Language Contact and Documentation: Contacto Linguistico y Documentacion

Putting oral narratives into writing 327
It is formed by repeating the predicate of the preceding clause whereby certain
constraints on TAM marking and argument realisation apply. In Teop the repeated
predicate typically lacks the preverbal TAM marker of the preceding
predicate, e.g. na in (3), and paa in (4b) and (5b).
(3) ‘And (she) started to throw (a stick to make a mango fall down), (she)
threw a stick, but there was not a mango, a second time, but there was
not a mango,
na vaa-kukan bata=na, a bai he kuu
tam caus-three along=3sg.ipfv art mango conj fall
‘(she threw the stick) a third time, and a mango fell down.’
Kuu vai me=paa mirin.
fell now and=tam roll
‘Fell down now and rolled.’
(Mat_01R.17–20R)
In a number of cases the editors replace simple paratactic constructions by a
Tail-Head construction, by adding the head in the second clause as in (4). In
the oral version the clauses are linked by the repetition of the object NP ‘five
little fish’, which in the second clause of (4a) functions as the clause initial
topic and is marked by the anaphoric demonstrative bona. While this construction
looks similar to its English translation equivalent, the edited version
shows the genuine Oceanic Tail-Head construction.
(4) a. Me=paa vahuhu bona taonim a si iana.
and=tam give.birth.to art five art dim fish
‘And gave birth to five little fish.’
Me=a taonim a si iana bona vue
and=art five art dim fish dem particular
‘And these five little fish,’
na vaa-tii roho e te=a boon …
tam caus-be first 3sg.pron prep=art mangroves …
‘she put in the mangroves …’
(Ata_01R.01)
In (4b) it is the predicate vahuhu ‘give birth’ that is repeated, and the fish are
referred to by the fourth person object pronoun bari. This pronoun is used
when the subject of the clause is a third person.