Narrative Discourse Markers in Malory’s Morte D’Arthur

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Fludernik
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
King Arthur ◽  
Morte D'arthur ◽  
Narrative Prose ◽  
Line Analysis

On the basis of the model of narrative structure proposed in Fludernik (1996b) this paper presents the results of an investigation of discourse markers in Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, with a complete line-by-line analysis of The Tale of King Arthur, Books I to III (“Merlin”; “Balin”; “Torre and Pellinor”), A Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake, and The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyones (Book XIV: “Launcelot and Elaine”). The paper argues that the inflation of discourse markers in Malory is a sign of their imminent disappearance from narrative prose and that other features that indicate a dissolution of the oral narrative episode pattern are also visible in the text.

Politeness Markers and Psychological Complements

1998 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiko Minami
Keyword(s):  
Effective Means ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Japanese Adult ◽  
General Belief ◽  
Multiple Functions ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Class Room

Frames are not only universal cognitive categories to explain the narrator's consciousness, they are also a socioculturally determined concept. Using verse/stanza analysis, which is widely accepted as an effective means of analyzing narrative structure, this study examines how narrative discourse markers and linguistic strategies contribute to the culturally specific framing of Japanese oral personal narratives. Japanese adult narrators were found to employ particular linguistic markers: (1) the formal verb-ending patterns that are often pointed out as politeness markers indicating the insider-outsider distinction, and (2) psychological complements that are generally assumed to express a greater degree of hesitation and softness. It was found, however, that in narrative contexts, these two markers are more likely to appear at the end of a stanza than in any other position. In other words, in contrast to the general belief that these markers serve as devices to show politeness, when investigated from the viewpoint of narrative discourse, they have turned out to possess multiple functions, such as a psychologically effective means for cultural and contextual framing. These findings also call for an awareness on the part of Japanese language instructors to emphasize such multiple functions in the class-room, so that they may help prevent learners from making subtle but potentially critical mistakes.

scholarly journals Oral Narrative Intervention by Tele-Practice in a Case with Developmental Language Disorder

Children ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1052
Author(s):  
Irina Iuliu ◽  
Verónica Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Oral Retelling ◽  
Language Data

Background: A narrative requires the integration and management of linguistic and cognitive skills. It has been observed that children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have difficulties in narrating stories. This research proposes an intervention in a case of a child 9 years and 2 months old with DLD, with the aim of improving his oral narrative skills through a retelling task via telepractice. Methods: In the evaluation, standardized tests have been used and a ‘remembering a story’ task, with a story titled The Lost Backpack, elaborated by one of the authors. Narratives were elicited in two sessions, and were transcribed, coded, and analysed using the Child Language Data Exchange System CHILDES Project tool. The participant received a total of 10 sessions through the Skype platform, which included intervention-addressed explicit instruction about the narrative structure and the use of discourse markers to improve cohesion in story retelling. Results: Significant changes were observed in the retelling of the story at microstructure and macrostructure levels: an increase of the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU), Types and Tokens, specific vocabulary, discourse markers and the recall of events. Conclusions: These results demonstrate the effectiveness of intervention in narrative skills through the oral retelling of a story with visual support via tele-practice.

Prosody of Ojibwe Discourse Markers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Pitch Tracking ◽  
Discourse Particles ◽  
Global Coherence ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
And Linguistics

Discourse markers (DMs) are optional, sequentially dependent sentence-initial items (Schiffrin, 1987) that are used to bracket units of talk (e.g. oh, well, because, y’know, now ). This research aims to better understand Ojibwe DMs which typically occur as the first or second element of a sentence (Fairbanks, 2016). The proposed analysis seeks to understand the prosody of Ojibwe DMs broadly and specifically their use in narrative structure. The data is drawn from Gakina Dibaajimowin Gwayakwaawan ( All Teachings are Correct ) by Nancy Jones, 2013. The analysis was done by using the programs Audacity and PRAAT to identify individual sentences and their pitch prominences. Through careful listening and pitch tracking, prosodic properties of DMs were found to indicate the following: DMs attract the most prominent pitch in the sentence. DMs are used by the speaker to attract the hearer’s attention; in this sense they are interactional (Franks-Job, 2006). DMs are used by the speaker to structure the narration; as such they interact with topic changes and emphasis (Lenk, 1998) This study creates a more complex picture of Ojibwe DMs and adds to our understanding of the language. References: Fairbanks, B. 2016. Ojibwe Discourse Markers. University of Nebraska Press. Franks-Job, B. 2006. A dynamic-interactional approach to discourse markers. In Approaches to discourse particles, K. Fischer (ed.) pp. 395–413. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Lenk, U. 1998. Discourse markers and global coherence in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 30(2):246-257 Ogimaawigwaebiik [Nancy Jones] 2013. Gakina Dibaajimowin Gwayakwaawan. In Dibaajimowinaan; Anishinaabe Stories of Culture and respect ; Nigaanigiizhig [Jim Saint-Arnold] (ed.), Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, 9-10. Raso, Tommaso. 1996. Prosodic constraints for discourse markers. Spoken Corpora and Linguistic Studies. In Spoken Corpora and Linguistics Studies , T. Raso & H. Mello (eds.) 411-467. Benjamins: Amsterdam. Schiffrin, D. 1987. Discourse Markers. doi: 10.1017/cbo9780511611841.

Voiceless ends: Melville’s Benito Cereno and the translator in narrative discourse

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Boyden
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Benito Cereno

The first part of this article confronts the ways in which translation scholars have drawn on insights from narratology to make sense of the translator’s involvement in narrative texts. It first considers competing metaphors for conceptualizing the translator’s involvement, arguing for a clearer differentiation between modes of framing and telling. Next, it evaluates the ways in which translation scholars have attempted to integrate the translator as a separate textual agent in governing models of narrative communication, concluding that the conceptual gains to be reaped from positing the translator as a separate enunciator or agent in narrative transactions are limited. The second part of the article analyzes two Dutch translations of Herman Melville’s novella Benito Cereno, by Johan Palm (1950) and Jean Schalekamp (1977) respectively. Rather than striving to isolate the translators as separate tellers or co-producers of narrative structure, the analysis reveals that their agency shows foremost in the ways the ‘voiceless’ narrative of New World slavery is perspectivized in view of changing readerly expectations.

Japanese Preschool Children's and Adults' Narrative Discourse Competence and Narrative Structure

1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiko Minami
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Narrative Development ◽  
Final Phase ◽  
High Point ◽  
Children's Narratives ◽  
Point Analysis ◽  
Discourse Competence

Abstract This study presents empirical evidence o f Japanese preschool children's (a) narrative discourse competence and narrative structure and (b) rhetorical/expressive flexibility, compared to adults. With data on oral personal narratives told by Japanese preschoolers and adults, and with verse/stanza analysis (Gee, 1985; Hymes, 1981) and high point analysis based on the Labovian approach (Labov, 1972; Peterson & McCabe, 1983), it was discovered that children's and adults' narratives are similar in terms o f structure in that they both tend to have three verses per stanza, and that children and adults tend to tell about multiple experiences. By contrast, there are some clear differences in terms o f content and delivery. Whereas children tend to tell their stories in a sequential style, adults emphasize nonsequential information. Specifically, compared to children's narratives, adults' narratives place considerably more weight on feelings and emotions. The findings of this study strongly suggest that oral personal narratives told by Japanese preschoolers do not represent the final phase o f development. Rather, they still have a long way to go. (Narrative Development; Narrative Structure)

The eye/I upon the event: a study of narrative voice in Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men

1987 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Maria Lúcia Barbosa de Vasconcellos
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Narrative Prose ◽  
Linguistic Level ◽  
King's Men ◽  
The Relationship

This thesis is a study of the relationship between the narrating self and its enunciation in Robert Penn Warren's All the king's men. The concept of point of view is surveyed and discussed and the poetics of narrative is opposed to the poetics of drama, since All the king's men is a novelization of a play by the same author. It is argued that narrative prose allows for a temporal perspective and is thus the adequate genre for the portrayal of man trapped in the complex tensions of time, a major theme of the novel. The narrative discourse is then analyzed through the categories of time, mode and voice, with the narrator's hesitation being examined in terms of function at the linguistic level. Finally, the fragmented and specular pattern of the enunciation is investigated by examining the insertion of the Cass Mastern episode in the narrative. A concluding reflexion focuses on the other voices which permeate the narrator's discourse and confirm the fragmented configuration of the text.

Cognitive Processing and Narrative Discourse Production in Children with ADHD

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Moonsamy ◽  
Heila Jordaan ◽  
Kirston Greenop
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Personal Narrative ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Attention Deficits ◽  
Oral Narratives ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Children With Adhd

Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have cognitive processing difficulties due to their disinhibition and attention deficits, which influence their scholastic performance. Cognitive processing also impacts on the production of oral narratives, an essential skill required for academic success. Therefore the relationship between cognitive processing and oral narratives is investigated. Thirty males, aged 9–11 years, were selected from English medium remedial schools and were assessed on the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS). The results were correlated to their performance on two narrative tasks, involving a Picture Sequence and a Personal Narrative. Measures of Cohesion and Coherence were analysed quantitatively. Participants' low Planning and Attention scores in this study confirmed the validity of the CAS as a diagnostic device for ADHD but were not significantly related to their oral narrative production. However, their approach to the task indicated insufficient use of planning. The structured task (picture sequence) yielded more complex stories than the unstructured task (personal narrative), which may be reflective of the participants' attention deficits. The findings suggest that narrative measures are useful instruments for oral language evaluation in children with ADHD. In addition, the importance of understanding oral narratives within a therapeutic situation is important for both therapist and child.

Discourse markers in oral narrative

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 849-878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal R. Norrick
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Oral Narrative

scholarly journals Interlanguage: A Case Study of English Narrative Discourse of an Indonesian Studying in the U.S.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Stefanus Angga B. Prima
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
English Speaker ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
The U.S

The aim of this study is to see how an Indonesian studying in the U.S. uses English tense and aspects to produce meaning oral narrative discourses. The Indonesian’s verbatim of narrative discourse is compared to that of a Minnesota-born English speaker studying in a university in the midwestern of the United States. The audio-recorded narrative discourses are transcribed, then foregrounding and backgrounding clauses of each participant’s oral narrative discourse are analyzed to count the number of verbs produced by each participant. The verbs are categorized into past verbs (simple, progressive, pluperfect) and non-past verbs (base forms, present tense, present progressive, present perfect). By analyzing the morphology distribution, the researcher recorded that the Minnesotan participant used past tense more frequently in foregrounding and backgrounding clauses in both narrative tasks, while the Indonesian used more temporal adverbs than that of the Minnesotan.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document