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.
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Article note
This paper was presented as a keynote speech at the 10th International Conference on Practical Linguistics of Japanese (ICPLJ10) held at the National Institute for Japanese Language & Linguistics on July 8 and 9, 2017.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editors’ Notes
- Articles
- Connecting L1 and L2 acquisition: From the perspective of macro and micro narrative structure
- The influence of first language on referential expressions of Japanese language learners: A focus on narrative story by native Chinese and Korean speakers
- Constructing fluid relationships through language: A study of address terms in a Japanese drama and its pedagogical implications
- Vocabulary depends on topic, and so does grammar
- Word recognition in a language with multiple orthographies: A semantic masked-priming study of L1 Mandarin learners of L3 Japanese
- Book Reviews
- Masayoshi Shibatani, Shigeru Miyagawa, and Hisashi Noda: Handbook of Japanese Syntax
- Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia: Rethinking Theoretical and Geographical Boundaries
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editors’ Notes
- Articles
- Connecting L1 and L2 acquisition: From the perspective of macro and micro narrative structure
- The influence of first language on referential expressions of Japanese language learners: A focus on narrative story by native Chinese and Korean speakers
- Constructing fluid relationships through language: A study of address terms in a Japanese drama and its pedagogical implications
- Vocabulary depends on topic, and so does grammar
- Word recognition in a language with multiple orthographies: A semantic masked-priming study of L1 Mandarin learners of L3 Japanese
- Book Reviews
- Masayoshi Shibatani, Shigeru Miyagawa, and Hisashi Noda: Handbook of Japanese Syntax
- Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia: Rethinking Theoretical and Geographical Boundaries