CLAUSE COMBINING IN NOOTKA^243Looking more broadly at the mythological tales in this collection, there
are 21 (setting aside brief no. 15, which consists entirely of quotes), of
which 17 (81%) begin with quotative forms, setting the narrative tone. In
some of the texts, however, quotative forms are not prevalent: there are
none in no. 7; only one in no. 9; and in the text analyzed by Sapir (1924),
there are only two.
Swadesh (1939:82) implies the same basis for interpretation of absolu-
tives that I am suggesting when he characterizes them as "used in narrative
when the mode has already been indicated in a previous sentence". On the
other hand, Sapir (1924:82), analyzing a text with few quotatives, merely
says "absolutives ... are frequently used in narrative".
I have suggested that the function of the predicate marked as quotative
is partly to indicate beginnings of narrative stretches of text, especially after
direct quotations. But there are also 111 occurrences of quotatives in our
sample that are non-initial in such passages. As contrasted with the absolu-
tive forms, they seem generally to indicate the more important episodes in
a story, that advance the action or move ahead in time. One can imagine
that in many cases the storyteller would have paused before them. In main
clauses in our sample, there are about twice as many absolutive as quotative
predicates.
In cases where a quotation is followed by an absolutive form, there are
still often indications of the return to the narrative framework. One would
be an immediately following verb of saying, of which there are ten occur
rences ( "he said it" and "he said it again"). There are
additionally 27 occurrences of such verbs which are also marked as quota
tive (predominantly way?cdwe2in "he said it"). (It seems inappropriate,
however, to regard the quotations as objects of these verbs.) Another indi
cation is a following sentence-connective, as these are not found in direct
quotations. Two of them occur, beside three marked for quotative.
Quotations are only occasionally (not more than a dozen times)
marked by a specific lead-in, such as:
(16:10)
then-FiN-3 speak-MOM-FiN-3 young man-DiM-ART
"then the little young man spoke up".
(The songs generally have more specific introductions.)