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Article published In: Journal of Narrative and Life History
Vol. 6:1 (1996) ► pp.65–86

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Looking for Frogs in the Narrative Stream: Global and Local Relations in Maternal Narratives

 | Northeastern University American Sign Language Program
 | San Diego State University
Published online: 4 August 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.6.1.04loo
Abstract In this study, we compared storytelling of a pictured narrative, Frog, Where Are You?, by 6 Deaf and 6 hearing mothers in American Sign Language (ASL) and in English, respectively. How do these mothers construct their stories, that is, how do they mark episodes? And how do English-speakers' strategies differ from ASL-users' strategies? We found that stories in ASL contained more explicit markers to signal both local and global relations of the narrative. Because of modality and grammatical differences between English and ASL, Deaf mothers seemed to have more strategies available to use. Although the overall pattern of use throughout the story was similar, Deaf mothers appeared to be more "dramatic" in their storytelling than were hearing mothers. Both groups of parents used a variety of markers to call their children's attention to the theme of the story. (Psychology)
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