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Narrative studies versus pragmatics (of narrative)

  • Neal R. Norrick
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Pragmatics and its Interfaces
This chapter is in the book Pragmatics and its Interfaces

Abstract

This chapter considers the interface between pragmatics and narrative studies, initially with reference to Labovian, conversation analytic (CA) and psycholinguistic approaches to narrative, where common ground is found between these and more properly pragmatic approaches in such topics as tellability and telling rights, along with a shared interest in micro-analytic matters of how tense shifts signal perspective, how discourse markers and repetition mark narrative boundaries and the like. Then it introduces a specifically pragmatic perspective on narrative, considering recurrent functions of stories roughly at the illocutionary level, including both direct and indirect speech acts. This constitutes a top-down, macro-pragmatic perspective on narrative, significantly distinct from CA considerations of epistemic justification for telling or psycholinguistic matters of identity construction.

Abstract

This chapter considers the interface between pragmatics and narrative studies, initially with reference to Labovian, conversation analytic (CA) and psycholinguistic approaches to narrative, where common ground is found between these and more properly pragmatic approaches in such topics as tellability and telling rights, along with a shared interest in micro-analytic matters of how tense shifts signal perspective, how discourse markers and repetition mark narrative boundaries and the like. Then it introduces a specifically pragmatic perspective on narrative, considering recurrent functions of stories roughly at the illocutionary level, including both direct and indirect speech acts. This constitutes a top-down, macro-pragmatic perspective on narrative, significantly distinct from CA considerations of epistemic justification for telling or psycholinguistic matters of identity construction.

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