MAGAR KHAM NARRATIVE DISCOURSE
by
JOSEPH D. LEMAN

Bachelor of Fine Arts and Visual Communication, Indiana University, 2008

Thesis
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS IN LINGUISTICS AND TRANSLATION
in the
FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY

© 2024 Joseph D. Leman
April 2024

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

ii
Abstract

This thesis presents discourse patterns observed in eleven third-person narrative texts
in the Magar Kham language. Narrators in this study make extensive use of clause-chaining
to describe the main events of a story. The clause-chaining sentences in this study exhibit
continuity across the three thematic domains associated with narrative texts. Magar Kham
narrators adhere to a subject-oriented anaphoric reference strategy across clauses.
Functioning with this basic strategy is a local VIP reference strategy for major participants.
Magar Kham narrators prefer to begin a sentence with a point of departure and favor those
which reactivate previously narrated events. Narrators make extensive use of the particle te to
perform a number of pragmatic tasks, including thematic highlighting and developmental
marking. Some of the narrators of this study contrast both prominent and backgrounded
events from the main event line by nominalizing the main verb of the independent clause
describing those events.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

iii
Contents

Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ii
Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... vi
1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Text Corpus ......................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Previous Research ............................................................................................... 3
2 Macro-structures ........................................................................................................ 5
2.1 Orientation .......................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Developmental Episodes ..................................................................................... 6
2.3 Peak ..................................................................................................................... 7
2.4 Closure ................................................................................................................ 8
3 Clause-chaining........................................................................................................ 10
3.1 Clause-chaining and Patterns Related to Switch Reference ............................. 13
3.2 Clause-chaining and Thematic Continuity........................................................ 17
3.2.1 Action Continuity....................................................................................... 17
3.2.2 Topic Continuity ........................................................................................ 19
3.2.3 Situational Continuity ................................................................................ 25
3.3 Non-chaining Sentences and Thematic Highlighting ....................................... 30
3.4 Summary ........................................................................................................... 32
4 Participant Reference ............................................................................................... 34
4.1 Introducing Major Participants ......................................................................... 34
4.2 Grammatical Coding for Participant Reference ................................................ 36
4.2.1 Marked Noun Phrases ................................................................................ 37
4.3 Participant Reference Systems .......................................................................... 40
4.3.1 Subject Oriented Sequential Reference Strategy ....................................... 41
4.3.2 Switch-reference System in Clause Chains ............................................... 43
4.3.3 Local VIP Reference Strategy ................................................................... 43
4.4 Summary ........................................................................................................... 45
5 Event Reactivation ................................................................................................... 46

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

iv

6 The Pragmatic Functions of te ................................................................................. 50
7 Main Event Line ...................................................................................................... 55
7.1 Tracking the MEL in Takale Narrative ............................................................. 55
7.2 Tracking the MEL in Maikoti Narrative ........................................................... 59
7.3 Summary ........................................................................................................... 61
8 Summary of Conclusions ......................................................................................... 62
Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 65
Appendix A – The Flea and Bed Bug ......................................................................... 67
Appendix B – The Clever Fox .................................................................................... 69

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

v
Tables

Table 1. Narrative Text Corpus .................................................................................... 2
Table 2. Inventory of participant reference devices .................................................... 37
Table 3. Distribution of referential devices according to context ............................... 42
Table 4. Re-distribution of referential devices according to context .......................... 44
Table 5. Frequency of event reactivating points of departure .................................... 48
Table 6. Distribution of Takale MEL material by to type of narration....................... 58
Table 7. Distribution of Maikoti MEL material by to type of narration ..................... 59

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse
Abbreviations

1S
1D
1P

first singular (subject, object, or possessive)
first dual (subject, object, or possessive)
first plural (subject, object, or possessive)

2S
2D
2P

second singular (subject, object, or possessive)
second dual (subject, object, or possessive)
second plural (subject, object, or possessive)

3S
3D
3P

third singular (subject, object, or possessive)
third dual (subject, object, or possessive)
Third plural (subject, object, or possessive)

CONT
COP
DIS
DL
DT
ELAT
EMP
ERG
EXST
GEN
INT
INF
LOC
NEG
NF
NM
OBJ
PFV
PROG
PL
REM
RSP

continuous aspect
copula verb
discontinuity
dual
detransitivizing
elative
emphasis
ergative case
exist
genitive case
interrogative
infinitive
locative
negative
non-finite
nominalizing
objective case
perfective aspect
progressive aspect
plural
remote determiner
reported speech

vi

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

1
1 Introduction

The purpose of this thesis is to present narrative discourse features for two dialects of
Magar Kham (Maikoti and Takale). The bulk of the thesis is spent describing features and
patterns shared by the dialects. However, I also present several patterns that occur in only
one of the two dialects. This study is motivated by a desire for a deeper understanding of
these two varieties and a desire to promote the development and preservation of the Magar
Kham language. The scope of the study is limited to the discourse patterns observable in
eleven third-person folk stories, six in the Maikoti dialect and five in the Takale dialect.
These texts were elicited between 2018 and 2022. The discourse analysis methodology of
this thesis is drawn primarily from Dooley and Levinsohn (2001).1
Magar Kham is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Himalayan foothills. The
Takale and Maikoti dialects are spoken in East Rukum district of the Lumbini province of
Nepal and falls under the ISO 639.3 designation [kjl].2 The two speech communities have a
basic comprehension of each other’s dialect. However, because their dialects have only sixtyfive percent lexical similarity and audio text comprehension is lower among speakers who
have had less contact with the other variety, I consider their mutual comprehension to be due
mostly to acquired rather than inherent intelligibility.3
1.1 Text Corpus
The text corpus for this study includes eleven third person folk narratives, five in the
Takale dialect and six in the Maikoti dialect. All texts were elicited from people whose
mother tongue is Magar Kham and had spent their formative years in their own dialect area
in East Rukum district. As these texts were selected from a larger collection of field

Robert A Dooley and Stephen H Levinsohn, “Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts”
(SIL International, 2001).
2
David M. Eberhard, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig, eds., “Western Parbate Kham,” in
Ethnologue: Languages of the World., Twenty-Sixth. (Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2023), accessed February
8, 2024, https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kjl/.
3
Joseph D. Leman, “Sociolinguistic Profile of Maikoti Kham: A Sociolinguistic Study of the Kham
Language Spoken in the Area of Maikot Village in East Rukum District of Nepal” (SIL International, 2020),
accessed February 8, 2024, https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/86060.
1

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

2

recordings, I took some care to represent possible variation in each dialect based on age,
gender, and home village.
A catalog of the text corpus is presented below in Table 1. Most of these texts were
transcribed and edited in the Devanagari script from an oral recording by native speakers of
the same dialect. However, The Fox and the Bear and The One-eyed Snake were submitted in
written form. These two texts were also written in Devanagari script. Examples from these
texts are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet throughout the thesis.
Table 1. Narrative Text Corpus
Text Title

Narrator (Gender)

Age Village (Dialect)

Sentences

The Ant and the Dove

Aaitaman Pun Magar (M)

42

Maikot (Maikoti)

22

The Clever Fox

Namuna Pun Magar (F)

21

Emekar (Maikoti)

37

Daphe and Peahen

Mani Ram Pun Magar (M)

44

Maikot (Maikoti)

62

The Finch and the King

Guruma Budha Magar (F)

78

Maikot (Maikoti)

25

The Fox and the Bear4

Arpana Budha Magar (F)

22

Pelma (Maikoti)

23

The One-eyed Snake

Namuna Pun Magar (F)

21

Emekar (Maikoti)

46

The Clever Fox

Sompal Budha Magar (M)

36

Taka (Takale)

39

Daphe and Peahen

Rat Bahadur Budha Magar (M)

93

Taka (Takale)

51

The Farting Wife

Jyothi Maya Budha Magar (F)

49

Taka (Takale)

14

The Five Foolish Magars

Santraj Pun Magar (M)

61

Bachhigaun (Takale)

23

The Flea and the Bed Bug5

Jagilal Budha Magar (M)

65

Taka (Takale)

11

Each narrator, after being completely informed of the nature of this study, gave oral
consent to the transcription, analysis, and publication of their text. Reference the appendices
for a sample of the text data.

4
5

A chart of this text is found in appendix B of this thesis.
A chart of this text is found in appendix A of this thesis.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

3

The corpus represented in Table 1 contains two versions of both Daphe and Peahen
and The Clever Fox, one for each dialect. I facilitated this duplication in hopes that dialect
variation at the discourse level might be isolated from factors driven by text content. In the
case of Daphe and Peahen, both narrators volunteered their version without knowledge of
one another, and significant variation exists between the plots of the two texts. As the corpus
is drawn from a larger group of texts gathered in the field, I could have excluded one of the
two versions. However, I felt that selecting both texts for the study would yield some
knowledge of dialect variation.
In the case of The Clever Fox, I made a concerted effort to isolate variables between
the two dialects. Namuna Pun Magar, my chief transcriber for the Maikoti dialect, is
competent in the Takale dialect. I asked her to listen to Sompal’s version of The Clever Fox
three times and then, after a few minutes, provide a written version in her own dialect,
without referencing the original again. I consider this effort to be a success, as Namuna’s
version does indeed bear distinctly Maikoti discourse features.
1.2 Previous Research
This thesis builds upon the work of two other scholars, David Watters (2002) and
Sarah du Preez (2019).6 7 These individuals draw conclusions on several isolated features of
narrative discourse in the language. My work here consolidates their observations with my
own in order to present a broader survey of patterns.
Watters’ grammar was essential in the interlinearization and analysis of all my data.
In chapter three and chapter four, I rely heavily upon his description of Magar Kham verbal
morphology in order to discuss clause chaining and participant reference. In chapter six, I
build upon his observations on the pragmatic functions of the particle te. In chapter 16 of his
grammar, Watters describes how Takale narrators have a specific method of grounding in

6

David Eugene Watters, A Grammar of Kham (Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press,

2002).
Sara A. du Preez, “The Participant Reference System of Maikoti Kham in Six Folktales” (Payap
University, 2019).
7

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

4

narrative discourse, which involves the nominalization of the main verb of a sentence. I
discuss this pattern in my own data in chapter seven and eight of this thesis.
Du Preez’ thesis presents specifically on the participant reference system in Maikoti
dialect narrative discourse. She concludes that Maikoti speakers utilize a subject oriented
sequential reference strategy to access participants in narrative discourse.8 In chapter four of
this thesis, I confirm her conclusions and present further on participant reference patterns in
both dialects.

8

Ibid., 71.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

5

2 Macro-structures
This chapter presents the broad structural features that all of the texts in this study
have in common. The texts included in this study are works of oral fiction. Most of them
exhibit a linear progression of events leading to a single climax, which is considered to be a
nearly universal pattern for narrative discourse.9 Components of this pattern which are
discernible in all the texts of this study are: 1) an orientation episode, in which the
participants and theme of the narrative are introduced, 2) a series of developmental episodes
which, through rising action, proceed towards the climax of the story, 3) a single peak event
or episode, in which the events of the narrative find their culmination, and 4) a sentence or
episode of closure, which describes the state of affairs after the peak.10 Each of these is
discussed in more detail in the following subsections.
Three of the texts deviate from the climactic structure presented above. One text, The
Ant and the Dove, is a variation on one of Aesop's fables. This story has two parallel
episodes, which support a salient theme. Each of these episodes exhibits a peak and closure.
Two of the texts are versions of a very popular local folktale called Daphe and
Peahen. This story is about the tragic marriage of a Himalayan Moral to a Peahen, the
domesticated bird of the Indian subcontinent. Both versions of Daphe and Peahen are roughly
chiastic, having a central peak surrounded by corresponding episodes of rising and falling
action. Thus, the content following the peak of these texts exhibits the characteristics of
developmental episodes rather than that of closure. The Maikoti narrator ended his version of
Daphe and Peahen with a lengthy exposition. This content counts as closure for the text but,
on its own, represents a genre separate from narrative. It was excluded from most of the
analysis to isolate features of the narrative genre.

Robert A Dooley, “Relevance Theory and Discourse Analysis:” (SIL International, 2008), 3.
The text components used here are loosely adapted from Robert E. Longacre, The Grammar of
Discourse (Springer Science & Business Media, 1996), 3.
9

10

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

6

2.1 Orientation
Magar Kham narrators generally orient their listeners using a formulaic introduction
of the main characters followed by some background information. This information usually
contains some reference to the theme of the narrative. Consider the following example.
(1) The Fox and the Bear (Maikoti) 1-4
A. pʲã dõkʌ no dʒãlʌ tubu rãsʌla sono tubu ŋim ĩleu di11
‘Long ago in that forest, there lived a certain fox and a certain bear.’
B. nuni ʒor tsaĩ tʌrʌjãni ĩleu di
‘They two were covenant brothers.’
C. no tʌrʌjãni tubu har ŋadʌ ĩnau
‘Those brothers were raising a cow.’
D. no harlai tsaĩ palodai palodai tsʰani di
‘As for the cow, they grazed in turns.’
Example (1) presents well the features common to the orientation episode of most of
the texts of this study. The storyteller begins with a point of departure that is customary for
opening narrative discourse and an introduction of the major participants in sentence A. The
theme of the text is also established by the introduction of the cow and the covenant
relationship between the fox and the bear. From here the listeners have a foundation for what
this story will be about. Later in the text, the fox unfolds a plan to betray his covenant brother
and keep the meat of the cow for himself. In sentence B through D, the narrator establishes
each of the narrative elements important for understanding this theme.
2.2 Developmental Episodes
Developmental episodes represent the bulk of a narrative text. The sentences and
paragraphs of the developmental episodes inform most of the default patterns for the genre,
and account for most of the conclusions of this study. The two dialects exhibit some

11

Almost all of the sentences in the data contain the evidential di. This particle simply indicates that
the speaker was not eyewitness to the events.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

7

divergent discourse patterns in the area of sentence coordination and tracking the main event
line. However, underlying these differences the language, as a whole, exhibits its own unique
pattern of participant topicalization and participant reference strategy, as demonstrated in
chapter four. This uniqueness is facilitated by the language’s capacity to communicate
multiple main events in clause-chaining sentences, which is discussed in chapter three.
2.3 Peak
The peak episode or sentence of a Magar Kham narrative is the culmination of the
main events of the story. At the peak, the major participants generally resolve some form of
narrative tension that was established in the beginning of the text, and often default discourse
patterns shift or change near the peak. The climactic events may be marked in some way.
Two patterns of thematic highlighting that occur across most of the data are, a deviation from
the pattern of narrative clause chaining, and the use of onomatopoeia. Consider the peak
episode of the Takale version of Daphe and Peahen in example (2).
(2) Daphe and Peahen (Takale) 33-37
A. biherʌ jadokʌ te sida nibakʌ te pʰapʌr kʰore pʌlzeurai te tsei tʰadʌ janʌiʒau leu
‘As the marriage guests partied, the couple went for firewood, the buckwheat
harvesters had set a trap and put it (there).’
B. holo te ruu te upuriu
‘In there Daphe, he fell.’
C. ruu holʌ upurikʌ te ho mozare te ruʒau di
‘When Daphe falls, Peahen watches.’
D. ruulai te hipʒarʌ di
‘The daphe, they burn.’
E. hakʌ te ruuje oʃʌkʌri tsarap nʌ tsurup orus sarap nʌ syrup hʌi lidʌ te ruuje oʃʌkʌri
pala tsarap tsurup orus sarap syrup kʰʌikerʌ di
‘At that, (they) said, “Munchetty-munch the daphe’s meat and slurpetty-slurp his
bones,” as they munchetty-munched Daphe’s meat and slurpetty-slurped his bones.’
In example (2), we see two forms of thematic highlighting that occur in most of the
texts of this study. First, here at the peak the speaker uses several single clause sentences
with definite points of departure. These sentences are quite marked because the bulk of a

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

8

narrative is communicated in multi-clause chains, similar to the one in sentence A. All but
two texts in this study feature this method of peak event highlighting, and I provide a second
example of the pattern later in §3.3.
Secondly, most of the texts in the data feature some form of adverbial ideophone near
the peak. These elements can be seen in E as the buckwheat harvesters delightfully devour
the unfortunate Daphe. This convention is especially effective in the context of oral
performance. Magar Kham has a rich array of ideophones, and storytellers rarely pass up the
opportunity to feature them in oral narrative.12
As a side note, in example (2), the narrator also makes use of the historic present. For
sentence C and D, the listeners are momentarily transported back in time to experience the
death of Daphe. Magar Kham speakers often use historic present tense to describe an
emotional sequence of events. However, it is not a device which is exclusively associated
with peak events in the data, but simply a marked type of narration.
2.4 Closure
The closure of a narrative can be broadly characterized as some description of the
state of affairs following the peak. Here my use of the term closure is broader than that
described by Longacre (1996).13 For my own purposes the closure encompasses all narrative
information after the peak of the text. Thus, closure may also include a denouement, a short
series of events which follow the peak of the narrative.
Little can be said that would apply to every closure in the data of this study. Some
narrators conclude by describing a series of background events involving minor participants,
events precipitated by the peak of the narrative. This is the most common form of closure.
Other narrators offer some exposition or evaluation of the events and the decisions of the
major participants of the narrative. Still others reiterate the events leading to the peak in the

12
13

Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 148.
Longacre, The Grammar of Discourse, 38.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

9

form of background information. In example (3) I present the closure episode of The Five
Magar Brothers.
(3) The Five Magar Brothers (Maikoti) 22-23
A. hojʌ oprati pʌntsrai jarʌ tsiunakʌ te gor mʌni bʰutu bʰutu mirʌ mʌni bʰutu bʰutu tadʌ
yalewo di
‘That next day, when the friends of those fools went looking for them, both the plow
and the men were all broken to pieces.’
B. poro tadʌ yarusrʌ bazʌ lidʒa di
‘Only whitened bones are (there now), it is said.’
This episode exemplifies some of the features of closure that I just described. Here
the fate of the five Magar brothers is discovered by very minor participants as they search
through the forest. Their actions are a result of the peak. In the l
ast sentence, the narrator switches to the present tense to describe the final state of the
foolish brothers. This sentence is simultaneously an exposition of the state of affairs and an
evaluation of the actions taken by the major participants during the story.
To summarize this chapter, most of the texts included in this study exhibit a linear
progression of events leading to a single climax. Components of this linear pattern which are
discernible in all the texts of this study are: 1) an orientation episode, in which the
participants and theme of the narrative are introduced, 2) a series of developmental episodes
which, through rising action, proceed towards the climax of the story, 3) a single peak event
or episode, in which the events of the narrative find their culmination, and 4) a sentence or
episode of closure, which describes the state of affairs after the peak. These are the terms I
use to refer to the macrostructure of a text throughout the study.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

10

3 Clause-chaining
Clause-chaining is a salient feature in Magar Kham narrative discourse. One third of
all sentences are clause-chaining sentences, and 80% of all main events occur in a clause
chain. This chapter presents various discourse patterns related to clause-chaining in the texts
of this study. In §3.1, I present one pattern related to switch reference in clause chains. Then,
in §3.2, I discuss numerous patterns concerning the thematic continuity of clauses in a chain.
One pattern related to thematic highlighting is discussed in §3.3. Finally, in §3.4, I
summarize the observations made in this chapter.
Throughout the chapter, I utilize terminology from a variety of sources. Allow me to
review these terms and their sources here at the onset. First, from the literature on clausechaining, I make frequent use of the terms converb and co-subordinate, when describing the
medial clauses of a clause-chaining sentence. My use of the term converb is somewhat broad
and is in line with that of Nedjalkov (1995). Converbs are verb forms which depends
syntactically on another verb form but are not its syntactic actant or attribute.14 Basically,
they are a means of relating clauses through verbal morphology rather than free connectives.
The term co-subordinate comes from Haspelmath (1995) and is utilized by Watters
(2002) in his description of clause chaining in Magar Kham.15 Co-subordination is a quality
of the subset of converbs which are used by Magar Kham narrators to describe a series of
discrete events in sequence. Because these converbs are syntactically dependent on the
controlling clause, their clause cannot rightly be labeled independent. However, as they
remain unembedded from any other clause, they also cannot be labeled subordinate. Hence,
the term co-subordinate is used to describe these clauses.
Regarding information structure, I rely heavily on the convention of Topic-Comment
to describe the components of a clause-chaining sentence.16 A key concept for this

14
Vladimir P. Nedjalkov, “Some Typological Parameters of Converbs,” in Converbs in CrossLinguistic Perspective, ed. Martin Haspelmath and Ekkehard König (De Gruyter, 1995), 2.
15
Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 322.
16
Stephen H Levinsohn, “Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis” (SIL
International, 2015), 25.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

11

convention is aboutness. The topic of a sentence is “that which the sentence is about.”17 In
the case of narrative sentences, the topic is usually a major participant. Therefore, the
comment of a sentence represents what is said about the topic, namely the description of
actions and experiences in the narrative world.
According to Levinsohn (2015), in addition to identifying the topic and comment of a
sentence, it is also useful to label a component known as point of departure.18 This term is
attributed to Dik (1981), and refers to a contextualizing constituent in the sentence.19 In this
thesis, I use point of departure broadly to label any constituent which signals to the listener
discontinuity in the shared mental representation of the narrative. This includes discontinuity
in time and space (situational) as well as discontinuity in the participants involved
(referential). However, because referential points of departure almost always signal a new
participant topic, they are more often labeled as topics in this thesis. More narrowly, I use
point of departure to label the sentence initial adverbial words and clauses which refer to a
gap in temporal flow or a change in the location in the narrative world. I refer to various
points of departure throughout this chapter, but additional patterns concerning points of
departure and event reactivation are described in chapter five.
Clause-chaining is characterized by the possibility for long sequences of non-finite
clauses within a single sentence.20 In a clause-chaining sentence, the medial clauses have
operator dependency upon a single controlling clause for finite specifications such as tense,
aspect, person, and number. While they are syntactically dependent upon the controlling
clause, they are not embedded with any other clause. The non-finite verbs of these medial
clauses, known as converbs, function to combine the clauses in place of a free connective.21

17

Knud Lambrecht, Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic, Focus, and the Mental
Representations of Discourse Referents (Cambridge University Press, 1994), 117.
18
Levinsohn, “Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis,” 41.
19
Simon C. Dik, Functional Grammar (Foris, 1981).
20
Robert A Dooley, “Exploring Clause Chaining” (SIL International, 2010).
21
Martin Haspelmath and Ekkehard König, eds., Converbs in Cross-Linguistic Perspective: Structure
and Meaning of Adverbial Verb Forms-- Adverbial Participles, Gerunds, Empirical Approaches to Language
Typology v. 13 (Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1995), 4–7.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

12

This manner of relating clauses is the default pattern for coordinating narrative
propositions in Magar Kham. Example (4) demonstrates how two clauses can be combined
by using a converb in the Magar Kham language.
(4) Examples taken from Watters (2002, 323-324)
A. kãː zya-də
ba-ke
food eat-NF
go-PFV
‘He ate the food and left.’
B. o-rsaː-rə nʌi-də
nah-si-ke
3S-strength-PL keep-NF rest-DT-PFV
‘Retaining his strength, he rested.’
In (4), both A and B exhibit a single non-finite clause which is related to the main
clause by means of the verbal suffix -dʌ.22 Here both converbs are understood by the speaker
to be perfective because in each case the controlling verb is perfective.23 Note also that
chaining one clause to another using -dʌ can affect a coordinating relationship (sequential),
as in sentence A, as well as a subordinate relationship (adverbial), as in sentence B. In the
literature, clauses with coordinating converbs are considered to be co-subordinate because,
while they are not embedded as an actant or adverbial constituent of another clause, they are
dependent upon the controlling verb of the sentence for its finite specifications. Whether or
not a medial clause is subordinate to the next clause is determined by the semantics of the
verbs involved and their context in discourse. This is evidenced above, as the morphology of
the converbs in A and B of (4) are identical.
In Magar Kham, numerous non-finite clauses may be chained together using only the
suffix -dʌ on medial predicates. Narrators can describe multiple events or actions in a single
sentence. This “plot advancing” capacity is considered to be the primary function of clausechaining in many languages and chaining occurs frequently in the texts of this study.24
Example (5) presents a typical chain from my data. This sentence exhibits three chained

22
The middle vowel represented here by [ə] is also transcribed as [ʌ] in other parts of this report.
Inconsistency in transcription is due to the use of both Watters’ and my own data in this thesis.
23
Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 323.
24
Dooley, “Exploring Clause Chaining,” 2.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

13

clauses which depict a series of narrative events. Throughout this thesis, I number chained
clauses using roman numerals (i, ii, iii, etc.). This sentence also features a point of departure,
which I label p, and a topic, labeled t.
(5) Daphe and Peahen (Takale) 4
p.

hiteu wota-kʌ wota-kʌ te
t. ru te
that.like happen-NF happen-NF DIS
daphe DIS

i. gʌ̃gʌ zʌ so-dʌ
early EMP rise-NF

bʰi-lʌ tisʌra-ye le-u-kʌ kes-dʌ
iii. bʌnai zʌ lʌtari-ke-u
river-in drongo-GEN EXST-NM-to arrive-NF
much EMP beat-PFV-3S
‘As it happened like this, Daphe, (he) rose early, arrived at Drango’s in the river,
and beat him severely.’
ii.

The main predication or comment in (5) features one independent clause (iii), and two
co-subordinate clauses (i and ii). These clauses represent a chronological sequence of unoverlapping events. Each event is complete before the next begins and they have the same
agent (Daphe). Most of the clause-chaining sentences in the data exhibit this pattern.
Therefore, I consider the description of multiple thematically related events in a chain of
coordinating converbs to be a default pattern for Magar Kham narrative discourse. Since both
the co-subordinate and independent clauses represent foreground events, I often refer to them
using the term foreground clause throughout this thesis.
The sentence in (5) also exhibits a number of initial, cohesive constituents. These are
the point of departure hiteu wota-kʌ wota-kʌ te ‘as it happened like this’, and the participant
topic ru te ‘Daphe’ respectively. Technically the ru te is both the sentence topic and also a
point of departure, albeit a referential one. I discuss participant topics and topicalization later
in §3.2.2. For now, consider that most clause-chaining sentences in this study have at least
one such initializing element, either a point of departure, or left-dislocated noun phrase, or
both, as in (5). For this reason, I consider it to be a default pattern for Magar Kham narrators
to initialize the events of a clause chain with at least one such cohesive constituent.
3.1 Clause-chaining and Patterns Related to Switch Reference
Like many other clause-chaining languages, Magar Kham possesses a grammatical
system in which the speaker may provide clarifying subject pronominal marking on a

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

14

converb in order to accommodate a change in subject referent mid-chain. This “switchreference” system involves a cataphoric process, in which the medial verb preceding a switch
is coded for subject person/number.25 However, additional coding seems only to occur on
subordinating converbs. Additionally, according to Watters, if the verb proceeding the
change is transitive, it is more likely to be inflected with the non-finite suffix -kʌ instead of dʌ. The morpheme -kʌ, like its counterpart, affects a converb, but one which is always
subordinating (time adverbial). Example (6) demonstrates how a converb is created using the
suffix -kʌ and how a non-finite verb receives pronominal marking preceding a subject
change.
(6)
t.

The Finch and the King (Maikoti) 4
ho
REM

i. tʰʌŋna ʌzdʌi-dʌ te
cloth.scrap find-NF DIS

ii.

ho o-lõ-kʌ
REM 3s-carry.away-NF

iii. ho-tʌ tobo ʌrgʌp o-le-u di
REM.on one needle 3S-EXST-NM RSP
‘It (the finch) found a scrap of cloth, when it carried it away, on that was a needle.’
The clause chain in (6) consists of three clauses. To accommodate the change in
subject between clause ii and iii, the speaker subordinates clause ii using the non-finite suffix
-kʌ and provides additional coding for the outgoing subject (the finch). This switch reference
system enables Magar Kham speakers to comunicate a chain of narrative events which have
multiple subject arguments in the same clause chain. Only 9% of the sentences in my data
exhibit this complexity. However, among these twenty nine occurances a few notable
patterns can be observed.
Having explained a few basic patterns related to clause chains in Magar Kham
narrative discourse, I would like to present patterns related to switch reference. In this study,
the narrators tend to accommodate a switch in subject referent in the middle of a clause chain
by transforming the event clause preceding the subject change into a subordinate clause

Marianne Mithun, “‘Switch-Reference’: Clause Combining in Central Pomo,” International Journal
of American Linguistics 59, no. 2 (1993): 119–136.
25

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

15

(backgrounded event). The narrators who participated in this study occasionally switch
subjects mid-chain without subordinating the preceding clause. However, most often,
speakers overtly subordinate the clause in the chain just prior to a change in subject. In these
cases, the converb is marked for person/number. This additional coding appears to be
obligatory on the subordinate converb and is perhaps functional in mitigating subject
ambiguity or to provide an appropriate person/number index for the preceding non-finite
verbs in the sentence.
Example (7) and (8) are clause-chaining sentences with subject referent discontinuity.
In (7), the speaker chooses not to subordinate the clause before the subject change. However,
in (8), the speaker does so.
(7) The Farting Wife (Takale) 9
p.

hukɪn te
after.that DIS

i. o-ta-kʌ te
3S-colaps-NF DIS

ii.

de ʒutsa iteu bʌrʌba-tʌ
hey wife like.this break.down-in

nʌ-zʌi-ke au kata iteu gʰʌri gʰʌri nu-jusi-ʒe-u
2S-make-PFV this INT like.this house 2S-fart-CONT-NM

hʌi li-dʌ
thus say-NF

iii. pʰeri sero-e te rim-dʌ
iv. pʰeri seya-ki-ni di
again husband-ERG DIS smooth-NF
again lay.down-PFV-3D RSP
‘After that, when it collapsed, thus said, “hey wife, you’re breaking our house like
this, this much (damage) you did farting in the house,” again the husband patched
it, again they slept.’
(8) Flea and Bedbug (Takale) 10
p.

zʰim-kʌ o-kes-kʌ te
house 3S-arrive-NF DIS

i.

ka o-ma-ʒu-ta-u le hʌi li-dʌ
food 3S-neg-eat-DT-NM COP thus say-NF

nẽyawʌ u-ʒu-kʌ te
iii. meda-ŋau te pʌizʌ kiyʌ ki wazʌ o-le-u
two.bites 3S-eat-NF DIS
below-toward DIS all poopy poop only 3S-COP-NM
‘When he arrived at the house, thus said “the food isn’t eaten,” when he took two bites,
beneath it was all only poopy poop.’
ii.

The sentence in (7) is taken from a story about a couple sleeping in their newly
constructed stone house. The mortar of the walls is still wet, and the house begins to collapse
when the wife releases a fart. This clause-chaining sentence exhibits two changes in subject
referent. Between clause i and ii, the subject switches from the collapsing house to the

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

16

husband, and between clauses iii and iv, the subject changes again from the husband to the
husband and wife. The second change is evident by the presence of the third-person dual
suffix -ni on the final verb. Note that the first change is accompanied by a subordinating
converb in clause i, but the second change is accompanied by a coordinating converb in
clause iii. The subordinating converb is inflected with -kʌ and finite for person/number, while
the coordinating converb is inflected with -dʌ and possesses no pronominal coding.
Clause iii of (7) demonstrates that co-subordination before a subject change is
available to the Magar Kham narrator. Seven times in the data, a speaker switches subjects in
the middle of a sentence without breaking a chain of foreground clauses. The transitivity of
the verbs does not appear to have a bearing upon the possibility of these clauses to remain
co-subordinate. Both the transitive, li-dʌ (said), and the intransitive, ra-dʌ (come), occur in
the data. The converb in clause iii of (7), rim-dʌ, literally ‘smoothed,’ is transitive and cannot
be interpreted as occurring simultaneously with the event before or after it in the chain. Thus,
the speaker is here switching subject mid-chain without taking advantage of the switchreference system that is more frequently used and demonstrated in (8).
The sentence in (8) is taken from a story about two friends, Flea and Bed Bug. In the
text Flea plays a prank on his friend by pooping in his food. Here we see the culmination of
the prank. The clause chain exhibits a subject change between clause ii and iii. In this
instance, the narrator subordinates the clause preceding the change with -kʌ and makes the
converb finite for person/number. This effectively backgrounds what would have been a
coordinated event in the chain. The speaker has elected to change the main event, ‘he ate two
bites’ to a background event, ‘when he ate two bites.’
The backgrounding of an event prior to a subject change, as in clause ii of (8), is
preferred by the narrators of this study. Seventy six percent of the chain-medial subject
changes in my data are proceeded by a backgrounded event, making it the default pattern.
The remaining 24% of subject changes follow the pattern demonstrated in (7). None of the
former occurrences exhibit an adverbial reason or manner before the switch, indicating that
the default pattern specifically involves event backgrounding rather than simply providing

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

17

background information. As I stated above this pattern may be motivated by a desire to
mitigate subject ambiguity, as subordinated converbs are always finite for person/number.
3.2 Clause-chaining and Thematic Continuity
No text of this study is comprised of a single clause chain. For this reason, we must
assume that the foreground clauses which occur together in a chain share some qualities over
against others in the text. In this section, I present patterns pertaining to the continuity of
events described within a clause chain. Here, continuity is investigated along the dimensions
commonly recognized in narrative discourse (action, participants, and situation).26 Action has
to do with the type of information that is being communicated by a sentence (i.e. background
information or narration proper).27 Participants refers to the cast of characters for a thematic
group of events, and situation pertains to the setting (time and place) of the events.
3.2.1 Action Continuity
In Magar Kham, clauses occupying the same clause chain always have continuity of
action. This continuity is caused by the operator dependency of the medial clauses upon the
independent clause for its tense/aspect. First, a single clause chain is never used to both move
the plot forward (narration proper) and to describe or comment upon entities in the narrative
world (background information). In the data, narrators always begin a new clause chain when
they switch from narrating to providing background information, and vice versa. A Magar
Kham clause chain can only perform one of these two actions.
Secondly, the clauses of a chain are always of the same type of narration. Magar
Kham speakers use a variety of verbal inflections to describe the events of a narrative. Most
commonly, events are described using perfective aspect. However, in the data, events are
also described using a nominalized main verb, and occasionally, using progressive aspect.28
The latter two narrative types of narration usually perform a pragmatic function, while the

26

Talmy Givón, Syntax (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2001), 245.
Levinsohn, “Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis,” 31.
28
Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 276.
27

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

18

first type, associated with perfective aspect, is the default pattern. The three verbal inflections
associated with the narration of events are exemplified in (9), (10), and (11).
(9)

Perfective aspect as default narration - The Clever Fox (Takale) 9

hukɪn te
i. sat bʰai-r te bʌnʌi kʰʌsi-dʌ
after.that DIS
seven brother-PL much fight-REF-NF
ʒirʌm mirʌm zʌi-dʌ
iii. ja-ama-e le-u-lo ba-ke-rʌ di
bloody bloody make-NF
3P-mother-GEN EXST-NM-in go-PFV-3P RSP
‘After that, the seven brothers, fought a bunch, got bloody, went to their
mother’s.’
ii.

(10) Main verb nominalization as marked narration - The Clever Fox (Takale) 18
i.

ol tobo sĩ-lai keu-dʌ
ii. ras zʌ ma-ras-o
3S one stick-OBJ grab-NF
let.go EMP NEG-let.go-NM
‘He took hold of a certain stick, did not let go.’
(11) Progressive aspect as historic present - The Clever Fox (Takale) 20
hukɪn te
after.that DIS

i. sur-dʌ
tie-NF

ii.

rel kʰr-lo ja-ʃal-kʌ te
gravel place 3P-pull-NF DIS

iii. aha bʌnʌi mʌza bʌnʌi mʌza hʌi li-ʒa di
ah much fun much fun thus say-PROG RSP
‘After that, tie (him) up, when they drag him in the gravel, thus he says “ah so
much fun.”’
By observing the last clause of (9), (10), and (11), the various verbal inflections
utilized to describe main events in Magar Kham narration can be seen. Verbs inflected by the
suffix -ke have perfective aspect. This inflection is the default pattern of narration and is
demonstrated in (9). Perfective aspect is mostly used to narrate the main event line of a text.29
The final verb in example (10) demonstrates how an independent verb can be nominalized in
narration. This is not a true nominalization as in the context of a relative clause. The
nominalization of an independent clause is interpreted as a past event along with its cosubordinates. This interpretive possibility is utilized by narrators to contrast events from the
main event line, either to background them, or to give them special prominence on the main

29

Ibid., 257.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

19

event line.30 I refer to this pattern as marked narration and discuss it further in chapter seven.
Finally, in (11), we see an example of past events being describe using progressive aspect.
The controlling verb is inflected with the suffix -ʒa which is also used to describe events in
the present.31 Thus, (11) is an example of the historic present. Just as it does in English
narrative discourse, the historic present in Magar Kham has the dramatic effect of bring
important events of the story into the listener’s present.
Because the medial clauses of a clause-chaining sentence have operator dependency
upon the final clause it is impossible to interpret them as having a different tense/aspect from
their operator. If the independent clause of a chain is perfective, as seen in (9), then all of the
co-subordinate clauses in the chain will also be perfective. Likewise, if the independent
clause is nominalized, as seen in (10), then all of the co-subordinate clauses are interpreted as
marked past events. Finally, when we interpret (11), the predicates of clause i and ii should
be in the present tense, ‘tie’ and drags’ respectively. In each sentence, the foreground clauses
are interpreted to have the same discourse qualities as the final, independent clause.
Consequently, all of the co-subordinate clauses in a clause chain are of the same type
of narration. Subordinate clauses may be interpreted as adverbial elements or backgrounded
events. However, these subordinate clauses do not affect the primary predication of the
independent clause and its co-subordinates. If a narrator inflects the final clause of a chain
using nominalization, then all of the foreground clauses of the chain will exhibit the marked
form of narration. Thus, in Magar Kham, every sentence of a narrative text, clause chain or
no, can be categorized by action as either background information, default narration, marked
narration, or historic present.
3.2.2 Topic Continuity
The clauses of a Magar Kham clause chain are, together, about the participant that is
the current discourse topic or very important participant (VIP). In most of the clause-chaining

30
31

Ibid., 353.
Ibid., 267.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

20

sentences in the data of this study, a single referent is the subject argument of every cosubordinate clause in the chain. However, we have already seen that occasionally a narrator
will switch subject referents mid-chain. Despite this discontinuity of subject, the clauses of
these few sentences still exhibit continuity regarding which major participant of the narrative
they are oriented towards.
The independent clause is the most fundamental unit of human discourse.32 While
individual words carry meaning, it is a cognitive proposition grammaticalized into a clause or
sentence which carries information. Human discourse, by nature, is multi-propositional, and
due to factors involving information load, processing effort, and cohesion, the propositions of
a discourse are clustered into thematic groups, like paragraphs, which themselves may also
be clustered into larger groups, such as sections or episodes.33
The clause-chaining sentence is also a convention for clustering propositions in
discourse. Because the individual propositions of a Magar Kham clause chain (cosubordinate clauses) are not embedded in the independent clause, clause-chaining sentences
often exhibit the characteristics of a thematic grouping. They frequently begin with points of
departure, and a new chain is almost always initiated after an instance of thematic
discontinuity, such as a change in topic or shift in scene. While the Magar Kham clause chain
is a sentence, it is a multi-propositional sentence, a sentence that sometimes acts like a
paragraph. What is relevant here is the fact that the topic of a clause-chaining sentence is a
discourse topic, applying to multiple propositions, like that of a paragraph.
Topic or topicality is characterized by the quality of accessibility.34 At any level of
discourse (clause, sentence, paragraph, etc.), the topic is the least new and most predictable
entity of the unit. It is the entity which the unit is chiefly about. Because of the accessibility
of the topic, it often receives less linguistic coding in the construction. Since the notion of
topic exists at each stratum of the discourse, it is possible for a propositional topic to be

32
Talmy Givón, ed., Topic Continuity in Discourse: A Quantitative Cross-Language Study,
Typological studies in language 3 (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1983), 8.
33
Dooley and Levinsohn, “Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts,” 18.
34
Givón, Topic Continuity in Discourse, 6.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

21

different from the discourse topic.35 That is to say that a thematic grouping such as a
paragraph or clause chain may contain a proposition that has a topic that is incongruent with
that of the group.
Narrative discourse is characterized by agent orientation.36 A narrative texts is chiefly
about its participants and what they do and experience in the narrative world. Thus, one of
the major participants is almost always the topic at a given point of a narrative text. In each
of the texts of this study, one can easily discern an unbroken series of temporary participant
topics from the beginning of a text to the end. These are discourse level topics, and they can
be active across several thematic groupings (paragraphs and clause chains). Throughout this
thesis, I refer to these referents as local very important participants or VIPs. In Magar Kham
narrative, the topic of a given clause chain always coincides with the current VIP.
The pattern of serial, short-term topicalization of major participants occurs
consistently across the data of this study. It is an important feature of Magar Kham narrative
discourse. The VIP series affects a “local VIP” reference strategy, which I discuss in chapter
four.37 It also represents one of the major dimensions of narrative text organization, in the
language. By my observation the VIP line is separate and superior to the thematic groupings
of the text. While a narrator frequently activates a new VIP at the beginning of a paragraph,
just as often a change in VIP occurs in the middle of a paragraph, and sometimes a VIP will
remain active over a number of paragraphs and chains. However, for the purpose of our
conversation here, it is important to note that a narrator almost never activates a new VIP in
the middle of a clause chain.
The local VIP, as discourse topic, may play a variety of semantic. The most common
role for the VIP is that of agent. In many clause-chaining sentences of this study, the VIP is
the subject argument of each foreground clause. However, periodically the VIP will play the

Dooley and Levinsohn, “Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts,” 35.
Levinsohn, “Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis,” 11.
37
Ibid., 136.
35
36

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

22

role of patient or experiencer of foreground events. In these clauses, the subject argument
will be incongruent with the topic of the sentence and the VIP.
In order to demonstrate topic continuity in clause-chaining sentences, I present a
charted translation of a text from my data in (12). The constituents of each sentence in the
chart are organized into Point of Departure – Topic - Comment. This is in accordance with
the default or unmarked sentence articulation. Additionally, in (12), I affix English pronouns
to the verbs where pronominalization occurs in the original Magar Kham. This ad hoc
method of showing verbal agreement is employed to demonstrate how the active status of
referents may be maintained using the pronominal indexes on the verb without presenting a
complete interlinearization of the text.
(12) The Flea and the Bed Bug (translated from Magar Kham)
#

Point(s) of
Departure

A

Long ago

B

After that

Topic

Flea and Bed Bug

they-said, “Whoever comes first, that one can eat this food.”
There

E
F

they-completed a load of firewood.
Flea

After that

G

H

they-made a covenant.38
they-made a pot of food.

C
D

Comment

Bed Bug

Again

38

came zip-zap

he-ate all the food.

pooped in the pot

on top of it he-spread a little rice.

carried a load

when he-made a
jump

the ropes unstrung.

ties the ropes

when he-makes a
jump

the ropes unstring.

Sentence A has presentational articulation. This configuration always activates a new participant
topic. For this reason, I have categorized “Flea and Bed Bug” as the topic instead of part of the comment.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse
I

When hearrived at the
house

J

After that

Bed Bug

23

said “The food isn’t
eaten”

when he-eats two
bites

below it-was all only
poopy poop.

with anger burning

went searching for
Flea

he-gave-him a
forceful beating.

From beginning to end, the text in (12) exhibits as series of temporary participant
topics or local VIPs. This train of participant topics can be seen at a glance by observing the
noun phrases which have been left-dislocated periodically across the text. After each of these
continuity markers the narration is oriented to that referent.
It should be noted that the narrators of this study use several pragmatic devices to
signal a change in VIP. The most common device is a left-dislocated noun phrase as seen in
E, G, and J. These phrases are almost always marked by the pragmatic particle te, which
signals to the listener that the current constituent represents some type of discontinuity. The
various pragmatic functions of te are discussed in chapter six. A VIP may also be established
using a presentational sentence as seen in sentence A. This occurs mostly at the beginning of
a text. Occasionally, a new VIP is installed by using a specific connective or by making them
the agent of the clause that is the point of the departure for the sentence.
The series of VIPs in (12) is as follows: Flea and Bed Bug from A to D, Flea for E
and F, and then Bed Bug from sentence G to J. Note carefully how the participants become
the primary agent after being elevated to VIP, and how that participant is accessed with little
to no linguistic coding after being activated. Every text in this study exhibits an unbroken
line of local VIPs in this way.
This sequence of major participant topics appears to govern the topics of the
individual clause chains throughout the text. Almost every clause chain in the data exhibits a
single referent as the topic, and that referent is always a major participant in the narrative.
Furthermore, the sentence topic is almost always congruent with the current VIP. Only two
clause chains in my data deviate from this pattern.
The local VIP is able to remain active across the boundaries of thematic paragraphs
without the need for reactivation. This occurs twice in (12), once in sentence D and again in

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

24

sentence I. As I have said, Bed Bug is the VIP for sentences G through J of (12). The
individual propositions of these sentences are grouped first into four clause-chaining
sentences, and a paragraph break occurs between sentences H and I. The paragraph break is
signaled by a point of departure. Here, the setting shifts from out on the trail to inside the
house, and the narrator marks this change with the adverbial clause, ‘when he arrived at the
house.’ All throughout, the spotlight remains on Bed Bug. For both of these paragraphs, he is
center stage in the shared mental representation. His salience is evident by his agentive role
in most events, and by the lack of linguistic coding used to refer to him in each foreground
clause.
Now, consider that Bed Bug, being the VIP, is not the subject argument of every
proposition in G through J of (12). The final clause of sentences G, H, and I each exhibit a
subject argument which is incongruent with Bed Bug. Specifically, Bed Bug is not the
subject of ‘the ropes unstrung’ at the end of sentence G. However, he is the major participant
most affected by that event. The ropes are only a prop of the narrative in which he is the chief
agent and experiencer. Thus, Bed Bug remains the topic of the clause-chaining sentence G,
and, by my analysis, he requires no extra linguistic coding to reference him again in H
because he is the local VIP. This indicates that his VIP status and sentence topic status is
unaffected by the incongruent subject argument at the end of G, H, and I. Furthermore, the
clauses of each of these sentences can together be said to be about Bed Bug. That is to say,
they have topic continuity.
While a new VIP is frequently activated in the middle of a paragraph in my data, a
new VIP is almost never established in the middle of a clause chain. Only twice in the data
does a narrator change topics in the middle of a chain. Both instances occur in the context of
a closed dialog between two major participants. The narrators combine the speech of both
interlocutors into a single clause chain. The change in subject is indicated pragmatically by
means other than left-dislocation. Abnormal participant reference patterns are common in the
context of a closed conversation.39 In these two instances it is difficult to determine the topic

39

Dooley and Levinsohn, “Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts,” 50.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

25

of the clause chain and it is difficult to say that the events have participant topic continuity.
Nevertheless, topic continuity is maintained in all other contexts.
In summary, almost all clause-chaining sentences in my data exhibit topic continuity.
For most of the clause chains in my data, the individual clauses of the chain have the same
subject argument. Still, chains which have multiple subject referents remain oriented to a
single participant referent. As I have demonstrated, the incongruent subjects of these clauses
are almost always some prop of the narrative, and the clause represents an event or state
experienced by the topic. In these cases, the topic of the chain remains unaffected by the
divergent subject argument, because the topic of the chain is governed by the local VIP.
Subsequent clauses and sentences will be about that referent, and they do not appear to
require reactivation. The clause chains of a Magar Kham narrative discourse almost always
exhibit continuity regarding which major participant of the narrative they are oriented
towards. They are together about the participant that is the current VIP.
3.2.3 Situational Continuity
Finally, the foreground clauses of a Magar Kham clause chain have continuity with
regards to their temporal/spatial setting in the narrative world. Significant disruptions in the
temporal flow or setting of the narrative never occur between the foreground clauses of a
chain. This is evidenced by the fact that situational points of departure almost always occur at
the beginning of a sentence and rarely mid-chain.
Throughout the data, very few events occur out of chronological order with regards to
their entire text. That is to say that the narrators of this study rarely present events out of
chronological order, so the continuity of chained clauses is rarely tested in this dimension.
Still, in the few cases where events are presented out of order, the narrator segregates the
clauses describing the events into separate clause chains as well as separate thematic
paragraphs. Consider again a portion of the story of Flea and Bed Bug in example (13). The
interlinear of this text is presented in appendix A.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

26

(13) The Flea and the Bed Bug (translated from Magar Kham) 6-12
#

D

Point(s) of
Departure
There

E
F

After that
Bed Bug

Again

Comment

they-completed a load of firewood.
Flea

G

H

Topic

came zip-zap

he-ate all the food.

pooped in the pot

on top of it he-spread a little rice.

loaded a load

when he-made a
jump

the ropes unstrung.

ties the ropes

when he-makes a
jump

the ropes unstring.

Several of the events of the text in (13) occur out of chronological order. Presumably,
in sentence D, Flea and Bed Bug set out for the house at the same time, each of them
carrying a load of wood. In this text, the narrator first follows Flea home with sentence E and
F, and then jumps back in time to follow the actions of Bed Bug. The events in sentences G
and H occur before or during the events of sentence F in the narrative world. While Beg Bug
is struggling with the ropes, Flea is at home eating the food. As we can see, the narrator
segregates the non-chronological events into separate clause chains and into separate
paragraphs. This pattern holds true across all the text of this study. The events of a clause
chain are always in chronological order, and chronologically discontinuous events are
presented in separate chains in separate paragraphs.
In general, the participants of a narrative interact in multiple locations in the narrative
world, and frequently a significant gap in time is discernable between groups of events.40 As
time and space are indelibly connected, a change in location will also constitute a gap in time
in the narrative. Together these two dimensions (time and space) are referred to as the
narrative situation.41 Thus, the events that occur between significant situational points of

40
41

Levinsohn, “Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis,” 31.
Ibid., 41.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

27

departure generally constitute a narrative scene and the location of these events are the
setting of that scene.
The foreground clauses of a Magar Kham clause chain are never interrupted by a
significant change in scene or setting in the narrative. Nowhere in the data can we see a
significant change in the scene or setting occur in the middle of a clause-chaining sentence.
This continuity of setting is reinforced by the extremely infrequent occurrence of situational
points of departure, such as time adverbial phrases and clauses, in the middle of a clause
chain. Narrators of this study often begin a clause chain with a situational point of departure.
The point of departure modifies the entire comment of the clause chain. It provides a context
for every foreground clause.
Example (14) presents several clause chains which occur at significant points of
departure in the text. In order that the context of each sentence might be clearly seen, I have
taken each of these examples from The Flea and Bed Bug. The context of each of the
sentences in (14) can be discerned in the chart in example (12) of the previous section.
Together, these sentences represent the primary ways that situational disruption is marked by
the narrators of this study.
(14) Situational Points of Departure
A. Situational disruption is unmarked by point of departure.
p. --

t. pusum-e te
bed.bug DIS

i. gʰur gʰur-dʌ
load load-NF DIS

ii.

futu o-ʒo-kʌ te
jump 3S-make-NF DIS

wʌnʌm pʰeja-ke di
rope unstring-PFV RSP
‘Bed Bug, (he) loaded a load, when he made a jump, the rope unstrung.’
iii.

B. The disruption is referenced by a sentence initial connective.
p.

hukɪn te
after.that DIS

i. kopʌra-lʌ e-dʌ
pot-in poop-NF

o-tar-to te tsʰeya tsʰeya tsʰal ka-e kʌpde-ke-u di
3S-top-on EMP little little grain rice-gen cover-PFV-3S RSP
‘After that, (he) pooped in the pot, on top of it spread a little rice.’
ii.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

28

C. The disruption is referenced by a time adverbial clause or phrase.
p.

zʰim-kʌ o-kes-kʌ te
house 3S-arrive-NF DIS

ii.

ka o-ma-ʒu-ta-u le hʌi li-dʌ
food 3S-neg-eat-DT-NM cop thus say-NF

iii. nẽyawʌ u-ʒu-kʌ te
iv. meda-ŋau te pʌizʌ kiyʌ ki wazʌ o-le-u
two.bites 3S-eat-NF EMP
below-toward DIS all poopy poop only 3S-COP-NM
‘When he arrived at the house, thus said “the food isn’t eaten,” when he took two bites,
beneath it was all only poopy poop.’
Each of the sentences in (14), coincides with a disruption in the narrative situation.
Either there is a discontinuity in the temporal flow of the story, or the characters change
locations. Sentence A corresponds with the chronological disruption mentioned previously in
this section. Reference sentence G of the chart in (13). Here, the narrator makes no reference
to an obvious situational disruption, save to establish a new VIP by fronting the noun phrase
pusum-e te. As I alluded to at the beginning of the chapter, the presence of a topic
constituent, such as this, also constitutes a referential point of departure. Thus, it appears that
the orientation of the events of A onto a new VIP (Bed Bug) is sufficient to contextualize
those events to the new setting of the narration. The narrative is vaguely oriented to the
location of the new VIP, wherever he is. Less than 10% of all major situational disruptions
in the data are minimally referenced in this manner. Nevertheless, major shifts in the setting
always coincide with a sentence break.
However, usually situational disruption in the narrative is marked by the presence of a
point of departure. The most common situational points of departure are time adverbial
connectives, phrases, and clauses. In B of (14), the disruption is referenced by the connective
hukɪn ‘after that.’ This temporal connective, together with hakʌ ‘at that,’ occurs after about
40% of all scene changes in the data. Both hukɪn and hakʌ make a deictic reference to
previous events in the text and designate them as background information for the events of
the subsequent clauses. In this way they provide context for the foreground clauses of the
current sentence and alert the listener to an indeterminant gap in the timeline of the narrative.
In the case of sentence B, the connective hukɪn alludes to the time it took for Flea to eat all of
the food. Reference sentence E and F of the chart in (13) for the context.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

29

What I would like to highlight here is that these time adverbial connectives always
occur at the beginning of sentences in my data. Neither hukɪn nor hakʌ occur between the
individual clauses of a clause-chaining sentence. As I have stated above, the narrators of this
study rarely use any connective to coordinate the clauses of a chain. Here we begin to see a
pattern. The lack of these point of departure connectives in the middle of the clause chains
demonstrates that situational disruptions do not normally occur in the middle of a clause
chain, indicating that the comment of a clause-chaining sentence appears to coincide with an
unbroken sequence of events in the mind of the speaker.
In the data, a situational disruption is most often referenced by a sentence initial time
adverbial clause, as seen in C of (14). These clauses constitute a definite reference to some
time or place in the narrative world. In C the setting shifts from out on the road to in the
house, sometime after the events of the previous sentence. The narrator denotes this change
with the clause, ‘when he arrived at the house.’ Reference sentences H and I of the chart in
example (12) for the context. A little over half of all major scene changes in the data follow
this pattern. Any disruption, such as a gap in time or a change in location, coincides with the
beginning of a new sentence and a sentence initial point of departure like, ‘when he returned’
or ‘the next day.’ Like the aforementioned adverbial connectives hukɪn nor hakʌ, these
clauses provide a context for all of the events described by the current sentence, and
sometimes beyond.
Adverbial clauses can occur in the middle of a clause chain in Magar Kham.
However, in the clause-chaining sentences of this study, time adverbial clauses only occur
mid-chain in the context of switch reference. None of these subordinate clauses denote a
major change in setting or significant gap in the narrative flow. Rather, they represent an
event which has been backgrounded for the purpose of providing additional linguistic coding
for the subject referents of the preceding non-finite clauses in the chain.
Consider clause ii of A and clause iii of C in example (14). Both clauses are
subordinate to the next clause in the chain, and they effect a time adverbial modification of
that clause. However, it is suspicious that the subordination of these clauses coincides with a
subject switch and not an overt situational discontinuity. Consider too that both ii of A and

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

30

clause iii of C represent events that would be in sequence had the clause not been
subordinated. Every occurrence of a mid-chain time adverbial in the data of this study is
accompanied by a change in subject referent. For this reason, I consider these subordinate
clauses to represent events which have been backgrounded in order to provide person/number
indexes for the previous clause rather than points of departure denoting temporal
discontinuity.
Therefore, although it is certainly grammatical to include an adverbial clause in the
middle of a chain, adverbial clauses denoting a significant discontinuity, such as a change in
scene, do not occur mid-chain in the data. In Magar Kham narrative discourse, the default
pattern is to begin a new sentence after a situational discontinuity and to reference the
difference with a point of departure at the beginning of the new sentence. For this reason, the
events described by a clause-chaining sentence possess situational continuity.
Allow me to summarize these sections on clause chaining and thematic continuity. In
Magar Kham narrative discourse, the foreground clauses of a clause-chaining sentence
exhibit action continuity. They together perform the same type of communicative action,
either providing background information or narration proper. Furthermore, the foreground
clauses of a chain perform the same type of narration, that is default narration, marked
narration, or historic present narration. A narrative clause chain almost always has a single
topic. This topic is the major participant which has VIP status at that point in the text.
Finally, Magar Kham clause chains usually describe a series of uninterrupted events. They
have situational continuity. The context which unites the events described in a clausechaining sentence is usually expressed by a sentence-initial point of departure. Together, the
constraints for continuity in these three thematic domains (action, topic, and situation) outline
the default pattern for the continuity of the clauses in a clause-chaining sentence of Magar
Kham narrative discourse.
3.3 Non-chaining Sentences and Thematic Highlighting
I stated near the beginning of this chapter that clause chaining is the default pattern
for communicating narrative propositions in Magar Kham. Most of the foreground events of

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

31

a narrative texts are presented by the narrator in a series of clause-chaining sentences. This
claim is established on the fact that 80% of the clauses describing main event line material in
the data occur in clause chains. With this default established, it is good to discuss the possible
motivations for the non-default or marked sentence configuration on the main event line. Of
particular interest here are the events which occur in their own sentence despite their
thematic continuity with events before or after them. This environment indicates that the
event is intentionally isolated by the narrator for pragmatic purposes.
Sentences which describe a single main event very often occur at the peak of a
narrative text or episode. This pattern is briefly mentioned in §2.3. In eight of the eleven texts
of this study, the narrator highlights the culminating event of an episode or text by describing
that event in a single clause sentence. Example (15) presents this pattern in the peak episode
of The Ant and the Dove.
(15) The Ant and the Dove (Maikoti) 16-23
A. hukĩ tʌla ho kuitʌmlai tobo sikariwʌi bundukui apɳa ozʌisiʒau
‘After that, one day, the dove, a hunter was preparing to shoot.’
B. ʒʌsʌibʌ ho sikariwʌi taliu hukĩ no sikarilai pʌrzʌmtiwʌi orãu
‘When that hunter aimed, that hunter the ant saw.’
C. pʌrzʌmtiwʌi orãkʌ orizalai tsãhi ʌbʌ sikariwʌi apo ʒʌisiʒau rãdʌ te ʒonadʌ
sikarilai ukʰũtʌ ʌrdadʌ ojo.
‘The ant looked, saw that it was his friend that the hunter was preparing to shoot, went
running, stung the hunter’s foot.’
D. ukʰũtʌ ʌrdadʌ ojkʌ ekasi atsoi ledʌ hukĩ ubunduku ekasi opʰreu
‘When he stung his foot, suddenly he said, “ouch” and after that suddenly his gun
fired.’
E. opʰrekʌ kuitʌme tʌidʌ uburo
‘When he fired the dove heard, he flew away.’
F. hukĩ oʒanʌ obʌtsʌu
‘After that his life he saved.’
G. ĩmi sʌmbʌndʰʌ ĩmi tʌrizani
‘Their relationship (was) best friends.’

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

32

H. tsʰĩni sʌmʌ bʌ nuni sip sip tʌriza ʒʌisidʌ ʒãlʌ iliu
‘From then on they together were friends, in the forest dwelt.”
Example (15) narrates how the brave actions of an ant save the life of his best friend,
a dove. The episode begins with a background event in sentence A. A hunter takes aim at the
unsuspecting dove. From sentence B to E, we see the default pattern of narration. The
storyteller describes the main events of the story through a series of clause-chaining
sentences ranging from two to three clauses per sentence. The ant rushes to save his friend by
stinging the foot of the hunter. When he feels the sting, the hunter flinches and his shot
misses the dove. The dove, in turn, hears the gun and flies away.
The main events of this episode reach a climax in sentence E and F, when the dove
escapes. Here, the narrator switches from the default and communicates a peak event, hukĩ
oʒanʌ obʌtsʌu ‘After that his life he saved’ in a single clause sentence. This event is not
overtly discontinuous from those described in the previous sentence E. That is to say, there is
no specific situational or topic discontinuity that would prevent the event discribed by
sentence F from occuring in a chain with the events of sentence E. The narrator is isolating
the event as a means of highlighting the peak of the text. While not all single clause
sentences in the data describe peak events, most of the text in this study exhibit a single
clause sentence at the peak. The switch from the default pattern of chaining main events is a
pragmatic move, a method of slowing the pace and highlighting the peak events of a text or
episode.
3.4 Summary
To summarize this chapter, Magar Kham narrators primarily use clause-chaining
sentences to describe the main events of a narrative. This pattern makes the clause-chaining
sentence a feature of the default sentence articulation for narrative discourse. The clauses of a
narrative chain always exhibit continuity of action. Together they can be categorized by
action as either background information, default narration, marked narration, or historic
present. The foreground events described in a clause chain almost always have topic
continuity. Together they are about the current participant that is the local VIP. Additionally,
the foreground events described in a clause chain have situational continuity. That is to say

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

33

that they occur one after another in the same setting in the narrative world. Finally, as
demonstrated in the last section of this chapter, narrators will deviate from the default pattern
of clause chaining in order to highlight the peak event(s) of a text or episode.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

34

4 Participant Reference
In this chapter, I discuss patterns of participant reference in Magar Kham narrative
discourse. Here at the onset, I wish to state that the Maikoti and Takale dialects demonstrate
little variation with regard to participant reference patterns, so all the patterns presented here
apply to both. Broadly speaking, the amount of linguistic coding a participant receives at a
given point in a Magar Kham narrative is governed by several overlapping systems of
reference. Narrators adhere to a subject-oriented anaphoric reference strategy across clauses
and sentences. Functioning with this basic strategy are a cataphoric system of switch
reference within narrative clause chains, and a local VIP reference strategy which can
function across the boundaries of multiple thematic groupings. In this chapter, my description
of participant reference relies heavily on observations made by Watters (2002) and Du Preez
(2019). However, the local VIP system of reference presented in §4.3.3 is established on my
own observations.
4.1 Introducing Major Participants
In discussing participant reference, it is customary to describe how participants are
introduced into narrative texts with regards to their importance. The major participants of a
Magar Kham narrative are most often introduced early in the text, using presentational
articulation rather than the default topic-comment articulation identified in chapter three. In
these marked sentences the referent occurs in a non-active role, as the subject of a verb of
existence or arrival.42 They have argument focus, meaning that the narrator is isolating the
participant as new information. 43 Presentational articulation is exemplified in (16) and (17).
(16) The Farting Wife (Takale) 1
bʰa-kʌ te
neplo sero sono dʒutsa ni ni-le-u di
long.ago DIS two husband and wife 3D 3D-EXST-NM RSP
‘Long ago (there) lived a certain husband and wife.’

42
43

Dooley and Levinsohn, “Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts,” 33.
Levinsohn, “Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis,” 26.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

35

(17) The Fox and the Bear (Maikoti) 1
pʲã dõ-kʌ
no dʒã-lʌ
tubu rãsʌla sono tubu ŋim ĩ-le-u di
very long.ago that forest-in one fox and one bear
3D-EXST-NM RSP
‘Long ago in that forest (there) lived a certain fox and a certain bear.’
The presentational formula for major participants has a number of important features.
First, the sentence usually begins with a formulaic point of departure, either bʰa-kʌ or pʲã dõkʌ both meaning something similar to the English ‘long ago.’ These phrases are only used in
the orientation of traditional/fictional narrative texts.44 Second, the major participant(s) are
referenced in a subject noun phrase with overt numeric modification, which effects an
indefinite reading, as is tubu rãsʌla sono tubu ŋim, ‘a certain fox and a certain bear.’ Again,
the verb is generally one of existence or arrival. This predicate is nominalized, which
generally categorizes the sentence as background information. These features comprise the
default pattern for introducing major participants.
Several of the texts of this study deviate from the pattern demonstrated in (16) and
(17) for the introduction of major participants. The Takale version of Daphe and Peahen is
perhaps the most divergent. It opens with two of the major participants arguing about who
among them rises earliest in the morning. The participants are not in focus, and the argument
has a repetitive poetic quality to it. This non-default opening may be due to the fact that the
story is well known and that it features a number of short repetitive songs. This introduction
bears no resemblance to the default and I consider it to be an outlier.
The two shortest stories in the data begin with the major participants taking an active
role in the sentence that introduces them. This deviation from the default presentation may be
due to the shortness of the text or to the fact these animal characters are well known to the
audience. I present these introductions below in (18) and (19).
(18) The Flea and the Bed bug (Takale) 1
bʰa-kʌ te
ser sono possum ni
reja
long.ago DIS flea and bed.bug 3D
covenant
‘Long ago flea and bed bug made a covenant.’

44

Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 141.

lʌi-si-ke-ni di
wear-REF-PFV-3D RSP

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

36

(19) The Fox and the Bear (Maikoti) 1
pʲã dõ-kʌ
listʲa-je
upsip u-kʰim-dʒa-u di
very long.ago
finch-ERG nest
3S-search-CONT-NM RSP
‘Long ago, finch was seeking a nest.’
Both (18) and (19) retain the formulaic point of departure of the default pattern.
However, the focus of these sentences extends beyond the participant argument. Each
narrator chooses to introduce the major participants together with additional narrative
information. In the case of (18), the narrator uses perfective aspect, configuring the first
sentence to provide both the setting and the first event of the narrative. In (19) the narrator
fuses the presentation of the major participant with additional background information. While
both of these examples deviate slightly from the default pattern, I consider them to be default
introductions. Not all of the default features are present. However, the major participants are
activated in the minds of the listener. This truncating of participant introduction with other
information is perhaps due to the overall shortness of each of these narratives, as both texts
are less than twenty sentences long.
Concerning the introduction of minor participants and props, I can form no default
pattern from the data of this study. These entities exhibit a wide variety of features when they
first occur in a text. Some are introduced with presentational articulation or as the subject
argument in a referential point of departure, while others are introduced with little emphasis,
in a non-subject role for the clause in which they first occur in the narrative. Thus, no pattern
can be ascribed to the introduction of minor participants in Magar Kham narrative discourse.
4.2 Grammatical Coding for Participant Reference
This section discusses the various ways that the narrators of this study refer to
participants in narrative discourse. Table 2 presents a breakdown of various levels of coding
used for subject arguments in the data. The collection is a slight innovation on Givón’s

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

37

(1983) scale of devices.45 In this table, I make a distinction between noun phrases and
marked noun phrases. Marked noun phrases refers to those which activate a new local VIP.
These constituents are both a clause argument and a referential point of departure in Magar
Kham running narrative. In this section, I isolate and briefly discuss marked noun phrases in
anticipation of the conclusions on the local VIP reference strategy presented in §4.3.3.
Table 2. Inventory of participant reference devices
Reference Device

Maikoti Takale Total

Marked Noun Phrase

43

44

87

Noun Phrase

66

30

96

Pronoun

6

4

10

Verbal Morphology Only

101

107

208

Zero Anaphora

34

17

51

As seen in Table 2, participants are most often referred to using either a noun phrase
(marked or unmarked) or by incorporating the subject in the verb. In about ten percent of the
clauses a participant receives no coding whatsoever (zero anaphora). Interestingly, more than
half of the clauses in the data (58%) exhibit minimal or no linguistic coding for the subject,
and pronouns are scarcely used. In my view, two factors contribute to this minimalistic
pattern of reference. First, Magar Kham possesses a very robust verbal morphology, in which
subject and object arguments may be represented in the predicate. Secondly, the language
exhibits a local VIP strategy for reference. Basically, participants with VIP status require
minimal or no encoding because the narrator has overtly oriented the current grouping upon
them via referential point of departure. In the texts of this study, a referential point of
departure is most often affected by a marked noun phrase.
4.2.1 Marked Noun Phrases
Magar Kham exhibits SOV as the basic or default constituent order.46 In the texts of
this study, the default order is only ever violated to affect a referential point of departure or to

45
46

Givón, Topic Continuity in Discourse, 56.
Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 214.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

38

reinforce the VIP status of a participant. That is to say, the narrators primarily use a nondefault constituent order when they front an argument for the purpose of elevating the
referent to local VIP status and occasionally do so to maintain the VIP status of the
participant. These left-dislocated arguments are marked noun phrases, and due to their
association with a topic change in discourse, I present a few examples here.
(20) The Finch and the King (Maikoti) 19
p.

hukĩ
t. u-sipahi-ra-i te
i. o-rʌmʌsẽ pʌl-dʌ ja-ja-o
after.that
3S-soldier-PL-ERG DIS
3S-butt cut-NF 3P-give-NM
‘After that, his soldiers, (they) cut his butt.’
(21) The Clever Fox (Maikoti) 20
p.

tsʰini te
later DIS

t. sat bʰai-ra-i
seven brothers-PL-ERG

i. ja-rʌsa-sʌ
3P-strength-with

o-rʌme-ti ja-tul-kʌ te
ii. mekʰʌi-lʌ ja-ste-u di
3S-tail-from 3p-pull-NF DIS
below 3P-slam-NM RSP
‘Later, the seven brothers, forcefully (they) pulled on his tail, (they) slammed
him down.’
(22) The Ant and the Dove (Maikoti) 7
tʌla tsaĩ
t. pʌrzʌmti-lai i. kʰola-wʌi o-bʌg-u
one.day DIS
ant-OBJ
river-ERG 3S-drown-NM
‘One day, the ant, a river washed (him) away.’
p.

The sentences in (20), (21), and (22) each exhibit a referential point of departure.
These constituents are labeled t, as they represent the topic. In each example, a clause
constituent is left-dislocated, and the referent of that constituent is the topic of subsequent
clauses. I consider these dislocated constituents to be marked noun phrases, as they occur
before the clauses of the sentence comment, are often followed by a prosodic pause, and
usually are modified by the discontinuity marker te. As I demonstrated in example (12) of
§3.2.2, such a referent generally requires very little linguistic coding to access them
following this marked reference, which activates them as the local VIP.
As demonstrated in example (20), a referential point of departure is often modified by
the particle te. This particle has several pragmatic functions, one of which is to mark

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

39

discontinuities in the mental representation. Further discussion of the te particle is presented
in chapter six. However, not every referential point of departure is modified by te. Example
(21) exhibits such an occurrence. In this case, the markedness of the noun phrase sat bʰai-ra-i
‘the seven brothers’ can only be decerned by analyzing the narrator’s intonation and by
noting that the subject argument occurs before the adverbial phrase ja-rʌsa-sʌ ‘with all their
strength’ of the first clause of the sentence comment. In general, Magar Kham speakers
articulate an adverbial manner before the subject of the clause. However, in (21) the subject
noun phrase occurs before the adverbial manner, indicating its dislocation. The markedness
of sat bʰai-ra-i is confirmed by the fact that the seven brothers are indeed the topic of
subsequent clauses, including those in the next sentence in the text.
Finally consider that a participant may be activated as the local VIP even when it is
the object of the current clause. The left-dislocation of an object argument is demonstrated in
example (22). Here the narrator is beginning a new episode and wishes to shine the spotlight
on the ant. However, the ant does not have a very agentive role in the episode. He is washed
away by a stream and subsequently is rescued by his friend the dove. The dove places a leaf
in the stream, providing a life raft for the ant. Ant is the VIP for the episode. However, the
stream and his friend the dove are the subject of most foreground events. For this reason, the
narrator elects to dislocate the object argument as a means of activating a new VIP. The
topicalization of object arguments occurs in several texts in the data and is not dialect
specific.
In summary, Magar Kham narrators appear quite conservative with regards to how
much linguistic coding they provide for a given major participant. Very few pronouns are
used in running narrative. A major participant is elevated to VIP status by means of a marked
noun phrase and, subsequently, is accessed with little to no linguistic coding. Only props and
inactive participants require maintenance of their activation status. This minimalistic
reference pattern is accomplished by the robust morphology of Magar Kham and by the local
VIP system of reference.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

40

4.3 Participant Reference Systems
This section presents the three participant reference systems which make up the
default pattern of reference in Magar Kham narrative discourse. Again, the narrators of this
study adhere to what is known in the literature as a subject-oriented anaphoric reference
strategy across clauses and sentences.47 This strategy is described in §4.3.1. Functioning with
this basic strategy are a cataphoric system of switch reference within narrative clause chains
(§4.3.2), and a local VIP reference strategy which can function across the boundaries of
multiple thematic groupings (§4.3.3).
It is perhaps helpful to preface this discussion by making a few basic statements
regarding participant status. A participant or group of participants obtains topic or VIP status
after they are referred to using a marked noun phrase or referential point of departure. 48 As I
have already stated several times, until another referential point of departure occurs, the local
VIP referent requires little to no linguistic coding if they are in the subject role in a clause.
A participant’s activation status refers to how established the referent is in the
attention of the listener.49 When a participant is first referenced in a narrative, they move
from inactive to active status in the attention of the audience. Active participants also require
less linguistic coding to access them for any role in the narrative. However, unlike the topic
status, the active status of a referent will shift to accessible and then to inactive with
increasing distance between references. This shift happens quite quickly for non-VIP
referents, because of the salience of the local VIP.50 We might say that the local VIP has
default or fixed active status while other participants must have their status maintained. Thus,
how much linguistic coding a participant receives in Magar Kham narrative discourse
depends on the following: 1) the participants VIP status, 2) their activation status, and 3) the
various rules of the systems of reference presented in the following sections.

Dooley and Levinsohn, “Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts,” 59.
I consider presentational articulation to be a type of referential departure in Magar Kham.
49
Wallace Chafe, Discourse, Consciousness, and Time: The Flow and Displacement of Conscious
Experience in Speaking and Writing (University of Chicago Press, 1994), 71.
50
Levinsohn, “Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis,” 124.
47
48

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

41

4.3.1 Subject Oriented Sequential Reference Strategy
In a recent study, Sarah du Preez (2019) examined patterns of participant reference in
Maikoti narrative discourse. She concludes that Maikoti narrators adhere mostly to a subjectoriented sequential reference strategy, meaning that the amount of linguistic coding used to
access a participant is highly dependent on whether that participant was the subject of the
previous sentence.51 This is an anaphoric process and is certainly evident in the data of this
study. However, the strategy is slightly complicated by the presence of clause-chaining
sentences and an additional VIP reference strategy in Magar Kham narrative discourse. Each
of these features applies an additional layer of rules upon the rules of the sequential strategy.
Because multiple events may be articulated in a single sentence in the language, subject
continuity in this study is analyzed at the level of the non-subordinate clause rather than the
sentence.
Evidence for the subject-oriented sequential strategy in the data is best discerned
through a quantitative analysis of devices used for a subject in relation to the subject role of
the previous clause.52 Table 3 presents the distribution of the devices shown in Table 2 across
four relevant contexts. This table represents the whole of my data, both dialects combined,
and corroborates the results presented by du Preez.53 However, it should be noted that du
Preez does not analyze marked noun phrases, as I do here.
The meanings of each context in Table 3 are as follows: S1 indicates that the current
subject referent is the same as in the previous clause or sentence. S2 indicates that the current
subject was the addressee of a speech reported in the previous sentence. S3 indicates that the
subject referent was involved in the previous sentence in a non-subject role (not a closed
conversation). Finally, S4 represents other changes of subject than those covered by S2 and
S3. The figures that indicate default reference strategies in this table are highlighted with
gray.

du Preez, “The Participant Reference System of Maikoti Kham in Six Folktales,” 71.
Dooley and Levinsohn, “Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts,” 65.
53
du Preez, “The Participant Reference System of Maikoti Kham in Six Folktales,” 124.
51
52

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

42

Table 3. Distribution of referential devices according to context
Reference Totals

S1

S2

S3

S4

Total

Marked Noun Phrase

7

15

10

55

87

Noun Phrase

22

7

4

65

98

Pronoun

5

0

1

4

10

Verbal Morphology Only

144

17

16

31

208

Zero Anaphora

38

0

4

9

51

In Table 3, we see a strong correlation between minimal and zero linguistic coding
and the S1 context. This signifies a default pattern of reference for subject participants which
were the subject of a previous clause or sentence. In the S1 context, participants may be
referred to using only verbal agreement or zero anaphora. We also can see a strong
correlation between the use of full noun phrases and the S4 context. This is the pattern of
reference for participants which are not referred to at all in the previous foreground clause.
Therefore, the default device for activating or reactivating participants in both dialects is to
refer to them with a full noun phrase, and the default device for participants which are
currently active is either to reference them on the verb or not to reference them at all.
Concerning S2 and S3 contexts, the data does not indicate a clear default pattern of
reference. However, it is notable that S2 is the most common context for marked noun
phrases outside S4. This figure, as well as the sheer volume of marked noun phrases in the
data, points to the presence of participant topicalization in narrative discourse. If the
recipients of speech are receiving extra linguistic coding for the clause that represents their
response, in this case almost as often as not, then perhaps the narrator is using an additional
strategy to refer to participants.
Consider too that twenty-five percent of the participants in S4 context receive little to
no linguistic coding despite a lower activation status. Here too is an indication that a narrator
may refer to a participant with less coding despite their absence in the preceding clause. In
most of these occurrences the participant’s VIP status enables them to be so easily accessed
by the narrator and her listeners that overt coding is not required.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

43

4.3.2 Switch-reference System in Clause Chains
Layered upon the sequential strategy is the switch-reference system for chain-medial
clauses introduced in §3.1. This switch-reference system of Magar Kham clause chains
governs only a narrow aspect of overall participant reference.54 Its rules determine whether or
not the subject of a medial clause may be referred to using zero linguistic coding. This
system accounts for every instance of zero anaphora in Table 3.
According to Watters, the presence of subject agreement on a non-subordinate medial
verb is determined by that subject's congruence with the subject of the next clause in the
chain. This is a cataphoric process, and in the case of subject incongruence, more subject
coding is generally required.55
From Watters’ analysis, the following rules for participant reference can be
articulated: 1) The default pattern of reference for the subject of an independent clause of the
chain is, at minimum, subject agreement on the verb. 2) The default pattern of reference for
the subject of chain medial predicates is zero anaphora. 3) If the subject of a medial clause is
incongruent with the subject of the next clause in the chain, the current verb should be coded
with subject agreement. For examples on this switch reference system on chain-medial verbs
please refer to §3.1.
4.3.3 Local VIP Reference Strategy
In the literature, local VIP reference strategy refers to a system of participant
reference in which a single referent is temporarily distinguished from others via special
introduction and by receiving a divergent pattern of reference throughout the narrative unit.56
In §3.2.2, I discuss how a participant is established as the very important participant (VIP)
via referential point of departure, and I state that these participants become the default
subject of narrative propositions after their introduction. These participant topics are the VIP

54

Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 322.
Ibid., 329.
56
Levinsohn, “Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis,” 135.
55

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

44

until another is elevated in its place. The rules that govern how the VIP is referenced apply
within the broader pattern of subject-oriented sequential strategy.57 The presence of this local
VIP reference strategy in Magar Kham narrative discourse accounts for the notable amount
of over-coding noted in S2 context and the notable amount of under-coding in S4 context
seen in Table 3 of §4.2.
In order to isolate the pattern of reference for local VIPs in the data, I present a
second analysis of referential devices in Table 4. Here, I add a few additional contexts to the
quantitative analysis of referential devices. These are my own contrivances and their
parameters do not entirely correlate with the S contexts. In Table 4, T1 indicates that the
current subject has VIP status and also was the subject in the previous clause. T2 is an
important context for our analysis here. It indicates that the current subject has VIP status,
but some situational or referential disruption has occurred since they were last in the subject
role of a clause. In this context specifically, we see the VIP status of the referent trump the
standard rules of sequential strategy. In analysis of the VIP reference patterns, I require no
differentiation beyond that provided by T1 and T2. For this reason, T3 is not utilized. Finally,
T4 indicates that the current referent is being introduced as the new topic in the current
sentence. It should be noted that a good number of the T4 data are not subject arguments and
the T4 context does not coincide with S4 with regards to the subject referent of the previous
clause. It simply indicates that a new VIP is established just prior to the current clause.
Table 4. Re-distribution of referential devices according to context
Reference Totals

T1

T2

T4

S1

S2

S3

S4

Marked Noun Phrase

6

7

92

0

0

0

0

Noun Phrase

13

10

7

2

6

3

48

Pronoun

3

2

2

2

0

1

2

Verbal Morphology Only

97

28

4

36

7

8

15

Zero Anaphora

21

14

2

10

0

2

4

57

Dooley and Levinsohn, “Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts,” 59.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

45

Table 4 reveals a correlation between marked noun phrases and the T4 context. This
demonstrates the way that VIPs are introduced into a narrative. The default pattern for
establishing a participant topic or local VIP is via referential point of departure. The table
also demonstrates that referents with VIP status require little to no linguistic coding once
they have been installed. The default pattern of reference is quite minimal in T1 context, but
this is no deviation from the basic sequential strategy. However, we see that little to no
coding is the default pattern in T2 context as well. Here, after the beginning of a new
thematic grouping or after some non-topic referent was in the subject role of the previous
clause, still little to no linguistic coding is generally required to access the local VIP. In this
way, the VIP status of the referent trumps the rules of subject-oriented sequential strategy. In
other words, the local VIP is the default subject of every clause, and therefore does not
require a noun phrase to reactivate them in the attention of the listener.
4.4 Summary
To summarize this chapter, the important features of the default pattern for
introducing major participants into a third person folk narrative are: 1) presentational
articulation, 2) the presence of the point of departure bʰa-kʌ or pʲã dõ-kʌ, 3) overt numeric
modification of the participant referent, and 4) the nominalization of the main verb. Not all of
these features must be present to affect a default introduction. However, for the majority of
the introductions in the data, all are present.
The amount of linguistic coding a participant receives at a given point in a Magar
Kham narrative is governed by several overlapping systems of participant reference.
Generally, a subject-oriented anaphoric reference strategy is adhered to across clauses.
Functioning with this basic strategy are a cataphoric system of switch-reference within
narrative clause chains, and a local VIP reference strategy which can function across the
boundaries of thematic groupings. Thus, how much linguistic coding a participant receives in
Magar Kham narrative discourse depends on the following: 1) the participants VIP status, 2)
their activation status, and 3) the various rules of the systems of reference presented in this
chapter.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

46

5 Event Reactivation
This chapter describes some discourse patterns for two very salient sentence
coordinating devices, tail-head linkage and temporal connectives. These devices have the
same function in Magar Kham narrative discourse. They both are a type of situational point
of departure which reactivates previously narrated events in the mind of the listener as
background information for the current sentence. In general, Magar Kham narrators prefer to
begin a narrative sentence with a point of departure, and they favor those which reactivate
previously narrated events in the text.
Tail-head constructions affect event reactivation through repetition.58 A main event is
described twice, once in an independent clause, and then again in a subordinate clause of a
subsequent sentence as in ‘He ate the food. When he ate the food, he began to feel sick.’ A
temporal connective also accomplishes event reactivation, only by using deixis. Previously
narrative events are referred to a second time by a sentence initial connective as in ‘He ate
the food. After-that, he began to feel sick.’ While these two devices occur very frequently in
the data, they never co-occur. Rather they function in parallel to one another, performing the
same operation, and occurring in roughly the same environment. Both tail-head linkage and
temporal connectives are points of departure which temporally relate the current sentence to
previously narrated events. These two devices are exemplified in (23), a portion of the Takale
version of Daphe and Peahen.
(23) Daphe and Peahen (Takale) 33-37
A. biherʌ jadokʌ te sida nibakʌ te pʰapʌr kʰore pʌlzeurai te tsei tʰadʌ janʌiʒau leu
‘As the marriage guests partied, the couple went for firewood, the buckwheat
harvesters had set a trap and put it (there).’
B. holo te ruu te upuriu
‘In there Daphe, he fell.’

Sandra A. Thompson, Robert E. Longacre, and Shin Ja. J. Hwang, “Adverbial Clauses,” in
Language Typology and Syntactic Description, ed. Timothy Shopen, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press,
2007), 32.
58

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

47

C. ruu holʌ upurikʌ te ho mozare te ruʒau di
‘When Daphe falls, Peahen watches.’
D. ruulai te hipʒarʌ di
‘The daphe, they burn.’
E. hakʌ te ruuje oʃʌkʌri tsarap nʌ tsurup orus sarap nʌ syrup hʌi lidʌ te ruuje oʃʌkʌri
pala tsarap tsurup orus sarap syrup kʰʌikerʌ di
‘At that, (they) said, “Munchetty-munch the daphe’s meat and slurpetty-slurp his
bones,” as they munchetty-munched Daphe’s meat and slurpetty-slurped his bones.’
In (23), the narrator uses tail-head linkage to coordinate sentence B and C. He
reactivates the main event previously described by upuriu ‘he fell’ in the subordinate clause
of the next sentence ruu holʌ upurikʌ te ‘when Daphe fell in that’. This secondary activation
is a point of departure for sentence C. The clause is marked by the particle te and succeeded
by a prosodic pause. The te particle signals to the listener that the current clause is a point of
departure, a discontinuity in the mental representation of the story. This particle is generally
optional, however, every head component of a tail-head construction in the data is marked
with te.
Some tail-head constructions in the data are not an exact repetition. A few will exhibit
two related verbs, as in ‘He went home. When he arrived home…’ Occasionally, the tail and
head components are separated by several sentences containing background information.
However, most tail-head constructions in the data resemble the one exemplified in sentence
C of (23). The reactivation is accomplished by the same verb root and occurs in the very next
sentence.
In (23), the narrator also coordinates sentence D and E using the temporal connective
ha-kʌ ‘that-at’. Here the main events described in B-D are vaguely reactivated via the deictic
primitive hʌ/ha/hu. Two temporal connectives are used by the narrators of this study, hukɪn/hu-kĩ meaning ‘that-after’ and ha-ka meaning ‘that-at’ or ‘that-when’. These forms are
very common in Magar Kham narrative discourse, and it is difficult to determine if they are
words, phrases, or even clauses. The primitive hʌ/ha/hu certainly references a complete
predicate, if not several, in the context. However, speakers categorize hukɪn and hakʌ with
other connectives in their language, and Watters lists hukɪn/hukĩ as one of several “sentence

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

48

coordinators”.59 For these reasons, and because of their time advancing function in narrative
texts, I refer to hukɪn and hakʌ as temporal connectives throughout this thesis.
Event reactivation occurs frequently in the texts of this study. About 35% of all
sentences begin with either tail-head linkage or a temporal connective. Together these
reactivating devices represent just over half of the situational points of departure in the data.
Table 5 presents figures for the different sentence coordinating devices used by the narrators
of this study. In this table the number of definite points of departure includes every instance
of tail-head linkage, and the number of connectives includes every instance of a temporal
connective.
Table 5. Frequency of event reactivating points of departure
Coordinating Devices
All Definite Point of Departure
Tail-head Linkage Only
All Connective
Temporal Connective Only
None

Maikoti Takale

Total

57

47

104

27

15

42

51

36

87

37

36

73

76

51

127

Table 5 demonstrates the frequency of both tail-head linkage and temporal
connectives in relation to other points of departure and sentence-initial connectives. About
40% of all definite points of departure are part of a tail-head construction, and about 84% of
all connectives are temporal connectives, which, like tail-head linkage, reactivate previously
narrated information.
It is difficult to formulate a default pattern for event reactivation from these data.
While tail-head linkage or temporal connectives can be used at the beginning of a paragraph,
they are together more frequently utilized for associating sentences and clause chains within
a paragraph. We might say that some form of event reactivation is the default pattern for
coordinating sentences within a thematic paragraph. However, narrators just as frequently
coordinate sentences in a paragraph through juxtaposition. All I can firmly conclude is that

59

Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 349.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

49

Magar Kham narrators prefer to begin a narrative sentence with a point of departure over
simple juxtaposition, and that they frequently use points of departure which reactivate
previously narrated events in the text, making event reactivation a salient feature of narrative
discourse.
As a side note, all the sentence initial connectives used by the Takale narrators in this
study are temporal connectives. However, the Maikoti narrators make use of several nontemporal connectives including dzʌn ‘rather’, tʌrʌ ‘but’, and abʌ ‘now’. As many of these
sentence initial connectives are Nepali lone words, it is difficult to know if this variation is
due to dialect difference or the influence of national language discourse patterns.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

50

6 The Pragmatic Functions of te
In this chapter, I describe the various pragmatic functions of the particle te in Magar
Kham narrative discourse. This particle appears to be mostly optional for narrators. However,
it is prevalent in the texts of this study. While speakers from both dialects use te, Takale
narrators use te at a much higher frequency than their Maikoti counterparts. The te particle
occurs 1.1 times per sentence in the Takale data, and only about 0.5 times per sentence in the
Maikoti data. This variation is due to the fact that Maikoti narrators prefer to use te primarily
to mark major developments in the narrative.
In his grammar, Watters describes the te particle as signaling a contrastive focus.60
That is to say, te contrasts the current constituent from any other conceivable entity of its
kind, as in “In this place te (as opposed to others) wheat has been sown.” In general, a
byproduct of contrastive focus is emphasis on the modified constituent.61 Here Watters’
description accounts for only a few of the ways te is used by the narrators of this study. It is
also used to modify points of departure, to highlight important plot components, and to signal
a thematic development in the text. These various functions of the te particle are made
possible by three somewhat overlapping notions that the form evokes (discontinuity, contrast,
and emphasis).
Perhaps the most salient function of te in narrative discourse is its ability to alert the
listener to discontinuity in the mental representation of the story. Narrators very often use it
to mark constituents which threaten the coherence of the discourse, meaning that it frequently
occurs on points of departure. Particularly in oral storytelling, te is the narrator's device for
flagging cognitive speed bumps in the shared mental representation.
As stated above, the te particle has the additional effect of emphasizing the
constituents it modifies. For this reason, narrators may also use it to draw attention to an
important argument or clause constituent. There are only a few instances of definite thematic

60

Ibid., 183.
Malte Zimmermann, “Contrastive Focus and Emphasis,” Acta Linguistica Hungarica 55, no. 3
(2008): 347–360.
61

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

51

highlighting in the data. These are instances where the marked constituent is not a point of
departure and represents a significant component of the story.
Finally, te also functions as a developmental marker. Only the Maikoti narrators of
this study use it in this way. Developmental marking goes hand-in-hand with the optional
utility of te for marking discontinuity. A narrator who uses te more sparingly may
strategically apply it to a point of departure near a significant turn or development in the text.
In this context, te signals to the listener that the current point of departure represents the
beginning or end of an important episode.
To demonstrate the various ways that te is used throughout a text, I present again a
translation of The Flea and the Bed Bug in (24). Again, sentences are organized into columns
for Point of Departure, Topic, and Comment, and I affix English pronouns to the verbs where
pronominalization occurs in the original Magar Kham. The te particle is not translated.
(24) The Flea and the Bed Bug (translated from the Takale dialect)
#

Point(s) of
Departure

A

Long ago te

B

After that te

Topic

Flea and Bed Bug

they-said, “Whoever comes first, that one can eat this food.”
There te

E
F

they-made a covenant.
they-made a pot of food.

C
D

Comment

they-completed a load of firewood.
Flea te

After that te

G

Bed Bug te

came zip-zap te

he-ate all the food.

pooped in the pot

on top te of it he-spread a little rice.

carried a load

when he-made a
jump te

the ropes unstrung.

H

Again te

ties the ropes te

when he-makes a
jump

the ropes unstring.

I

When hearrived at the
house te

said “The food isn’t
eaten”

when he-eats two
bites te

below te it-was all
only poopy poop.

J

After that te

with anger burning

went searching for
Flea

he-gave-him a
forceful beating.

Bed Bug

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

52

In (24), note first that the Takale narrator has elected to modify all but one of the
points of departure with te. This consistent modification is done by each of the Takale
narrators of this study, making it a default pattern for the dialect. Although it is
grammatically optional, the particle is used heavily by Takale speakers to alert the listener to
discontinuities in the mental representation of the story.
Note also that the narrator has modified two non-departure adverbial phrases with te
in sentence F and I. As neither phrase is a point of departure, they are clear occurrences of
thematic highlighting (emphasis). In sentence F, the narrator is using te to instruct his
listeners to take special note of the constituent, the location of poop, as being significant for
future events in the narrative. When the poop is discovered in sentence I, the narrator uses te
again to solidify the link. Here, the emphasizing function of te is more salient than its more
frequent function as a label for discontinuity.
In the text, the narrator also modifies a number of medial clauses with the te particle.
These are not points of departure, neither are they adverbial modifications of other clauses in
the chain. In each of these cases, the narrator is emphasizing or contrasting the medial clause
in order to elevate it to a place of focal prominence. Because the final verb of a clausechaining sentence is the only finite verb, it is the event described in the final clause which is
usually most prominent in the chain. However, as seen in sentences E, G, H, and I, the
narrator is able to shift one of the events described in the middle of a clause chain to a place
of prominence by marking it with the particle te. Used in this manner the te particle is
communicating contrast and emphasis.
Now consider the distribution and frequency of te in a Maikoti text. Example (25) is a
charted translation of The Fox and the Bear. This chart is formatted with the same
conventions of the one in example (24). A complete interlinearization of this text as well as
The Flea and the Bed Bug can be referenced in the appendices.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

53

(25) The Fox and the Bear (translation from Maikoti dialect)
#
A

Point(s) of Departure

Topic

Long ago, in that forest

B

Comment
a certain fox and a certain bear they-lived.

As for those
two

C

they-were covenant brothers

Those covenant brothers they-were-raising a cow.

D

As for that cow

they-grazed in turns

E

On Fox’s turn te

the cow he-returned ill fed.

F

After that, on Bear’s turn te

the cow he-returned well flattened.

G

Like this the sequence proceeded a long time.

H

But

Fox

he-planned in his heart to kill his covenant brother.

I

On Fox’s turn te

in order to eat him he-was-chasing the cow all over.

J

One day te, on Fox’s turn

chased down

killed

he-ate that cow.

k

He-ate what he could

l

He-placed all he-could-not-eat in cleft on a large cliff.

m

As for the tail

n

That evening, when only
fox returned te

o

When he-asked te

After that

r

s

When bear pulled
forcefully te

t

u

his brother, Bear he-asked, “my brother, my brother
only you come, where is our cow.”
Fox

he-said what?
“My brother, my brother, our cow got excited today.
She got wedged into that hillside. I pulled and pulled
but could not remove her. You should go pull.” hesaid.

p

q

he-drove-it in there.

In that way

they two they-went.
Fox said to his brother,
“Ok my brother, pull!”

he-sent-him to pull.

the tail only went zip

off the cliff he-fell.

Fox made his brother
fall off the cliff,

he-killed-him.

Fox he-completed his plan.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

54

In (25), note that the Maikoti narrator marks only a few points of departure with te.
This is because it is not a component of the default pattern for departure in her dialect. In
sentences E, F, and I, the narrator uses te for contrastive focus, highlighting the difference
between the work ethic of the two participants. In sentence O she modifies the head
component of a tail-head construction, which I consider to be obligatory in both dialects.
The three remaining occurrences of te in this text are examples of how the particle
can be used as a developmental marker. In sentences J and N, the occurrence of te coincides
with a new episode, and in sentence S, the particle appears at the beginning of the peak of the
narrative. By modifying only these three points of departure, the narrator is alerting her
listener to significant developments in the text. Both discontinuity and emphasis are applied
to the modified constituents. We see then that both Takale and Maikoti narrators have the
option to modify points of departure with te, but only Maikoti speakers use te to mark
significant developments in a text.
In summary, the particle te possesses various pragmatic functions in narrative
discourse. This particle appears to be mostly optional for narrators, however, it is prevalent in
the texts of this study. It is utilized by narrators to modify points of departure, to highlight
important plot components, to communicate a contrastive focus, and to signal a thematic
development in the text. These various functions of the te particle are made possible by three
somewhat overlapping notions that the form evokes, namely discontinuity, contrast, and
emphasis.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

55

7 Main Event Line
This chapter presents how the main event line of a text is tracked in the two dialects
of this study. Main Event Line (MEL) refers to the chronological series of important events
in a narrative which pertains to the major participants. These events are also known as
foreground events. They form the “backbone” or thematic content of the story.62 Often, MEL
sentences are default constructions, while non-MEL sentences are marked in some way. NonMEL sentences include backgrounded events, descriptions of the participants and setting, and
commentary on the MEL.
In this study, the Maikoti and Takale texts exhibit different patterns for tracking the
main events of a narrative. The Takale narrators track the MEL by coding the independent
clauses of MEL clause chains with perfective aspect and mark background events and
surprising events on the MEL by nominalizing the independent verb of the sentence. This
pattern is thoroughly described in chapter sixteen of Watters grammar of the Takale dialect.
Curiously, all but one of the Maikoti narrators in this study appear to follow a different
pattern for tracking the MEL from that of their Takale counterparts. In the Maikoti texts, the
MEL is primarily described by nominalized constructions rather than perfective aspect. In
§7.1, of this chapter, I briefly describe the system of event grounding presented by Watters
and demonstrate how his conclusions are confirmed in my Takale data. In §7.2, I
demonstrate how most of the Maikoti narrators of this study significantly differ from the way
the Takale narrators track the MEL of a text.
7.1 Tracking the MEL in Takale Narrative
According to Watters, Magar Kham has two distinct verb paradigms. The default or
“finite” verb paradigm occurs in independent clauses, while the second, a “nominalization,”
primarily occurs in subordinate constructions such as relative clauses and complement

Paul J. Hopper and Sandra A. Thompson, “The Discourse Basis for Lexical Categories in Universal
Grammar,” Language 60, no. 4 (1984): 703–752.
62

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

56

clauses.63 However, a nominalized verb may also occur in an independent clause as a means
of marking the sentence for pragmatic purposes.
Watters considers the nominalization of the independent clause of a narrative
sentence to be the speaker’s way of marking the sentence as discontinuous in some way.64 By
nominalizing the independent verb of a proposition, the narrator is signaling to the listener
that it represents an event off of the MEL (background event) or indicates that the
proposition communicates a main event that is unexpected or surprising in the context of the
story (highlighted event). For this reason, I refer to narrative propositions which are
nominalized and those co-subordinate to a nominalized independent clause as marked
narration. Both functions of marked narration are demonstrated in example (26).
(26) The Clever Fox (Takale) 29-35
A. tʌla
t. ja paizʌ i. jan-dʌ ja-bawa-u le-u (backgrounding function)
one.day
3P all
work.to 3P-go-NM COP-NM
‘One day, they all were gone to work.’
B. toko
t. tubu ja-ka
i. o-le-u le-u (backgrounding function)
that.at
one 3P-dog
3S-COP-NM COP-NM
‘A certain dog had lived there.’
C. t.

ka-je te
DOG-ERG DIS

i. oho daʒu kataki a-tʌ ʒundi-dʌ nu-li-kʌ zʌ
oh brother how this.at hang-NF 2S-COP-NF EMP

a nosoiʒau
hʌi do-ke-u di
this.much 2S-swell-CONT-NM thus say-PFV-3S RSP
‘The dog, he said, “Oh brother, how come you are hanging there and so
swollen.”’
D. p.

hakʌ te
t. bʰukuɳa ʃale te
at.that DIS
howl-INF fox-ERG DIS

i. ʌ kantsʰa a-to te
oh brother this-on DIS

diu rʌ tsʰalka-rʌ bʌnʌi ʒi-ɳa ta-ʒa tʰik ta-ʒa
hʌi o-do-kʌ te
ghee and rice-PL much eat-INF COP-CONT OK COP-CONT thus 3s-say-NF DIS
‘At that, the howling fox said, “Ah my brother, I am eating a lot of rice and ghee
like this, it's great.”’

63
64

Watters, A Grammar of Kham, 350.
Ibid., 353.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

E.

t.

ka-je te
DOG-ERG DIS

ii.

57

oho ho-takin te a-tʌ ʒundi-dʌ li-kʌ
oh that-reason DIS this-on hang COP-NF

diu rʌ tsʰalka-rʌ ʒi-ɳa ta-kin te ʃakʌri-rʌ ʒi-ɳa ta-kin te
ghee and rice-PL eat-INF COP-if DIS eat-INF COP-if DIS
daʒu ŋa-lai pala nʌ-tʌ tʌkep ʒundʌi-na-ke
hʌi do-ke-u di
brother 1S-OBJ also that-on once hang-go-IMP thus say-PFV-3S RSP
‘The dog said, “Oh, that's the reason they have hung you, now that you have
eaten rice and ghee and meat, brother, please hang me on that thing once.”’
F.

i.

nu-lai ʒundi-ɳa te ŋa kʌizʌidʌ ʒundi-ɳa
2S-OBJ hang-INF DIS 1S how hang-INF

kʰali nu ŋa-da ŋa-lai pʌla-na-ke
ok 2S first 1S-OBJ free-go-IMP

hʌizʌidu ŋa nu-lai nʌ-tʌ ŋa-ʒundʌi-ɳa
hʌi do-ke-u di
therefore 1S 2S-OBJ that-on 1S-hang-INF thus say-PFV-3S RSP
‘He said, “How can I hang you? Hmm, first you free me, and then I will hang
you on there.”’
G. t.

ka-je te
DOG-ERG DIS
‘The dog untied him.’
H. p.

i. o-pʌla-u (highlighting function)
3S-untie-NM

o-pʌla-kʌ te
3S-untie-NF DIS

i. ka-lai ho-tʌ ʒundʌi-dʌ
dog-OBJ that-on hang-NF

ii.

ol te o-dowa-u le-u (backgrounding function)
3S DIS 3S-escape-NM COP-NM
‘When he untied him, he hung the dog on there, and he had escaped.’
In example (26), the narrator nominalizes the main verb in several sentences. These
constructions can be identified by the presence of the nominalizing suffix -u, and by the
positioning of the subject marking pronominal index at the beginning of the controlling verb.
Sentence A, B, and H, in (26), form the boundaries of the episode. These events are off of the
MEL, and here the narrator is contrasting them from the theme line using marked narration.65
Lines C-G are MEL material, and the default pattern is used for all but one of these

65

Lines A, B, and H are perfect constructions. Naturally, this aspect also has a backgrounding effect.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

58

sentences. Default narration is indicated by the presence of the perfective aspect marker -ke.
Of all the MEL material in (26), only sentence G is marked by nominalization. Note also that
it is a single clause sentence. Here, the speaker is highlighting sentence G as a significant
development on the MEL. It is the peak event of the episode. In this way, the nominalization
of an independent narrative proposition is effective in both establishing contrast between
important, unexpected, or surprising events and the rest of the MEL, as well as differentiating
between the MEL and background events.
As I stated in §3.2.1, the narrators of this study use three types of narration. These
areː 1) default narration, which is associated with perfective aspect, 2) marked narration,
which is associated with the nominalization of the main verb, and 3) historic present
narration, which is associated with the continuous aspect suffix -ʒa. The distribution of these
types of narration across all of the MEL material of Takale texts is presented in Table 6. This
table does not include non-MEL material, such as backgrounded events and background
information.
Table 6. Distribution of Takale MEL material by to type of narration
Text66

Five

Default (Perfective)

11

Fart

Flea

Daphe

Fox

Total

100% 6

86%

5

71%

36

95%

18

78%

76

88%

Marked (Nominalized) 0

0%

1

14%

1

14%

1

3%

1

4%

4

5%

Historic Present

0

0%

0

0%

1

14%

1

3%

4

17%

6

7%

Total

11

7

7

38

23

86

Table 6 demonstrates that the system of tracking the MEL described by Watters is
present in the Takale data of this study. The Takale narrators describe most of the MEL using
the default type of narration, clause-chaining sentences inflected with perfective aspect. All
but one of the Takale narrators nominalize at least one of the events on the MEL of their tex.
This paradigm shift functions as a thematic highlighting device. The occasional use of the

66

Here the title of the texts have been abbreviatedː Five = The Five Magar Brothers, Fart = The
Farting Wife, Flea = The Flea and the Bedbug, Daphe = Daphe and Peahen, and Fox = The Clever Fox.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

59

historic present to narrate particularly emotional events on the MEL is also evident in this
table.
7.2 Tracking the MEL in Maikoti Narrative
Now concerning grounding in the Maikoti data, all but one of the Maikoti texts differ
significantly from the default pattern presented in §7.1. In the Maikoti texts the nominal verb
paradigm is used almost exclusively, for foreground and background material alike.
Excluding Daphe and Peahen, 83% of the Maikoti MEL material is communicated in clause
chains with a nominalized independent clause (marked narration). This lack of contrast can
be seen in Table 7. Numbers in this table represent the type of narration used to describe the
MEL material of a text.
Table 7. Distribution of Maikoti MEL material by to type of narration
Text67

Snake

Bear

Default (Perfective)

0

0%

3

Marked (Nominalized)

27

Historic Present

0

Total

27

Finch

Ant

38% 1

9%

100% 5

63% 10

91% 11

0%

0%

0%

0
8

0
11

0

0
11

Daphe
0%

20

Fox

Total

95% 1

6%

25

26%

100% 1

5%

15

83% 69

72%

0%

0%

2

11% 2

2%

0
21

18

96

As seen in Table 7, the Takale default is almost non-existent in these Maikoti texts.
Only the narrator of Daphe and Peahen consistently uses default narration for most of the
MEL of the text. True to the convention of contrast, this narrator also utilizes marked
narration to highlight the peak of his narrative. Thus, the entire pattern of using
nominalization for contrast is intact in this text. However, all other Maikoti narrators use
nominalized clause chains to communicate the majority of the MEL as well as background
information. The few instances of default narration in The Fox and the Bear, The Finch and
the King, and The Clever Fox do not appear to correlate with event prominence or

67

Here the title of the texts have been abbreviatedː Snake = The One-eyed Snake, Bear = The Fox and
the Bear, Finch = The Finch and the King, Ant = The Ant and the Dove, Daphe = Daphe and Peahen, and Fox =
The Clever Fox.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

60

unpredictability in these texts. Therefore, we cannot say that the Takale system is simply
reversed in Maikoti text. No contrastive convention appears to be used in these texts.
There are two possible explanations for the variation seen in Table 7. First, it is
possible that nominalization denotes default narration for the Maikoti dialect. Perhaps the
narrator of Daphe and Peahen heard the story from a Takale speaker, and inadvertently used
the Takale default pattern in his version of the story. If this is the case, there seems to be no
convention for highlighting a main event in Maikoti narrative as there is in Takale.
Additionally, non-MEL material is not contrasted from the MEL in Maikoti texts.
In comparing the Maikoti version with the Takale version of Daphe and Peahen, it is
easy to see many differences regarding the participants, setting, and overall focus of the
narrative. The Takale version focuses heavily on the specific route the lovers take as they
travel from the Terai68 to Daphe’s home in Rukum, while the Maikoti version focuses on the
foolish promises Daphe makes to Peahen during their courtship. These differences in content
do not lend themselves to the notion that the Maikoti version is a retelling of a Takale story.
It is perhaps more likely that Maikoti speakers use two different patterns for tracking
the main events of a narrative. In order to test this theory, I chose a short text and changed all
of the MEL sentences to exhibit default narration. I asked my Maikoti friend to evaluate the
text for naturalness. She indicated that she could not tell that I had made any changes to the
text. When I pointed out the altered verbs, she stated that her fellow Maikoti speakers use the
two different verb paradigms according to personal preference. In her opinion both patterns
sounded natural. A more in-depth sociolinguistic study is required to fully understand this
variation. For now, I can only conclude that Maikoti narratives have no single default pattern
for contrasting MEL material from background information in a narrative. Speakers may
choose to differentiate the MEL by using finite verbs or may communicate the bulk of a
narrative using verbs in the nominal paradigm.

68

The term Terai refers to the flat southern region of Nepal.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

61

Consistent nominalization in the Maikoti data poses a challenge to an underlying
assumption we hold for the default pattern presented in §7.1. If the motivation for the default
is based on cognitive complexity, then we should expect the system of contrast to degrade in
the opposite direction.69 In other words, if MEL material is coded with the simplest form of
simple past (perfective aspect), then we should expect that speakers will deviate from the
default by using the simple past for background material as well as MEL material. However,
we see the opposite in the data. Most of the Maikoti narrators deviate by marking every
sentence with the more complex version of simple past, the nominalized main verb.
7.3 Summary
In summary, just over half of the narrators of this study track the MEL by coding the
independent clauses of MEL clause chains with perfective aspect. Additionally, they mark
background events and highlight surprising events on the MEL by nominalizing the
independent verb of the sentence. However, five of the eleven narrators, all of them Maikoti,
do not seem to adhere to this convention of grounding. These narrators nominalize most of
the MEL material in addition to non-MEL material in their texts. Further research is required
to understand this variation in the data.

69

Watters, 352

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

62

8 Summary of Conclusions
The purpose of this thesis has been to present narrative discourse features for the two
dialects of Magar Kham spoken in East Rukum district of Nepal by analyzing eleven oral
texts in the language. The analysis methodology is drawn primarily from Dooley and
Levinsohn (2001). This chapter is a summary of the important findings.
Magar Kham narrators use clause-chaining sentences to describe the main events of a
narrative. This pattern is important but not entirely unexpected, as the plot advancing
capacity of clause-chaining sentences is considered to be their primary function in clausechaining languages. Additionally, most of the sentences describing main events in a text
begin with a point of departure. For this reason, I describe the default sentence articulation as
Point of Departure– Topic–Comment. In this convention. the sentence comment is usually
comprised of a chain of clauses describing events that occur one after another in the same
setting in the narrative world. Additionally, all of the comment clauses pertain to the
participant referent that is the current VIP.
The amount of linguistic coding a major participant receives at a given point in a
Magar Kham narrative is governed by several overlapping systems of participant reference.
Generally, a subject-oriented anaphoric reference strategy is adhered to across clauses. This
pattern is described by du Preez (2019). Functioning with this basic strategy are a cataphoric
system of switch-reference within narrative clause chains, and a local VIP reference strategy
which can function across the boundaries of thematic groupings. The cataphoric system of
reference is described by Watters (2002). However, the local VIP reference strategy is an
important discovery of this thesis.
Each of the texts in this study exhibits an unbroken chain of participant topics or very
important participants (VIP). These topics are generally activated by a left dislocated noun
phrase and consistently receive less linguistic coding to access them, even in the context of
disruptions such as a change in scene or the presence of a non-topic subject referent. This
pattern produces the effect of a single spotlight, which is always pointing to the most
important participant on the stage of the mental representation. This spotlight can shift to a

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

63

new participant in the middle of a paragraph or episode but not in the middle of a clause
chain.
Magar Kham narrators prefer to begin a narrative sentence with a point of departure
over simple juxtaposition. They very frequently use points of departure which reactivate
previously narrated events in the text, such as tail-head linkage and temporal connectives,
like hukɪn ‘after that.’ No concise pattern can be formed on the motivating factors for the use
of reactivation in narrative discourse. Nevertheless, event reactivation is a salient feature of
narrative discourse, occurring in about 35% of all sentences, and accounting for over half of
all points of departure. While event reactivation is an important feature in the data, it may be
due to the fact that nearly all of the texts are oral narratives.
Another prominent feature in the data is the pragmatic uses of the particle te. This
particle accomplishes various pragmatic functions in narrative discourse. It appears to be
mostly optional for narrators, however, it is utilized to modify points of departure, to
highlight important plot components, to communicate a contrastive focus, and, significantly,
to signal a thematic development in the text. These various functions of the te particle are
made possible by three somewhat overlapping notions that the form evokes, namelyː
discontinuity, contrast, and emphasis. Only the Maikoti narrators of this study use te as a
thematic discourse marker. This dialectic difference correlates with another difference
between the dialects.
The Takale narrators of this study track the main event line (MEL) by coding the
independent clauses of MEL clause chains with perfective aspect. Additionally, they mark
background events and highlight surprising events on the MEL by nominalizing the
independent verb of the sentence. However, the five Maikoti narrators do not seem to adhere
to this convention of grounding. They usually nominalize both the MEL and non-MEL
material in their narrative.
It is possible that the event highlighting function of te in Maikoti texts and the
highlighting function of main verb nominalization in Takale texts represent alternate
strategies for the marking of thematic development in a text. The two patterns certainly

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

64

mirror each other in that pragmatic meaning is communicated in the strategically sparing use
of a device used extensively by narrators of the opposite dialect. That is to say, it is curious
that Maikoti narrators use te as a thematic developmental marker by using it more sparingly
than their Takale counterparts. And Takale narrators mark thematic development by utilizing
main verb nominalization more sparingly than their Maikoti counterparts. Both pragmatic
strategies involve using a device less frequently. Further research is required to understand
these two dialect specific discourse patterns.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

65

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———, ed. Topic Continuity in Discourse: A Quantitative Cross-Language Study.
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Gruyter, 1995.
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Representations of Discourse Referents. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
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3 (2008): 347–360.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

67

Appendix A – The Flea and Bed Bug
#

Point(s) of
Departure

Topic

Adv/Subject

Object/Complement

ser sono pursum ni

1

Verb

te

di

---

flea and bed-bug DL

The flea and the Bed Bug
2

bʰakʌ te

ser sono pursum ni reja

lʌisikeni

di

long.ago DIS

flea and bed.bug DL

wear-MID-PVF-3D

RSP

covenant

Long ago Flea and Bed Bug made a covenant.
3a

hakɪn te

---

that-from-DIS

3b

to kapara ka

pĩdʌ

one pot food

cook-NF

---

kʰenʌikeni

di

left-go-PFV-3D

RSP

After that, they cooked a pot of food and left.
4a
4b
4c

ʒo

ŋʌto

huʒa

whoever

before-on

come-CONT

hoe

au ka

ʒuɳa

that-ERG

this food

eat-INF

---

4a-4b

hʌi likini

di

thus-say-PFV-3D

RSP

“Whoever come home first, that one can eat this food” they said.
5

hoŋʌ te

---

there DIS

sĩ dur

sʌjʌukeni

di

wood load

make-finish-PFV-3D

RSP

There, the completed a load of firewood.
ser te

6a

---

flea DIS

6b

---

kʰrrrr hudʌ

te

swiftly come-NF

DIS

ka pʌizʌ

ʒokeu

di

food all

eat-PFV-3S

RSP

Flea, he came swiftly and ate all the food.
7a
7b

hukɪn te
that-after-DIS

kopʌralʌ

edʌ

pot-in

poop-NF

otʌrto te

tsʰʌja tsʰʌja tsʰal kajʌ

kʌpdekeu

di

3S-top-on DIS

little little grain rice-GEN

cover-PFV-3S

RSP

---

After that, he pooped in the pot and on top of it he sprinkled a little rice.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse
pusumte te

8a

---

bed.bug-ERG DIS

8b

68
dur

durdʌ

load

load-NF

---

8c

pʰutu oʒokʌ

te

jump 3S-jump-NF

DIS

wʌnʌm

pʰeyake

di

rope

unstring-PFV

RSP

Bed Bug, he loaded a load, made a jump, and the ropes came unstrung.
9a

pʰeri

---

again

9b
9c

wʌnʌm

bʌnʌidʌ

te

rope

tie-NF

DIS

pʰutu oʒokʌ

---

jump 3S-jump-NF

pʰeri pala

wʌnʌm

pʰejaʒa

di

again also

rope

unstring-CONT

RSP

Again he ties the rope, makes a jump, and again the rope unstrings.
10a

---

10b

---

10c 10a

---

10d

---

10e

dʒimkʌ

okeskʌ

te

house-at

3S-arrive-when

DIS

ka

omazutau leu

food

3S-NEG-eat-COP-NM

10b

hʌi lidʌ
REM-COP.NF

nẽjawa

oʒokʌ

te

two.bite

3S-eat-NF

DIS

medadʒʌu te pʌizʌ kie ki

wazʌ oleu

di

below-toward DIS all

only 3S-COP-NM

RSP

poopy poop

When he arrived at the house, he said “the food is not eaten,” took two bites, and below
the surface it was all poopy poop.
hukɪn te
11a

11b

pusum

that-from-DIS Bed.Bug

uris tsoje

serlai

sanpadʌ dʌidʌ

3S-anger burn-NMERG

flea-OBJ

search-go-NF

---

mʌnʌi zʌ ridʌ ojo

di

much-with EMP whip-NF
3S-give-NM

RSP

After that, Bed Bug with his anger burning went searching for Flea and beat him
severely.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

69

Appendix B – The Clever Fox
Point(s) of
Departure

#
1

Topic

Adv/Subject

Verb

Object/Complement

te

di

pʲã dõkʌ no ʒãlʌ

tubu rasʌla sono tubu ŋim

ĩleu

di

much long.ago that forest-in

one fox and one bear

3D-COP-NM

RSP

Very long ago, in that forest, lived a certain fox and a certain bear.
2

nuni ʒor tsaĩ

tʌrʌjãni

ĩleu

di

3P two as-for

covenant-brother-DL

3D-COP-NM

RSP

tubu har

dʒʌ ĩnʌi

They two, they were covenant brothers.
3

no tʌrʌjãni

that covenant-brother-DL one cow

raise-NF 3D-keep-NM

Those brothers were raising a cow.
4

no harlai tsaĩ

palodai palodai tsʰʌni

di

that cow-OBJ as.for

turn-do-ERG turn-do-ERG graze-3D

RSP

As for that cow, they grazed her in turns.
5

rãsʌlawʌi opalokʌ te

har

mawãdʌ ra

di

fox-GEN 3S-turn-at DIS

cow

NEG-grow-NF come

RSP

On the fox’s turn, the cow returns unfed.
6

hukĩ ŋimwʌi opalokʌ te

har

wãdʌ ra

di

that-after bear-GEN 3S-turn-at DIS

cow

grow-NF come

RSP

On the bear’s turn, the cow returns well-fed.
7

hadiu

krʌm zʌ

lemale sʌmʌ

otsʌliu

di

that-like

sequence EMP

long until

3S-proceed-NM

RSP

Like that, the sequence proceeded for a long while.
8

tʌrʌ

rãsʌlawʌi

ujũlʌ bʰʌɳã orejã ŋimlai sʌiɳã

joʒʌna oleu

but

fox-ERG

3S-heart-in 3S-brother bear-OBJ kill-INF

plan 3S-COP-NM

But the fox planned in his heart to kill his covenant brother.
9a

rãsulawʌi opalokʌ te
fox-GEN 3S-turn-at DIS

9b

---

harlai ʒʌihile dibʌ otsariʒau

di

cow-OBJ whatever also 3S-chase-CONT-NM

RSP

toiɳa ledʌ

---

bite-INF COP-NF

On the fox’s turn, in order to eat her, was chasing the cow everywhere.
10
10b
10c

tʌla te rãsʌlawʌi opalokʌ
one.day DIS fox-GEN 3S-turn-at

---

no ĩharlai

tsaridʌ

that 3D-cow-OBJ

chase-NF

---

sʌidʌ
kill-NF

---

oto
3S-bite-NM

One day, on fox’s turn, he chased that cow, killed her, and ate her.

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse
11

---

70
udu bʌri

oto

3S-can all

3S-bite-NM

All that he could, he ate.
---

12a

omadu bʰʌri pʰiri gʲo pʌhʌr hãlʌ ʒadʌ
3S-NEG-can all as-for big hill cliff-face-in place-NF

---

12b

orʌme tsãhi holʌ

tũdʌ obʌnʌi

3S-tail as-for REM-in

drive-NF 3S-keep-NM

As for what he could not, he stashed it in a cliff face, and the tail he jammed in the
opening.
13a

ho rimdi
REM evening-toward

13b 13a

olkʌ

te

fox only

3S-return-NF

DIS

orʌyã ŋimwʌi

---

3S-brother bear-ERG

ŋarʌyã ŋarʌyã

13c

rãsʌla hazʌ

nʌ hazʌ

nʌraʒa

1S-brother 1S-brother 2S only

13d
13e

2S-come-CONT

gĩhar

kãu sʌ

1D-cow

where EMP

---

13c-13d

--ledʌ ʌsgẽkeu

di

COP-NF ask-PFV-3S

RSP

That evening, only the fox returned, and his brother asked, “my brother, only you come,
where is our cow?”
14a

---

14b 14a

osgẽkʌ

te

3S-ask-NF

DIS

rãsʌlawʌi

kʌidoyau

fox-ERG

INT-say-GEN

When he asked that, what did the fox say?
15c
15d
15e

lekʌ

---

COP-NF

ŋarʌyã ŋarʌyã

gĩhar te

1S-brother 1S-brother 1D-cow DIS

pʌhʌr dʒim no
that hill inside

---

atsʰim

besʌŋ bʲadʌ te

this-day

much-force excite-NF DIS

pʌsike
insert-REF-PFV

Saying, “my brother, our cow was much excited and in that cliff face got wedged.”

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

71

ŋa te

puldʌ puldʌ
ŋamaspuluiduke

1S-ERG DIS

pull-NF pull-NF
1S-NEG-exit-can-PFV

nʌ

hĩdʌ tulo pʌrike

2S

go-NF pull-IMP fall-PFV

16

17a
17b

---

14d-17a

hʌi odo

di

thus-3S-say-NM

RSP

“I pulled and pulled but could not remove her, you should go pull,” he said.
18

hukĩ

nuni ʒor

hĩkini

di

that-after

3D two

go-PFV-3D

RSP

After that, they two went.
19a
19b

rãsʌlawʌi

orʌyãlai

fox-ERG

3S-covenant-brother-OBJ

de

ŋʌreyã

getul

ok

1S-brother

HORT-pull

19c

---

19d

18b

ledʌ
COP-NF

tulu

ʌspʌrẽkeu

di

pull-NM

send-PVF-3S

RSP

The fox said to his covenant brother, “ok, go pull,” and sent him to pull the tail.
20a

ŋimwʌi

orʌsas

utulkʌ

te

bear-ERG

3S-strength-with

3S-pull-NF

DIS

pʲata dadʌ

orʌme hazʌ

20b 20a

3S-tail only

20c

---

zip do-NF

hãlʌ

opʌltiu

di

cliff-face-in

3S-fall-NM

RSP

When the bear pulled with all his strength, the tail went zip, and he fell from the cliff.
21

rãsʌlawʌi

oreyãlai hãlʌ

pʌltʌidʌ sʌikeu

fox-ERG

3S-brother-OBJ cliffface-in

fall-CAU-NF killPFV-3S

The fox caused his brother to fall from the cliff.
nʌizʌidʌ

rãsʌlawʌi

umi yoʒʌna

pura zʌikeu

di

that-make-NF

fox-ERG

3S-GEN plan

complete make-PFV-3S

RSP

au ʃalokoi

nati

ʌspʌiza

PROX story.with

INT

say-CONT

lekʌ

rãsʌla

ʌtsʌmmʌ bato

COP-NF

fox

very-much clever

22

In that way, the fox accomplished his plan.
23a
23b

What does this story teach us but that the fox was very clever.

---

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse
24a

ŋim

ubudʌdʰi

maleu

bear

3S-wisdom

NEG-COP-NM

hʌizʌidʌ
24b

therefore

72

sike
---

The bear had no wisdom, therefore he died.

die-PFV