23.2904, Diss: Disc Analysis/Pragmatics/Socioling/Writing Systems: Watanabe: 'Character Introduction and Establishment in Japanese Narratives'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-23-2904. Mon Jul 02 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.2904, Diss: Disc Analysis/Pragmatics/Socioling/Writing Systems: Watanabe: 'Character Introduction and Establishment in Japanese Narratives'

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Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:24:23
From: Noriko Watanabe [norikomcg at gmail.com]
Subject: Character Introduction and Establishment in Japanese Narratives

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Institution: University at Buffalo 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 1998 

Author: Noriko Watanabe

Dissertation Title: Character Introduction and Establishment in Japanese
Narratives 

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
                     Pragmatics
                     Sociolinguistics
                     Writing Systems

Subject Language(s): English (eng)
                     Japanese (jpn)


Dissertation Director(s):
Dennis Tedlock
Madelaine Mathiot
David A. Zubi

Dissertation Abstract:

The present thesis investigates linguistic patterns that serve the 
functional goals of introducing and establishing characters in Japanese 
narrative.  It also discusses the pragmatic processes that are involved 
in the interpretation of the linguistic forms as character introductions 
and establishments.  Examples are drawn from a spoken genre, 
rakugo, as well as from several written narrative genres.  Linguistic 
patterns identified in this study show that both in spoken and written 
narrative there are several forms that serve the functional goals of 
character introduction and establishment.  The linguistic patterns are 
found in two different discourse types, i.e., narration and direct 
discourse of characters.  Previous linguistic studies of character 
establishment, or participant tracking, paid attention mostly to only one 
type of discourse, i.e., narration.  The present study documents that 
direct discourse also carries a significant functional load in fulfilling the 
major functions in narrative, especially in spoken narrative.  The wide 
range of linguistic patterns thus found are then analyzed according to 
two different modes of presentation, which are termed the descriptive 
mode and the dramatistic modes.  

This thesis uncovered new patterns, including the ga-cleft construction, 
use of wa-marked nominals in the first mention, use of address terms 
and the first part of adjacency pair.  Linguistic patterns of character 
establishment show that the referential progression pattern discussed 
in Hinds & Hinds (1979) is rare both in well-rehearsed spoken 
storytelling and in written stories.  Characters can be established 
through direct discourse without any narration, especially in the genre 
of rakugo.

This dissertation examines the concept of introduction further by 
analyzing the role of pre-narrative discourse in contexualization of 
narrative.   Rakugo storytelling performances shed light on the 
importance of overall framing of a story in character introduction.  The 
prelude to rakugo storytelling performance, i.e., makura, functions to 
make a transition into a displaced spatio-temporal deictic center of a 
story.  Makura is compared to prefacing in casual conversational 
narrative in Japanese, and also it is cross-linguistically compared to 
pre-narrative framing in storytelling practices in other cultures.
 






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