1. Topic 4 Sociolinguistic approaches to narratives: Norrick

2. Norrick
Resting on Labov and Waletsky (1967), Labov (1972), and Polanyi (1981, 1985), develops a new model for the analysis of narratives
Focus on conversational storytelling
Internal structure, formulaicity, repetition
Narrative contexts (who tells stories to whom, in which contexts, with what responses and what interpersonal consequences)
Differently from Labov, Norrick places emphasis on teller strategies (repetition, formulaicity ,disfluences…) as structuring elements, more than on sequential ordering.

3. The rhetoric of storytelling
Teller strategies can be collected under the heading of rhetoric of storytelling
Used to
enhance coherence
Modulate involvement
Facilitate production, comprehension, remembering

4. Since tellers and listeners can allot only limited cognitive resources to the construction and understanding of narratives, they rely on repetition, dialogue, tense shifts and formulaicity, to reinforce evaluations and to segment stories into manageable chunks
(Norrick 2000: 42)

5. Conversational narratives’ internal structure
Abstract
orientational information
Background
General frame
Narrow frame
Main action
Resolution
Coda
+ Evaluation

6. Steps for analysis
1. construction of a basic narrative amalgamating teller and audience contributions, eliminating disfluencies 2. tagging the parts of the narrative 3. consideration of formulaic elements, dialogue, disfluences, tense and perspective shifts, verb classes, chunking of intonation units (to cast a light both on teller’s strategies and on the cues heares use to make sense of convesational storytelling (cf. April’s first job story and its reconstruction on handouts 3 and 4)

7. Conventions for representing oral storytelling
Written texts are structured around complete sentences, while spoken language is organized around intonation units
These tend to
be about 5 words long,
contain one idea unit each (typically subject + predicate)
contain one or more intonation peaks
And I was so interested
The fire was all gone

8. The rhetoric of storytelling:
Internal structure
Formulaicity
Repetitions
Narrative context (and tellability)
Prefaces
responses

9. The rhetoric of storytelling: formulaicity
Any relatively fixed unit of two or more words which recurs in the discourses of a linguistic community
Narratives structured around a figurative formula (“like a leaf in the wind”, cf. next slide)
Formulaicity story openings and closing

11. Formulaic story openers
The first/most_____in my life
I remember the most_____in my life
Guess what?
Remember the time/when?
Meant to attract the attention of the audience

12. Formulaic story closers
Proverbs and clichés
And I lived to tell the story (p. 51)

13. Local formulaicity
Referred to cases where an otherwise non formulaic phrase takes on formulaicity through repetition
E..g. “it was really weird” p
Can help tellers organize their narratives into chunks, thus guiding listeners
Can signal teller’s attitude and guide listeners to adopt the same perspective.

14. The rhetoric of storytelling: Repetition
restarting/rephrasing at story beginnings and transition points
- Serves an organizational function (segments the story or marks a progression) + functions as a marker of story opening
Parallel structures to mirror parallel reported events
- Intensifies the dramatic effect of reported scenes
- Highlights the teller’s evaluation

15. Repetitions’ organizational function 1
Includes rephrasing in introductions (false starts and restarts, i.e. disfluences)
Disfluences show that a speaker is beginning a story, help orient the listener on how to receive the story
Sherry: we had a-
my mom always had a dish-cloth
that had holes in it
[the restart makes the story more relevant to the context, as Sherry’s interlocutor had just told a story about her mother)

16. Repetitions’ organizational function 2
Parallel (semantic, syntactic and phonological structures) for key events P
Are you the people with… (6/49)
Dad going down the hall for his nap (20 -47)
So he went /over he went (23/54)
There’s nothing/there’s no (35-36)
Saturday- Sunday- Monday (40-44)
Diddled and dawdeld (56)/ learned and determined (58)

17. Repetitions’ organizational function 2
Paul went back with the shovel, hurled it / I mean, just threw it
That damn shovel came right down on his head / I mean, it came down and flattened him
-> dramatic effect
I mean, what is the likelihood…/ I mean, who would have thought…
-> repetition to emphasise unlikelyhood/bizarreness, hence worth telling

18. Narrative context Tellability
A narrator must be able to defend a story as relevant and newsworthy in order to justify the extended turns it requires
Stories are thus prefaced to argue their tellability and to signal the expected response
Tellability is, however, a matter for negotiation (stories which are not newsworthy can be told in some contexts, e.g. routinely told familiar stories)

19. Prefaces
Prefaces are used by conversationalists to indicate the intention of taking the floor to tell a story.
They divide into prefaces bidding to
change the current topic of talk
introduce a new narrative connected with foregoing talk

20. Prefaces can change the current topic of talk Jean: wasn’t that awful
about the guy that went hunting
and killed his son
cataphorical
Strong evaluation:
generates interest
Signals attitude
Signals expected reaction

21. Prefaces can change the current topic of talk Jean: wasn’t that awful
about the guy that went hunting
and killed his son
abstract

22. Prefaces can introduce a new connected story

23. Responses Responses can
show recognition of a story
Offer additional details (in case of familiar stories)
Provide evaluation of the events told
Solidify participants’ rapport
Responses can also take the form of a second story, parallel to the first one

24. Alignment
The teller often bids to win the hearer over to a particular point of view about the events told
This can be done thorugh open expression of stance

25. Varieties of conversational narratives
Purpose
Self-aggrandizement narratives: enhance the teller’s reputation
Explicit vs implicit
Embarassment narratives (can also have an covert self-aggrandizement function: self-directed humour as a positive quality)
Trouble narratives
Dream tellings
Type
First vs third person