scholarly journals A study on speech rate as a prosodic feature in spontaneous narrative

2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 623-651
Author(s):  
Miguel Oliveira Júnior

Speech rate is examined in this paper as a prosodic feature employed in the signaling of spontaneous narrative structure. Assuming that narratives have a structural system in itself, and that interactants mark their moves and their more global activities in order to make them unambiguous (JEFFERSON, 1978; SACKS, 1972), the present paper examines speech rate phenomena, from an acoustic-experimental approach, in 17 spontaneous narratives, using one of the most influential models for narrative analysis - the Labovian Evaluative Model (LABOV, 1972) - as framework for the analysis. The prosodic variable under investigation is analyzed on two different levels: at specific points in the narratives corresponding to section boundaries (local level), and within different sections in the narratives as a whole (global level). The results indicate that speech rate operates exclusively on the global level, by generating a cyclical pattern of varying rates corresponding to the individual, linear sections that make up narrative texts. Speech rate does not characterize narrative sections and is not manipulated on the local level in order to mark narrative boundaries.

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-125
Author(s):  
Florij Batsevych

In recent decades, the researchers of artistic stories have paid their attention to the narrative analysis of a set of weird texts of mystical and absurd content, works of “black humour”, fantastic (khymerna) prose created by a non-anthropic narrator or by an author in a changed state of consciousness. These texts serve the field of actualizing atypical and non-usual narrative structures, the sphere of meaningful changes within the bounds of narrative categories and, which is important, of forming special communicative senses of aesthetic nature. The basic problems of the linguistic analysis of “unnatural” stories are identifying the types of changes in the narration constituents, reasons of these changes and narrative categories (first of all, events, participants, objects, chronotope characteristics, points of view, moduses, modalities, etc.). The article analyses one of the texts of mystical content aiming at the revealing of some specificities of the structure and functioning of the so-called “unnatural artistic narrations”. The object of the research is V. Shevchuk’s novel “The Beginning of Horror”. The subject of the analysis is lingual means of the narrative structure formation, the author’s objectification of the mystical artistic sense and lingual “signals” of a reader’s perception of these senses. The most important semantic means of creating mystical atmosphere of the story are predicates that ascribe the names of their referents atypical dynamic and static features connected with the Christian view of the infernal world. It helps to form narrative events that root in weird situations, which cannot take place in reality. Non-dispositional nature of these situations correlates with the reference to the mystery that goes far beyond the bounds of a usual perceptive and psycho-mental background. Among the pragmatic means of creating mystical atmosphere of the main hero’s story as well as of the novel in general, we specify the individual inimitative perception of the flow of time and modality of “real unreality” formed by the role of an unreliable narrator and a vague point of view of the described event with its perceptive, ideological and time planes of objectification. Due to the increasing interest to various expressions of the esoteric, the increase of the number of artistic works of such content and growth of their popularity, we consider it topical to proceed in further investigations of lingual-narrative aspects of “unnatural” stories, in particular, the ones with the modus of mystical in them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
Masahiko Minami

Abstract The studies presented in this paper connect the story-related quality and the language-related quality of narrative discourse. The term “coherence” refers to whether or not a text makes sense at a global level, whereas “cohesion” describes the linguistic relationships among clauses in a narrative, such as how the surface linguistic elements of a text are linked to one another at a local level. Using a content-based narrative analysis, a trilogy – a set of three independent but interrelated studies – introduced in this paper quantitatively analyze oral personal narratives through three lenses. As examples of devices for cohesion, the paper qualitatively examines the use of two linguistic devices, tense (past and non-past) and voice (active and passive), and tries to show how narrators deploy organizational strategies in the use of these linguistic forms. The paper (1) examines varied topics in different narrative contexts (genre, topic, oral or written), (2) reveals how both coherence and cohesion serve as the twin engines of narrative, and (3) emphasizes the significance of paying attention not only to the narrative content/structure but also to the appropriate use of linguistic devices so that we can fully grasp language-specific ways of expressing affective elements in narrative.


Author(s):  
Nicolas Poirel ◽  
Claire Sara Krakowski ◽  
Sabrina Sayah ◽  
Arlette Pineau ◽  
Olivier Houdé ◽  
...  

The visual environment consists of global structures (e.g., a forest) made up of local parts (e.g., trees). When compound stimuli are presented (e.g., large global letters composed of arrangements of small local letters), the global unattended information slows responses to local targets. Using a negative priming paradigm, we investigated whether inhibition is required to process hierarchical stimuli when information at the local level is in conflict with the one at the global level. The results show that when local and global information is in conflict, global information must be inhibited to process local information, but that the reverse is not true. This finding has potential direct implications for brain models of visual recognition, by suggesting that when local information is conflicting with global information, inhibitory control reduces feedback activity from global information (e.g., inhibits the forest) which allows the visual system to process local information (e.g., to focus attention on a particular tree).


2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Smidt

False information, rumours and hate speech can incite violent protest and rioting during electoral periods. To counter such disinformation, United Nations peacekeeping operations (PKOs) routinely organize election-education events. While researchers tend to study how PKOs affect armed group and state behaviour, this study shifts the focus to civilians. It argues that PKOs’ election education reduces violent protest and rioting involving civilians during electoral periods via three pathways. First, learning about PKOs’ electoral security assistance during election-education events may convince people that political opponents cannot violently disturb elections, thereby mitigating fears of election violence. Second, election-education events provide politically relevant information that can strengthen political efficacy and people’s ability to make use of peaceful political channels. Finally, peace messages during election-education events can change people’s calculus about the utility and appropriateness of violent behaviour. Together, these activities mitigate fears, reduce political alienation and counter civilians’ willingness to get involved in violence. To test these expectations, I combine survey data on people’ perceptions and attitudes, events data on violent protest and rioting, and a novel dataset on local-level election-education events carried out by the PKO in Côte d’Ivoire before four elections held between 2010 and 2016. The results show that when the PKO is perceived to be an impartial arbiter, its election-education events have violence-mitigating effects at the individual and subnational levels.


Human Affairs ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Popper

AbstractThe article approaches the topic of social trust from an evolutionary perspective. It begins by summarising the most influential approaches that have defined specific and social trust and ascertains what causes differences in degrees of trust and how the potential risk of deception might be lowered. It then notes that the basis of morality had already been formed during the era of prehistoric man, who was able to create coalitions against aggressors and to socially control the behaviour of deviants. It points out, however, that having a certain predisposition to behaving cooperatively or an increased sensitivity to recognising and not tolerating behaviour aimed at abusing cooperation is not a sufficient guarantee of the fact that people will always (or at least in the majority of situations) favour cooperation over deception. One of the reasons for this is a tendency to favour short-term gains over long-term ones. The article argues that establishing norms (moral, social and legal) produces a higher level of social trust because it not only “encourages” individuals to behave in certain ways in particular situations but also works as a sanction which “discourages” the individual from socially deviant behaviour. The article then focuses on a debate about the causal relationship between social trust and social capital. It discusses the suggestion that political institutions, government and the judiciary may reduce rather than raise levels of social capital and consequently also the level of social trust. This is partly because of their powerful position and the consequent scope for corruption and partly because of the fact that even when attempting to act honestly, representatives of these institutions cannot sufficiently reflect upon dynamic change at the local level. Finally, the article ends by adopting the position that social trust is built primarily from bottom up and so it is risky to continually doubt the very existence and usefulness of social norms and morality and to be governed simply by legal norms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-39
Author(s):  
Nadia Cauchi

This study looks at the effects of the combined practice of mindful meditation and aromatherapy on the wellbeing of MCAST ICS lecturers, potentially providing resources that can help them deal with various stressors. Each practice is supported with literature underlining its effects towards a holistic wellbeing. The researcher uses a qualitative narrative inquiry approach to draw meaning and understanding out of the participants’ experiences. Three MCAST ICS lecturers participated in this study. Their background in health care enables them to relate better with the benefits of mindful meditation and aromatherapy. The research design of this study consists of four stages; a pre-session held with the three participants, weekly mindful meditation sessions for six weeks, individual interviews with each participant, followed by a focus group. Three of the six sessions included aromatherapy and a mindful journal was kept throughout the sessions. The analysis format could either develop as an analysis of narrative or narrative of analysis. In this study both formats were used, however, due to the word count limit only the analysis of narrative is seen. The researcher elicited whole segments from the individual transcripts to develop various themes. To examine the data for the emergent themes the researcher chose to use thematic narrative analysis as it focuses on the ‘told’ (Riessman 2008). In this case the ‘told’ is what helped identify the common patterns found across the narratives. As themes started to emerge, whenever possible the researcher used the MAXQDA software to facilitate the process. Mindful meditation was found to lead to a series of events that enhance self-awareness, thus enhancing holistic wellbeing and positively effecting the individual’s approach towards work and family. This can be achieved because mindful meditation has the potential to enhance one’s social skills, soft skills, and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, combining aromatherapy with mindful meditation was found to positively enhance one’s experience. However, it was not the only decisive factor since the ambience was also an influencer.


2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Bryant

This article is concerned with how employees talk about organisational change and focuses specifically on how employees discuss reactions and responses to change through the construction of narratives. Employees included in this study suggest that the use of voice as an attempt to inform managers of their discontent, or remaining silent and passive are the most common responses to organisational change. Within sociology and management literature, voice has been considered as a constructive response to change, providing invaluable feedback to managers about declining conditions or performance lapses. Alternatively, remaining silent or passive has been documented as a weak strategy in which the individual renounces control and forms a dependency relationship with powerful groups such as managers. The primary aim of this paper is to challenge the argument that voice is a constructive response to change and suggest that voice is likely to be perceived as destructive, thus leading to the removal of responsibilities and career opportunities. Furthermore, this paper argues that silence is the more constructive response to change, which is documented in this research as leading to the advancement of careers. Relationships between the way employees respond to organisational change and the type of narrative that they construct is also discussed. Those who report remaining silent construct ‘conversion stories’ suggesting that organisational change provided a turning point in which employees could embrace management practices and gain career advancement. Alternatively, those who reported using voice construct ‘atrocity tales’ in which change is associated with stories of workplace bullying, removal of career opportunities and workplace violence. These narratives suggest that the use of voice as a response to change is more complex than its original intent and explanation in the literature, providing challenges for researchers in understanding where voice as a constructive response ends and where resistance to change begins.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ambrish Gautam ◽  

Status is a position provided to the person of the concern society based on societal norms, values and customary practices. It is further being divided into two parts, first one is the Ascribed status, and another is Achieved status. The ascribed status is assigned to a person by the group or society, whereas achieved status is earned by the individual through his/her personal attributes and is taken note of by the people in and around his/her location. It is also evident that in majority of the cases, the ascribed status always determines the nature and extent of the achieved status. The ascribed status of the Dalits contributes or hinders in the formation of their achieved status. It also includes their social interaction and social relations with non-Dalits in the exiting local level social structure. This status is being characterized and specified by the process of Sanskritization, social and religious reforms, and the constitutional provisions in the formation of achieved status of Dalits in their different strata of life. The social status is the convergent form of both the ascribed and achieved statuses of a person in each society or social structure. In every circumstance, one’s higher ascribed status always contributes positively to his or her higher achieved status. Conversely, lower the ascribed status, lower is the achieved status though this may be other way round in the exceptional case. Anyway, the symmetrical or linear relationship between the lower ascribed and achieved statuses gets more crystallized, if the person comes from a group which remains socially excluded forever. But due to the prospects of Independence, Education, Constitutional safeguards and Modernisation several kinds of changes occurred in the status of Dalit’s in the society. Through this paper, I have tried to identify the process of social status formation among Dalits in Jharkhand.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ambrish Gautam ◽  

Status is a position provided to the person of the concern society based on societal norms, values and customary practices. It is further being divided into two parts, first one is the Ascribed status, and another is Achieved status. The ascribed status is assigned to a person by the group or society, whereas achieved status is earned by the individual through his/her personal attributes and is taken note of by the people in and around his/her location. It is also evident that in majority of the cases, the ascribed status always determines the nature and extent of the achieved status. The ascribed status of the Dalits contributes or hinders in the formation of their achieved status. It also includes their social interaction and social relations with non-Dalits in the exiting local level social structure. This status is being characterized and specified by the process of Sanskritization, social and religious reforms, and the constitutional provisions in the formation of achieved status of Dalits in their different strata of life. The social status is the convergent form of both the ascribed and achieved statuses of a person in each society or social structure. In every circumstance, one’s higher ascribed status always contributes positively to his or her higher achieved status. Conversely, lower the ascribed status, lower is the achieved status though this may be other way round in the exceptional case. Anyway, the symmetrical or linear relationship between the lower ascribed and achieved statuses gets more crystallized, if the person comes from a group which remains socially excluded forever. But due to the prospects of Independence, Education, Constitutional safeguards and Modernisation several kinds of changes occurred in the status of Dalit’s in the society. Through this paper, I have tried to identify the process of social status formation among Dalits in Jharkhand.


Author(s):  
Nadya Afdholy

This study aims to reveal heteronormativity in the Lovely Man movie by director Teddy Soeriaatmadja by using narrative structure theory from Tzvetan Todorov and the concept initiated by Judith Butler. Heteronormative values that appear in the film directed by Teddy Soeriaatmadja are seen through dialogue between characters in each scene that are divided into three; (1) equilibrium/plenitude, (2) disruption, disequilibrium/disrupting force, and (3) opposing force. This research uses qualitative method by using approach of narrative analysis of model Tzvetan Todorov. The data used for this research is the film of Lovely Man by director Teddy Soeriaatmadja itself. This study uses data collection techniques with observation and literature study, as well as using data collection techniques with data reduction, interpretation, and conclusions. The results of this study indicate that there is a concept of heteronormative values reflected through heterosexuals who are considered to damage the stability of transvestite life, so that heterosexuals are considered as 'the other' heteronormative. Keywords: Film, Lovely Man, Heteronormativity, Other.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document