Abstract:
This paper takes a close look at the discourse distribution of different clause types in narratives (and for Sasak also in conversational data.) It will report on the relative frequency of the constructions under investigation in three groups of languages: (1) those which still retain some verbal marking, (2) those which have lost verbal marking but still mark a distinction between agents as direct arguments of the verb and oblique agents, and (3) those languages of central Flores in which the only difference between clause types is constituent order. Additionally, I will investigate possible correlations between different clause types and both discourse transitivity and information structure.