Relating Events in Narrative : A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study

by Berman, Ruth A.; Slobin, Dan Issac

• ISBN13: 9780805814354
• ISBN10: 0805814353
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-04-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

This volume represents the culmination of an extensive research project that studied the development of linguistic form/function relations in narrative discourse. It is unique in the extent of data which it analyzes-more than 250 texts from children and adults speaking five different languages-and in its crosslinguistic, typological focus. It is the first book to address the issue of how the structural properties and rhetorical preferences of different native languages-English, German, Spanish, Hebrew, and Turkish-impinge on narrative abilities across different phases of development. The work of Berman and Slobin and their colleagues provides insight into the interplay between shared, possibly universal, patterns in the developing ability to create well-constructed, globally organized narratives among preschoolers Contact Susan Barker at [phone] for more information. from three years of age compared with school children and adults, contrasted against the impact of typological and rhetorical features of particular native languages on how speakers express these abilities in the process of "relating events in narrative." This volume also makes a special contribution to the field of language acquisition and development by providing detailed analyses of how linguistic forms come to be used in the service of narrative functions, such as the expression of temporal relations of simultaneity and retrospection, perspective-taking on events, and textual connectivity. To present this information, the authors prepared in-depth analyses of a wide range of linguistic systems, including tense-aspect marking, passive and middle voice, locative and directional predications, connectivity markers,null subjects, and relative clause constructions. In contrast to most work in the field of language acquisition, this book focuses on developments in the use of these early forms in extended discourse-beyond the initial phase

Table of Contents

Preface
Contributors
Introduction
Different Ways of Relating Events: Introduction to the Study	p. 1
Research Goals and Procedures	p. 17
Development of Functions
Narrative Structure	p. 39
Knowledge of Goal/Plans: A Conceptual Basis for Narrating Frog, where are you?	p. 85
Development of Linguistic Forms
Overview of Linguistic Forms in the Frog Stories	p. 109
Development of Linguistic Forms: English	p. 127
Development of Linguistic Forms: German	p. 189
Development of Linguistic Forms: Spanish	p. 239
Development of Linguistic Forms: Hebrew	p. 285
Development of Linguistic Forms: Turkish	p. 329
Development of Form-Function Relations
Form-Function Relations In the Development of Narrative	p. 389
Temporal Relations in Narrative: Simultaneity	p. 393
The Development of Relative Clause Functions in Narrative	p. 457
Filtering and Packaging In Narrative	p. 515
Foreshadowing and Wrapping Up in Narrative	p. 555
Conclusions
Implications	p. 593
Becoming a Proficient Speaker	p. 597
Becoming a Native Speaker	p. 611
Coda	p. 643
App. I. Pictures: Frog, where are you?	p. 647
App. II. Glossing and Transcription Conventions	p. 655
App. III. Research Using Frog, where are you?	p. 665
References	p. 679
Subject Index	p. 719
Name Index	p. 739
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.