the arrangements of text scores will be in the order which is presented above: subject object adverb verb, which happens to be the unmarked surface order of elements.

92 A complex sentence presented as text score The piece of text 6.4 which has been analysed above will now be given in the kind of display which has just been described. Note that this is one sentence. 5 stands for paragraph boundaries. Structurally, the pargraphs are complex sentences, and in narratives they stand for "scenes". x°; χ1; χ2 stand for the different participants. These symbols have to be read in columns. The coherent English translation of this fragment is as follows: "Friday night, as we had stayed here in the house, our son was sick and therefore, since the doctors had said 'We can't do anything, there is no medicine here', we planned to take him to Addis Abeba, and we - since these foreigners happened to go asked for their car, to take us along."

102 I C. Typological characteristics

Chart 8: Complex sentence, Gedeo No.

Subject

Object

Place and

Predicates

other adverbs

Time and relations roobe-ti-tt'a galgagala Friday-DET evening

kaba-nni here-COMIT mine-nni

gal-l-e-nn-«

house-COMIT

stay-PL-PERF-lPS-ACTU -SU

-tt'i

'Friday night, when we had spent the night here, in the house,' beiti no'o-ki

'eia

gib-e-mma

son our-DET-M

health

fail-PERF-PAST -REAS

-tt'ee'e

"because our son was sick," belto

konne-e'e

son

DEMFAR-OBJ/THM

'aakime doctors-SUBJ >QUOTE dandeen-n-a-bo'no -ni can-PL-IMPF-lPS-NEG-CONCL

hi-n-a-mma

-le,

say-PL-IMPF-PAST -REAS 'and since the doctors had said to that child >we can't do anything' >QUOTE 5

k'orsi

kaba

medicine

here

hed'-e-baa

-ni

exist-PERF-NEG -CONCL
is the selection restriction which requires that the term "fits" and has the feature < a n i m a t o . AG, PAT, REC are the semantic functions "agent", "patient" (or "goal"), and "recipient". The verb "to give" happens to have these three nuclear roles. Besides such "nuclear", verb-bound roles there also are "satellites". These are inserted not into verb frames, but into the larger predication. In the present work, function and place of "satellites" are defined with reference to "paragraphs" or whole discourses. There are different kinds of predications (sometimes loosely called "predicates"), and they will always be held separate, in separate charts. The reason is that different "kinds" of predicates function differently in discourse. These "kinds" of predications are what Dik calls "states of affairs". Speficically, these are action and location - events where "control" can be exerted, and process and state - where "control" is irrelevant (cf. 1980: 7f.). Only action and process are characterised as "dynamic". These different kinds of predicates are associated with different kinds of "main participants", i.e. the participants which typically are the subject: some can exert control and are animate, others do not. The predicate frames are "given", and to develop the predicate, terms are inserted to fill these frames. To develop the predicate further, different kinds of functions are "assigned": especially the syntactic and pragmatic functions. (In recent developments of functional grammar these assignments are designed to represent communication processes even more adequately.) There are further rules which develop the predications, and the place of various kinds of rules has been indicated in the graphic sketch of a functional grammar model (cf. chart 9). The same has been done in a sketch of the present approach (cf. the sketch under E).

ID.

Perspectives on discourse

109

So according to Dik's model of functional grammar, the syntactic functions "subject" and "object" are not just there; rather, in a functional communication model they are "assigned". At some point in the generation process, there must be rules to ascribe the subject or object syntax to certain participants. In the present approach, this assignment is governed by constellations of the discourse. Functional grammar offers generalisations about which of the participants may become subject and object, and which may not. Parallel to syntactic functions there also are pragmatic functions, and in addition to the syntactic function these are also ascribed to the same phrases: theme, topic, focus, and coda. "Theme" as understood in functional grammar is strictly limited to a very tightly and formally defined presentence phrase which separates itself off by a phonological pause. The function "Theme" can more generously be defined as denoting that section of the world about which the coming utterance will speak; e.g.: "An example for theme, [#] here is one." "Topic" is a pragmatic concept which in the present work is left implied with the subject. There are few occasions only where subject and topic need to be separated. In functional grammar a "topic" is that sentence part about which there will be "predicated". "Focus" is, according to functional grammar, "the most important or salient point in the given setting". What is important here is that "topic" is not bound to some initial position in the sentence. Since there is some overt marking of focus in Cushitic languages, this concept will be discussed further below. "Coda" is defined as the afterthought added to a sentence which syntactically was already closed. So a coda will typically be appended to mend some mismatch in "mutual knowledge" suppositions and mend it after the sentence is over. "Expression rules" form the last and most traditional section in a functional grammar. These rules are not too different from "realisation rules" of other models, or from the traditional groups of rules which organise linguistic expressions according to syntax, morphology, morphophonemics and phonetics, in this order. A particular expression rule in Dik's model of functional grammar is the rule about the "Language Independent Order of Constituents" (LIPOC). However, this will not be referred to, except in the general section on typology. The two graphic sketches are given in this part: chart 9 gives an outline of "functional grammar", and chart 13 gives an outline of the present work. These two sections can be referred to for general comparisons. There are differences in purpose, emphasis and overall structure.

110 ID.

Perspectives on discourse

2. Text generation In the following section, various perspectives on text generation will be given, the main ones being antique rhetorics, and current text production. There also will be some considerations of what poets or writers have to say. Greek and especially Roman rhetoricians say how texts should be produced. So they do not describe the actual steps they have observed, but they say which steps one should take. The question is what truth there can be in a prescription, since imperatives cannot be true or false. But even if the ancient teachers of rhetorics were far away from the realities of actual practice: they provide a large amount of detail and examples, and they have developed concepts which make this discipline relevant again to questions of "text generation".17

2.1 Classical rhetorics as a model of "text generation" The Greek and Roman model of rhetorics can be viewed as a scheme of text generation in the following way: (Lexicon) Res/Topoi Inventio

"Places in the memory" "What to say"

I

Rules

"How to say it"

"Dispositio": Rules of size and order Rules of syntactic devices

I

"Elocutio": Rules including phonetic devices

I

"Actio"

Actual Performance (Surface Structure)

The Greek and Roman tradition of rhetorics, starting with Aristotle and based on his work, has developed several concepts which until the last century never

I D. Perspectives on discourse

111

really ceased to exert some influence on conscious language use. These concepts were developed for the use of the own language, but in later centuries mainly concerned the use of a second language, Latin. Some of these concepts are related to concepts encountered in text generation again, and among these concepts are the "parts" which could be compared to the "subroutines" of today's text generation systems.18 The rhetorical prescriptions can be viewed as a generation model consisting of several components: They are the five sequenced steps called "inventio", "dispositio" or arrangement, "elocutio" or style, memorising or memory, and "actio" or presentation (Breuer 1974: 159f; Young et al. 1970: 4f.). Three of these "partes" are particularly relevant to the present concept of text generation: (a) "Inventio", with (b) access to the places or "topoi" of data, and (c) the syntactic "dispositio" and "elocutio" rules, (cf. the scheme given above in section D.2.) (a) "Inventio" was the search for "things" to say. The search was not in one's imagination, but either in one's educated memory or in the written collections of arguments provided by the various schools of rhetorics. The memory and the collection of arguments, as Breuer points out (1974: 160), can be compared with a data bank: The ancient data bank was thought of as containing copies of useful facts about the world, and these were organised by persons or by things, with all items located in certain places; these are the "topoi" revived by Curtius. These "places" would closely correspond to data addresses of today's data banks, but it should be noted that they contained not only words but especially the larger units of argumentation: sayings, examples, and fables. Here we are close to modern text generation routines which use readymade templates or paragraph structures, in addition to a lexicon containing verb frames. (b) "Dispositio" was the process of selection of arguments. They were prepared with a view to the effect they would have on the hearer. Dispositio was by size and order of parts (Breuer 1974: 165). The particular part of a presentation which was called "narrative", for instance, was the detailed presentation of facts. The "main argument" was the central part of all items that might be selected. (c) "Elocutio" was the working out of details, and figures of speech played an important role here. The "elocutio" process was the realisation of the speech in terms of words, phrases and other expressions, not excluding conscious formation of phonetic details (Breuer 175). In all these regards, "elocutio" can be likened to the "realisation rules" or "expression rules" of modern systems.

112 ID. Perspectives on discourse

22 Views taken by writers Writers reflect on the process of making texts, and this is an activity with which they should be more familiar than others; but they tend to be silent, defensive or prescriptive about the central part of the poetic "production" process. The actual procedure of shaping ideas into texts is often presented as shrouded in clouds of creative mystery. Even with down-to-earth poets such as Ezra Pound, there are warnings where descriptions were announced, and when it comes to the issue of "how to say it", the issue of describing what goes on is evaded as usual: "You can make a purely empiric list of successful manoeuvres, you can compile a catalogue ... But you cannot hand out a receipt... You don't ask an art instructor to give you a recipe ... " (Pound, Treatise on Metre, 201). Descriptive, factual essays such as Kleist's treatise "On the gradual production of thoughts when speaking" are rare. Kleist's reflexions spread out the process of looking for words, of hesitating, failing, gaining time, and then saying what there was to be said; so this essay seems to be of particular relevance to the present topic. But Kleist obviously intends to describe some exceptional behaviour rather than a (generative) rule. He does supply more detail than most writers would, but when it comes to the central point of how an idea is given its words, Kleist, too, has little to offer. We only learn that there are various ways of gaining time for this hidden process.19 The process itself is simply given a label and dismissed: "the production of ideas" in the "workshop of reason". Even with Kleist, the doors to this workshop remain closed.

2 3 Current approaches to text production McKeown introduces her work on text generation by pointing out the two major linguistic limitations under which previous work - i.e. work on question-answering programmes before 1985 - had been carried out: (a) "[M]ost of this previous work deals with the generation of single sentences" (1985: 6). (b) "While researchers have investigated the problems involved in computer interpretation of natural language for some time now, interest in generating it has only recently begun to gain momentum." (1985: 2)20 Danlos (1987: 1) would add: (c) "[RJesearch on automatic analysis precedes research on automatic generation by many years ..."

ID. Perspectives on discourse

113

There are various approaches to rule governed text production which involve generation not only of sentences, but of short texts. Most of them rely on research in the framework of projects with very distinct goals; and most of them are under pressure to give priority to useful output rather than theoretical adequacy. Programmes which produce texts differ from each other in what is considered "given", i.e., what there is "to be said". In the short discussion which follows here, the focus will be on what is "given", because this is of particular interest for narrative production. The main areas of research on actual language generation are areas where generation of natural language is one of several components, but not necessarily central: This is the case, for instance, in dialogue modeling, and in machine translation. Consequently, not too much attention can be paid to the production of an ideally structured discourse as such. The acceptability of the output text is defined by cost and adequacy in a particular framework - not by pre-defined linguistic standards. (The work of McKeown and Danlos are recent exceptions in this regard.) There also is some work on discourse production as such. But work on narrative generation is comparatively rare, and work on text production involving languages other than English (or other than national languages of major industrial states) seems to be non-existent. Usually the task of generation is presented in these two parts: (a) "what" to say, and (b) "how" to say it: (a) There must be items which are "given", not just the words of the lexicon but the propositions containing "what to say". (b) There also must be rules on "how to say it", i.e., a limited number of ways of giving shape to "what is given". In "dialogue modeling", usually short answers are generated to match a limited set of possible questions. In most cases the aim is to generate paragraphs which relate the information available in a data bank to questions a user may ask. What is "given" here, and what must then be shaped into an answer, is a selection of items from the data bank in relation to stimuli received from the human user who asked the question. Also "given" (in terms of primitive templates or of formation rules) are the paragraph structures which serve to accomodate the answer. The specific problem areas for the generation of such answers are, on the one hand, the structuring of the data base, and, on the other, the proper accomodation of answers in well-formed paragraph patterns. Notions of focus and text topics have turned out to be of major importance here. In a parallel approach, "relevance theory" attempts to solve similar problems.

114 ID. Perspectives on discourse

"Texts" which can be generated in this way are rather short: usually one paragraph. Generating some well-formed paragraph pattern would appear to be an easy matter. Since most of this kind of research is being carried out in one of the well-known languages such as English or Japanese, it should not be too difficult - it would appear - to provide a limited number of recurring sentence frames and in this way accomodate the correct NPs of the data base. In actual fact, however, it has been found that the problem with such answering programmes lies in the necessity of relating the focus structure of the answer to that of the question in a successful ("happy"), non-redundant way. This has to be done with a "fitting" focus both when searching for relevant data and when structuring the answer. A "focus strategy" is required for matching presuppositions with adequate responses. So research in this field has to offer insights, and presents a challenge, in the area of "topic and focus" and "given vs. new" information.

2.4 Text generation in machine translation Machine translation is another area of research of which "text building" is an integral part. The specific problem areas here are different from user modeling, because what is "given" is not - as with question-answer systems - the data base plus the structures for forming routine answers - what is "given" is in principle open-ended. In translation, the text to be built up differs with every new line which has to be translated. There are no patterns that could be produced to serve as templates, to be used again and again. In actual practice, however, structural diversity is usually trimmed down on both ends: The machine translations of science abstracts use "specialised" simple language both in the source language and in the receptor language. The items which are "given" must be made easy-to-process and must lie inside some clearly defined tolerance. The generation of texts in the target language, on the other hand, must also be limited to a manageable narrow band of stylistic variation.

ID. Perspectives on discourse 115

2.5 User modelling and narrative text generation Research with the expressed goal of producing texts of the narrative genre is comparatively scarce. One reason seems to be that there is no conceivable economic gain to be expected from the modeling of griots, bards, or today's story tellers, by machine. The other reason would be that structures of natural language narratives are rather complex. As far as the size and complexity of the produced texts is concerned, it can be said that discourse generation beyond paragraph length has rarely been attempted. In the modelling of dialogues - e.g., in the imitation of question-answer dialogues with a view to preparing artificial intelligence machines for understanding their users - one complex sentence or one paragraph is usually sufficient. The text genre usually is descriptive. So this is different from the production of coherent, self-contained narratives: "User modeling" research relies on stimuli from the human user. But in the production of a coherent narrative, no partner is supposed to give productive clues - at most, he may confirm that he is listening. In narratives however, what is "given" is a set of actions with a certain time sequence, and a set of participants with certain qualities.

2.5.1 Actual examples of narrative generation Of the few papers which expressedly deal with narrative generation in a formalised way, two shall be discussed here: One is Longacre's "Generating a Discourse from its Abstract" (1977), the other, Meehan's "Tale-Spin" (1981).

2 £ 2 Longacre's production of a text from an abstract Longacre's paper goes back to van Dijk's suggestion that the abstract of a text can be regarded as its "underlying macro-structure" (van Dijk 1975: 8). Such an abstract of any text, "in the sense of traditional exercises of outlining and summarizing". (Longacre 1979:355), is characterized by absence of identifications, summaries, statements of planning, qualifications or comparisons, alternative courses of action (probably this implies irrealis and negation), consequences, norms, dialogues, and manner propositions. Longacre gives three cycles of rules

116 ID. Perspectives on discourse

which would, given the abstract of a discourse, generate the actual discourse (356-66). The first cycle starts with a global formula designed to generate any discourse of the type "fable". fable -> ST + EPn + Closure + Moral where ST is the stage, and EPn is a number (n) of episodes EP. specifically, a formula of such kind as the second one,

More

EPn -> Pab Λ Pba indicates that the sequenced predicates Ρ and Ρ follow each other in temporal succession, and that between ab and ba there is a reciprocal subject:object vs. object:subject relation. In the second cycle, paragraphs are generated, and "implications", "terminations", "negations", "repartees" with "remarks" are developed with the respective sentence or proposition symbols. The third cycle unfolds these sentences, mostly by "expansion rules", into case frames which then receive their respective nouns or pronouns. Finally there is a place for the actual phonological form to be developed. The text generated is an English essay by James Thurber, of about one page.

2.53 Meehan's tale-spin Another paper is even closer to the subject of the present study: the automatic production of a fable. The language used is English again. This is an early attempt at a random generation of "tales". The tale itself (the result of very simple rules) is rather unassuming. There is no "pronominalization", no build-up, and no dramatic plan. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, i.e., because the limitations of actual narrative generation were so obvious when displayed, "tale-spin" has had the effect of a challenge. Various researcher have attempted to improve on Meehan. Meehan's primary interest though was in the world of the fable, not in the generation of a natural text structure. In "Tale-Spin", Meehan has designed a programme which generates whole narratives. In these narratives, every move is correct as far as the participants' identity, the topography, or the sentence structures are concerned. The "tale-

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117

spin" programme thus goes beyond sentence generation, and it takes care of narrative properties such as different syntax strategies in introductory passages vs. proper narrative passages. In the first sentences of the sample quoted below, the programme introduces one character at a time. The first four or five sentences therefore provide a rather adequate introduction of participants: "Once upon a time George Ant lived near a patch of ground. There was a nest in an ash tree. Wilma Bird lived in the nest. There was some water in a river. One day, Wilma was very thirsty ... " As the action gets going, the programme follows a different strategy: One character is allowed to stay on the stage through several moves. The subject no longer changes with every new sentence: "... George wanted to get near the valley. George couldn't get near the valley. George wanted to get near the meadow. George couldn't get near the meadow. ... " So there are two different sentence patterns, and they have been designed to be used in accordance with two narrative functions: "identification" and "action". But it is obvious that the "tale-spin" grammar at the stage presented here had not been designed yet to take care of a large number of paragraph properties, such as relations in complex sentences, inversions for NP prominence, use of proforms, and other kinds of syntactic diversity; and so the impression of mechanic monotony still prevails. To highlight the amount of variety which has, in fact, been provided with the "tale-spin" programme, chart 10 below gives a survey of (a) the introduction and (b) the final sentences of one "Tale" spun by this programme. It is to be read from left to right:

118 ID. Perspectives on discourse

Chart 10: Tale-spin fable Once upon a time George Ant There a nest Wilma Bird George George George George Wilma Wilma Wilma George George Wilma George

lived was /

near a patch of ground.

lived

in an ash tree. in the nest.

wanted to get couldn't get wanted to get couldn't get wanted to get grabbed took was devoted owed let go fell

near the valley. near the valley. near the meadow. near the meadow. near George. George with her claw. George from ... to the meadow to Wilma. everything to Wilma. of George. to the meadow.

2.5.4 Two elaborate systems of text generation Two rather elaborate systems of text generation (both of them are actually productive) will be outlined now to characterize text generation in current practice, and to contrast this with our presentation of Cushitic narratives. The two models are those of Anthony Davey (1979) and Kathleen McKeown (1985).

2 S JS A summary description of Davey Davey's "discourse production" model (1979) is still interesting here because it starts out with a sequence of actions "given": What the machine "has to say" is given in a chronological order, and "how it says it" is coherent text, however rudimentary. The limitation of this model is the very small number of choices it offers.

ID. Perspectives on discourse 119

Chart 11: Scheme of Davey's text generation model The goal is to create a running comment on the moves of a game.

Moves in a game selecting those moves of the game which shall be made predicates selecting a predicate for the current sentence chaining the given predicates I Chain of sentence represenations designing the semantics of each sentence grouping sentence for coherence cutting the sentences to three clause units Sentence systems I. Lexicon syntax rules: growing a sentence tree deciding on pronouns expressing some connectives putting lexical words on all branches Descriptive discourse in surface form

Davey's work is a programme which produces running comments on the tictac-toe game. "What there is to say" is given: it is the moves of the game. But there is flexibility: There is no restriction on the moves to be chosen by the players, except restrictions given by the rules of the game. The participants of the game are the participants in the discourse: the players, the board, and the machine. The moves of the game become predicates, and some of these are connected by "but" or "however". So there is some control of the rhetorical structure by the content. In the syntax, "choices" are offered in a Hallidayan systemic model. Provision is made for omitting "known" information:

120 ID. Perspectives on discourse

the knowledge of the speech partner is represented in a rudimentary fashion, and the model reacts to this "relevantly". Some of D a v e / s own comments (p.122) characterise the short-cuts and limitations which had to be made to make the model work. For instance, in the syntax the following rule works by default: "unless told otherwise by an external procedure", the programme makes all independent clauses indicative declarative and past. "Finally, the clause is [... transitive]. The choice of this last feature ought to be made by reference to whether a goal element is present ... However, the present constructor first sees whether the verb is such as to occur in a [... intrans] clause ... and then makes a choice ... " This last procedure is typical for many decisions in artificial intelligence: Since the designer of a speaker's model is under pressure to make the model work, short-cuts must be taken in some areas. Davey explicitly states that in this particular case the short-cut goes against known linguistic facts. The dilemma with many decisions about speaker-models is that these decisions need to be made, while at the same time it is clear that some of these decisions cannot be backed up by relevant knowledge about human speech behaviour. The main parts of Kay's system are the "given" moves of the game: They become the predicates. But only the new and relevant predicates will be selected for expression. Their representations are chained and, with reference to a lexicon, developed into surface forms. Davey documents all of the steps in his text production. The particular strength of this system is the avoidance of irrelevant information: A rudimentary form of "mutual knowledge" representation is employed, and what the hearer already knows will not be said by the machine.

2.5.6 McKeown's text generation model McKeown's text generation model is one of the more powerful, recent models of text production, and it builds on insights from discourse research. For instance, it makes use of notions such as discourse patterns, and a speaker's "focus of attention". The model limits itself to producing short, schematised "descriptive" texts.

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Chart 12: Scheme of McKeown's text generation model Discourse schemes rules selecting a discourse schema rules filling predications into the "schema" rules constraining the choices by "focus" Predications in a discourse schema Lexicon rules rules rules rules

I

relating propositions to the lexicon translating propositions into deep representations matching predicates with verbs matching arguments with case roles

Underlying structure rules of syntax: rules supplying the missing syntax information rules using rhetorical information for pronouns and passives rules using focus information for connectives rules building surface structures Surface form of a descriptive paragraph

I

McKeown describes her model as a method "that uses principles of discourse structure, discourse coherency, and relevancy criterion." She enables her programme to generate responses of a paragraph's length to any question which a user may ask about items in her database. Although the responses are not lengthy discourses, McKeown extends her research on language generation to include discourse issues beyond the demands which usually were made: "A language generation system must be able to decide what information to communicate, when to say what, and which words and syntactic strcutures best express its intent." She adds the following requirements:

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"But determining what to say and how to put it together above the sentence level also introduces language issues that must be addressed by any speaker or writer of extended discourse. These three classes of decisions constitute the full range of the language generation problem." (1985: 3) "Discourse schemes" are the input structures (cf. the flow diagram above), and these schemes have been designed on the basis of research in discourse structures. The particular texts investigated for this purpose were not of the narrative, but of the descriptive genre. The role which "focus" plays in this model will be discussed under a special section on pragmatic notions.

3. Analysis of discourses of the narrative genre Over the last two decades it has been stated repeatedly, and by various schools of linguistics, that the analysis of whole discourses offers more insights into language than does the analysis of isolated sentences. This truism has been presented in more or less enthusiastic, challenging or angry words.21 But the limitation of linguistic analysis to isolated sentences can always be justified by reference to the practical, heuristic reasons; and in the same way the "limitation" of a linguistic analysis to narrative discourses can be, and again needs to be, justified. Can any linguistic analysis present results which are true to the nature of language when most pragmatic conditions are disregarded which prevail between a speaker and his or her hearer? But again: for practical and heuristic reasons it is only "manageable" selections of data which can be analysed at any one time. Unfortunately the "manageable" selections always appear to permit much less than a "real" analysis of "real" discourses about the "real" world. For a linguistic analysis, texts such as non-poetic, non-stylised narratives, or factual reports about simple incidents, offer certain advantages over other kinds of texts (such as casual conversations): In conversations, much tends to be prompted by the non-recorded, non-verbalised, non-recoverable situation. The world of a fictitious narrative, on the other hand, is more clearly defined and explicit in what is "given". With fables and fictitious stories or reports it is not the extralinguistic context and the pragmatics of the situation which do much of the "giving", but there is a self-contained universe most of which is created by the narrator as he speaks: in the presence of the listener. Time, location and participants are not supplied by vision, group knowledge or cultural implicatures

ID. Perspectives on discourse 123

or intuition, but all of this is introduced with the necessary words: "Necessary" for the linguist who only works on words. Science fiction novels tends to have a rather lengthy exposition: the whole universe must first be built up in careful words, before things can happen (witness the first fifty pages of Luke Skywalker). For the same reason a "culture fiction" novel is an ideal narrative to analyse: What is there is there in words.

4. Psychology of sentence production In 1972 Greene still had to say, as a general summary on the understanding of sentence production: "The problem is that our knowledge of what occurs at most stages of sentence production is negligible." (1972: 182). In the meantime, a large amount of research has been carried out on the understanding of natural language by machines, and this research has had its influence on our thinking about discourse strategies. In sections II A.2ff. various stages will be described which start from a rudimentary lexicon and a rudimentary representation of a narrative and lead to the production of a full narrative text in its actual surface form. It is not claimed here that these stages are the actual steps a speaker takes as he talks. But it is in fact claimed that some such steps must be taken at some point, and some of them, in the sequence given here: Linguistic resources such as a "lexicon", a narrative's "time line", or a "phonological surface rule" are different kinds of resources, and a speaker needs to access these different kinds of internalised knowledge as he talks, and he needs to do so at different points in time.22 (The introduction of satellites as "settings", or the "insertion" of terms into verb frames are a case in point.) However, the steps which are outlined here are certainly not an exact model of the strategies which people use when "thinking up the next sentence". For instance, it probably is not a story-teller's strategy to first select verbs for the "time-line" and then fill in the rest. Neither is the empty verb frame a unit which is selected first,23 or without a view to its participant NPs. By presenting narrative generation as an assembly line of components we do not claim that this is what goes on in the speaker's mind. The results of some linguistic experiments make it more likely that it is, for instance, the "setting" and the "participants" which come to our mind first, rather than the verb frame. And most likely it is this what goes on whenever a new move in a story is developed into words.

124 ID. Perspectives on discourse

According to Chafe (1980: 11), thinking involves three major components: the "self', the "consciousness", and the "information". These concepts make a useful model for analysing the production and the reception of texts. The "self' is what has the control and the initiative to make use of "information" which comes in, and it does so by means of what Chafe calls the "consciousness". Chafe has revived the construct "consciousness" for his purposes. He conceives of it as a mechanism which has a limited capacity (the short term memory), and which is controlled by the self. The "capacity" of what Chafe calls consciousness is limited and by its size determines the size of units which can be processed as one single "chunk". This processing unit comprises, so to say, one "fill" of the consciousness' capacity. The size of this kind of "chunk" can be compared with the size of units which have been investigated by various other disciplines: E.g., the amount of information which is perceived in one single eye fixation; or the unit which linguists like Halliday might call one unit of information, or Grimes (1975), an "information block". Phonologically there seems to be a relation to pause group length, and syntactically, to clause length. Chafe speaks about thought processes in terms of "capacities" of the "consciousness" and his observation is that the consciousness usually empties out about three "fills" of its capacity around one "centre of attention". So the consciousness receives its information in quantities of "idea units", processes them and outputs several "idea units" in the form of one larger linguistic unit. According to Chafe's investigations, this larger unit corresponds to the syntactic unit of one complex sentence (Chafe 1980: 26). In Chafe's study the story to be told is "given" as a film which the narrator has seen. In the present study, the story to be told is "given" as part of the common cultural tradition. The units which are recognised in the present study are "predicates" (syntactically: clauses) on the one hand, and "scenes" or "paragraphs" (syntactically: complex sentences) on the other. These units will be compared with Chafe's "idea units" on the one hand, and the "centers of interest" on the other (cf. section II B.6 below.)24 The comparison includes observations about pauses, repetitions and various corrections which the speaker of Gedeo Text II Β has made: These "hesitation" phenomena are indicative of transitions in thought processes. Chafe also recognises entities which in the present study often appear as SU or SC sequences: Verbs which belong to the "same unit" or "same chain" of actions. Longacre and Grimes refer to them as "expectancy chains" (Grimes 1975, Longacre 1983): "Besides settings and introduction of people, another common type of center of interest is one in which a series of punctual events are followed to some kind of conclusion. For example, a sequence which begins with

ID. Perspectives on discourse

125

the picking and ends with putting the pears in a basket sometimes constitutes a center of interest ... Whether this ... can be identified with a single mental image is an interesting question, since it includes movement and change of location. Quite possibly the notion of 'image' should allow for movement and change ... The achievement of the goal of some actions is what typically brings closure to an event sequence." (Chafe 1980: 28)

SECTION E The present approach 1. Comparison of models In the present study, a narrative is "what" a narrator has to say, plus "how" he or she says it. The "what" is the initial, minimal "semantic frames roster" representing the story, and the "how" is the set of rules of the whole language, especially the "text rules". The "what" includes those entities which have been called "res" and "topoi" and "inventio" of antique rhetorics, the "initial symbols" of early text generation which still were inspired by "#S#", the "moves" in Dave/s model, or the "discourse schemes" with predications and focus choices of McKeown. The "what" also includes much of the lexicon like that of the "functional grammar" kind: a lexicon consisting of predicate frames and rules for complex terms. The "how" includes all the rules such as the "dispositio" and "elocutio" of antique rhetorics, the cycles of generation in Longacre"s sketch, the whole grammar of "tale-spin", the syntax or expression rules of Davey, McKeown or Dik. From the studies which were presented above, the present study differs in various ways, as chart 13 will show. The distinctive goal of the present approach is to develop narrative texts from minimal representations. Numbers used in chart 13 (1, 2, 3, 3.1 etc.) are the same as will be used in the presentation of actual texts of parts II, III, and IV below.

I E. The present approach

Chart 13: The present study

Section No. Repertoire of the narrator

I

1. setting the stage selecting the participants sequencing the events

I

2.

Lexicon

3.

Minimal representation of the narrative

3.1

Rules: inserting terms inserting scene breaks assigning non-predictable pragmatic function signals assigning contextually predictable function signals assigning syntactic function signals

4. a b c d

IRoster of specified predications

Time-line predications Quote predications (direct speech) Argumentative predications Determinative predications

4.1

Rules: applying expression rules: ordering the elements specifying the phonemes by morphophon. context introducing pauses and intonation

5.

Actual surface form of the narrative

I

128 IE.

The present approach

1.1 Semantic frames rosters The sequence of a narrative's events is "given", with its verb frames, participants, and settings.25 It is "given" in the form of predicate frames with their participants. The frames of the semantic frames roster (SFR for short) are few, and they are taken from a lexicon26 with a small number of entries. But the list of rules is long, and applicable beyond the particular narrative. The various text rules develop text and syntax structures. They predict what can be predicted and, in doing so, they build up a semantic frames roster using verb frames from the lexicon. The "semantic frames roster" represents the irreducible narrative text "kernel". This probably is the information which a narrator has to remember when he stores a new narrative in his repertoire. The frames of the roster are (disregarding phonological reduncancies here) "irreducibles", and rules develop it into a full narrative. These "irreducibles" do not contain any "underlying" forms which would be deleted later on, and they do not contain forms which never are heard or thought. This is in keeping with constraints of "functional grammar" (Dik 1980b: 50). Where rules are not predictable from the general properties of the text, signals must be inserted in the "semantic frames roster" (SFR) to trigger the rules. Such signals are part of the underlying SFR: They are "given" with the fully specified SFR. The SFR also will contain those surface items which are found especially in direct speech passages and which are typical of expressive narrative style: e.g. phonetic stereotypes which the narrator is not free to alter. Here it is impossible for an outsider to draw a safe line between restricted stereotypes and full regularities. To represent the SFR in a form which is not too unwieldy to handle, certain conventions have been chosen. The SFR display uses columns which are not too different from the verb frames of the functional lexicon - and similar to the language's actual order of elements. Lines stand for predicates: each line has one predicate. The signals are inserted in their respective places. The scheme of section I C.9.1 (above) then reads as in chart 14.

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Chart 14: Propositions and transition signals Propositions

Transitions

Participants Agent Patient χ1 Signal χ1 Signal etc.

Events Other

x2 Signal 3

χ Signal

1. Frame 2. Frame

Signal-> Signal->

Rules triggered by text properties Rules triggered by signals etc.

2.1 The components of narratives For the purpose of the present analysis, narrative texts are presented as complex wholes which consists of three or four different components. These will be kept separate when texts are presented in charts. One series of components constitutes the "time-line" backbone.27 This is a sequence of predications which typically forms a chain of action verbs. One of these verbs is the "quotation verb" which brings in most of the recursion. Quotations embed other texts and other kinds of texts. There are a few flashbacks, afterthoughts, simultaneous lines, or previews which in a strict sense are not part of the time-line, but still are time-oriented or "tensed": They carry time expressions in the form of temporal NPs, tense/aspect markers, or semantic components of the verb. However, they are linked to the main time Une somewhat out of phase and out of focus.28 Other predications, typically the stative predications, do not form coherent chains by themselves, nor do they integrate themselves into such chains: They attach themselves to particular participants of the main line, functioning, so to say, as their labels of identity. So the four text components which will be kept separate in the analytical charts are these: (1) Narrative time line predicates. They are time-sequenced action-predicates with occasional side lines.

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(2) Quotations ("quotes"; direct speech). "Quotations" or "quotes" are the direct speech passages which allow for recursion. They often contain non-narrative passages such as arguments. (3) Determination predicates. These are the stative predicates which identify and describe participants.29 (4) Argumentative predicates. They relate to the narrative events logically, not chronologically. (These predicates are rare in text A, but frequent in others.)

22 Transitions into a narrative and speaker-hearer contact A narrative is not just there. For a narrative's "reality" to be actualised, a speaker must at some point of his real time acknowledge the "Here and Now, I and You", anchor the text in this point of real time, decide to leave it behind, and walk into the narrative's universe. Such travel between the real world and the narrative world is all made explicit, in words, and usually it is undertaken not at one point only, but at several points:30 (a) In the introduction: Walking into the narrative world; mise-en-valeur of a different time-system; systematic neglect of the situational environment. (b) In intermittent contacts with the listeners: Ascertaining that the listener still is "going along" with the narrator; inviting nods; playing with the listener's knowlegde of characters. (c) In the conclusion: Drawing all listeners out of the narrative world; signalling that the discourse world is now closed, re-establishing the validity of the situational "present tense." (cf. also Price 1979: 77) Like all transitions between two worlds, points (a), (b) and (c) have their rituals, and linguists as non-initialised intruders have a tender conscience about observing the rites of transition. But texts to be analysed are texts to be recorded, and that is felt most acutely at points (a) and (b) These "edges" of a text suffer most noticeably from the conditions of text recording. It is against the spirit of traditional narratives, and it is artificial to listen to them for the purpose (declared or perspiring) of analysing them, rather than simply enjoying them, participating in the traditional process. But once it has been decided that texts must be analysed, some minimum of artificiality cannot be avoided. This non-naturalness of the situation is still heightened - not created, but made more acute - by the physical presence of a tape recorder. To avoid some of this, or to let the speakers forget this, we have experimented with

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several ways round the "intrusion factor", such as recording the whole day of a speaker's life; preparing oneself by language learning; using written texts in a culture of oral texts; asking for recordings made by members of the culture; taking radio news as original texts - or creating the usual (traditional, natural?) setting, which would have the "usual" responses from the audience. But once it has been decided that a text is wanted on paper, the "non-traditional" situation will be there, subtly or strongly: It will give a different function to every step of the original process. While in pre-electronic generations of "field" linguists it was the necessity of slow dictation which have influenced text structures, now it is the technicality and psychology of recorders, video-tapes, or microphones. It could be claimed that the "real linguistic body" of a narrative will not be mutilated by these alienating factors. But this judgment very much depends on one's personal concept of what narratives "really" are, and what linguistics really should be all about. We therefore have (quite deliberately) given up on "providing natural conditions" and have reconciled ourselves to the fact that at the beginning of a text there will be profane, non-traditional "introductions" such as technicalities about recorders, and at the end a text may say "switch-off!" (Cf. c'ufi 'close!', text DA).31

2.2.1 Transition from conversation to narrative tense/aspect There are three rules for embedding a narratives into the speaker's here-andnow. Since the procedures of starting to narrate are predictable with a certain range of variation, these embedding processes need not be listed as a new property of each particular text, but can be supplied as general well-formednessrules for narratives: (a) Rules providing introductions 32 (b) Rules providing intermittent speaker-hearer contact (c) Rules providing conclusions33

222 Rule: Narrative introductions "Introductions", if explicit, have one of the following forms: (a) The NP or the name identifying the "main participant", plus a descriptive attribute, or an action which characterises him or her. The main participant's name or activity alone can serve as the narrative's heading, in the typical citation form (object case).

132 I E. The present approach

(1) sallaane 'nine

woraabeeyye-tt'a me'Myyo. hyenas' excursion PAT OBJ' (text II B)

This minimum NP can be expanded in any of the following ways: (a) NP plus Poss NP: "Story of NP"

(2) NP-ka mammaassa 'NP-of:PAT:OBJ story' (texts Al-4; NB; NP; NQ; NR; NS; NT; NV) (b) NP plus VP of speech in actual time, IPS: Ί/we tell NP' (3) NP-OBJ 'NP-OBJ (4) fingo 'Narrative

haaso'iyyotee'e hasa'enneni. to-tell I-intend.' (text NA)

t'inga'enneni I-narrate' (text NJ)

(c) NP plus VP plus the adverb "now": "now I tell NP". Note that the use of non-perfect tense or ta'a 'now5 contrasts real time against narrative time. (5) ta'a 'Now

NP-tee'e haasonna'enneni. concerning-NP we-tell' (text CF)

(6) ta'a t'ingo 'Now story

mitte haaso'a'enneni. one I-tell'

Once the story teller and his audience have agreed that a story will be told, the listener's attention may be directed to the main participant. Cf. the following cleft construction: (7) ta'a haasonnanneki, NP-ka. 'Now what-we'll-talk, NP-OBJ.' (text DC)

IE. The present approach 133

(d) No overt transition. For a number of texts, the speakers did not feel it was necessary to provide a transition after the recorder had been switched on: the first sentence already introduces the participants: (8) NP 'NP

hed'emma'a was-there' (texts Cl, NE; NI; NU)

(9) 'anee'e 'Me

223

Teferra hinaani. Teferra they-call.' (text NO)

Rule: Intermittent speaker-hearer contact

The narrator has the initiative in maintaining contact with the listeners. Apart from non-linguistic means (gestures, eye-contact), various linguistic means are employed by the speaker to solicit feedback from the listener. These include, for instance "rhetorical questions" and "formalised or phatic replies". Rhetorical questions require a positive reply. The question itself is in the negative. The "formalised or phatice replies" have the form of hn; 'ee; 'm'm! 'hm; yes, oh-no!' etc., and they signalise that the listener is still with the speaker. Like some Omotic languages, Burji also has a formalised way of replying: After every sentence, the listeners repeat the last syllables of the narrator's last utterance (starting from one of the last stressed syllables). This will be repeated exactly and regularly.

22.4 Rule: Closing the narrative Conclusions have one of the following forms: Where VPs are used, the tense/aspect returns to present or imperative. Where NPs are used, the retrospective deictic tenne/konne 'this f/m' points back to the narrative as a whole. Usually the whole narrative is turned into a quotation (someone else's text), by means of a phrase like "this is what is said" or "this is what they say". (Cf. section II A 3.6.6 below on narratives as "quotes".) (10) 'Stop' (texts CC; DA; DC); 'That's it'; 'That's my stör/ (texts NE; NI; NJ; NK; NN; NX; PC); 'That's why ...' (text NC); 'They sa/; 'It is said' (texts NL Al; A3); Ά story says' (texts NB; NP; NQ; NR; NS; NT; NV).

134 I E. The present approach

3. The pragmatic notions "theme, topic, focus" and "coda" The different pragmatic notions called "focus, theme" and "topic" as well as their opposites, and other notions such as "presupposition", "old information", or "shared knowledge" have been used in various different ways so that whoever uses one of these has to define each one against the rest of them again. Hallida/s study of English theme and transitivity (1967-68) still is the background of most discussions of these terms, and Chafe (1976, "Givenness, Contrastiveness, Definiteness, Subjects, Topics, and Points of View") discusses them rather exhaustively. Of the studies which are specifically relevant to the present work, Saeed and McKeown shall be mentioned here. Saeed (1984: 16-21) gives a summary on pragmatic notions with relation to Cushitic languages. Concerning the treatment of focus in text generation, McKeown (1985: 76) is careful to note differences between the use of this term in descriptive linguistics vs. in text production. The terms "theme, topic, focus" are often used as single, independent markers or entities, without reference to their polar opposites. Even Sgall et al. (1973: 22) who first speak about "rheme" soon drop it. Dik's "Functional Grammar" for instance recognises the functions "theme" and "topic", but does not speak of "rhemes" or "comments" in the same formalised way. There are other schools of linguistics where these terms are used in pairs only. We will first give each of these terms as it is commonly understood, then note peculiarities where necessary, and indicate in which sense we employ the terms here.

3.1 Given or old vs. new presupposition and implicature "Given" is that information which can be found in the older discourse material or which can be derived from it. "Given" in a different way is that knowledge which counts as common knowledge is a specific culture. This knowledge is "there", although it is not given in "old" discourse material. "New", by contrast, is that which was unknown or irrelevant until the narrator said it or declared it relevant. In discourse generation, it would be desirable to derive from "old" discourse material what can be derived, and explicate from common knowledge what can be explicated and put in words. Success in these areas means success in the modelling of human understanding. Davey*s work of 1979 is remarkable here: It is a successful, principled approach to the problem of how to be silent about information which can be derived. McKeown's work, on the other hand,

I E. The present approach 135

is a successful solution to the problem of how to focus on such information in the data base which may become relevant next, and hold it ready for processing. The present study offers no principled, formalised way of dealing with "newness, givenness", "implicature" or "potential focus". Cross-cultural speculations about "presupposed" information are hazardous: Even "common" cooperation principles such as the Gricean principles of communication may be culture specific. The Ethiopian communication rules would seem to include techniques which are different from the Gricean ones: "Wax and gold" techniques are techniques which communicate on more than one level, and probably these would demand more complex analyses than Grice has offered. It would appear that narratives such as fabels and reports can largely be understood without reference to complex speaker-hearer interaction: Dialogues are reduced to a few formulae. And it seems fortunate that most of the "mutual knowledge" and most of the "shared suppositions" are provided by the narrator, as he builds his text in the presense of the audience.

3.2 Topic vs. comment Topic is what one talks about, and comment is what one says about it. Behind this simple formula - beautifully easy in English - there are hidden a number of complications. For most linguists, topic is sentence topic and does not depend on the preceding text (e.g. Lyons 1968). But relations to discourse notions, especially to "theme" as understood in linguistic models other than "functional grammar", are by no means clear. Probably there should be paragraph topics and discourse topics, or paragraph themes and discourse themes. One of these sets seems indispensable. In the present study, "topic" is seen as coinciding with the "subject" most of the time. In this regard we follow the "functional grammar" model. Only in a few sections (on Burji) these two notions topic and subject will specifically be employed as independent of each other.

3 3 Theme vs. rheme Usually "theme" is understood as what is "given". The Prague School identifies a theme and a rheme for every sentence. Since this includes sentences which are non-initial, according to the Prague School, a "theme" need not be "given" by means of some earlier sentence, and a theme is not contextually "old"

136 I E. The present approach

information. What Halliday calls "theme" is called "topic" by most other linguists now. His "theme" is the topic-at-the-time-of-the-utterance, and in this regard his concept of "theme" differs from "old" topics. In the present study we will use "theme" in the following sense: "Theme" is (a) what Dik identifies as the pragmatic theme of a sentence, cut off from the sentence phonologically; plus (b) what has a corresponding relation to shorter and longer linguistic units. I.e., there are themes of phrases, and themes of paragraphs, and themes of discourses. Themes point out that section of the world which will be relevant to a subsequent sentence; and we would add: relevant to the phrase, paragraph, or discourse. It should also be noted that for the present study the borderline between "theme" and "setting" is thin: Where "setting" contains purely temporal and spatial information to manufacture a new scenery, it is easy to see the difference between the two - but where some atmospheric "setting" of a new scene is produced in a wider sense, it may not be possible to maintain a categorial distinction between these two. In the present study, the mechanism for producing a "theme" (THM) and a "setting" (SET) is the same: frontshifting.

3.4 Focus and non-focus The "focus" is where the attention of the hearer is directed. Focus may be the most general kind of prominence among the different kinds discussed here, and items which are prominent because they are "in focus" need not be in sentence initial or final position. A "focus of attention" is sometimes simply called "focus" in McKeown's and in Chafe's terminology (McKewon 1985: 76, Chafe 1980). This "focus of attention" has much of the "topic" as it was defined above. On the other hand, the "focus of interest" or "focus of attention" also comes close to Halliday's "theme": It includes what the speaker talks about now - as opposed to what was talked about earlier. McKeown in her definition of "immediate focus" was guided by the need to give structure to a data base. In text generation, "focus" is that particular information which must be held ready for processing. It is what now is present in the reader's consciousness. In addition to this, McKeown also employs the concept of a "potential focus list" which is a list containing all items to which the reader's attention could be directed next. Note that this includes items which have not been said yet and may never be said: an unusual notion for descriptive linguistics, but very necessary for artificial intelligence programmes. McKeown therefore notes that a new distinction has now developed between "focus" as understood in linguistics, and "focus" as

I E. The present approach 137

understood in artificial intelligence research: "Focus, as defined by linguistic precedents, labels information in the sentence which carries the import of the message. ... Linguistic focus refers to the focus of the sentence, while AI researchers use focus to refer to the focus of the speaker" (1985: 76). For the present study, "focus" is very much pre-defined by what is morphologically marked in Cushitic languages and what has been termed "focus" in the study of these languages. Focus is not typically bound to a fixed sentence position: especially, it is not bound to sentence initial position like theme or topic. For this reason this concept is particularly welcome here. Within the framework of functional grammar, there has been a discussion of various kinds of focus, and likewise, in the present study different kinds of focus will be recognised. This includes morphemes which signal "exclusive focus", "inclusive focus", or "contrastive focus".

3.5 Coda or tail A "Coda" is that section of a sentence which is added after a syntactic closure to repair the mismatch of mutual knowledge which this sentence has created. With this pragmatic notion it is recognised that communicational strategies often override limitations set by syntactic patterns. In the languages of this study it is common to have subjects added as codas.

3.6 A summary of pragmatic functions To summarise: in this study the notions "theme" (THM), "setting" (SET), "topic" (TOP), "focus" (FOC, including CONTR, EXCFOC, INCFOC) and "coda" (CODA) will be used in the sense in which "functional grammar" uses them (cf. especially Dik 1983: 25), but with the modifications given above: Topic is that which the predication predicates about, given the setting. Focus is the most important or "salient" entity in its setting. Theme sketches the universe of discourse which will be relevant for a sentence or paragraph (or discourse). Coda (or "tail") is an afterthought added for clarification.

PARTII GEDEO NARRATIVES

In this part, different narratives and their variations will be analysed in detail: fables (texts A l to A4 and text B), and reports about an event in the neighbourhood (texts CI to C3). Since the analyses of the first two narratives (texts A and B) will provide the basis for all further generalisations, it will be necessary to be very explicit here. Karl Vossler has claimed that language comes to its proper function where people tell fables: "Essentially, language is parable, metaphor, and fable. 'Fabula' means language". A fable "points out, denotes" and it "interprets" (Vossler 1919: 85; my translation). A fable creates its own world, speaks about life in that world, and then goes on to interpret our life in the light of that world. Both worlds are "real" in some sense, and the design of the world of a fable must meet the proper conditions. The first two narratives are similar in that both of them are fables. The themes can be regarded as representative of Ethiopian cultures: Both of the stories have to do with dignity, hunger and rhetorical refinement, and in both cases a logical trap serves as the rhetorical tool which solves the issue. The common theme is: rhetorics, a tool against hunger and loss.34 Narrative A - a fable about hunger and loss of dignity - will be analysed in all detail, and four versions of it (Al, A2, A3 and A4) will be compared, especially in those cases where one version is not sufficiently conclusive for formulating rigid text rules. One of the main characteristics of this narrative is that most of its predicates are time-oriented. Narrative Β - a fable about fear and the loss of food - will also be analysed as a text and with some amount of detail; but this will be done for one version only. In this narrative, many passages are argumentative, and there are long passages of direct speech ("quotes"). Three further narratives (texts Cl, C2 and C3) are presented in the last section. All three of them are short reports about the same incident, a fire; but the reports were given by different speakers and from different perspectives. In these narratives a larger number of argumentative relations are encountered. In addition to these, some other narratives (identified as ΝΑ, NB etc.), some descriptive text and procedural texts (identified as PA, PB etc.), as well as some conversational material (identified as CA, CB etc.), will widen the scope beyond the narrative genre. From these other texts only short passages will be adduced

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GedeoTextA

to illustrate particular points. There is a quantitative limit to the presentation of entire texts. Although this whole section starts from, and is based on, the analysis of narratives, it will be found that especially the direct speech passages (text B) and descriptive passages (texts Cl, C2 and C3) supply a large amount of argumentative and descriptive material.

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141

SECTION A Gedeo Text A: "A Story of Hyenas" as told by Eliyas Banaata The narrative "A story of hyenas" has as its theme, "hunger and loss of dignity". It has been told by Eliyas Banaata who was about 19 years old at the time of the recording. Eliyas lives southeast of Dilla. For some time he was involved in the teaching of adult literacy, which probably is related to his general interest in language. The story was told four times with short intervals in between. At the time when these recordings were made, no written notes were used. This remark is worth making here, since the four versions A l to A4 are very much alike. From the sound of the tape recording it is still obvious that the speaker enjoyed telling the story: there are outbursts of laughter, and a slight amusement can be sensed in all of the four versions. On the surface, this is a "funny story", but it carries a sad message. The transcription includes the speech errors (marked as "error"), as well as hesitations (marked as "... ") and regular pauses (marked as # ) . Those regular pauses which coincide with syntactic boundaries have also been transcribed as comma [,] and full stop [.] as appropriate.

1. The worlds of texts as exemplified in Gedeo Text A The world of text A is a "real" little world. This is fortunate: the more objective points there are against which all claims and rules can be checked, the safer for the rules. The parable of text A is "real" not only in the sense of ethical reality which philological tradition would ascribe to every true parable or fable (cf. Vossler above), this text is also "real" in the sense that space and time and the participants' presence are handled without contradictions: Everything can be mapped out and sequenced. 35 The first step in the analysis of any text is to accept that there is a textual world. "A TEXTUAL WORLD is the cognitive correlate in the mind of a text user for the configuration of concepts activated in regard to a text" (de Beaugrande 1980: 77). This is not only true for the reader/hearer of a story, but for the speaker as well: "When we produce a discourse, we will know what it is about in global terms before we start to produce the first sentence." (v. Dijk and

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Kintsch 1983: 272). This "global knowledge" includes the topography and population of the discourse: The data about this parable's geography, time and population are spelled out clearly enough for them to even be fed to a machine, and a machine which has the data of this story should be able to move about correctly and tell who is who, doing what, where, and at which time. Topographically, chronologically, and in terms of dramatis personae, the world of this narrative will now be laid out.

1.1 An overview of events and their settings (English version of text A) Text A will first be represented by an English translation which only delineates the backbone of events. This English version is structurally parallel to the timeline sentences of the Gedeo original. The "main events" follow each other in a strict chronological sequence without flashback and overlap - or, to make a less rigid claim: It is conceivable that in the little universe of this discourse, all events follow each other without gap and overlap. (Note that the direct speech passages have been included for completeness' sake, but they are outside the narrative time frame.) In chart 15, the indentation separates those components which later on will be kept in different columns. The line numbering is based on the synopsis of all four versions. (This is one of the reasons why a few numbers have been skipped in version Al.)

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143

Chart 15: Participants, events, speeches and settings of text A No. Main AGENT

Time-Line Actions

Quotes

Setting

Some day, in one place, Hyenas

gathered and they had a discussion; they discussed:

'Why are we called 'Hyenas'? 'We eat what people throw away etc.'

11.

In one place they gathered, they went to their Chief and they told him their concern.

14.

The Chief in one place he called together all Hyenas and he issued a decree: 'As from today, all Hyenas shall not eat carcasses'; he made it a command.

18.

One day, the Chief with hisServants went, they spent some time and

19.

they came out at a field. 22.

The Chief

27.

The Servants came,

saw a horse and he told his Servants.

they looked and they said:

'We promised, didn't we, 'We don't eat carcasses".

35.

The Chief, saying:

'We promised 'We don't eat carcasses' but did we promise

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Gedeo Text A 'We don't eat white horses'?' he started to eat.

37.

The Followers

went home and

40.

The news spread to all countries.

42.

And all those called

they told the news.

'Hyenas'

started to eat.

12 Topography of text Al The little universe of this discourse A l which is, incidentally, the same as that of versions A2 to A4, has three "meeting places" not specified any further (mitteba 'one-at' lines 2, 11, 14); then there is the chiefs place (11), and there is the area of the excursion trip (18). From this area one goes "out" to a field (19), and "into" the thicket (21) where the horse is found (21). In the end, everybody goes "home" (37). The plot structure of the little comedy is mapped onto this topography in such a way that complexity builds up parallel in both dimensions: The story gains momentum as its participants move from meeting to meeting (2,11, 14), and the climax (21-36) comes when the most intricate topography is reached. Section 1.4 below shows that the same is true for the time dimension. The denouement simply releases the participants "home". A map of text A therefore reads, from top to bottom, somewhat like chart 16.

12.1 The narrator's perspective By reference to this topography, it is also possible to determine the narrator's perspective: In the first paragraph of every section one "main" participant can be identified. It is his place in the topography from where the narrator reports the events. The verbs of motion will be selected with reference to this perspective: They me"· 'go' or dag- 'come', hed'- 'are there' or gat- 'remain' elsewhere, or mar- 'move along' as the narrator's point of perspective changes. (Cf. chart 16.)

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145

Chart 16: Topography of text A

Story universe (cf. line 40) 2

Hyenas' Meeting Place I

11

Hyenas' Meeting Place II

11 Chiefs Place 14 Hyenas' Meeting Place III 18 Chiefs and Servants' Excursion 19 Field

20 Thicket 21 Horse's Place

37 Hyenas' Home 40 All Countries

13 Participants of text A Participants change from scene to scene, except in the build-up sections (2-11, 18-21). Grouped by animacy and in the chronological order of appearance on the "stage", the participants are the following:36 (a) < animate > participants in the following lines: 1 hyenas, 8 people, 9 animals, 11 hyenas' chief, 16 tribe of hyenas, 18 chiefs "followers", which is synonymous with 38 "servants", and 43 "people", which is implied in a passive.

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(b) participants in the following lines: 7 corpses, 8 items thrown away, implied in a nominalisation, 21 horse, and 32 meat. (c) < non-concrete > in the following lines: 3 discussion, 11 idea, 14 decree, and 40 news. All of these abstract terms refer to "quotes" and can be identified as actual speech passages. The one substitutes for the other; for instances, lines 12ff. of version A2 has a direct speech passage where other versions have mala 'advice; consultation'. A roll-call of the participants can be outlined with reference to the scenes in which they act (cf. the paragraph numbers). This has been done in chart 17. Note that subject assignment and active and passive roles relate to animacy.

Chart 17: Participants and their "scenes" in text A Participants: All Hyenas

Chief of H.

02b

(11c)

Servants

(Horse's carcass)

.

18e

Scene No.:

14b 18c

20c (21c) 27b

38a 42b

42b

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147

1.4 Time table or calendar of text Al Where there is a narrative there are at least two "times": (a) The time it takes to tell the story (the stop watch for this time would start when the speaker opens his mouth) (b) the time of the story time-line (that is the time which in the narrative itself is marked by phrases such as "the next day", "then", etc.). And there often is a number of side-lines: (c) the time(s) of other worlds which are built up in the narrative: e.g., worlds imagined, negated, or sketched in direct speech passages. Concerning narrative time in text A the following is true: Explicit reference to time in terms of temporal noun phrases is given only once or twice: mitte barra 'some d a / in line 2 and in line 18 of versions A2 and A3. In the rest of the narrative, chronological progression will be deduced from the succession of verb forms. All events, changes and activities given in the "semantic frames roster" do in fact follow each other. The English version reflects this, and chart 18 below is an attempt at making this chronology obvious. The climax of the narrative is, once again, marked by higher complexity: a crowding of incidents at one point of the time dimension (cf. lines 19-37 of charts 16 and 18). As the narrative approaches its climax, the units of time progression become smaller and smaller: The narrator first progresses in terms of "days", then in terms of time spans and finally in terms of moments. This parallels the progression in space, where the first unit is the entire world of this fable, then definitee "places", a "thicket" and finally a small clearing in the forest. The overall effect is that of "zooming" and directing the hearer's focus to the few central actions of the climax.

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Chart 18: Time table / calendar of text A Day

Time Span

Line Participants and Events

1. Span 2. Span 3. Span 4. Span 5. Span 6. Span Later

2 10 11 11 11 14 17

hyenas gather hyenas discuss hyenas gather hyenas approach chief hyenas make suggestion chief gathers hyenas chief commands obedience

1. Span 2. Span Later 1. Moment 2. Moment 3. Moment 4. Moment 5. Moment Later

18 19 22 22 22 27 28 35 37

chief moves out chief with servants spend day chief notices horse chief notices horse chief tells servants servants come servants look chief starts eating followers eat and go home

39

followers give news

40 42

news spreads all hyenas start eating

1. Day:

2. Day:

3. Day: Later:

1.5 Changes of scene Changes of time and place, and changes of actors: taken together, these three dimensions determine where a new scene or a new "paragraph" starts. There are other factors which determine the coherence of scenes. One of them has been identified as "expectancy chain": In every culture there are certain sequences of activités which are strung together as "expected" chains of activities. Shared knowledge about such expectancy chains exert a powerful influence on

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149

the way a story will be presented. But factors of this kind had to be disregarded here because they are elusive and culture-bound. Syntactically, a "scene" or paragraph is the beginning of a new complex sentence. Chart 19 summarises all of these factors.

Chart 19: Summary: changes of scene Scenes in relation to topography, time, and participants

Participants: Hyenas: Chief Servants: Horse:

02b (11c) 14b

18c

42b 38a

18e

20c

Time/Location New Time NP 02a... New Location NP: 02c l i b

183... 14e 18f 19d 20c...

Scenes: New Paragraphs: 02

14 18 20

11

27b 21d

42b

(31a)... 36a...

21 27 36

38

(40a) 40b

40 42

The numbers in the last line (2, 11, 14, etc.) are the beginnings of "complex sentences" or scenes, whose borders are defined by the sum of changes: Participants, times, and places.

1.6 Text A (version 1) in phonological transcription (with interlinear translation) The full text of A l is given here for the purpose of a first survey, and for later reference. The morpheme-by-morpheme translation does not yet give all of the details which will be developed in the next sections: The verb endings, and the function of nominal suffixes are not given in full detail yet, since the main interest here is in the general survey.

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Line breaks are made with reference to the other versions of the same story: what is one line usually is expressed with an identical phrase in some other version too. The line numbers are the same throughout the analysis, and for all of these four versions.

1.6.1 A story about hyenas 1 woraabeessi-n-ka 1 hyena-DET

mammaassa story.

2 mitte barra 2 one day One day, woraabeessi hyena the hyenas mitte-ba bukki hiyy-ee-tt'i, one-place together say-PERF-SS, assembled all in one place weli mal-e. together discuss-PERF. and had a discussion. 3 mali-ki-nna 'iitta hiyy-aamma-ke-mma-'a. 3 consult-DET-and thus say-IMPF-PAST-DET-PAST-CONCL They made the following points: 4 'no'o hitta kand-e'e 4 'we how? become-PERF 'Why is it that we he'-n-anno? Voraabeessa-ke' hiyy-emm-a-'ni 'hyena-DET' say-PASS-PL-IMPF-at exist-PL-IMPF-we? have to live being called 'Hyenas'?

IIA. Gedeo Text A

7 rey-ee-cco-nna no'o-n-de 7 die-PERF-SG-and we-EMPH-DET All dead bodies - it is us who eat them, 8 manni hun-ee-cco-nna 8 people throw-away-PERF-SG-and what people throw away - we eat it,

151

'ind-anno; eat-PL-IMPF-we;

no'o-n-de we-EMPH

ind-anno; eat-PL-IMPF-we;

9 biniinca-ke-'ni jibb-em-ee-cco 9 wild-animals-DET-at hate-PASS-PERF-SG what other animals find horrible, no'o-n-c'alla ke'-is-in-anno' we-only lift-CAUS-PL-IMPF-we' it is just us who pick that up' 10 hiyy-a-'ni weli mal-e. 10 say-IMPF-at together discuss-PERF. So they said in their discussion. 11 weli mal-ee-cci-nni 11 together discuss-PERF-SG-with After they had talked this over,

'udui-'a, after-at,

mitte-ba bukki hiyy-ee-tt'i, one-place together say-PERF-SS, they all came together, womi-cci 'isi-ba-'a chief-SG his-place-to went to their chief

mar-ee-tt'i, go-PERF-SS,

hassaaba konne-e'e weli mal-ee-ka thought that-OBJ together discuss-PERF-DET and presented to him the case they had discussed. 14 sbik'-is-ee-cci-nni 'udumi-'a, 14 approach-CAUS-PERF-SG-with after-at, After they had brought it before him,

shik'-is-e. near-CAUS-PERF

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womi-cci, chief-SG, the chief 'zare woraabeessi-n-t'i' hin-ee-cco 'offspring hyena—DET' say-PL-PERF-SG let all who were called 'the hyena tribe'

duucca all

mitte-ba bukki 'ass-ee-tt'i, one-place together do-PERF-SS, come together in one place, 'awwaajje takkaa-tt'a ful-c-e: decree first-DET get-out-CAUS-PERF: and he issued out a decree of primary importance: 16 'tecci-nni 16 'today-with 'As of today,

jammar-ee-tt'i, start-PERF-SS,

'zare woraabeessi-n-t'i' hiyy-em-ee-cci 'offspring hyena-DET' say-PASS-PERF-SG those called 'Members of the Hyena tribe' reensha-nni fed'-ee-cci gatt-abaa-ssha!' corpse-with any-SG stay-F-IMPF-not-so-that!' shall abstain from approaching dead bodies!' 17 hiyy-ee-tt'i 'ajaj-ee-ni. 17 say-PERF-SS command-PERF-CONCL. So he said in his law. 18 'okkone-cci-nni 18 that-SG-with After that,

'udumi-'a after-at

he'n-e he'n-e he'n-aa-wodda, exist-PL-PERF exist-PL-PERF exist-PL-IMPF-when, when they had lived that way for some time,

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womi-cci kunni chief-SG that the hyenas' chief

GedeoTextA

'insa'nee-ki, their-DET,

'erganna 'isi-tt'e-nni wel-ti, servant he-DET-with together-with, together with his underlings marensha ful-ee-ni. walk go-out-PERF-CONCL. undertook an excursion. 19 marem-e marem-e 19 walk-PERF walk-PERF They went here and there

marem-e walk-PERF

he'n-a-'ni, exist-PL-IMPF-at,

hons-ee-tt'i, spend-day-PL-PERF-SS, and spent some time diida mitte-'ni full-ee-ni. meadow one-at get-out-PL-PERF-CONCL. and finally came out at a meadow. 20 diida 20 meadow This place ...

mitte-'ni genn-ee one-at reach-PL-PERF...

diida könne meadow that in this area,

giddo, inside,

hakk'i-cci lumo-ki gaaddisi-c'alli-ki wood-SG big-DET shadow-only-DET lots of trees and dark shadows hed'-emma-ni. exist-PERF-PAST-CONCL. were there.

153

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21 womi-cci kunni 21 chief-SG that Now their chief,

'insa'ne-ki, their-DET,

könne hakk'i-cci giddo that wood-SG inside when he went into this forest,

'e'y-aa-wodda, enter-IMPF-when,

fad'acci mitti golaloo-ki horse-SG one white-DET a dead white horse

rey-e'e die-PERF

torba gal-ed'-ee-ki, week spend:time-BEN-PERF-DET, which must have been there a week boko-ke boko-ke blown-DET blown-DET blown up,

hiyy-ee-tt'i, say-PERF-SS,

t'illi hiyy-e'e 'okko hed'-emma-ni. rotten say-PERF there exist-PERF-PAST-CONCL. and all rotten, was lying there. 22 womi-cci kunni-nna, könne fad'acco 'odot-ee-tt'i, 22 chief-SG that-and, that horse-SG notice-PERF-SS, And this chief, when he noticed the horse, 'erganna '¡si-tt'e-'ni kul-ee-ni. servant his-DET-at tell-PERF-CONCL. he told his followers. udd-ee-tt'i, 27 'erganna 'isi-tt'i-nna dagg-ee-tt'i, 27 servant his-DET-and come-F-PERF-SS, see-F-PERF-SS, His followers came, saw it,

IIA. GedeoTextA

28 "reensha 'ind-abo'no-ni' 28 "corpse eat-PL-IMPF-we-CONCL' and said 'We shall not touch any dead bodies'; 29 hin-enne-tt'i kakant-enne-baa?' 29 say-PL-PERF-we-SS commit:PL-PERF-we-not?' Isn't that what we agreed?' 30 'iitta hit-ee-ni. 30 thus say-F-PERF-CONCL. they said. 31 'okkone-wodda, womi-cci-ki-nna, 31 that-when, chief-SG-and, Then the chief however said: 32 'maala ha'no-ka gott'-in-o-'a! 32 'meat you-PL-DET fill-yourself-PL-to-at! 'Oh may you swallow your own bodies! 33 'reensha 'ind-abo'no-ni' hin-enne malee'e 33 'corpse eat:PL-IMPF-not:we-CONCL' say-PL-PERF-we and-not, What we said is 'We shall not touch dead bodies' 34 'golalo[-ka] fad'acco 'ind-abo'no' 34 'white-DET horse-SG eat-PL-IMPF-not-we' did we ever say we shall not eat white horses?' hin-enne?' ay-PL-PERF-we?'

35 hiyy-a-'ni bart'-a-ke-'ni jammar-ee-ni. 35 say-IMPF-at eat-IMPF-DET-at start-PERF-CONCL. And as he said so, he started to devour the horse. 36 'ookko-'ni 36 there-at There,

155

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37 'ind-e'e ke'n-ee-cci-nni 'udumi-'a 37 eat-PL-PERF start-PL-PERF-SG-with after-at when they had eaten, hadi-'a 'aang-ee-ni. home-at enter-PL-PERF-CONCL. they went home. 38 hadi-'a 'aang-ee-cci-nni 'udumi-'a 38 home-at enter-PL-PERF-SG-with after-at When they had come home, hordofeeyye 'isi-nni wel-ti followers his-with together-with those who had eaten with him,

'itt-emma-tt'i, eat-F-PERF-PAST-SS,

39 hado gat-emma-ke duucca-'ni-nna, 39 home stay-PERF-PAST-DET all-at-and, to all those who had stayed at home 'odeess-it-ee-ni. announce-F-PERF-CONCL. they made it known. 40 'okkone-cci-nni 40 that-SG-with After that,

'udumi-'a, after-at,

'odo boga duucca-'ni gelt-ee-ni. news place all-at reach-F-PERF-CONCL. the news spread to all countries, and 42 'odo boga duucca-'ni gelt-ee-cci-nni kayyi-'a, 42 news country all-at reach-F-PERF-SG-with after-at, when it had spread to all countries, Voraabeessa-ke' hiyy-em-ee-cci duucci, 'hyena-DET' say-PASS-PERF-SG all, then all those known as 'Hyenas'

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reensha 'it-iyyo-te-'ni ke'-ee-ni; corpse eat-NZR-DET-at start-PERF-CONCL.; started to feed on corpses 43 hiyy-en-d-aa-ni. 43 say-PASS-F-IMPF-CONCL. so it is said.

2. Steps in the production of text A The whole text will now be built up step by step, and the intermediate results will be shown as text charts at various stages (charts 20ff.). These steps could have been taken in a rather arbitrary sequence, and in terms of rule ordering this would have been quite possible, with a large margin of freedom. The steps start from the lexical fund where there are all of the building materials. From these materials, a selection of verb frames is lined up sequentially, to form the story time-line. Cf. Rosenberg: "We wish to link each new sentence to an appropriate part of a Story Data Base (SDB)" (Rosenberg 1979: 97). The participants are fitted into these verb frames, and temporal and spatial settings make explicit how persons, things and actions fit into a world. Pragmatic signals are set to trigger the correct rules, and the rest is grammatical and phonological "routine": It is what every person (or machine) could perform who would receive this abstract of the story, provided he or she knows the rules of this language. The rules for producing the story are grouped together in some logical sequence, in about 7 major steps (cf. the end of this section). There were two principles to guide the decisions about steps (although there is some amount of arbitrariness): One, the imitation of thought and speech processes, and two, practical considerations. Concerning the imitation of psychological processes, some basic considerations about the modelling of speech processes have already been outlined above under section I D.4. In text generation by machine, one procedure which has proven to be workable (e.g., Novak 1986, cf. also what van Dijk and Kintsch call "strategies for the micro-structure" 1983: 275) is a procedure close to the approach taken here:37 (a) the various participants are classified according to animacy; cf. v. Dijk et Kintsch: "introduce main participants first, agents first"; "persons first, objects next, and time and location last" (1983: 281);

158 IIA.

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(b) the presence of participants on the "stage" structures the narrative in terms of "scenes"; (c) overlap of times and other non "regular" orders are marked syntactically. Cf. van Dijk and Kintsch: "if deviations from the natural order ... mark these explicitly, for example, by time ... expressions from which the hearer/reader can reconstruct the natural order." (1983: 275) (d) verb frames with their participants are developed into surface sentences. Concerning practical considerations, there are factors such as legibility, chart size etc. which were of influence on the presentation chosen here. Other such factors were the quantity of changes per chart, and the need to concentrate on certain text columns. All in all, there are about seven major steps or stages of change which lead from the lexicon to the actual text; listed as steps 1-7 here: (1) Changes from the raw lexical data to the sequenced story line. (2) Changes from the bare story line to the sequence of actions, with reference to all participants. (3) Insertion of pragmatic signals (theme, focus, setting) and assigning roles to participants. Decisions about noun and pronoun use. (4) Application of syntactic rules in certain columns (col. 3-5, transitivity, theme, focus, setting). (5) Application of more syntactic rules in certain columns (col. 4-5: form of causative, passive, verb-verb relations etc.). (6) Application of syntactic rules in other columns (col. 1-3: suffixation for determination, verb tense, person, etc.), (7) Producing pronounceable chains from phonological representations. The starting point is a lexicon (A 2.1) - the result is a text in its surface form (A 5).

2.1 The lexicon of text A, versions 1-4: some general remarks The lexicon of texts A1-A4 contains all basic terms and basic predicate frames which will appear in the "semantic frames roster" of these texts. In other words, it contains everything in text A which is not supplied by the rules or the signals which trigger them. The lexicon has pronouns (terms), nouns, verbs, adverbial verbs, adverbs and adjectives (predicates). Where possible, abbreviations are

IIA. Gedeo Text A

159

kept long enough to be self-explanatory. The syntactic categories of the lexicon are the following: Syntactic Categories: ADJ for adjectives ADV for adverbs Ν for nouns PRONfor pronouns V for verbs and adverbial verbs The other word classes will be introduced by way of rules later. For subclasses there will be no need to make finer distinctions, but for the sake of completeness all classes of free morphemes are listed here together with function morphemes: ADV "adverbs" such as kaba 'here' and interrogative adverbs such as haba 'where?' and adverbial nouns which act as postpositions such as 'edo/i 'earlier, frontside'; true ADV PPOS "adverbial postpositions" such as Welti 'together'; "conjunctions" such as kinni 'however'; DEM "demonstratives" such as 'okkone 'that'; MOOD particles such as yoona/i 'well then'; NUM "numerals" such as lame/i 'two', NUM ADJ "numeral adjectives" or ordinal numbers such as taakka 'first', NUM INDF "indefinite numerals" such as duucca/i 'all', NEG "negative particle" mee 'not!', PRON INDF "indefinite pronouns" such as wele/i '(each) other', "interrogative pronouns" such as 'ayye/i 'who?', PRON VOCAT "vocative pronouns" such as koo 'you! m.', and V AUX "auxiliary verbs" such as hed'- 'be there'. The semantic functions of lexical predicates and their respective abbreviations are the following: Semantic Functions: AG for agent DIR for directional FORCE for force LOC for locational PAT for patient POSR for positioner PROC for processed REC for pecipient SOURCE for source or origin Z E R O for 0

160 IIA. Gedeo Text A

Semantic features are written in the form used in "functional grammar" publications: < a n i m a t o rather than [+animate]. It would be a challenge to try and supply all semantic features like < human > in accordance with the culture inherent taxonomy, and in terms taken from the language itself. This has actually been proposed in the "functional grammar" literature. But a description using, for instance, Gedeo terminology such as 'human' (lit. 'of people') instead of < human > would become largely incomprehensible. Numbers in the nominal and verbal frames stand for the identity which this participant has in the narrative: x1 for "hyenas", x2 for their chief, x3 for his servants, and x4 for the horse. The details of term insertion will be given below. A Note on the major categories: Nouns: With some nominal entries the general, neutral form (neutral as to number) has been complemented by its non-predictable plural/collective (PL, COLL) 38 or, where appropriate, by its non-predictable singulative (SG). Since these plural or collective or singular formations are not predictable for welldefined classes, all of these forms would have to be given as separate lexical entries. Nouns which are given with the nominative case vowel / i are masculine.39 Verbs: Some verbs allow for a choice of participant roles; this has been indicated by a slash "/" as in PAT/DIR: either patient or direction is permitted. Such verb roles are difficult to identify.40 The "adverbial verbs" are the Ethiopian "say/do" verbs.

Lexicon of text A (versions 1-4) Pronouns ( D E F SG x°: 'iso/i PRON (x°)0)

'3 SG M'

( D E F SG x°: 'ise PRON (x°)0)

'3 SG F

['ise only in version 3 of text A]

'insa'ne PRON (x°)0) (DEF PL x°: ha'no PRON (x°)0)

'3 PL'

(DEF PL x°: no'o PRON (x°)0)

Ί PL'

Nouns 'awwaajje Ν (x°)0 'erganna N; SG 'ergai\j(o/i) (x°)0

'servant(s)'

(DEF PL x°:

'2 PL'

'decree'

IIA. 'odo Ν (x°)0

'news'

b a r r a / i Ν (χ°)0

'day'

bart'a Ν < action > (x°)0

'devouring(?)'

biniinc/i Ν (x°)0

Vild animal(s)'

boga/i Ν (x°)0

'land'

boonno N; SG boonco/i Ν (x°)0

'place(s), area'

diida Ν (x°)0

'grazing area'

farade N; SG fad'acco/i Ν (x 4 )0

'horse(s)'

gaaddisa/i Ν (x°)0

'shadow, dark place'

hado/i

Ν (x°)0

'home'

hakk'e/i N; SG hakk'icco/i Ν (x°)0

'tree (wood)'

hassaaba/i Ν (χ°)0

'thought' 3

hordofeeyye Ν; SG hordof(iis)ai\jo(/i) (x )0 'follower(s)' k'ane Ν (x°)0

'day'

maala/i Ν (x°)0

'meat, flesh'

mala/i Ν (x°)0

'counsel'

mammaassi/a Ν (x°)0

'story"

m a n n a / i Ν (x°)0

'people'

mai\jo(/i) Ν (x°)0

'person'

marensha Ν < action, loc> (x°)0/loc

Svalk, excursion'

re(e)nsha N; SG reecco/reyeecco Ν (x°)0

'carcass'

torba Ν (x°)0

Veek'

woma/i Ν (x2)0

'leader'

woraabeessa/i N; COLL woraabeeyye (x')0 'hyena(s)' yanna Ν (x°)0

'time'

za re Ν (x°)0

'tribe, offspring'

Verbs 'aag- V (x3: anim (x 3 ))AG (x°: loc(x°))LOC/DIR 2

2

4

4

'enter'

'af- V (x : anim?(x ))0/AG (x : (x ))PAT

'encounter'

'¡yqj- V (x2: anim(x 2 ))AG

'order'

'e'y- V (x2: anim(x 2 ))AG (x°: loc(x°))LOC/DIR

'enter'

1

L

'it- V (x : anim (x ))AG (x°: food(x°))PAT

'eat'

'odeess- V (x3: anim(x 3 ))AG (x1: anim (x'))REC

'announce'

•odot- V (x1: anim(x 1 ))AG (x4: (x 4 ))PAT

'notice'

'uud- V (x3: anim (x 3 ))AG (x°)PAT

'look at'

dag- V (x3: anim?(x 3 ))AG/FORCE

'come'

ful- V (χ 2 : (x 2 ))AG/FORCE (x°: loc(x°))SOURCE/DIR 'move out' gal- V (x4: anim (x 4 ))POSR

'spend the night'

Gedeo Text A

161

162 IIA.

GedeoTextA

gat- V (χ 1 : anim(x'))POSR (x°: loc(x°))LOC/PROX

'remain (at)'

gey- V (χ 2 : anim (x 2 ))AG (x°: (x°))LOC/DIR

'get as far as'

gey- V (x°: concr(x°))0/FORCE (x°: loc(x°))LOC/DIR 'extend to' gib- V (x°: anim(x°))AG (x°: (x°)PAT

'refuse'

god- V (x3: anim(x 3 ))AG (x°: inan(x°)PAT

'fill'

hed'- V (x°;x4: an/in(x°;x 4 ))POSR/0 (x°: loc(x°))LOC 'be there' bed'- V (x23: an/in(x 2 3 ))POSR/0

'live'

hiyy- V (x0...: anim (x°))AG (x°: man (x°))MANN/PAT (x°: anim (x°))REC 'say1 hos- V (x2;x3: anim(x 2 x; 3 ))POSR

'spend the day'

han- V (x°: anim(x°))AG (x°: inan(x°))PAT

'throw away"

jammar- V (x1: anim(x'))AG (x°: (x°)PAT/DIR

'start to/toward'

jibb- V (x°: anim(x°))AG (x°: (x°))PAT

'hate, reject'

kad- V (x1: (x'))PROC/0 (x°: (x°))MANN

'be, become'

kakat- V (x1: anim(x'))AG

'make an agreement'

ke'- V (x'-x 3 : anim(x 1 -x 3 ))AG (x°: (x°))SOURCE

'arise, start'

kul- V (x2: anim(x 2 ))AG (x°: anim(x°))REC

'tell'

lak'- V (x°: anim(x°))AG/PROC (x°: (x°: voice(x°))PAT 'hear, notice' lak'- V (x°: anim(x°))AG (x°: (x°: voice(x°))SOURCE 'listen to' [not in version 1] mal- V (χ 1 : anim(x'))AG (x°: abstr(x°))PAT 1

'discuss'

mar- V (x : anim (x'))AG (x°: loc(x°))LOC/DIR

'go to'

marem- V (x2;x3: anim(x 2 ;x 3 ))AG

'wander'

mari'at- V (x°: anim pl(x°))AG

'hold council'

[not in version 1] rey- V (x4: anim(x 4 ))PROC

'die'

shikk'- V (x1: anim(x'))AG (x: anim(x°)REC ye'- V (x°: anim (x°))AG (x1: anim (x'))PAT

'approach'

(x°: name (x°))MANN 'call, name'

[not in version 1] 1

yoww- V (x°: anim(x°))AG (x : anim(x')PAT 'insult'

[not in version 1]

Adverbial Verbs bokoke- V (x4: concr(x 4 ))0

'be inflated/inflate'

bukki- V (x1: anim(x'))AG

'meet (at)/call together at'

4

4

t'illi- V (x : concr(x ))0

'be rotten/rot'

IIA.

GedeoTextA

163

Adjectives golalo- ADJ (x4: concr(x 4 ))0

•white'

lumo- ADJ (x°: concr(x°))0

'big, of large quantity'

takka- ADJ (x°: count(x°))0

'first'

yo'o- ADJ (x°: concr(x°))0

'much, of large quantity9

Adverbs 'iitta ADV (x°: mann(x°))MANN

'thus'

'okko ADV (x°: loc(x°))LOC

'there'

hitta ADV (x°: mann(x°))MANN

'how?'

maayee'e ADV (x°: reas(x°))REAS

Svhy?'

tecco/i ADV (x°: time(x°))TIME

'today'

woldo/i ADV (x°: time(x°))TIME

'earlier'

3. Text rules: The "Semantic Frames Roster" of text A In this section, the verb frames of the lexicon are sequenced to form the story line. In 3.1 and 3.2 the events of the time-line are grouped together to form "paragraph" or "scene" units. In 3.3 the participants are "inserted" into the verb frames, even though this procedure probably does not reflect the way a predication is developed in human thinking.

3.1 Time-line and other parts of the semantic frames roster For the narrative A, the "semantic frames roster" is given in four main parts: (a) Time-line predications (b) Quote predications (direct speech) (c) Argumentative predications (rare in this text) (d) Identification and determination predications which clarify items in the timeline, in quotes or in argumentative predications. As a first survey, chart 21 gives part (a), the "time-line" only.

3.1.1 Time-line of Gedeo Text A The list of predications is supplied from the lexicon in the order found there; and the selection as well as the sequencing of these 36 items is "given": By the nature of the narrative, this is the main body of the narrative (chart 21).

1 6 4 IIA.

GedeoTextA

nature of the narrative, this is the main body of the narrative (chart 21). This list contains only the time line predicates and is "complete" in the sense that it represents an uninterrupted Une of events which is the narrative's backbone. Whatever else is the case has to be linked to this main line,41 and the links have to be overt. In this first chart only the backbone is presented; but in some sense this "is" already the full narrative, because it outlines the essential course of events recognisably.42 Linked directly to the chronological line of events are those events or states which are reported as being the case simultaneously with the main line events. (Cf. "same time" or "same duration", to be marked with the signal ST or SD) Certain rules have already been applied when setting up chart 21 for practical reasons. For instance, the rule establishing SOV order is applied early in order to enhance legibility.

Chart 21: Sequenced predicate frames A lexical skeleton of Gedeo Text A Sequence

PREDICATES

No.

SATELLITES

NUCLEAR ROLES Agent etc.

Patient etc.

Time etc.

(x1: anim)AG

(x°)LOC

(x1: anim)AG

(x°)PAT

(y')COMrr

(x1: anim)AG

(x°)LOC

(y')COMIT

(x1: anim)AG

(x°)LOC/DIR

(x1: anim)AG

(x°)PAT

(x1: anim)AG

(x°)PAT

(x1: anim)AG

(x°)PAT

(x2: anim)AG

(x°)PAT

(y°)TIME 2b

bukki-

2d

mal-

'meet'

'discuss' 10b

mal'discuss'

lib

bukki-

11c

mar-

'meet'

'go to' lid

shikk''approach'

14b

bukki'meet'

14f

ful'move out'

(x )LOC

IIA. Gedeo Text A 165 17b

'¡g^j-

(x2: anim)AG

'order' 18c

hed'-

18d

ful-

(y°)TIME ( X a : anim)POSR

'be there' (x2: anim)AG

(x°)LOC

(y^COMIT

'move out' 19b

marem-

(x2·3: anim)AG

"wander' 19c

hed'-

(x 2 ' 3 : anim)POSR

'be there' 19d

hos-

(x* 3 : anim)POSR

'spend the d a / 19f

ful-

(x2: anim)AG

(x°)DIR

'move out'

etc.

3.1.1.1 Rule: Time-line predicates "Time-line" is what is part of the "calendar" (cf. chart 18). Predicates which constitute the "time-line" are to be treated separately from those which do not.43 Time-line predicates later receive the tense/aspect markers appropriate for this line. (For examples, cf. chart 21 which contains only the predications of the time-line. Other predications will be added in later procedures.)

3.12 Scenes and settings (complex sentences) There is a break between two "scenes" wherever time, location, or participants change, especially where < animate > participants come on the stage, or leave it.44 These major breaks can easily be identified in the participants' roll calls, in the narrative's calendar and in its topographical map such as the TIME and LOC terms in the last column of chart 21. The survey of "scenery" and "actors" (chart 19) has shown that in most cases it is not only one dimension, but several, which will change at the same point. Where a new scene starts, not only the number of participants will change, but time and place as well; and all of these

166 IIA. GedeoTextA changes are linguistically explicit. So the "scenes" are established on the basis of the narrative's "real world", and they will be restructured into linguistically wellformed "paragraphs" by various rules. Time and location NPs serve to introduce scenes; these NPs are not part of any verb frames, and they are not predictable from the lexical verb entry, they are only predictable from the narrative as a whole. Scenes can also be defined from the perspective of their "coherence": Sequences of predications which have the same agent and the same setting (cf. the discussion of time/place terms above) will group together as one paragraph. 45 Such "coherence" includes not only predications which follow each other chronologically, but also those which have the "same duration" (SD), as shown in lines 18 and 21 of chart 22 (a) below. Coherence is also effected by more elusive factors such as the "expectancy chain" which binds together long sequences of events. But these are elusive factors, and they cannot be verified by an outsider of the culture in the rigid manner as other factors can.

3.1.2.1 Rule: Paragraph breaks The previous discussion can be summarized in terms of a simple rule: Paragraph breaks (in the form of lines) are inserted where (a) either a "same-agentsequence" ends, or where (b) a new temporal/locational phrase marks a new setting, e.g. where participants (old or new) move into a new scenery. Usually both factors come together. 46 The sequences controlled by the "same agent" are later to be regularised as "same subject" sequences, with the text signal "SS". For examples cf. chart 22 (a): In line 14b, there is a transition from the chain of events controlled by "hyenas1" to a chain controlled by the "chief2". Cf. also lines l i b and 14b, "one place" where a new setting/scenery is given. All of these changes of scene are marked in the charts (ÎI).

3.122

Peak paragraphs

The narrative has at least one "peak" or climax, and this may consist of one or several "peak paragraphs".47 They are distinct from the rest of the narrative both gradually and contrastively. Statistically, for instance, these peak paragraphs are marked by a higher incidence of certain syntactic or lexical forms (they are not

IIA. GedeoTextA 167 limited to peaks in principle) and contrastively, they are marked by applicability vs. non-applicability of certain rules as well as occurrence vs. non-occurrence of certain forms. (E.g., there are no tail-head links in peak paragraphs.) High topographical and chronological "density" has already been identified as marking the peak of narrative A.l (cf. "Map and Calendar" above). In addition to these, direct speech (Q) and special links will be seen to constitute peak paragraphs. This can be expressed more rigidly in the following rules.

3.123

Rule: "Peak paragraphs" and "tail-head" links

A narrative has one or more "peaks", consisting of at least one paragraph. A narrative's "peak" is identified according to criteria given above (3.1.2.2). Only outside the "peak paragraphs" the so-called "tail-head" transitions are permitted. (Their exact linguistic form is established in rule A 4.1.3, below.) "Tail-head" links make smooth and slow transitions in most of the narrative; but in peak paragraphs, they are absent - which makes for a dense and dramatic incidence of events. In some versions of this narrative there are more tail-head links than in version A.l: The "peak" is being approached with a longer set of quiet, "regular" sentences. In the first version of the text, the "peak" lies between lines 19 and 36. (Cf. also the speech error of line 20a1, and cf. 19a4 and 27a2.)

3.1.2.4 Rule: Satellite insertion: time, place, and others "Satellites" as defined in "functional grammar" are either inserted (a) in a predicate48, to become part of it (for example, lines 2d, 18d "with the hyenas or servants" COMIT), or they are "inserted" (b) in a paragraph, to function as its introduction and "setting" (for example, line 1 "one day", TIME). The time and place setting is usually supplied by "satellite" noun phrases. Syntactically, these phrases usually take "position PI" of the paragraph initial sentence, in the same way as "themes" do. In the charts, they are given in the column for non-agent and non-patient roles. (For examples, cf. line numbers 2a and 18c, with the phrase mitte barra 'one d a / . )

168 IIA. Gedeo Text A

3.13 Identity of participants and narrative tension Narratives go through various states of tension and relaxation, and they usually start out from a state where things are as they should be: balanced and relaxed. In this state of balance, all participants act or react according to their proper role identities: The main character (here: x1) acts as the agent topic, while the lesser figures (here: x2) have roles such as patient or recipient. All other participants, including the items of the background, stay where they should be: in the background of the stage. People's intuitions about what is "tension" and what is "relaxation" may be very strong and unambiguous, but this does not mean that it is easy to determine by formal criteria just where and how "tension" is effected. To identify these factors, Lowe's algebraic theorem (Lowe 1969, Grimes, 1975: 264) is employed here. Bradley's paper on Jibu (1971) is an early example of discourse analysis using this approach - in a reduced form - for an African language. The state of "balance" in a discourse is termed the state of "identity" ("I"). Turbulence and climax, on the other hand, are reflected in tension between a participant's basic identity and the role he or she assumes. Such "non-identities" include in particular role "reversal" (r) and role "switch" (s), and combinations of these two (rs; sr; rsr). It has been found that narratives go through various such states, and Grimes summarises such plot developments in a graph (adapted from Grimes 1975: 264).

xVx3 r

s

χ2 χ1 Xs

x1x3x2 Γ

s χ2 χ3 χ1

χ3 χ1 χ2 r

s χ3 χ2 χ1

IIA. Gedeo Text A

169

Or as a presentation of narrative states from "I" to "srs/rsr", with arrows indicating the development of text A:

"I"

(Role identity, balance)

srs rsr

(Non-identity, tension)

It is claimed that in every narrative the balanced, ideal or basic division of roles can be characterised as follows: (a) "x1" is the dominant function. It is the main character, usually a < human > or a fabulous "person", and in the balanced state of the narrative this figure will hold the function of a syntactic subject. It will also be the pragmatic topic and will usually be found in an initial or head position. This is the participant which acts out a dominant semantic role such as the role of "agent", and it tends to be associated with the theme for several sentences. (b) "x2", the lesser role, is normally assigned to some < human > or < a n i m a t o counterpart of x1. Functions such as non-subject and patient are typical for x2. (c) "x3" includes all other actors and things, relegated to a third place, or not on the stage at all. The world of a narrative is "in order" where all three of these figures are in their respective places: In Gedeo syntax this literally means: x1 comes before x2 comes before x3. So the sequence "x1 x2 x3" (state "I") is a "balanced" state, since each participant rests in its proper role "identity". No narrative has its hero x1 act as agent, subject and topic all the way. Tension in narratives is role "reversal" (r). Where x2 precedes and dominates x1, this creates tension: x2 x1 x3, and so does role "switch" (s): x1 x3 x2. Both can be combined, as reversal followed by switch (rs): x2 x3 x1, or vice versa (sr): x3 x1 x2. The worst disorder of a world's balance is of course x3 x2 x1 (rsr = srs) where the

170 IIA.

GedeoTextA

elements, for instance, dominate the heroes. Narratives usually start out from a balanced state of identity (I), to which they also may return in the end. They go through some of the states of tension (reversal or switch of roles: r, s) as the plot develops to a climax (rs, sr, or srs). In the present text, the transitions from one state to the other can be observed clearly when those passages are disregarded which belong to direct speeches or to stative descriptions. The decision to declare a certain role "x1" or "x2" depends on somewhat subjective views of "proper" role assignment; but as a point of reference, the initial and final states can be regarded as the states of "normal" balance. From this starting point it follows that the the first agent is x1.

State "Ι"

Sequence 1

2

χ χ χ

4

No. 1-11

Hyenas x1 approach their chief x 2 with a request (x3,4)

"r"

χ 2 χ1 χ 3

14-17

The chief x 2 gathers all hyenas x1 for a discussion, they go for an excursion.

rsr

x3x2x1

21

The horse (x3) has been rotting there; while the chief observes it, while others stay back in the forest

"rs"

χ 2 χ 3 χ1

22-35

The chief (x2) sees the horse (x3), the others (x1) stay in the background

Ί"

1

2

χ χ χ

3

37-41

The hyenas (x1) and the chief (x2) eat the horse (x3). They (x1) broadcast that the chief (x2) ate the horse (x3).

"s"

χ1 χ 3 χ 2

42

All hyenas start eating carcasses.

If however the chiefs appearance (sentence 14b) - rather than the initial sentence - would be regarded as state "I", then the whole narrative would take a different, authoritarian turn not typical for Gedeo: The chief would have role χ1, the group would be x2, and the rest x3:

IIA. GedeoTextA State

Sequence

No.

"rs"

χ1 χ 3 χ 2

02-11

171

The hyenas (χ 1 ) hold a meeting (χ 3 ) their chief (x 2 ) being absent.

"rs"

1

2

3

3

1

2

χ χ χ

14-20

Chief (x 1 ) and servants (x 2 ) discuss and go ... (x 3 )

"sr"

χ χ χ

The horse (x 3 ) lies there,

22

attracting attention ...

This does not appear to make as much sense as the first analysis would. Nor would the analysis start with the first sentence. We conclude, therefore, that the development of tension in this text is reflected by the participants' role sequence I - r - rsr - rs - I - s as shown in the first analysis, above. The climax - the point of highest tension in terms of role mismatch - is "rsr" in line 21. This agrees with analyses based on other approaches. Text Β below is about nine hyenas and one lion, and it has its "states" as follows:

State

Sequence 1

2

No.

"Ι"

χ χ χ

3

01-04

Hyenas (x 1 ) and lion (x 2 ) catch cattle (x 2 )

"rs"

χ 2 χ 3 χ1

05-10

The lion (x 2 ) takes the ox (x 3 ) from the hyena (x 1 )

"s"

χ1 χ 3 χ 2

11-12

The hyena (x 1 ) leaves its ox (x 3 ) with the lion (x 2 ) ...

So this story ends not in a state of balance and justice ("I"), but tension ("s"). The same tension characterizes the story teller's last sentence, which is a question about justice which nobody dares answer.

3.13.1 Rule: Participants and term index insertion Terms (mostly nouns) are inserted in predicate frames (mostly verbs) only where the semantic properties of both match.49 At this stage of text derivation, it is only the index numbers which are inserted.

172 IIA.

Gedeo Text A

Example: The lexical entry mal- verb, 'counsel, discuss, consult', is used in predicate 2b according to the lexical specifications. It only takes a < human > agent such as "hyena(s)" of a fable. Note that it is recognised here - and the functional model allows for this - that in the narrative genre of "fables", animals are assigned the property < human > systematically.

3.1.3.2 Rule: Nouns in "same agent" sequences Where in a sequence of predicates all predicates have the same agent, the noun representing the participant is inserted in the first frame of the sequence. So one noun is valid for several verbs.50 Index numbers x1; x2 ... serve to identify the participant in all other cases. The numbers will be needed for the morphology of concordance rules. Examples: cf. all nouns in the second column of all time-line charts: 22 (a) ff., for instance, lines 2ff. "hyenas", lines 14ff. "chief', etc.

3 . 1 3 3 Rule: Participant indexes and synonymous nouns Where two nouns have the same reference number and are synonymous, both nouns can be interchanged. An example is found in lines 27 and 38 which have 'erganna 'servants' and hordofeeyye 'followers', both used synonymously.

3 2 Displaying Gedeo Text A: Remarks on chart 22 (a) The predicates of Gedeo Text A are displayed in several charts: The main predicates are the foregrounded ones of the "time-line", and the others are backgrounded and belong to "non-time-line" material. The "time-line" predicates will be given first, in chart 22 (a). The other predicates are divided among "quotes", i.e., direct speech passages of chart 22 (b) and "determination" predicates of chart 22. All predicates relate to each other in one of the following ways: (a) they are time sequenced, (b) they are the contents of a direct speech, i.e. they form an embedded text again, or they determine a participant of (a) or (b). Not in the present text, but in some other texts, a third kind of relation will be encountered in addition: argumentative relations.

IIA.

GedeoTextA

173

The "direct speech passages" or "quotes" of chart 22 (b) are four separate "quotes" (lines 4ff, 16ff, 28ff, and 32ff). These passages have their own logic of coherence which will be discussed later. The "identification" predications of chart 22 (d) are stative. In the present text, most of them come from the direct speech passages such as 7bff "It is us who ... ", or "they are hyenas". These predications are not syntactically independent, but attached to noun phrases to identify participants. "Determination" predicates can also be descriptive. Usually they are stative, but they may contain embedded predicates of a non-stative kind. Embedding is exemplified in 39b: '(Those hyenas) who had remained at home'. No "argumentative predicates" have been presented in this text. There are no argumentative relations which are expressed overtly in this text: No connectives are found which "express relations between propositions and ... speech acts, e.g., cause and consequence" (v. Dijk and Rintsch, 1983: 283). But relationships which are not expressed may well be implied, presuposed by the culture and understood by hearers of that particular culture: "understanding discourse from other cultures may be a process that is marked." (1983: 281). Certain participant slots in the chart are not specified by lexical forms, but place holders or dummies. These forms are predictable on the basis of Gedeo morphology, and they will later be inserted by morphological rules. An example for this is line 9a of chart 22 (d): biniinca-ke'ni jibbemee-cco 'animals-by hateditem'; i.e. 'Whatever (item) is rejected by animals'. The results of the strict application of all rules presented so far is a uniform sequence of (S)(0)V sentences. But this rather monotonous (S)(0)V pattern of chart 22 is not the form in which the time-line is presented by the story teller: The actual performance of the story teller contains both (a) more deviations from the monotonous SOV pattern, and (b) more redundancy. All of these "deviations" have been marked by asterisks [*] in the chart. These asterisks will trigger (a) certain pragmatic text rules which cause the "deviations" from syntactic monotony as motivated by discourse necessities, and they trigger (b) the insertion of those morphemes which are predictable and required by Gedeo morphology and syntax but contain no information needed in the underlying representation. So these asterisks [*] take care of all modifications of the basic pattern - predictable or non-predictable.

174 IIA.

Gedeo Text A

Chart 22 (a): Time-line, Gedeo Text A (version 1) No.

PREDICATE

AGENT

PATIENT

and other main

TIME and other

participants

mostly

< animate >

< non-animato

satellites: COMIT, DIR, LOC, MANN REC, SOURCE, QUOTE

2a

•barra day

2b

2d

bukki-

woraabeessa1

mitte-

gather

hyenas

one-place

mal-

χ1

xO

(y1-)

discuss

hyenas

discussion

(hyenas)

'One day, the hyenas gathered together and discussed.' 3a

mala»·*· advice

10b

mal-·

χ1

xO

discuss

hyenas

discussion

hyenas-with

'The discussion, (this is what they) discussed.'

lib

11c

lid

bukki-

χ1

mitte-

gather

hyenas

one-place

mar-

χ1

go

hyenas

woma 2 -·· chief-place

shik'~*

χ

hassaaba··

bring

hyenas

idea

'They came together, went to their chief and brought their thoughts before him.' 14b

bukki-

woma '

•x!-duucca

mitte-

gather

chief

hyenas all

one-place

IIA. 14f

17b

ful-

χ2

'awwaíyje*

move-out

chief

command

'qj^j-**

x2

command

chief

GedeoTextA

T h e chief called together all hyenas and issued a decree: so he commanded.'

barra day

18c

18d

hed'-*

woma 2 +'erganna 3

live

chief+servants

ful-

woma

[SD]

marensha'erganna 3 -*

move-out

chief

excursion with servants

'Some day, having lived accordingly, the chief went out for an excursion together with his servants.'

19b

19c

19d

19e

mar-'

x2+x3·

walk

chief+servants

hed'-·

x2+x3

live

chief + servants

hos-

x2+x3

spend-time

chief+servants

ful-

x2+x3

diida-*

go-out

chief+servants

field

'As they had wandered and been there and spent some time, they came out at a field.'

20a

gey-

xI+x3

diida [ _ error]

reach

chief+servants

field

175

176 IIA. 20c

GedeoTextA hed'-

hakk'e"

diida* giddo*

exist

forest

field in

'They came to a field - there was a forest in that field.' 1 21b

21d

21i

21j

'e'y-*

woma *

gaaddisa* giddo

enter

chief

shadow in [SD]

bokoke-*

fad'acco '

swell

horse

t'illi-*

χ

rotten

horse

hed'-

χ*

'okko

exist

horse

there

'The chief entered the dark area, and a horse, blown up and rotten, was there.' 1 22a

22b

'odot-

woma 1

fad'acco '

notice

chief

horse

kul-

χ2

'erganna3

tell

chief

servant

'The chief noticed the horse and told his servants.'

27b

27c

dag-

'erganna3*

come

servants

'uud-

χ3

(χ4)

see

servants

(horse)

30a say

χ3

'iitta-

servants

thus

'His servants came, saw and said ...' 32a say

woma '

QUOTE

chief

Q

IIA. 35b

jammar-

x2

bart'a-*

start

chief

devour

GedeoTextA

'The chief started to devour it.'

37a

37b

37c

χ

'it-*

eat

chief+servants

ke'-·

x W

'okko-

arise

chief+servants

there

'aag-*

x

go:home

chief+servants

2

+x

horse

3

hado

home

'They ate the hoise, left that place and went home.' 1 38b

'odeess-*

announce

hordofeeyye3*

followers

•x1

duucca-*

hyenas all-REC

'His followers told this to all hyenas.'

40b

gey-*

'odo

boga

duucca

reach

news

countries all

'The news spread to all countries.' 1

42a

ke'-

x1*

arise

hyenas all

duucca

'(And) all hyenas started (to eat carcasses again).' 1

Chart 22 (d): Determination, identification, Gedeo Text A No.

4/42

PREDICATE

woraabeessa1

hyenas '[they] are hyenas'

177

1 7 8 IIA.

GedeoTextA no'o 1

7/8

we 'It is us'

14/16

za re offspring(-is) '[they] are the offspring [of hyenas]'

Chart 22 (d): Determination, description, Gedeo Text A No.

3abl

PREDICATE

MAIN

PATIENT

OTHER

PARTICIPANT

PARTICIPANTS

hiyy-

[mala]

'iitta

say

[advice]

thus

'[advice] which said thus'

7abcl

rey-SG

[?]

die "what has died'

8abl

hun-SG

manna

throw:away

people

[?]

Vhat people throw away'

9a 1

jibb-SG

biniinca-AG

reject

animals

*what is hated by animals'

llcl

'iso 1 he(his) 'his [servants]

lidi

mal-

χ1

xO[hass.]

x'-COMIT

discuss

[hy.]

[idea]

[hy.(-with)]

'[idea] which they had discussed with [each other]'

IIA. 14cdl

woraabeessa hyenas(-of) '(offspring) of hyenas'

14fl

takkaa

xO['aww.]

first

[decree]

'first (decree)'

18dl they(their) 'their (chief)'

18/etc he(his) 'his (servants)'

20cdl

lumo big 'big (forest)'

20dl

gaaddisadark '[forest] dark'

21/etc.

golalo white •white [horse]'

21el

reydie '[horse] which had died and -'

21fl

gal-

torba

spend:time

week

'[horse] which had been there a week'

32abl

ha'no 3 you(yours)pl. 'your [flesh]'

GedeoTextA

179

1 8 0 IIA. 38bcl

GedeoTextA 'if-

χ4

fad'acco

'iso*-COMIT

eat

[serv.]

[horse]

he(him-with)

'[servants] who had eaten [the horse] with him'

39b 1

gat-

χ1

hado

remain

[hy.]

home

'[hyenas] who had stayed at home'

42el

'it-

χ1

reensha

eat

[hy.]

carcass

'that [hyenas] eat carcasses'

3 3 Text rules and signals The semantic frames roster of chart 28 (below) contains all information which will be needed to derive the actual surface forms of text A.l, with recourse to the lexical entries and the rules. (Most of versions A.2, A.3, and A.4 can also be derived on the same basis, as section A.6 shows.) A number of signals will be inserted into the semantic frames roster. Some of them are predictable from properties of the text, others are not. These signals either trigger rules to be applied in the subsequent sections, or they merely hold the place for morphological suffixes to be inserted later (e.g., tense/aspect signals). At this point of the text presentation it will therefore be sufficient to briefly comment on each of the signal series, to indicate which kind of rule they will trigger, and how the rule was motivated by the discourse context. The presentation will proceed from left to right through columns 1-5. The first to be inserted are the signals of column 1 (cf. column 1, "agent", of chart 28 below), then columns 2, 3, etc. While the preceding chart (22 above) merely presents the temporal sequence of lexical verb frames with the participants' indices inserted, the next chart (28 below) will contain all of the information for generating text A, version 1, or any other of its variants. The necessary symbols and rule signals will be introduced step by step in the respective rules, and the resulting text will be displayed in chart 28 below.

IIA.

GedeoTextA

Symbols # χ1; χ2 etc la; l b etc > Q 1 < ; >Q2< etc S

Phonological pause, ( # ) predicted but not made Participant not represented by Ν, NP or PRON Predicate sequence numbers "Quote" no. (direct speech) Sentence

Abbreviations (by text column no.) Column 1: Main participant AG Agent, subject unless text rules intervene Column 2: Main participant PAT

Patient, object unless text rules intervene

Column 3: Participants other than agents of patients, including satellites BEN Benefactive participant COMIT Comitative participant DIR Directional participant FORCE Force as defined in functional grammar (FG) LOC Location, general locative case MANN Manner participant POSR Positioner as defined in FG PROC Processed as defined in FG PROX Proximate participant >Q1< "Quote" number (direct speech) REC Recipient SOURCE Source or origin Column 4: Predicate signals, tense, aspect, mood (See also under predicate relations) ACTU Actuality tense/aspect ASP Aspect in general INF Infinitive, tense/aspect neutral

182 IIA. Gedeo Text A

IMPF IMP INTT JUSS NEUT PAST PERF PRES TNS

Imperfect tense/aspect Imperative mood/aspect Intention mood/aspect signal Jussive mood/aspect signal Neutral, tense/aspect-free complement (infinitive) Past tense signal Perfect tense/aspect signal Present tense signal Tense in general

Column 5: Transitions, time/aspect/participant and logical relations COMPAR Comparison CONCL/CONCL. Conclusive statements CONCES Concession (and frustration) COND Condition (and consequence) CONTR Contrast CONTI Contents (of complement taking verb) DS/-DS Different subject GRND Grounds (and conclusion) MEANS Means (and result) N E G / - N E G Negation suffix POS REAS REP SC/-SC SD/-SD SS/-SS ST/-ST SU/-SU

Positive statement, position the speaker takes Reason (and result) Repeated action, tail-head link Same chain of events, tense/aspect switch signal Same duration tense/aspect signal Same subject, tense/aspet/reference signal Same time, tense/aspect signal Same unite of action, verb series (implies SS)

Signals Used in Several Columns Columns 1-3: Syntactic functions OBJ Object, function assigned by text rules SUBJ Subject, function assigned by text rules

IIA. GedeoTextA

Columns 1-5: Pragmatic functions CODA Coda, final position, rearshift signal EMPH Emphasis (diffuse, not well defined) FOC Focus, general (also see EXCFOC and INCFOC) SET Setting: time and location of a scene THM Theme position, frontshift signal TOP Topic function, usually implied by subject ? Question, rhetorical question Determination and Inclusion CONN/-CONN Connection, inclusion of background participant DEM Demonstrative, close, recent in text, accessible DEMFAR Demonstrative, far, earlier in text DET/-DET Determination/determiner ("article") EXCFOC Exclusive focus IDT/-IDT Identification ("copula") or focus INCFOC Inclusive focus INDF Indefiniteness, signal of new term SG/-SG Singulative (specimen), derivation suffix Lexical categories, including subclasses Lexical classes ADJ Adjective ADV Adverb Ν Noun NAME Name PRON Pronoun V Verb Subclasses ALTER AUX CAUS COLL F M PL

Alternation, mutual reflexive (verb subclass) Auxiliary (verb subclass) Causative (verb subclass) Collective (nominal subclass) Feminine (nominal subclass) Masculine (nominal subclass) Plural (pronoun subclass)

183

184 IIA.

33.1

GedeoTextA

Main participants51

In the first two columns, the dominant participants are found under the semantic functions "agent, patient, beneficiary", etc. Later on, syntactic functions will be assigned: What is in the first column is "agent" (which usually becomes the subject); what is in the second column is "patient" (which usually becomes the syntactic object): AG PAT

Agent participant, usually subject Patient participant, usually object

Only where the assignment of syntactic functions is different from this unmarked norm, text signals will have to indicate this.

332

Rule: Order of constituents52

Note that the columns are ordered according to the order of syntactic constituents. (Compared with the sequence found in the lexicon, the only difference is that the verb is not in the first, but the final position.) This rule has already been applied. It can be stated as follows: The order of elements in the sentence is: THM, S Ο Χ V, CODA. The order of elements in the noun phrase (cf. 3.4.4) is: (Sent.) NUM Ν DEM DET So in general, operators precede the head of a phrase, and modifiers follow it. In all text charts, the sentence columns will now have the order S O Χ V, and in all semantics-oriented charts, the corresponding order is AG PAT Χ V. In all noun phrases, the order is NUM Ν DEM DET. This order of elements in the sentence and the clause will be regarded as the fixed norm, and every deviation will have to be accounted for in functional rules.

IIA. GedeoTextA

185

3.4 Placement of pragmatic function signals (columns 1-3) The next signals to be discussed are found in columns 1-3 of the charts, especially chart 28 below. The pragmatic functions are the following: CODA EMPH EXCFOC FOC INCFOC THM TOP

Coda (same as "tail" in functional grammar) Emphasis Exclusive focus Focus Inclusive focus Theme Topic

3.4.1 Rule: Tendency for EMPH "emphasis" placement Since "emphasis" expresses subtleties such as the speaker's feelings and preferences, it is tendencies rather than rules which will be stated here. Emphasis in this text is signalled and expressed as follows: Example: lines 7-9 (1) no'o-n-de ... 'l.pl-EMPH-IDT It-is-us who ... It-is-us who ... It-is-us who ... . A noun phrase like no'o 'we/us', which already is agent, subject and topic, can be reinforced further by stylistic repetition and by the insertion of the emphatic -n, as the example in line 7-9 shows. At this stage of developing the text, only the signal "EMPH" is inserted. Later on the actual rules will develop this into the surface form (i.e., an identification predicate reinforced by phonological stress and -n insertion). A form without the -n would have been morphologically correct also: 'ate-te 'you-it:is / 'ate-n-de 'you-EMPH-it:is', but the -n adds extra emphasis to the construction. 'It is ... who'.

186 IIA.

GedeoTextA

3.42 Rule: TOP "topic" and CONN "connective" -nna 'and' The common Ethiopian suffix -nna 'and' is usually translated as 'and' and analysed as a "coordinating suffix" in noun phrases. However, this analysis does not seem to identify the main function of -nna: The suffix -nna is, before all, a topic marker. In the present text, -nna only has this one function. A "subject" cannot have the suffix -nna unless it is the "topic": The signal -nna 'connective, topic" is affixed only to subject NPs introduced earlier in order to to refresh the participant's presence in the memory of the audience by shortening the "lookback" distance, and saving the topic from "decay" (Gasser 1983: 99). As connector between two lexical items (in the sense of "and", which the gloss would suggest) this form is mainly found in numerals. As connector of items in an open list, it may follow every item of the list, but it will often be substituted by the hesitation sound iin. Much more frequently, however, this -nna is suffixed to a NP to link it up with some earlier item, especially the corresponding NP of the preceding sentence. Examples: line 3ab with mala 'discussion'; cf. the verb mal- 'discuss' line 22a 'chief and 27bc 'servants'. In all of these cases, the "NP-and; NP-topic" echoes an item from the preceding time-line sentence.

3.43 Rule: THM "theme" placement The signal THM "theme" is used here as defined in functional grammar, but we also recognise "themes" of larger units in addition. A phonological pause # always separates the theme phrase from the rest of the predication. "Theme" can be any NP or PP which is selected for being commented on, either in the subsequent sentence or in the whole paragraph. Examples are lines 7-9: Here the theme is stated repeatedly in accordance with the theme of the entire narrative. The narrative is about "things hyenas eat". The same theme is taken up explicitly in line 16b again, and at the very end of the narrative.

IIA.

GedeoTextA

187

3.4.4 FOC "focus" and the order of elements 3.4.4.1 Problems with "focus" by positional prominence Gedeo noun phrases have internal properties for which it would be useful to have a linguistic term from pragmatics. Several terms like "topic, theme, pivot" are available for pragmatic functions of items in utterance initial position, but "focus" is the only term which is available for denoting prominence of typically "non-initial" items ("emphasis, "rheme" and "comment" being too diffuse). The problem with the term "focus" is that in Cushitic studies this term has been "reserved", so to say, for the work which particular "focus" affixes do.53 In Cushitic studies, it is not the usual thing to use the term "focus" to cover non-morphemic phenomena. For this reason, the flexible term "focus" will have to be re-defined here as follows: "Focus" is prominence by marked position in the NP. This complements the usual Cushitic definition: prominence by focus markers.54

3.4.4 J Various orders of NP elements The order of elements in a Gedeo clause is variable and can easily appear to be "free" and of no effect on (pragmatic) "meaning". But it is appropriate to suspect that every difference in the surface makes a difference in the message. Several texts were investigated (in addition to paradigms) and the material which will be displayed below is taken from seven Gedeo texts by different authors. There are marked statistic differences from text to text - and at first it appeared that all differences were due to idiolect or dialect variations or influences of Oromo as a second language. In the statistics below, "nouns" in general are compared with "the rest" of NPs in general. This "rest" is loosely called "determiner" (although it includes operators and all kinds of attributes), in the sense of any additional morphemes which "limit" or restrict the set of possible referents. The global statistic differences between three Gedeo-texts A, B, and C were found to be as follows:

188 IIA.

GedeoTextA

Instances in Text A: in Text B: in Text C:

Sequence NounADET

Sequence DETANoun

17 2 10

4 12 3

When however the different kinds of DET "determiners" are considered one by one, a different pattern emerges. For Gedeo texts, the following order of elements must be considered "normal" and unmarked: Unmarked order of elements: In Gedeo noun phrases, numerals and possessor nouns precede the head, while demonstratives, adjectives, indefinite article, and possessive pronouns follow it. In the first list here below, the NP has the "unmarked" form: The whole term is understood as one balanced unity. None of its parts is conspicuous. No focus rests on any part of the phrase, neither the first nor the last word.

Head:

Determinen

Noun Noun Noun Noun (alien.)

Demonstrative Indefinite Adjective Poss. Pronoun

Determinen

Head:

Numeral Poss. Noun Poss. Pron

Noun Noun Noun (inai.)

Marked order of elements: In the next list (below), the determiner words are prominent or "in focus" by virtue of their unusual position; either because they follow the head, or because

IIA.

GedeoTextA

189

they precede it. Note that this list is not simply a mirror image of the first; relationship terms (inalienable) have been listed separately.

Determiner:

Head:

Demonstrative Indefinite Adjective

Noun Noun Noun

Head:

Determiner:

Noun Noun

Numeral (indef.) Poss. Noun

There are several factors which could be suspected to cause a reversal of order. But case marking, adverbial suffixation, and co-occurrence of two elements are factors which can be excluded. The one single factor which appears to account for all instances of reversed order is the function which these elements have in discourse: For each of the examples which belong to the minority order, a special discourse purpose can be detected for which this phrase was designed. At first the normal order of elements will be exemplified. NounADET as unmarked order The phrases for which the order head determiner must be considered normal are noun Λ demonstrative, noun Λ indefinite article, noun Λ adjective, and noun Λ possessive pronoun. In these phrases neither of the two elements seems to be prominent (if any, it is the last). NounADEM There is a large number of instances for the sequence noun Λ demonstrative. In most cases the demonstrative is endophoric. Case does not play a role here: both subjects and objects can have the "normal" just as well as the "marked" order (for subjects, cf. the examples in -i).

190 IIA.

(2) A18d Alle A21b A20a A22a A22a A21b C15 C12 C28 C25 C20 C22 C20 C34 C34 Dil Dil

GedeoTextA

womicci kunni hassaaba könne womicci kunni 'insa'ne-ki diida könne womi-cci kunni fad'acco konnegaaddisa könne giira 'itti giira 'ettene-e'e giira 'ettene-e'e mine 'okkone-e'e woraanca 'okkone-'a wiliille 'ettene-e'e harricco tenne-e'e giira 'itti giira 'ettene-e'e fad'anje tinni belto konne-e'e

'chief this' 'idea this' 'chief this of-them' 'field this' 'chief this' 'horse this' 'shadow this" 'fire this' 'fire that' 'fire that' 'house that' 'flies those-for' 'smoke that' 'donkey this' 'fire that' 'fire that' 'foreigners these' 'son this'

NouiTINDF Phrases with the order "noun Λ indefinite article" usually are part of the backgrounded material, and most of these phrases are non-subjects (but not all of them). The morpheme mitte 'a, a certain' (indefinite article) behaves different from the numeral mitte 'one': E.g., in discourse initial position, in an existential clause, this morpheme cannot be made to mean "1" without special communicative efforts: The unmarked position of mitte is in front of the head noun, and its unmarked meaning, "a certain, INDF' rather than "1". (3) A19d A21d B03 C29 C32

diida mitte fad'acci mitti golaloo-ki badda'a mitte harricco mitte harricco mitte

'field, a' 'horse, a, white' 'field, a' 'donkey, a' 'donkey, a'

IIA. GedeoTextA

191

NouiTADJ Although the "adjectives" in other Highland East Cushitic languages are said to precede the head noun, in Gedeo the opposite is "normal". Certain indefinite numerals or mass adjectives like "all" could be included with the adjectives, but their loud phonological behaviour seems to demand an analysis as "marked", which makes them special numerals (see there) rather than special adjectives. 'decree first' 'horse one white' 'thicket large' 'horse ... white' 'people/folk much' 'people/folk much' 'house new' 'house new' NounTossess. Pronoun Pronouns become possessive pronouns when the multi-purpose suffix -kV/-tfV 'genitive' is attached. These pronouns follow the noun which stands for the possessum (the item). Third persons prefer to Noun^DET construction, and 1st and 2nd persons prefer the reverse: DET^Noun. This is related to several factors: (a) the kind of item "possessed" and (b) the tendency to express definiteness by 3ps. possessor, and maybe (c) "closeness to ego". (a) The construction Possessive Pronoun^Noun is "normal" for relationship terms like "my father, my child" etc., which are inalienable possession. These terms are most frequently connected with the 1st person. (b) Definiteness can be expressed by putting "his" after the noun. (Note that Amharic uses the 3 PS for the same purpose.) (5) Alle A22b A27b A18e A21b A32a D18

womicci 'isi(-ki) 'erganna 'isi-tt'e'erganna 'isi-tt'e'erganna 'isi-tt'ewomicci kunni 'insa'ne-ki maala ha'no-ka me"a no'o-tt'a

'chief of-him' 'servant of-him' 'servant of-him' 'servant of-him' 'chief this of-them' 'flesh of-you' 'journey our'

192 IIA.

Gedeo Text A

D17 D22 Dil

me"a no'o-tt'a nafse 'an-t'e-e'e makiina 'insa'nee-tt'a

'journey our' 'soul/life my' 'car their'

NounADET as marked order Noun~(Indf)Numeral Where the determining element is an indefinite numeral or a "genitive" noun, the order NounADET is unusual, and marked. The "marking" is obvious from the special stress or loudness on the numeral or genitive. When the place of these NounADET phrases is considered which they have in the discourse (cf. the text and line nrs.), their functions become even more obvious. In examples A40 and A42 for instance there is emphatic stress on duucca 'all, inclusion'. The focus in Β14 (which voices a complaint) is on mitte 'one (only)'. I.e., there is only one single lion, and he gets all the food. (5) A42a A40b B14

boga duuccaboga duuccaneenk'i mitti-'a

'countries all' 'countries all' 'lion one-for'

NounTossessor Noun The possessor noun is in a marked position: at the end of the NP. The function of this special position is (to judge from the whole text and the intonation) a contrastive function: "While the offspring of all other animals are having a good name, the offspring of hyenas won't." (6) A16b A14c

zare woraabeessi-nt'i zare woraabeessi-nt'i

'offspring of-hyenas' 'offspring of-hyenas'

DETANoun as unmarked order NumerarNoun Numerals cannot take the position after the head noun, and when mitte "one/a" does,it functions as an indefinite article. The small numerals behave like genitive

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nouns, as far as the position is concerned, but not as far as their morphological behaviour is.

(7) BOI B07 B06 BOI BIO B03 Cil C25 D21

mitte neenk'a 'one lion' sallaane kormi 'nine oxen' mitti kormi 'one o ^ sallaane woraabeeyye 'nine hyenas' sallaane kormoole 'nine oxen' tomme lali-n-t'a kormoole 'ten cattle's males' jaane saate 'six o'clock' lame waaba 'two buckets' lumott'i rakko-te 'great problem'

Possessor^Noun The normal sequence in the possessive or "genitive" phrase is possessor^tem. The reverse order is rare. (8) A 16b2 AOla Β18 B03 B23 B12 C23 D25 D21

woraabeessi-n-t'i za re woraabeesi-nka mammaassa neenk'i-tt'a 'ille tomme lali-n-t'a kormoole neenk'i-n-ke 'afo'o-naa'ni woraabeeyye-ti-ki 'anni gammade-ke mine tafarra 'abba ziki-ki beiti

'hyenas' offspring' 'hyenas-' story" 'lion's eyes' 'ten cattle's males' 'lion's mouth' 'hyenas' father' 'G.'s house' 'T.'s father' 'Z.'s son'

Pronoun^Relationship Noun Relationship terms can be used without possessor (as titles), and they can be used with a possessor which then follows the term. The unmarked order is the one given here; it is especially frequent for the 1st person.

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no'o-ke 'anna 'an-t'e 'oose-'a

'our father' 'my children-for'

DETANoun as marked order The sequences dem^noun, indPnoun, and adj^noun are markeçi. Phonological length and special intonation support the focus on the demonstrative or the indefinite marker, to attract attention to the special function this NP has in the discourse: DENTNoun The demonstrative carries a special impulse of "pointing" when it comes first in a noun phrase. Cf. the following examples: Example A22 brings a special (white) horse into focus, while examples A41 and 42 emphasise that "from this very day" hyenas started to eat carcasses - which concludes the story. Example C32 starts a new paragraph which re-introduces the term "fire" now as a topic for a special explanatory paragraph. (10) A41a 2 A22a A21b A42a 2 C16 C32

'okkone barrikonne fad'acco könne hakk'icci ... 'ettene yannakonne mikinaati-'a 'itti giira

'that 'this 'this 'that 'that 'this

day' horse' thicket' time' reason-for' fire'

INDF~Noun In the following example, the word mitte 'one' functions not as a number but as an indefinite "article". The special function of this phrase here is to start a discourse.

(H) A2a

mitte barra

'one d a /

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ADJ^Noun In Highland East Cushitic languages, genuine adjectives are rare. It has generally been assumed, though, that in these languages the adjective precedes the head of a noun phrase. However, the only example in seven texts with an NP initial adjective was found in an argument where this very adjective, "white", is the main point of the whole story. (Cf. Gedeo narrative B.) So the order which is said to be normal in Sidamo (Moreno: adjective before noun) would put the adjective in a strongly marked position in Gedeo: (12) golalo(-ka) fad'acco A34a 'white horse'

3.4.43 Rule: EXCFOC/INCFOC "exclusive/inclusive focus" The markers EXCFOC for "exclusive focus" and INCFOC for "inclusive" simply stand for the morphemes c'alla/i, translatable as 'only, EXCFOC', and duucca/i translated as 'all, INCFOC'. If "all" is analysed as a numeral, it still carries focus (cf. 3.4.4.2). These three forms are used quite frequently to give prominence to participants, and the function of these words goes beyond what the glosses "only", or "all" say. Their final position in the NP gives these words an evaluative function, and the forms attract phonological stress. For examples, cf. 3.4.4.2 above and chart 28.

3.4.4.4 The functions of -te/-ke IDT "identity and focus" In Gedeo, the "identity" suffixes -te/-ke 'fem./masc. IDT' serve different functions, and this includes "focus".55 In Burji, the IDT suffixes -k'aa; -naa; -daa serve as focus markers most of the time and do not agree with the gender of the NP head, but the Gedeo "identity" (IDT) suffixes work differently: The use of Gedeo IDT suffixes for "focus" is restricted, as will be shown later. The suffix IDT as identification copula: Most frequently the Gedeo IDT suffix -te or -ke is employed as copula to establish identity between two items. These items are usually expressed as noun phrases. If one thinks of the identification as of an equation X=Y then X, the first item, can be expressed overtly or left

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implied. But Y, the second item, always is there and transfers its grammatical gender to the suffix: (13) Χ Y

fem.

Χ Y mase. 'X Y (X is a Y)

-te -ke -it:is'

(14) manjicci tamaare -te man:sg:subj teacher -it:is 'the man is a teacher' (15) X danca -ke -ni. X beauty -masc:it:is-Conclusion. 'X is fine; it's fine'

(16) Y fem. -te Y mase, -ke [X] Y -it:is 'X is a Y' (17) fayya -te. wellbeing -fem:it:is '[X] is well;everything is fine.' (18) nage'a -ke. peace -masc:it:is '[X] is peaceful; everything is fine.' Instead of nouns, nominalised verbs or adverbial phrases can also be the Ύ ' of the equation, i.e., the identifying predicate. Cf. "the saying", or "thus" in "thus it-was"; or "for-him" in "for-him it-was", etc. in the following examples:

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(19) ... hiyy-iyyo -te -ni. say-ing -it:is-Conclusion 'That is like saying ... ' (20) 'iitta -te -mma-'a. so -identity-PAST-Conclusion 'So it was.' (21) 'isi-'a -te -ni. him-for -it:is-conclusion 'For him it is.'

(22) 'ise-'a

-te?

her-for -is:it? 'Is it because of her?' In all of these examples the string which precedes -ke/-te becomes prominent. In questions and answers this needs to be so. These sentences do not contain "X", the item to be identified with "Y". For instance, in the preceding example we are not told who or what "it" is. So in the examples above, the item to be identified is understood but not expressed by a NP of the same sentence. If it is expressed at all, then it must have been expressed earlier in the discourse. This item can of course be made explicit in the same sentence, and it can be put either in front of or after the "identification". When in front of the identification, it is the subject and behaves like a theme; when following the identification, it behaves like a coda, where "theme" and "coda" are used in the sense defined in "functional grammar". In the following construction the "item" is a "singulative", nominalised verb, translatable both as "the single item you love" or "the single fact that you love"; and this item is put in front of the identification like a "theme": (23) 'eyiteette-cci, 'ise-'a -te you:love-sg:subj, her-for -it:is 'That you love it is because of her.'

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But most frequently and typically, if the item to be identified is expressed at all, it is added at the end, in a "coda" position. In this position, a pause and a "coda" intonation are typical: (24) 'ise-'a -te # 'eyiteettecci? her-for -it:is, that-you-love-it. 'Is it because of her that you love it?'

The IDT morpheme as copula and as focus/case suffix Several steps lead from identification sentences to "focus" constructions. The following examples are already very similar to focus constructions such as Burji has them. The next example, for instance, has an adverbial phrase which is marked with the IDT "identity" suffix -te/-ke, although grammatically it would be sufficient and quite correct to leave this suffix out. The verb hed'anno is a normal verb and does not function as a "coda". (25) rakko-belo -te hed'anno problem-without -it:is Irlive 'without problems I live' There are Gedeo verbs and verb-likes which require the -ke/-te 'IDT' suffix just like other verbs demand their case suffix. The most frequent ones of these verbs are those in the list below. It should be noted that all of them contain an element of comparison or equation, and in this way "point out" one noun phrase. So the constructions with these forms are half-way between case (identification, complement, manner) on the one hand, and focus on the other: (26) woyya malee'e hiyyhiyy-emkad-

'better (than)' 'positively except (that)' 'to say/behave (quote)' 'to be called (name)' 'to become, be (thus)'

Focus/identification with "be better (than)": (27) bitta -te woyya? how -it:is it:is:better? 'In which regard is it better?'

(28) 'ise -te woyya she -it:is it:is:better 'it is her who is better/she is better' Focus/identification with "except (that)": (29) waal-d-in-o-'a -te malee'e, ... let-2PS-PL-INTT-for -it:is except ... 'except that you:pl. leave it' Focus/identification with "to say/behave (thus)": (30) 'ura -te hinaacci tool -it:is what:is:called 'a tool called ura' (31) hayyicca -ke 'Hayyicca' -it:is 'he is called Ή . "

hiyyemaani. he:is:called

Focus/identification with "to become, happen (thus) (32) 'an(i) -te kadonnoole, ... I -it:is I:happen:if, ... 'As far as I am concerned, ... ' (33) mare -te kadeett'i, ... leader -it:is become:SS 'Having become the leader, he ... '

2 0 0 IIA. Gedeo Text A

The suffix IDT serves as FOC "focus" marker: The next sentences are "focus" constructions in the full sense. These focus constructions resemble identifications as far as the semantics and the presence of -te/-ke 'IDT' is concerned. But the syntactic structure differs: where the identification sentences have a nominal(ised) element, the present constructions have a finite verb. By this criterion they are no longer identification clauses but focus constructions. 56 These -t/-k suffixes are no case suffixes either, because then they would have different vowels. (34) 'iitta thus

-te hujannoni. -it:is I-work.

(35) godoba belly

-ke soloSva'enneni. -it:is I:am:hungry

(36) me'e how:many

-te hassa'ette? -it:is you:want

(37) hunna power

-te 'afe'eeni. -it:is he:has.

(38) ganzaba money

-ke 'afe'enneni. -it:is I:have.

The preceding examples are built in the same way as the focus constructions in some other Cushitic languages, e.g. Burji. However, focus in Gedeo is by no means obligatory, or "nearly obligatory" as in Burji. In Gedeo, focus does not come freely with just every verb: There are a few verbs and verb-like words which do demand identification or focus as other verbs demand case suffixes, but for the majority of Gedeo verbs, focus remains something extraordinary.

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3.5 Determination It has been said that in comparisons with other Highland East Cushitic languages, Gedeo uses "articles" rather frequently. There are in fact hardly any noun phrases without the definite "article". In the charts, this is obvious from the frequency of the suffixes -kV/-tfV/-tV 'determiner - D E T as we prefer to call these "articles". The regularities of Gedeo "determination" will be presented in this section; this section describes under which conditions the "determination" signals are introduced into a text. "Determination" (DET) has been used as a general cover term for several NP properties whose signals are listed below. The "determiner" suffix (written as D E T with a hyphen) is one subset. "Determination" here is what a speaker employs to maintain clarity about the identity of various participants in a narrative's population. The rules relating to this general notion are triggered by the following particular signals: -CONN DEM/DEMFAR DET/-DET EXCFOC IDT/-IDT INCFOC INDF SG/-SG 1SG etc.

Connective Demonstrative, near / far Determiner, sentence, phrase or "article" suffix Exclusive Focus Identification "copula" or focus suffix Inclusive focus Indefinite Singulative, noun, NP or sentence suffix 1st person singular etc.

Rules concerning "determination" are complex, as a glance at the first columns of chart 28 will confirm: The signals -CONN, DET/-DET, DEM and INDF, as well as SG/-SG are inserted in many places. On the basis of text A.l and its variants A.2, A.3 and A.4, certain regularities can be stated which will be generalised and formalised later, on the broader basis of the other texts. Only a few instances from other texts will be adduced here yet.

3.5.1 Introduction of participant per noun vs. pronoun index Only nouns or names introduce new participants into a narrative.57 "Introduction" by pronouns is valid for 1st and 2nd ps. only, cf. 3.5.4.1. So in the semantic

202 IIA.

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frames roster, a subject noun (cf. "noun'-indf here in the scheme below) will usually be followed by a series of identical index numbers (x1), in the following pattern:

Noun^INDF χ1 χ1 χ1 Noun 2 -and χ2 χ2 etc.

Noun 2

Verb (exist) Verb, Verb, Verb. Verb, Verb, Verb

Subjects rarely introduce new participants. If they do so, the verb has to be an "empty" verb, such as the verb of existence.58 Usually it is a non-subject function which introduces new participants, and the subject makes it a topic and maintains it. The patterns of establishing topics have been investigated for Amharic as well as for other languages (cf. Givón, ed., 1987), and the studies of Givón and others (especially Gasser 1987) go beyond what can be captured by the features [anaphoric] and [pronominal] for small pro and big PRO inside complex sentences (Chomsky 1981 and 1982), with the proviso that results are softer and statistical rather than absolute. So it is only nouns and names which introduce participants, and there are no exceptions to this rule. The apparent exceptions are the 1st and 2nd person pronouns, but do not really "introduce" participants.59 For examples, cf. no'o 'we' in lines 4ff and 32ff of the narrative, where the pronoun appears in the direct speech passages. Like names and pronouns, certain nouns are also implicitly definite: It is those nouns which function as "place adverbs" that are implicitly definite: For examples, cf. hado 'home', lines 37c, 39b which is usually understood as a noun meaning "family", like mine 'house, home' of text Β below. In the few cases where the subject introduces a new participant, the verb which introduces them are empty verbs;6C verbs which introduce a new SUBJ/TOP usually are the following: hed''to be there' dag'to come, appear'.

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3.5.1.1 The main participant The main participant of the whole narrative (indexed as x1) is treated differently from other participants. Throughout the narrative, reference to the main participant can be left implied: there need not be an overt noun or NP to refer to this figure. For example, in line 2a the NP "hyenas" is used initially to introduce this "participant" collectively. But in lines no. I I a ff, 18b ff., and 39b ff. no NP is re-introduced and the plural of the verb is the only signal which indicates that the main participant is understood.

3.5.2 Rule: Insertion of INDF When participants are brought into a narrative for the first time, they will be introduced either as commonly known (see below), or as "new" and hitherto "unknown" (not previously mentioned and without explicit link or membership to any known set of participants). If the speaker decides that a participant is "unknown" to his audience, the noun which introduces the new participant is usually introduced in an object slot and it receives one of the following two signals:61 Noun if the noun is < non-count >, or INDF Noun if the noun is < count >, or INDF INDF Noun if the noun is explicitly plural. Examples will show the formal expressions of this. For singulars: (39) mitte χ mitte barra; mitte barra mitte fad'acci mitti diida mitte

'a certain x, one x' k'ane 'some day' lines 2; 23; 183; 182 'day a'; 'horse a' line 19; 21 'a field/meadow' line 20

204 IIA. Gedeo Text A

For plurals, the form is repeated: (40) mitte mitte yaane

'some matters'

If the noun refers to a mass or class or a location generally "known" as such, (direction, place, source), i.e., to a noun with a feature < count > or < collective > or , then the noun will be given without any signal, and the subsequent rules will not insert any "determination" morphemes either. So the speaker will not use INDF, DET or DEM markers when presenting participants by generic names, or as entire classes, non-countable masses, or places. (41) reensha; reyee-cco 'carcasses; what has died' lines 7a, 28a, 42d woraabeessi 'hyena(s) in general' line 2b hado 'home (else: family)' 37c marensha 'excursion (else: walking)' 18f boga duucca 'countries all' line 40. Note that these five items from text A are the only ones which do not carry any of the "definiteness" signals given above (DEM, DET, -DET). So Gedeo is in fact a language which uses "definite articles" frequently.

3.53 Rule: Assignment of DET, DEM, -DET ('article') Once a participant has been introduced according to the preceding rules, this participant must subsequently be referred to by a NP marked as "DET" and/or "DEM", or it can be implied tacitly. So all NPs, once introduced, will then carry the signal "known", causing the listener to link up with what was said about the participant before: participants will be referred to by a NP plus DET "determination" and/or plus the endophoric DEM "demonstrative", if they appear for the second or any subsequent time.62 Examples: cf. line 14d with the first occurrence of the NP "chief' without DET, vs. line 22a, 27d4, 34a, 38b all with DEM kunni/konne 'this'. It has been said that pronouns are never used to introduce a participant. Apart from possessive pronouns, pronouns are hardly ever used at all. The Highland East Cushitic languages are PRO-drop languages; cf. rule 3.5.4 below.

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205

"Determination" (DET) has many forms. One of them is the attribute sentence, another, the attribute phrase; both end in -k\/-tW. So one of the ways in which D E T is expressed (cf. later rules 4.6), is by identification or determination predicates. Unless specifically marked, all of the D E T and IDT predicates attach themselves to nouns. They do not attain a syntactic status independent of all time-line predicates, but they are "embedded". Such "embedded" sentences will be discussed under rules 3.8 later, where most stative predicates (identification, property assignment, possession) are reduced to genitive constructions.63 For examples cf. the list of non-time-line predicates in chart 28 (d): identification and determination. "Determination suffixes" (-DET) will later be expressed either by -kV/-tfV which is the suffixed 'definite article' and which is often accompanied by further suffixes such as the connective -nna 'and' (see the remarks on CONN, A.3.4.2), or it will be expressed by an adverbial suffix which supplies additional "determinacy". The "definite article suffix" (-DET) will never be attached to the noun without at least one additional determining morpheme. The option noun-DET like maliki 'advice-the' does not exist in Gedeo! mali-ki-nna 'advice-DET:M-and' (line 3a) is acceptable, but *mali-ki is not used, 'awwaajje-ti-nna 'decree-DET:F-and' (line 15a) is acceptable, but a form like *'awwaajje-ti is not used. DEM, "demonstrative" will later be expressed either as könne, tenne 'this M / F ; which endophorically stands for "mentioned a short time ago" and exophorically "here, at short distance", or it will be expressed as DEMFAR 'okkone/'ettene 'that M / F which does not appear in texts A2-A4 but in Gedeo text Β (see there). Examples for DET, DET and DEM are found in all NPs of charts 22 (d) and 28(d). 3.53.1 (Apparent) Exceptions to determination rules There are apparent exceptions to the rule 3.5.3 which says that all items are introduced as indefinite: Items apparently unkown, never introduced, but behaving like "old" acquaintances. For example, cf. the < abstract > noun hassaaba konne-e'e 'idea this' in line l i e which is presented with DEM "this" as if "known", although the word "idea" has ever appeared earlier in the narrative,

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strictly spoken. However, the DEM "this" is justified even on a strictly formal basis, considering that hassaaba 'idea' substitutes for a "given" quote, as do all other < abstract > nouns in text A. That this is strictly so can be inferred from version 2 which repeats the direct speech (A2 lines 4-9) in the place where version 1 has hassaaba könne- 'idea this'. Another exception is this: In every discourse, certain items can be given as "definite" although they have not been properly introduced yet. Certain families of items are more likely to be treated in this way than others. Locations (see below) belong to these terms. For English, the different behaviour of NPs in this regard has been investigated (Du Bois 1980), and there seems to be a cline of "inherent" definiteness: body parts > locations > clothes > other items. Items on the left hand side are extremely likely to appear as definite (in English, more than 70%), items on the right are not. Actual exceptions to the "definiteness"-rule 3.5.3 are only found where some other rule is in conflict with it or overrides it. For example, in different versions of sentence 20a,64 the phrase diida mitte 'field I N D F ends one paragraph and the same phrase is repeated as 'field I N D F in the beginning of the next passage. This is not as it should be. What the "determination rule" 3.5 prescribes is diida kunni / diida-ki-nna 'field this / field-the-and'. However, the prescribed switch from indefiniteness INDF mitte to definiteness D E T / D E M is in conflict with another rule of equal validity, the "Tail-Head linkage" 4.1.3, which demands word-by-word repetition across Paragraphs. The conflict between these two rules has some interesting consequences: In line 20a1 (i.e. version 1) the speaker starts out with a sentence involving the indefinite article mitte- "one/a", notices a conflict, leaves the construction incomplete and starts again (cf. the passage "... speech error" in 20a1). In the other versions of the same passage (20a2 and 20a4) the speaker uses a different strategy: The NP is repeated with mitte, in violation of the present rule, but then it is repeated once more "correctly", i.e. with a DEM könne 'this'; all NPs occurring in the same sentence. Version 20a3 is different again: The speaker avoids the conflicting tail-head linkage altogether, and no rules are violated.

3.5.4 Insertion of pronouns, PRO drop In narrative texts of this language, but also in texts of other genres, pronouns are comparatively rare. 65 The contribution of pronouns to communication would be over-estimated if their prominent role in descriptions and sample sentences

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were taken as a guide. Usually they play a prominent role in linguistic descriptions. In the time-line of text A, for example, no pronoun is used at all. Outside the time-line pronouns come in at two points only: as identification (by possession) e.g. "their chief', and secondly, as emphatic pronouns (in one of the direct speech passages). The identifications by possessive pronouns in text A again are limited to an "unavoidable" minimum of four: There are three NPs with their repetitions, and all of these express "possession" relations which seem to be obligatory, namely "their chief' 10c; 18d; 21b, "his servants", 18e; 22b; 27b, "your flesh" 32a. Then there is the comitative identification of "those who were "with him" 38b. As far as direct speech passages are concerned, the whole text uses only one pronoun: "we" in 4a and 7b-9b three times: "It is us who ... ". So in most cases person will not be expressed by pronouns. A text collection of about 1000 1st person verb forms was found to contain only about 260 1st person pronouns, most of them possessives. Depending on their theoretical orientation, linguists will either view pronouns as items which are "just there" or as items derived by pronominalisation rules. In these narratives the 1st and 2nd person pronouns are "given" together with the quotes and speakers, but the 3rd person pronouns are "inserted", as alternatives to nouns or verb suffixes. However, pronouns are not the preferred alternative.

3.5.4.1 1st ps. and 2nd ps. pronouns The 1st ps. and 2nd ps. pronouns 66 are understood here as semantic primitives and will not be derived. Only a few comments are needed: 1st ps. pi: Where there is identity or "sufficient overlap" between the set of speakers and the set of referents inside the speech, the inclusive 1st ps. pronoun no'o 'we' can be employed, and the verb will then receive the 1st ps. suffix. Such overlap is deemed "sufficient" very easily. In other words: there is only an inclusive pronoun, and it is very inclusive. So the set of people referred to by "we" 28ff includes the speaker, his party, the addressee, and some who are not present but are co-agents. In lines 2b-4b note that the noun woraabeessi in 2b ff. is sg. or unspecified as to number, but it is taken up by the plural "we" in the quotation 4a. In lines 28a-29a the same identity between speakers and referents prevails as in 2b-4b, but no pronouns appear in the surface structure.

208 ΠΑ. Gedeo Text A

Where it is necessary to be more exact and to narrow down the "unmarked" set of referees (addressees or absentees), the pronouns can be re-defined by a numeral e.g. ha'no lami-n-gi 'you two', or by some exclusive or inclusive focus morpheme "only/all", see no'o-n-c'alla 'we-exclusive' line 9, ha'no duucca '/all', even a DEM demonstrative can be added: 'isi kunni 'he this'. (Note that this 'isi marks the question topic in Gedeo and Burji.)

3.5.4.2 The 3rd ps.sg. vs. pi. pronouns and the collective The pronoun 'ise '3rd sg.f / 3rd pl.coll.' has been glossed '3rd sg.fem.' ( ' F for short), but its function of referring to collectives should be underlined: Cf. the passage in version 3 of text A, line 27b, where a group of 'erganna 'servant(s)' (fem. noun) is addressed as ha'no 'you pi' while a later (36b) reference is made to the same group as 'ise 'she; 3rd sg.feminine or 3rd collective' This pronoun is not the only collective pronoun, however: Both "he" and "she" can refer to non-singular entities. It just so happens that in most cases the feminine pronoun does it, because most nouns for collectives are "feminine". In this sense the "3rd fem." pronoun is not a collective pronoun per se, but only statistically, since it refers to the larger set of collective nouns which happens to be the set of feminine nouns. Note one example of the masculine pronoun 'isi 'he' used for a "collective" in the following passage: (42) womi-cci 'isi(-ki)-ba-'a 11c 'chief-sg 3sg(-of)-place-to' 'to their chief where 'isi 'he' establishes textual reference to 2a woraabeessi 'hyena(s)'. This clearly is a semantic plural, but it is expressed as syntactic singular in some places, and as syntactic plural in others, as can be seen from the use of weli 'each other' and the self-reference 4a no'o 'we'. Nevertheless it can be referred to by SG 'isi 'he' as well as by PL 'insa'ne-ki 18d 'their'. As far as agreement is concerned, this semantic "plural" expressed by 'isi 'he' is grammatically singular both in pronouns and in verbs endings: (43) weli mal-e 2 each-other consult-3SG:M-PERF.

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It should be stressed that such changes between numbers and modes of reference are not unique to this text. On the contrary; the examples adduced here can be regarded as representing the typical treatment of plurality: Where number is out of focus, no plural will be used in pronouns, nouns, or verb suffixes. Where number matters, everything can switch to plural.

3.5.4.3 Plural and impersonal It has been pointed out that pronouns are employed sparsely, and syntactic plurals too. It follows that 3rd ps. pi. pronoun 'insa'ne '3PL they* is used very rarely, and this frees the plural verb to carry an "impersonal" notion. Several passages in text A employ a plural verb without establishing reference to any particular set of agents: (44) he'ne he'ne ... 18b 'being-there-PL, being-there-PL ... ' This is a plural verb and refers to nobody in particular. There are similar passages in 19b "walking (they) were-there" and 14c "what (they) call hyenas". All of these plural passages show that there is need and room for an "impersonal plural" in this language, in addition to the morphological passive which also hides anonymous agents. The preceding remarks lead to the following rules:

3.5.4.4 Rule: Pronoun insertion Pronouns are inserted for the 1st person and the 2nd person where these are introduced into the narrative. For a 3rd person a pronoun will only be used under certain conditions. The main condition is that the participant must have been introduced previously either by name or by noun; the other conditions are listed here in the order of cogency: (1) Prominence by emphatic identification (Pronouns are obligatory) (2) Determination by possession (Pronouns are preferred) (3) Non-agent participants (Pronouns are possible) (4) Agent participants outside the time line (Pronouns are not preferred) (5) Agent participants in the time line (Pronouns are avoided)

2 1 0 IIA. Cedeo Text A

The last part of this rule can be understood as "pronominalisation" of agents in the "time line". But this rule is applied so infrequnetly and it is so low on the scale that there hardly are any pronouns in the time line. Only twice in the four versions of text A is any pronoun used: 'ise 'she' (once each in lines 36b3 and 36b4). These conditions are understood as follows: Emphatic identification of pronouns One of the devices used for emphasis is the identifying particle -te, in connection with -n in line 7a etc. (45) rey-ee-cco-nna no'o-n-de 'corpses it-is-us

'ind-anno we-eat-(them)'

Contrastive focus serves similar purposes in example 9b: pronouns here seem to be used for stylistic reasons. The rhetorical function is that of assembling a battery of parallel arguments, strung together by a heavy rhythm, no'o-n-c'alla 'just/only we' (in contrast to all others). Determination by possessive pronouns Pronouns appear most frequently where "identification by possession" is involved. This can be some loose relation between two participants, cf. 'erganna 'isi-tt'e 18d 'his servants' etc., and it can be an obligatory genitive, as in the following: summi no'o-ki 5a3 'our name', or maala ha'no-ka 32a 'your-PL. flesh'.

3.5.5 Rule: Insertion of -SG -cco/-ccu 'single item' The signal "-SG" is inserted where the concept "specimen of a genus" or "action" or "result of an action", or a singulative "item" (bundling a whole predicate) is needed as an expression in nominal form.67 The suffix -cco/i -SG 'singulative, item which' is attached to generic nouns, to pronouns, to demonstratives and adjectives, VPs or whole sentences. The function of -cco is similar to the function of the suffix -kV/tfV -kV/tV, the "determiner" (DET, cf. rule 3.5.3).68 But while DET determines, refers to, or adds to, items which are already "given" syntactically in a nominal form, the suffix

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-cco "produces" such nominal items rather than determining them. This -cco 'item' usually is a new concept implying singularity and < animate >. To call this suffix a "singular" would be misleading. Words with the singulative suffix -cco/i and words with the similar derivative -cca/i can be made "plural" in addition: (46) mise-cco-ra something-SG-PL 'several single items (which I do not care to list)' (47) garbi-ccu-wwi slave-SG/M-PL

'a plurality of (single) slaves/servants'

3.5.5.1 Functions of -SG "singulative" In Gedeo the "singulative" derivation suffix is very common. 69 With nouns, especially generic nouns, the resulting meaning Noun-cco/i 'specimen of the genus N' is obvious from the following examples: (48) hakk'e hakk'icco 'wood stick, tree' woma womicco 'chiefs chief-single' manjo manjicco 'man single person' With demonstratives, the syntactic class of the derivative changes to noun, and the meaning changes to "that item" i.e., whatever item comes to the mind of the listener (endophorically or deictically). (49) könne 'this

konnecco this unit' (bundled or singled out)

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wele 'other maa 'what

welecco some other item' maacco what item?'

Nominalisation also changes the class of pronouns and of the numeral "one" to nouns. With pronouns, the meaning is "item in possession" (50) no'o 'we 'ise 'she mitte 'one

no'occo ours' '¡secco hers' mittecco/mittelco a single one'

With verbs and adjectives, the result of -cco affixation is a nominal form with the following meaning: Verb-cco 'the item resulting from the action/process expressed by the verb', or Adj-cco 'the state or quality expressed by the adj.' In most cases such -cco nomináis will therefore be < inanimate > nomináis referring to the product of an event or < non-concreto nomináis referring to an action or a quality. However, < animate > < human > nomináis are not entirely excluded; cf. for instance ree-cco 'whatever has died', in line 7a of text A l . The semantic role expressed by Vb-cco differs with the valency of verbs: if nothing else is given, this suffix nominalises the subject of intransitive verbs or adjectives, and the object of transitive verbs. Examples (including texts other than text A): Adjectives:

'what remained' hed'ee-cco/hed'ee-l-co 'what exists (also: cousin)' 'what spends time' galaa-cco t'e'ma'nee-cco 'what tastes well' Transitive verbs:

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(53) 'indaa-cco

'what they eat (food)'

manni hunee-cco

'what people have thrown away* line 8a

biniincake'ni jibbemee-cco 'what by animals was hated' line 9a Verb 'to s a / : X hiyyemee-cco

'what was called X', lines 16b and 42b

There are "result" nouns with intransitive verbs, and "direction" or "recipient" nouns with the verb "to say": (54) me"aa-cco

'what sb. (achieves by that he) walks'

X hinee-cco 'what they called X ' line 14d

3 V e r b

series with ;çço '-SG'

Where a transitive verb and an intransitive verb come together to form one conceptual unit, the suffix -cco extends its nominalising effect over onto the intransitive verb, unifying the "series": Series trans. Vb. -intr. Vb: (55) dulkin-e'e

dagginemma-cco

'carried:PL-having came:they-item'; 'that/what the' carried and came' naggada-'ni

hossetta-cco

'trading-at

live:SG:you-SG'; 'that/what you sg.live on by trade'

3.5.53 Scheme of -cco nominalisations When a verb of two or three valencies is nominalised, which of its roles will the word stand for? In nominalisations with -cco, ambiguities will arise which cannot really be imitated in English. But the following example is an approximation: "which brought someone something" might mean (a) the one who brought it, (b) the one to whom it was brought, or (c) what someone brought.

In the

following scheme of nominalisations, the resulting meanings have been indicated by the index number of -cco: The index number shows which of the roles will be

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understood when the verb is nominalised by suffixation of -cco. So a sentence like example 4. which contains an AG-SUBJ NP already, will be interpreted as PAT OBJ. This is indicated by the index number n2 " on the right hand side. The context will of course force its meaning on to the item. The index numbers are true if the construction is given in isolation.

Chart 23: Nominalisations in -cco No. 1st role

3rd role

2nd role

Reference index no.

Valency 1 1

-

ZERO 1

Adjective-cco1

2

-

AG 1

Verb-cco

Valency 2 3 4

NP

5

PAT2OBJ

Verb-cco2

AG'SUBJ

PAT^OBJ

Verb-cco2

PAT^BJ

Verb-cco' < inanimato

AG'SUBJ

6 7

AG'SUBJ

NP

NP

AG'SOURCE AG'SOURCE AG'SOURCE

NP

PAT^UBJ

Verb-cco'

PAI^SUBJ

Verb-cco2

PAI^SUBJ

Verb-cco'?

Valency 3 9

-

10 11

NP

12 13

AG 1

PAT2

AG'

PAT2

AG'

2

AG' NP

AG'

PAT NP

PAT

2

PAT2

REC 3

Verb-cco2

NP

REC 3

Verb-cco2

NP

REC

3

Verb-cco2

REC

3

Verb-cco1 < inanimate >

NP

REC 3

Verb-cco2/Vb-cco3?

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Verbs of three valencies as in lines 10-13 of chart 23 will not have all of the participants expressed by NPs. The meanings of constructions such as in lines 10-13 are difficult to assess, because such forms will not occur without context. But this much can be said: Unless the embedding sentence assigns a different function, the -cco constructions in 10-13 can be understood as referring to one of its roles (AG or PAT), or to the action as a whole. In this case the two suffixes -cco and -kV/tfV/tV become interchangeable.

3.6 SUBJ (subject) assignment to non-agent (passive) (Columns 2 and 3) The unmarked assignment of the syntactic function SUBJ "subject" is to the agent (column 1), but PAT "patient" and QUOTE "direct speech" can be subjects too: This leads to passivisation. Passivisation is used where the agent is not welcome as topic or subject. In terms of discourse strategy, this situation arises in the following way:70 Where a speaker has established a subject/topic, the tendency is to maintain this topic over a number of events, usually over five or more predications. If then in the series of verbs new agents enter the scene when the time-line is not yet ready for a change of subject/topic, then the logical strategy in this language is passivisation. With most passive verbs, the agents are not named. An exception is 9a, where the agents of jibb-em-ee-cco 'items thrown away* is made explicit, in the role of source: "by animals", or "from animals".

3.6.1 Rule: PAT (patient) and quote as subject If the AG is anonymous "people" or "beings", especially with the verb hiyy- "to say", the PAT or quote can be subject. This is done by inserting the SUBJ signal in column 2 or 3 accordingly. (Cf. SUBJ in lines 4b and 42b.)

3.6.2 Rule: Rhetorical subject For rhetorical reasons, a series of subjects can be lined up to include other roles than the agents. Such syntactic parallelisms may be achieved by SUBJ assignment to the role of patients. This happens especially in rhetorical passages of direct speech. Cf. the parallels of lines 7b-09b in the first direct speech passage, and note that the last line runs parallel because of passivisation:71

216 IIA. Gedeo Text A

(55) rey-ee-cco ... "what died, what they-threw, what was rejected" (passive) The next rule is a consequence of this: 3.63 Rule: Passive: AG as source If a non-AG is assigned the subject function, the agent can be assigned the syntactic markers of SOURCE (unless the agent is anonymous). But this is rare,72 since the whole purpose of passivisation is to hide the agent. Cf. line 9a: "thrown-away by (lit.:from) animals"

3.6.4 Rule: Unmarked SUBJ and OBJ assignment Unless marked otherwise, all AG participants are assigned the syntactic function of a subject, and the PAT participants are assigned the function of an object. In the present text, there are very few exceptions to the regular assignment AG/SUBJ and PAT/OBJ: The only examples in text A are these: line 19bc is assigned SUBJ though patient (but this case needs some comment), the same is true for lines 4b (a quotation) and 42bc (a determination predicate). Other texts contain more instances of marked assignments.

3.6.5 Rule: Concerning the roles BEN, COMIT, DIR etc. (Column 3:) The functions abbreviated as BEN, COMIT, DIR, MANN, PROX, and SOURCE as well as others (some of them not represented in text Al) are understood as "given" with the narrative's frames roster, and prescribed either by dictionary verb frames (as is the case for DIR, SOURCE), or inserted as paragraph satellites (BEN, MANN, TIME, LOC). Where the lexical verb frame offers no choice of roles, there is no need to name the function. E.g., kul- 'tell' can only have a recipient in addition to AG and PAT. However, the actual noun found in this function in this particular story cannot be predicted and therefore has to be written in the underlying chart. E.g.,

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217

"tell", has 'erganna '(his) servants' as recipient. Index numbers are treated in the same way as with AG and PAT. While "main participants" in most cases are not expressed as nouns or pronouns, but just understood, the opposite is true with the non-AG and non-PAT participants: nearly all of them are expressed by nouns or NPs. This is common, and partly conditioned by the narrative genre. The actual suffixes which distinguish the various cases and adverbials will be supplied by later rules (especially 4.6.1) below.

3.6.6 Rule: Assigning syntactic functions related to quotations (Column 3:) Chains of direct speech passages are the core of Gedeo narratives.73 In direct speech passages, one of the following different functions can be assigned to each of the three participants involved: (a) The "speaker" either is AG SUBJ or, in a "passive" construction, the source. (b) The "speech" itself (here called "quote", >Q< for short) behaves like a PAT OBJ or like a manner adverb. This can be shown when a pro-form is substituted, cf. these examples: (56) 'iitta hiyye 'thus he said' MANN maa hiyye 'what did-he-say?' PAT/OBJ (c) The "addressee" either is, syntactically, the recipient, the direction or the PAT OBJ. In the passive, where one would expect to find a PAT SUBJ (cf. English "he-is-said/called X"), the addressee notion changes to a "concerned", in the sense "they say X about him": X-Subj hiyy-eme 'X-Subj is-he-said', as in line 4b of the text above. The question is whether in the latter case the SUBJ should be considered a PAT SUBJ or a REC SUBJ. Active sentences show that the addressee of a direct speech often and clearly is its recipient (or DIR), the suffixes being -'ni; -'a. The "addressee", when topic, can be the SUBJ. However: is this a REC SUBJ or a PAT SUBJ? The Gedeo language does not have "recipients" in the syntactic function of a "subject" anywhere else. No SUBJ has been found elsewhere which is a REC SUBJ, in fact, none but AG SUBJ and PAT SUBJ appear to be possible. So the verb of quotation would have to be granted some exceptional

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status here again: The recipient role of "to say" can take on the syntactic function of subject under this aspect. 3.6.6.1 Rule: Quote and hivy- 'to say' (Columns 3 and 4) After a > Quote Quote Q
{d; g} / n j However, in the narrative time line where all unmarked actions have a PERF suffix -e, the past tense signal -mma 'past' will be inserted: (88) 'isi balla'a -ke -mma -ni. (text NL) 'he blind:man-IDT-3PS:PAST-CONCL' 'He was a blind man'

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It can be argued that the tense and aspect which is "understood" is a stative present. But note that the tense/aspect-wise "neutral" copular determination suffix -ke/-tt'e/-te has the vowel e, i.e. the signal which in all non-copular predicates stands for "perfect". Since it has the same phonological form and since in Gedeo the verb suffix vowels carry an exclusively "tense/aspectual" meaning (free of person/number connotations), this signal -e may well carry the connotation "perfect" in copulas too, "perfect" being the most neutral aspect with narrative verbs. Some of the action and identification constructions happen to be very similar to each other. Compare, for instance, the final vowel e which appears (a) in "copula" forms -te/-tt'e/-ke 'it-is', (b) in "existence predicates" hed'e 'it-is there', and (c) in "perfect/past verb predicates". It would appear that in all three of these sets the -e suffix carries the same "resultative perfective" connotation which can be paraphrased as "this is what things changed to and it it what they are now." (89) 'ise-te 'she-IDT' 'It is she/her' (90) 'ise-tt'e 'she-DET:F 'It is hers' (91) 'ise-tt'-e or 'ise-(he)tt'-e 'she exist:F-PERF 'She is there' (present tense meaning) (92) 'ise dagg-e 'she come:F-PERF 'She came' (perfect and past tense meaning) This contrasts with the set of forms of the marked past preterite tense. The meaning here can be paraphrased as "this is how things were, up to the point I'm just narrating about":

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(93) 'ise-te-mma 'she-IDT-PAST' 'It was her' (94) 'ise-tt'e-mma 'she-DET:F-PAST' 'It was hers' (95) 'ise-(he)tt'-e-mma 'she exist:F-PAST' 'She was there'

(96) '¡se dagg-e-mma 'she come:F-PERF-PAST' 'She had come'

3.83 Rule: STAT (stative) predicates as attributes The "stative" predicates are listed separately in chart 28 (d). They are separated from the action predicates of the time-line of chart 28 (a), because under a discourse perspective they are a different kind of predicates. In accordance with regularities outlined above, the various "stative" (STAT) predicates will be inserted either into NPs to become attributes, or into sentences to become predicates.

3.9 Time/subject relations in predicate sequences When two time-line predicates follow each other in a narrative, they will be linked to each other in different ways, depending on factors such as the following:

236 IIA. Gedeo Text A

SU vs. DU "SU" stands for "same unit" of an action or a event, i.e. there is semantic coherence and conceptual unity of two predications. "DU" stands for "different unit", i.e. there is free juxtaposition of two activities, and no direct relationship between these two is expressed by the narrator. SD vs. DD "SD" stands for "same duration", i.e., both events have roughly the same length of time; but cf. "ST" above. "DD" stands for "different duration", i.e. the duration is not claimed to be the same. Where the narrator uses a "SD" expression, what is of interest to him usually is the durations of the two events. This same form which usually relates events chronologically can also connect events in a logical relation. This logical relation may be true in addition to, or instead of, the temporal relationship. So the "DD" relation is a border-line case between chronological and logical relations. The discussion of the latter will be taken up under the discussion of non-narrative texts, especially argumentative texts. ST vs. DT "ST" stands for "same time", i.e., simultaneity of two events, or a significant overlap of the first with the second event. This is what is called a "contemporaneous" relation in the analyses of Sidamo by Moreno (1937: 72ff.) and Gasparini (1978: 35ff.), as presented in section IV A 4.2 below. "DT" stands for "different time", i.e. a closure of the first event before the second starts. SS vs. DS "SS" stands for "same subject". This means, a subject and topic has been established, and the second proposition holds the same referent in the SUBJ/TOP function as the first does. "DS" stands for "different subject", i.e., there is a change of references from one subject to another. In the charts, this switch is always clear from the index numbers. SC vs. DC "SC" stands for "same chain of events", i.e., a sequencing of actions in a chronological succession.

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"DC" stands for "different chain" of events, or a "flashback*. This includes any constellation which is not time-sequenced and cannot be predicted as part of a cultural "expectancy chain" (see section III Β 3.9). "Switch reference" will be viewed as a part of a larger system of rules. Usually the analysis of "switch reference" is limited to the changes of participants. Tenseswitching, on the other hand, is usually analysed without regard to a narrative's participants (cf. Schiffrin 1981:51). The reason for integrating "switch reference" into a larger system here is that in narratives, the "switching" is not limited to changes of participants: Where a narrator turns to a different participant, or where he turns even to a new topic, it is not only the pronouns and the verb suffixes which are affected. At such a point in the narrative the narrator will also turn his attention to different chains of actions, different times, and different worlds (cf. III A 3.5). In the languages analysed here, verb suffixation integrates both functions, and it seems appropriate to present the different kinds of changes in terms of one coherent system. In the transitions from one predicate to another, many different combinations of "switching" time and participants are conceivable. But not all of them do in fact occur. For narratives, the most typical and most frequent combination is this: In the two subsequent predicates, the subjects remain the same (SS), the events belong to the "same chain" (SC), they follow each other with different times (DT), with different durations (DD) and belong to diffent units of action (DU). This constellation is so basic and so frequent that it will be regarded the default relation for narratives. Where nothing is indicated in the text charts, this transition will be assumed. It can be summarised as follows: SC Same Chain yes

SS Same Subject yes

ST Same Time no

SD Same Duration no

SU Same Unit no

3.9.1 Rule: Predicate transitions Chart 27 defines those predicate relationships which are relevant in the Gedeo language, and on the basis of these underlying chronological or logical relationships, it summarises the rules which determine how such relations will be expressed syntactically. For any two subsequent predicates, the relation between these two forms will be one of those defined on the left hand side to the chart 27, i.e., some combination of the values of ST, SS, ST, SD, or SU. The ex-

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pressions of these relations then are selected in accordance with the conditions summarised on the right hand side of the same chart, where the various combinations of Gedeo "verb suffixes" are given.84 To identify the condition and the form which goes with it and to indicate which form is to be chosen, it will be sufficient to name the rightmost " + " sign in the chart below, because various conditions imply each other. Note that in chart 27 parentheses stand for alternatives: forms without brackets are preferred. Note that some constructions do not take a second set of person and aspect markers. "PS1" and "PS2" indicate the position of the two person suffixes (since person is marked twice in most verb forms), and "ASPI; ASP2" stand for the two aspect / tense / mood suffix positions. The full system of verb suffixation will be presented in a later section (4.8). Here, the actual morphemes (e.g., -e) rather than the signals (e.g, PERF) have been given for practical reasons. The relations of chart 27 will be presented one by one under numbers 3.9.1.1 to 3.9.1.9. The order of presentation is that of chart 27: from close to loose relationships. More relations will be presented with text Β under II Β 3.9 ff.

Chart 27: Time/subject relations between predicates Same

Same

Same

Same

Same

Chain

Subject

Time

Durât.

Unit

of

Verb Suffixes

of

events (sc)

concept (SS)

(ST)

(SD)

(SU) Signal

PSl

ASPI

PS2

ASP2

Conjunction

Same Subject: +

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+ + -

+

+ -

-

-

-

SU

PSI -e

-

ST

(-iyyo)

-

-

(-'«)

-ti

sr

PSl -a

-

(SS)

PSl -«

PS2

-e

-tt'i

-

SD

PSl -a

PS2

-a

-wodda,

PSl -e/a

-

-'ni

Different Subject: +

+

+

+

+

-

sr

-

•'naa'a,

-

-

-

(SC)

PSl -«

PS2

-e

(+)

-

-

-

-

PS2

(-)

-

-

-

-

1 (DC)

PSl -e PSl -«/a

PS2

-« (-n¡). -mma(-'a).

-

+

-cci-nni*

Note: The form with an asterisk (*) is either followed by kayyi-'a or 'udumi'-a 'after'.

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3.9.1.1 SU "Same unit" of action or event "Same unit" (SU) is the closest possible link between two events. This link is close enough to produce compound verbs such as iyy-e-dag- 'take and come', i.e. "bring". The construction with -e-'e 'same unit of action (SU)' links two action or position predicates which not only have the same subject and the same time frame but also are conceptually close-knit or "one concept". This "conceptual unity" includes different forms of semantic and syntactic merger, cf. (a), (b), (c) and (d) here below: (a) Two verbs as a pair are preceded by syntactic cases which the one or the other alone would not take. In the present text, no such example is found. But text Β has the following exmple, where an object as well as a direction both precede the verb cluster "seize come": (97) 'okkone sallaane mini-'a 'aad'-e'e dag-anno-ni. (text NY) 'those nine home-to seize-SU come-lSG:FUT-CONCL.' Ί will bring those nine home' (b) Two verbs, one of which cessative or inchoative, combine to express a cessative or inchoative action: (98) filli hiyy-e'e 'okko hed'-emma-ni. (line 21i) 'rotten say-SU there exist-3SG:PAST-CONCL.' 'It lay there rotten' (99) 'ind-e'e ke'n-ee-cci-nni 'udumi-'a line 37a 'eat:PL-SU arise:PL-PERF-SG-with after-at' 'after having eaten' (c) Two verbs, one of which is durative, the other change-of-state, combine to express duration of a new status. A good illustration is the following two-verb construction in text A (version A1) which is substituted by one single concept "why?" in the other versions of the same passage:

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(100) no'o hitta kand-e'e ... he'n-anno? line 4a 'we how happen:PL-SU ... exist:PL-we:IMPF?' 'how did we (become and) live ... ?' (101) rey-e'e torba gal-ed'-ee ... line 20d 'die-SU week spend:time-self-PERF 'having died (and having been) there one week' (d) The same predicate nucleus is repeated several times to indicate a prolonged or topographically distributed status, or a repeated action. (102) he'n-e he'n-e he'n-aa-wodda, line 18b 'they lived, lived, and as they lived there,' (103) marem-e marem-e marem-e he'n-a-'ni, line 19b 'wandering and wandering ... they were there,' The full form in -e-'e is dropped here in favor of the shorter ending -e, for phonological reasons: the rapid repetition causes elision of -'e.

3.9.1.2 ST Same time'5 Where two actions not only have the same subject but also take place at the same time, e.g. where the one can only be accomplished by doing the other, the verbs will be linked by the forms -a-'ni LOC or -iyyo-ti INSTR 'same time (ST). The first of these two forms brings with it a slightly "locational" notion, and the second, a notion of "instrumentality", but the dominant relation is temporal. Cf. the next three examples here, where there appears to be no difference between the more "locational" and the more "instrumental" meanings: (104) h-iyyo-ti ga'n-e text Β 'saying-ST he-beat'

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(105) hiyy-a-'ni male. Text A line 10a 'saying-ST ... they-discussed' (106) Voraabeessake' hiyyemm-a-'ni he'nanno. line 4b 'hyenas' called-ST we-live.' (107) he'n-a-'ni, honseett'i, line 19c 'living-ST, they-spent-their-time'

3.9.13 SS Same subject" Same subject, a relation expressed as -e-PS2-e-tt'i 'same subject, narrative P E R F links those verbs which have the same subject (and usually also the same topic), and follow each other in linear chronological order in the narrative time-line. Since for a narrative this is the norm, no signal is inserted: "To switch" reference is marked behaviour, and "not to switch" is the norm. One subject will stay for about five predicates.

3.9.1.4 SD Same duration The suffixation of -a-a/o-wodda 'IMPF-when' (the vowel a/o depends on the person) links those verbs which express actions performed at the same time (ST) and which may even have the same duration. The second event often will be durative, but the first need not (it can even be stative), and the subjects usually are different (DS). The term SD "same duration" has been chosen for lack of any better short term; but a distinction against ST "same time" certainly is needed here. (108) χ1 'e'y-a-a/o-wodda, x2 hed'emmani. line 21c/j 1 'x enter:he-IMPF-INTT-when, x2 was-there' 'when x1 entered, x2 was there'

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(109) χ1 yaanem-aa-wodda, x2 lak'e (text NI) 'when χ1 spoke, χ2 listened' The suffixes a-PS2-a-'naa'a 'IMPF-same duration, different subject (SD DS)' or e-PS2-e-'naa'a TERF-SD' link those verbs which have different subjects, the same duration, and possibly, but not necessarily, some implied logical connection. This definitely signals a change of subjects which -wodda not always does. In the four versions of narrative A, the form occurs only once: (110) fad'acci Jbokoke bokoke bokoke hiyy-ee-'naa'a 'afeeni. line 21e2 'a-horse:SUBJ blown-up blown-up ... say-PERF-ST:OBJ found-he' 'he found a horse in a state of being blown up' An example from text C illustrates the typical -'naa'a relation between actions:

(111) giira 'ittaa-'naa'a, marenne text C 'fire eat-SD, I-went' 'while the fire was burning, I went'

3.9.1.5 SC Same chain of events, across paragraph boundaries Suffixation of -e-PS2-e-cci-nni 'udumi-'a or -e-PS2-e-cci-nni kayyi-'a 'after having' signals that the predicates belong to the same chain of events, but a new "scene" or paragraph has started. This suffix is employed in a paragraph transition and therefore usually prepares the introduction of a new subject (cf. 3.1.2.1 about paragraph coherence). But the main function of this construction is to signal that the next predicate follows in a strict chronological succession of events. For examples, cf. all paragraph transitions of text A l marked as SC "same chain of events" in chart 28 (a).

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3.9.1.6 SC Same chain of events, end of paragraphs Suffixation of -e-PS2-e(-ni) 'PERF-(CONCL)' is employed for the paragraph final verbs. It has been termed "same chain (SC)" suffix, because together with subsequent verbs carrying the same suffix it forms the chronological chain of the main events.

3.9.1.7 DC Different chain (different chronology), flashback The suffixation of -PERF-PAST-'a, which in the 3rd ps. is -e -mma-'a 'PERFPAST-CONCL', could be termed "different chronological chain", or "outside the chain of events". In a "SC" succession of predications with -e-PS2-e(-ni) (see preceding rule), it signals either a Flashback or the integration of a (heterogeneous) stative predicate such as hed'- 'exist'. (Cf. the section about tense and aspect of stative predicates, 3.7 C and 3.7.5 C above.) (112) fad'acci ... hed'-e-mma-ni. line 21i 'horse ... exist-PERF-PAST-CONCL' (STAT predicate) 'a horse ... was there (already).' (113) kakant-ee-nna-baa? line 29a 'swear:PL-PERF-lPL:PAST-NEG?' (Flashback) 'hadn't we solemnly agreed (i.e., some time earlier)?'

3.9.1 Λ POSIT "Positive statement" POSIT "positive, position of the speaker" is expressed by a conjunction malee'e 'except'. While NEG "negative" introduces a verb suffix or a negation verb, POSIT "positive" introduces a notion comparable to Amharic inji 'yes but'. This marks a (positive) statement which is the position taken by the speaker, and at the same time it warns that a counter-statement will follow. The rhetorical function of the second statement is to underline the first, either by contrasting it with a negative counterpart or by asking whether any different claim could be trusted.

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For examples cf. line 33 of this text, line 15 of text B, and there are further examples in text C.

3.9.1.9 CONCL "Conclusive" and other closures (mood suffixes)*7 There are suffixes which function as closure of whole paragraphs or sections: the "mood" suffixes -ni, -fa'i, -la'i, -kk'a which are listed under II C.2. In text A there are the following forms: -ni 'conclusive' and its allomorph -'a after verbs in -a. The meaning of these form can best be described by giving a negative definition first; "conclusive" means: "non-question, non-doubt", i.e. "not open to modification or discussion"; positively: "conclusive statement, closure of a chain of statements". It is difficult to explain why -ni statements always come in sequences of paragraphs: It is always a sequence of paragraphs, or coherent sections of texts, or an entire text which will be marked by these suffixes. Only quotations can interrupt such a sequence, e.g. with commands or questions. The explanation of this wide span distribution may lie in the fact that usually it is whole narratives, or whole sections of narratives which have a mood of realism, or the ring of truth about them, and not just single paragraphs. Therefore the speaker's personal attitude to, or identification with, such a text usually will not change from utterance to utterance. This consideration leads to the following rule: "Conclusive" sequences of paragraphs will be marked by the suffixation of -ni or -'a, with the exception of non-statement sentences such as questions or commands. The signal CONCL stands for "conclusive". In the underlying representation of the text, only the beginning and the end of a "CONCL" series of paragraphs need to be indicated. This will be shown by the signal "CONCL". Since the occurrence of -ni is regulated not for single paragraphs but for series of paragraphs, it is only at the beginning of such a series that CONCL will be needed as a "switch-on" signal.

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4. The complete "Semantic Frames Roster" of text Al with signals In the semantic frames roster (SFR) of chart 28, all signals which were presented above have been inserted according to the textual conditions stated for each of them. These signals will then trigger rules which change the SFR of chart 28 into the correct syntactic and phonological surface form. The application of these rules, and the gradual change of the SFR into the actual text, will be presented step by step in the subsequent sections.

Remarks on (covert) argumentative relations The Gedeo-text A is built around a time axis: The verbs follow each other chronologically one after the other like steps follow each other in space and time. In most transitions between verbs of the time-line chart 28 (a), the chronological sequence of events is left implied: In the syntactic surface form the verbs are merely juxtaposed in their least conspicuous form. The same is true in the (nonchronological) juxtapositions in the direct speech passages: By the same "default" technique, the actual logical relations are left unexpressed where they can be understood without overt linguistic signals. The problem for an outsider is to explicate the underlying cultural assumptions. The relations between two events may be given by implication, but not overtly signalled by any linguistic surface form. Logical relations can be assumed to exist even between predicates which just seem to be juxtaposed "unrelatedly". To illustrate this, some covert relations of this kind have been included in chart 28 (c). One is the transition from predication 40 to predication 42. Another example is the relation between quotes Q33a and Q34a in the chiefs speech: (114) "We said >Q33a< POSIT; did we [

]

say >Q34a