Repetition and Anaphora as a Cohesive Device in Eibela Discourse

Abstract

Like many languages in Papua New Guinea, narrative discourse structure in Eibela is characterized by extensive repetition and summarization of events as a means of bridging discourse episodes. This type of repitition has been given various labels, including tail-head linkage or bridging linkage. In de Vries (2005) several broad patterns seen in Papuan languages are discussed, including thematic continuity and event sequencing. In Eibela, these two functional roles correspond to two formal strategies of tail-head linkage: summary linkage and recapitulative linkage (Thompson et al. 2007 pp.273-274). Summary linkage is a repeated clause which references a preceding event using a proverb, as in (1). Recapitulative linkage on the other hand repeats the same lexical predicate from a previous independent clause as a dependent clause, as exemplified by the example in (2). (1) a. bɛda-lolu=wa ɛimɛ oːɸa aːnɪ see:PST-COMPL=TOP already sun:ABS go-PST ‘I saw that the sun was already setting.’ b. [[ɛ=bi=ja]TOP owaːlo-wa solaː hɪnɛ dɪ-si=ja]TOP hɪnaː togolɛ do=D.S=TOP tree.type-ABS peel DUR PFV-LINK=TOP go road:LOC ‘That was happening and I peeled the owaalo (bark) and went to the road.’ (2) a. [hɪnaː-nɪgɛ]MEDIAL [hanɪ sɛ=ja ka solo-di]FINAL go-LINK:IPFV river bank=TOP FOC darken-PST ‘We went there and there at the riverside it got dark.’ b. [[solo-di=ja]TOP bɪda-nɪgɛ]MEDIAL [haːnɪ ka taː-nɪgɛ]MEDIAL darken-PST=TOP see-LINK:IPFV river FOC cross-LINK:IPFV ‘We saw it was getting dark, so we had to cross the wawi river…’ In the case of summary linkage, the repeated clause is the discourse topic of an entire clause chain or discourse episode, and provides event continuity between discourse episodes. In the case of recapitulative linkage, the topic clause’s frame of reference in restricted to a single clause within a clause chain, and more often serves the function of event sequencing by specifying the temporal and causal relationships between the individual events within a discourse episode. Show more