James Lydia. Participant Reference in Central Sinama: A Combined Methodology

SIL International, 2022. — 87 p.This book describes the participant reference system of Central Sinama [sml] narrative discourse, based on patterns found across nine oral texts recorded in Kanaꞌan, a Sama community in Davao City, Philippines. The methodology combines adapted versions of Dooley and Levinsohn’s Sequential Default Method (2001) and Longacre and Hwang’s Discourse Operations (2012), searching out the areas of overlap between the two methods to enrich the analysis of participant introduction, reference patterns, and rank. Accordingly, emphasis is given to both linear and hierarchical discourse structure. Application of this combined methodology produces statements of the default referential device used in each of six subject reference contexts, and an in-depth discussion of outlying results. (The Sequential Default Method includes non-subject reference contexts, but its application to this study is limited to referents in the subject role.) Throughout the analysis, attention is given to participant rank and discourse operations.
The analysis shows that for referents in the subject role, pronouns are the preferred reduced referential device in Sinama, although zero reference is also possible. Also revealed by the analysis, and of particular interest in the application of this research to the work of translation, are the peak-marking particle i; the thematic salience marker hēꞌ; and the non-standard pattern for participant introduction, including the special function of the existential construction, which introduces participants (major or minor) with a key role in narrative development.