Makrostrukturelle Planungsprozesse in Erzählungen [Macrostructural planning processes in narratives]
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Christiane von Stutterheim
Abstract
One of the central assumptions in discourse analysis is that texts are structured at two levels, a macrostructural or global level and a microstructural or local level. Notions such as topic continuity, global theme, global framing, backgrounding, serve to specify these structures.
The study sets out to test some of the conditions which allow for or constrain macrostructural planning activities by using psycholinguistic methods. 3 groups of speakers (12 subjects per goup) were asked to renarrate a silent film under different conditions: a) speakers first watch the film and then retell what happened offline, i.e. from memory; b) speakers first watch the film and then the retelling is given while watching the film for the second time – online retelling with prior knowledge of the content of the film; c) speakers renarrate online while watching the film for the first time – online retelling without prior knowledge. The data is analysed with respect to semantic and formal features which are used as indicators of the degree of macrostructural planning. They include features which encompass temporal perspective taking and coherence creation, as well as formal indicators such as subordination, tense switching, and zero anaphora. The results show that the extent to which macrostructual planning is manifested in the texts clearly correlates with the situational factors ‘prior knowledge’ and ‘time constraints’ in language production.
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
Articles in the same Issue
- Makrostrukturelle Planungsprozesse in Erzählungen [Macrostructural planning processes in narratives]
- Wo in Relativsätzen – eine korpusbasierte Untersuchung [Wo in relative clauses]
- Deskriptive statt präskriptiver Sprachwissenschaft!? [Descriptive instead of prescriptive linguistics!?]
- Das Wörterbuch der deutschen Präpositionen [The lexicon of German prepositions]
- Zeitgeschichtliches Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache [Contemporary-historical lexicon of present-day German]
- Thorsten Pohl: Was ist linguistische Aufklärung? Kolloquium in Siegen 18./19. Juni 2004 [What is linguistic enlightenment? Colloquium in Siegen, 18-19 June 2004]
- Internationales Kolloquium in Helsinki 21./22. Mai 2004 [International colloquium in Helsinki, 21-22 May 2004]
- Morphologie im Internet [Morphology in the Internet]
- Neue Bücher 2003 (Nachtrag) [ New Books 2003 (Supplement)]
- Zeitschriftenschau
Articles in the same Issue
- Makrostrukturelle Planungsprozesse in Erzählungen [Macrostructural planning processes in narratives]
- Wo in Relativsätzen – eine korpusbasierte Untersuchung [Wo in relative clauses]
- Deskriptive statt präskriptiver Sprachwissenschaft!? [Descriptive instead of prescriptive linguistics!?]
- Das Wörterbuch der deutschen Präpositionen [The lexicon of German prepositions]
- Zeitgeschichtliches Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache [Contemporary-historical lexicon of present-day German]
- Thorsten Pohl: Was ist linguistische Aufklärung? Kolloquium in Siegen 18./19. Juni 2004 [What is linguistic enlightenment? Colloquium in Siegen, 18-19 June 2004]
- Internationales Kolloquium in Helsinki 21./22. Mai 2004 [International colloquium in Helsinki, 21-22 May 2004]
- Morphologie im Internet [Morphology in the Internet]
- Neue Bücher 2003 (Nachtrag) [ New Books 2003 (Supplement)]
- Zeitschriftenschau
