Cover not available

Article published In: Narrative in ‘societies of intimates’
Edited by Lesley Stirling, Jennifer Green, Tania Strahan and Susan Douglas
[Narrative Inquiry 26:2] 2016
► pp. 173–192

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Narrative in ‘societies of intimates’

Common ground and what makes a story

Published online: 30 March 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.26.2.01sti
When the Australian writer Richard Flanagan accepted the 2014 Man Booker Prize for fiction, he said that “As a species it is story that distinguishes us”. While the prize was given for a literary work written in English, Australia and the surrounding regions are replete with a rich diversity of oral traditions, and with stories remembered and told over countless generations and in many languages. In this article we consider both the universality and the cross-cultural and cross-linguistic diversity of various forms of narrative. We explore the question of what a linguistic typology of narrative might look like, and survey some of the literature relevant to this issue. Most specifically, we ask whether some observed differences in narrative style, structure, or delivery could derive from social features of the communities which produce them: their social density, informational homogeneity, and the high degree of common ground they share.
References (77)
References
Bamberg, M., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2008). Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text and Talk, 28(3), 377–396.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bani, E. (2001). The morphodirectional sphere. In J. Simpson, D. Nash, M. Laughren, P. Austin, & B. Alpher (Eds.), Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages (pp. 477–480). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauman, R. (1986). Story, performance, and event: Contextual studies of oral narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berman, R., & Slobin, D. (1994). Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berndt, C.H. (1963). Art and aesthetic expression. In H. Sheils (Ed.), Australian Aboriginal studies: A symposium of papers presented at the 1961 research conference, May 1961, Canberra (pp. 256–277). Melbourne: Oxford UP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruner, J. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18(1), 1–21.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1994). The ‘remembered’ self. In U. Neisser & R. Fivush (Eds.), The remembering self: Construction and accuracy in the self-narrative (pp. 41–54). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carruthers, J. (2012). Discourse and text. In R. Binnick (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of tense and aspect (pp. 306–334). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, W. (Ed.). (1980). The pear stories: Cognitive, cultural and linguistic aspects of narrative production. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Charola, E., & Meakins, F. (2016). Yijarni: True stories from Gurindji country. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, H.H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colby, B. (1970). The description of narrative structures. In P. Garvin (Ed.), Cognition: A multiple view (pp. 177–192). NY: Spartan Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dautenhahn, K. (2002). The origins of narrative: In search of the transactional format of narratives in humans and other social animals. International Journal of Cognition and Technology: Co-existence, Convergence, Co-evolution (IJCT), 1(1), 97–123.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Vries, L. (2006). Areal pragmatics of New Guinea: Thematization, distribution and recapitulative linkage in Papuan narratives. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(6), 811–828.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ellis, E.M. (2016). Pictures from my memory: My story as a Ngaatjatjarra woman. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, N. (2010). Dying words: Endangered languages and what they have to tell us. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gardner, R., & Mushin, I. (2007). Post-start-up overlap and disattentiveness in talk in a Garrwa community. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 30(3), 35.1–35.14.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015). Expanded transition spaces: The case of Garrwa. Frontiers in Psychology, 61: 251.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, T. (1979). On understanding grammar. Orlando: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, T., & Young, P. (2002). Cooperation and interpersonal manipulation in the society of intimates. In M. Shibatani (Ed.), The grammar of causation and interpersonal manipulation (pp. 23–56). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heath, S.B. (1982). What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school. Language in Society, 11(1), 49–76.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heiss, A. (2003). Dhuuluu-Yala: To talk straight–publishing Indigenous literature. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmes, J. (1998). Narrative structure: Some contrasts between Maori and Pakeha storytelling. Multilingua, 17(1), 25–57.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2003). ‘I couldn’t follow her story...’ Ethnic differences in New Zealand narratives. In J. House, G. Kaspar, & S. Ross (Eds.), Misunderstanding in social life (pp. 173–198). Harlow, UK: Pearson Education.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jack, F., MacDonald, S., Reese, E., & Hayne, H. (2009). Maternal reminiscing style during early childhood predicts the age of adolescents’ earliest memories. Child Development, 80(2), 496–505.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1971). Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics. In T.A. Sebeok (Ed.), Style in language (pp. 350–377). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klapproth, D. (2004). Narrative as social practice: Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal oral traditions. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Margetts, A. (2015). Person shift at narrative peak. Language, 91(4), 755–805.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayer, M. (1969). Frog, where are you? New York: Puffin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McAdams, D.P. (1993). The stories we live by. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGregor, W. (1989). Writing Aboriginal: Oral literature in print. Meridian, 8(1), 47–56.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Minami M., & McCabe, A. (1995). Rice balls and bear hunts: Japanese and North American family narrative patterns. Journal of Child Language, 22(2), 423–445.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mushin, I., & Gardner, R. (2009). Silence is talk: Conversational silences in Australian Aboriginal talk-in-interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(10), 2033–2052.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). Turn management in Garrwa mixed language conversations, In I. Mushin, B. Baker, R. Gardner, & M. Harvey (Eds.), Indigenous language and social identity: Papers in honour of Michael Walsh (pp. 207–221). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nelson, K., & Fivush, R. (2000). Socialization of memory. In E. Tulving & F. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of memory (pp. 283–295). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (1997). Narrative authenticity. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7(1-4), 83–91.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2001). Living narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perkins, R.D. (1988). The covariation of culture and grammar. In E. Moravcsik, M. Hammond, & J. Wirth (Eds.), Studies in syntactic typology (pp. 359–378). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polanyi, L. (1989). Telling the American story: A structural and cultural analysis of conversational storytelling. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Propp, V. (1975). Morphology of the folktale. Laurence Scott (Trans.), (2nd ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ray, S. (1907). Reports of the Cambridge anthropological expedition to Torres Straits (Vol. III Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reese, E., Jack, F., & White, N. (2010). Origins of adolescents’ autobiographical memories. Cognitive Development, 25(4), 352–367.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reese, E., Yan, C., Jack, F., & Hayne, H. (2010). Emerging identities: Narrative and self from early childhood to early adolescence. In K. McLean & M. Pasupathi (Eds.), Narrative development in adolescence (pp. 23–43). New York: Springer.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ritz, M.A. (2010). The perfect crime? Illicit uses of the present perfect in Australian police media releases. Journal of Pragmatics, 42(12), 3400–3417.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ritz, M.A., & Engel, D.M. (2008). “Vivid narrative use” and the meaning of the present perfect in spoken Australian English. Linguistics, 46(1), 131–160.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosaldo, R. (1986). Ilongot hunting as story and experience. In V. Turner & E. Bruner (Eds.), The anthropology of experience (pp. 97–138). Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rumsey A., & Niles, D. (2011). Sung tales from the Papua New Guinea highlands: Studies in form, meaning, and sociocultural context. Canberra: ANU Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryan, M.-L. (2005). Possible-worlds theory. In D. Herman, M. Jahn & M.-L. Ryan (Eds.), Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory (pp. 446–450). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiffrin, D. (1994). Making a list. Discourse Processes, 17(3), 377–406.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Senft, G. (2006). Review of the book “Narrative as social practice: Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal oral traditions, by D. Klapproth.” Journal of Pragmatics, 38(8), 1326–1331.  .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slobin, D.I. (2004). The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In S. Strömqvist & L. Verhoeven (Eds.), Relating events in narrative (Volume 2: Typological and contextual perspectives) (pp. 219–257). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Speer, N.K., Reynolds, J.R., Swallow, K.M., & Zacks, J.M. (2009). Reading stories activates neural representations of visual and motor experiences. Psychological Science, 20(8), 989–999.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stirling, L. (2010). Space, time and environment in Kala Lagaw Ya. In I. Mushin, B. Baker, R. Gardner, & M. Harvey (Eds.), Indigenous language and social identity: Papers in honour of Michael Walsh (pp. 179–203). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012) Tense and aspect shifts in Kala Lagaw Ya oral narratives. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 32(1), 157–190.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strömqvist, S., & Verhoeven, L.T. (Eds.). (2004). Relating events in narratives (Volume 2: Typological and contextual perspectives). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tessler, M., & Nelson, K. (1994). Making memories: The influence of joint encoding on later recall by young children. Consciousness and Cognition, 3(3), 307–326.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toolan, M. (1988). Narrative: A critical linguistic introduction. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trabasso, T., Secco, T., & van den Broek, P. (1984). Causal cohesion and story coherence. In H. Mandle, N.L. Stein, & T. Trabasso (Eds.), Learning and comprehension of text (pp. 83–111). Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trabasso, T., & Sperry, L.L. (1985). Causal relatedness and importance of story events. Journal of Memory and Language, 24(5), 595–611.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trabasso, T., & van den Broek, P. (1985). Causal thinking and representation of narrative events. Journal of Memory and Language, 24(5), 612–630.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (2012). On the sociolinguistic typology of linguistic complexity loss. Language Documentation & Conservation, Special publication No. 3, 90–95.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015), Societies of intimates and linguistic complexity. In R. de Busser & R. la Polla (Eds.), Language structure and environment: Social, cultural, and natural factors (pp. 133–147). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turner, M., & MacDonald, B. (2010). Iwenhe Tyerrtye: What it means to be an Aboriginal person. Alice Springs: IAD Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wallace, K.K., & Lovell, J. (2009). Listen deeply: Let these stories in. Alice Springs: IAD Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winskel, H. (2010). A comparison of caretaker-child conversations about past personal experiences in Thailand and Australia. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 41(3), 353–367.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winskel, H., Luksaneeyanawin, S., & Yangklang, P. (2006). Language socialisation of the child through caretaker-child personal narratives: A comparison of Thai and English. RELC Journal, 37(3), 356–368.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woodbury, A. (1998). Documenting rhetorical, aesthetic and expressive loss in language shift. In L.A. Grenoble & L.J. Whaley (Eds.), Endangered languages; Current issues and future prospects (pp. 234–260). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wray, A., & Grace, G.W. (2007). The consequences of talking to strangers: Evolutionary corollaries of socio-cultural influences on linguistic form. Lingua, 117(3), 543–578.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zacks, J., Speer, N., Swallow, K., Braver, T., & Reynolds, J. (2007). Event perception: A mind-brain perspective. Psychological Bulletin, 133(2), 273–293.  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Hill, Clair
2022. Multiparty storytelling in Umpila and Kuuku Ya’u. Australian Journal of Linguistics 42:3-4 ► pp. 251 ff. DOI logo
Ferguson, Matthew Robert
2020. International colleges and the cultivation of social capital in a divided Thailand: A narrative study of leadership perspectives at a Bangkok-based campus. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 15:3 ► pp. 227 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue