Genre Patterns across Alur folktales: An exploration of the generic structure

Alur folktales are an orature narrative genre. They exhibit numerous genre patterns that are crucial in defining their genre identity. However, although Alur folktales have been narrated for ages, little is known about the genre patterns characterising them. This paper was limited to the investigation of the generic structure pattern of Alur folktales. The generic structure describes functional component parts that sequence the text in phases and stages. The study employed a qualitative descriptive design to characterise the stages, the specific functions they perform in the folktales, and their organisational patterns. The study is underpinned by the Systemic Functional Linguistics approach to genre theory (SFL hereafter). Within SFL, genre analysis is adopted as a methodological framework to examine the generic structure of Alur folktales. Two models of genre analysis are used to analyse the generic structure of Alur folktales: the Labovian narrative structure analysis and Hassan’s Generic Structure Potential (GSP). Four Alur folktales selected purposively from a corpus of 51 folktales collected through audio recording were analysed: Diel gikud urombo (a goat and a sheep), Gwenu giku Kalanga (a hen and a groundnut), Piny mamako dano (an abductor), and Pirang’o thwon gweno gikud ulik dong gitiye jurimo ungo (Why a bat and a rooster are no longer friends). The study findings reveal that Alur folktales consist of six stages (abstract, orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution, and coda). However, the folktales display various stage patterns. Findings also suggest that in Alur folktales, abstract, orientation, and complication stages are obligatory. Evaluation, resolution, and coda are optional. Orientation, complication, evaluation, and resolution are recursive.  Therefore, it can be contended that the generic structure of Alur folktales is variable. The study recommends putting the generic structure at the heart of folktale narrative genre analysis because it reveals the folktale narrative genre’s nature and unveils its semantic structure.