Cover not available

In:The Documentarist Turn: From observable linguistic behaviour to typological generalizations
Edited by Sonja Riesberg, Uta Reinöhl and Birgit Hellwig
[Studies in Language Companion Series 240] 2026
► pp. 724–754

Chapter 26
Hierarchical discourse structure in spoken narratives

ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne
ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne
ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Under-described languages may present diverse strategies of structuring narrative discourse. Investigations into the structure of narratives of such languages, in particular ones with a predominantly oral tradition, are still scarce, and even more so studies that relate the structure with the corresponding linguistic devices. A critical component of the hierarchical structure of discourse is captured in semantic-pragmatic relationships within and across fragments, i.e. strings of text of the length of one or more paragraphs. We investigate texts from two less described languages (Samoan, Austronesian and Chipaya, Uru-Chipayan) to delineate their hierarchical structure on a local and a global level applying three different semantic-pragmatic approaches (among them SDRT) in a comparative way.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical assumptions and introduction to applied approaches
    • 2.1Local relationships between propositions according to SDRT
    • 2.2Semantic-pragmatic approaches with a holistic view
      • 2.2.1Patterns of repetition (Grimes 1972)
      • 2.2.2Salience and discourse transitions (Redeker 2006, Chiarcos 2011)
  • 3.Samoan
    • 3.1Analysis according to patterns of repetition
    • 3.2Analysis according to SDRT
    • 3.3Comparison of approaches
  • 4.Chipaya
    • 4.1Analysis of the Chipaya text
    • 4.2Analysis according to SDRT
    • 4.3Comparison and discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (66)
References
Adelaar, Willem. 2007. “Threatened Languages in Hispanic South America.” In Language Diversity Endangered, ed. by Matthias Brenzinger, 9–28. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Adelaar, Willem, with the collaboration of Pieter Muysken. 2004. The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asher, Nicholas, and Alex Lascarides. 2003. Logics of Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asher, Nicholas, and Laure Vieu. 2001. “Subordinating and Coordinating Discourse Relations.” Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Semantics, Pragmatics and Rhetoric (SPR’01), 57–64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “Subordinating and Coordinating Discourse Relations.” Lingua 115 (4): 591–610. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asher, Nicholas, Laurent Prévot, and Laure Vieu. 2007. “Setting the Background in Discourse.” Discours 1: 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bamberg, Michael. 1994. “Actions, Events, Scenes, Plots and the Drama. Language and the Constitution of Part-Whole Relationships.” Language Sciences 16: 39–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Becker, Martin, and Jakob Egetenmeyer. 2018. “A Prominence-based Account of Temporal Discourse Structure.” Lingua 214: 28–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bublitz, Wolfram. 2006. “It Utterly Boggles the Mind: Knowledge, Common Ground and Coherence.” In Language and Memory. Aspects of Knowledge Representation, ed. by Hanna Pishwa, 359–386. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. 2006. El chipaya o la lengua de los hombres del agua. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. “Chipaya.” In Lenguas de Bolivia, Vol. I: Ámbito andino, ed. by Mily Crevels, and Pieter Muysken, 29–77. La Paz, Bolivia: Plural Editores.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace L. 1987. “Cognitive Constraints on Information Flow.” In Coherence and Grounding in Discourse, ed. by Russell Tomlin, 21–52. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chiarcos, Christian. 2011. “The Mental Salience Framework: Context-Adequate Generation of Referring Expressions.” In Salience: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Its Function in Discourse, ed. by Michael Grabski, Claus Berry, and Christian Chiarcos, 105–139. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chiarcos, Christian, Claus Berry, and Michael Grabski. 2011. “Introduction: Salience in Linguistics and Beyond.” In Salience: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Its Function in Discourse, ed. by Michael Grabski, Claus Berry, and Christian Chiarcos, 1–28. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Compes, Isabel. 2000. “Textfunktionen deiktischer Direktionalpartikeln im Samoanischen.” In Räumliche Konzepte und sprachliche Strukturen, ed. by Christopher Habel, and Christiane von Stutterheim, 119–150. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Textkonstituierung in gesprochener Sprache: eine Fallstudie zum Verfahren der Verortung am Beispiel samoanischer Narrationen. München: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DobeS. Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen, Documentation of Endangered Languages. [URL] (9 April 2025).
Eberhard, David M., Gary Francis Simons, and Charles D. Fennig. 2020. Ethnologue: Languages of the Americas and the Pacific. 23rd ed. Dallas: SIL.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Egetenmeyer, Jakob. 2024. “Textual Development Beyond Temporality and Interactions Between the Adversative Connector pero and the indefinido.” In Tense, Aspect and Discourse Structure, ed. by Jakob Egetenmeyer, Sarah Dessì Schmid, and Martin Becker, 297–319. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. In prep. a. Episodes are Determined Backwards. Addressing the Problem of Text-segmentation.
. In prep. b. The Spanish Additive Connector además (‘furthermore’) in Discourse Structure.
Fleischman, Suzanne. 1986. “‘Overlay Structure’ in the Song of Roland: A Discourse-Pragmatic Strategy of Oral Narrative.” BLS 12: 108–123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grimes, Joseph E. 1972. “Outlines and Overlays”. Language 48 (3): 513–524. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1975. The Thread of Discourse. The Hague/Paris: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1967a. “Notes on Transitivity and Theme in English Part I.” Journal of Linguistics 3 (1): 37–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1967. “Notes on Transitivity and Theme in English Part 2.” Journal of Linguistics 3 (2): 199–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1968. “Notes on Transitivity and Theme in English Part 3.” Journal of Linguistics 4 (2): 179–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hannß, Katja. 2008. Uchumataqu. The Lost Language of the Urus of Bolivia. A Grammatical Description of the Language as Documented between 1894 and 1952. PhD Thesis, University of Leiden.
. 2024. “Uru and Chipaya.” In The Oxford Guide to the Languages of the Central Andes, ed. by Matthias Urban, 265–310. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 1998. “Documentary and Descriptive Linguistics.” Linguistics 36 (1): 161–195. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. “The Challenges of Segmenting Spoken Language.” In Essentials of Language Documentation, ed. by Jost Gippert, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, and Ulrike Mosel, 253–274. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2018. “Meeting the Transcription Challenge.” In Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years after Himmelmann 1998, ed. by Bradley McDonnell, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, and Gary Holton, 33–40. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. [URL]
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P., and Beatrice Primus. 2015. “Prominence Beyond Prosody — A First Approximation.” In PS-prominenceS: Prominences in Linguistics. Proceedings of the International Conference, 38–58. Viterbo: DISUCOM Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P., Meytal Sandler, Jan Strunk, and Volker Unterladstetter. 2018. “On the Universality of Intonational Phrases in Spontaneous Speech — A Cross-linguistic Interrater Study.” Phonology 35 (2): 207–245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hobbs, Jerry R. 1979. “Coherence and Coreference.” Cognitive Science 3: 67–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jasinskaja, Katja. 2007. Pragmatics and Prosody of Implicit Discourse Relations: The Case of Restatement. PhD Thesis, University of Tübingen. [URL]
Jasinskaja, Katja, and Elena Karagjosova. 2020. “Rhetorical Relations” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Semantics, ed. by Daniel Gutzmann, Lisa Matthewson, Hotze Rullmann, Thomas Ede Zimmermann, and Cécilie Meier, 1–29. Wiley Online Library. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnstone, Barbara (ed). 1994. Repetition in Discourse. Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kehler, Andrew. 2002. Coherence, Reference, and the Theory of Grammar. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang, and Christiane von Stutterheim. 1987. “Quaestio und referentielle Bewegung in Erzählungen.“ Linguistische Berichte 109: 163–183.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. Language in the Inner City. Philadelphia: Philadelphia University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William, and Joshua Waletzky. 1967. “Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience.” In Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts. ed. by June Helm. 12–44. Seattle: University of Washington.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ladd, D. Robert. 1986. “Intonational Phrasing: The Case for Recursive Prosodic Structure.” Phonology Yearbook 3: 311–340. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Longacre, Robert E. 1976. The Anatomy of Speech Notions. Lisse: The Peter de Ridder Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1979. “The Paragraph as a Grammatical Unit.” In Syntax and Semantics. Discourse and Syntax, Volume 12, ed. by Talmy Givón, 115–134. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1983. The Grammar of Discourse. New York: Plenum Pr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. “Sentences as Combinations of Clauses.” In Language Typology and Syntactic Description. 2nd edition. ed. by Timothy Shopen, 372–420. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mann, Bill, and Maite Taboada. 2005–2025. RST Web Site. Online available at [URL] (last access: March 10, 2025).
Mann, William, and Sandra Thompson. 1988. “Rhetorical Structure Theory: Toward a Functional Theory of Text Organization.” Text 8 (3): 243–281.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonnell, Bradley, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, and Gary Holton (eds). 2018. Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years after Himmelmann 1998. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. [URL]
Milner, George B. 1993. Samoan Dictionary. Reprint of Edition 1966. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mosel, Ulrike, and Even Hovdhaugen. 1992. Samoan Reference Grammar. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polanyi, Livia. 1988. “A Formal Model of the Structure of Discourse.” Journal of Pragmatics 12 (5–6): 601–638. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Redeker, Gisela. 2006. “Discourse Markers as Attentional Cues at Discourse Transitions.” In Approaches to Discourse Particles, ed. by Kerstin Fischer, 339–358. Oxford, Amsterdam: Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Renkema, Jan, and Christoph Schubert. 2018. Introduction to Discourse Studies. New Edition. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sanders, Ted J. M., Vera Demberg, Jet Hoek, Merel C. J. Scholman, Fatemeh Torabi Asr, Sandrine Zufferey, and Jacqueline Evers-Vermeul. 2018. “Unifying Dimensions in Coherence Relations: How Various Annotation Frameworks are Related.” Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 17 (1): 1–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. 1993. “Syntactic Categories and Subcategories.” In Syntax: ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung / An International Handbook of Contemporary Research, Vol. 1, ed. by Joachim Jacobs et al., 646–686. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serzisko, Fritz. 1992. Sprechhandlungen und Pausen. Diskursorientierte Sprachbeschreibung am Beispiel des Ik. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. “The Paragraph in Spoken Narrative Discourse.” In Organization in Discourse. Proceedings from the Turku Conference, ed. by Brita Wärvik, Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, and Risto Hiltunen, 497–508. Turku, Finland: University of Turku.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah. 1987. “Repetition in Conversation: Towards a Poetics of Talk.” Language 63 (3): 574–605. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tesnière, Lucien. 1959. Éléments de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Librarie C. Klincksieck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Language Archive (TLA). “Chipaya Project”. [URL] (10 April 2025).
Wolf, Florian, and Edward Gibson. 2005. “Representing Discourse Coherence: A Corpus-based Study.” Computational Linguistics 31 (2): 249–287. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zeevat, Henk. 2011. “Rhetorical Relations.” In Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language and Meaning, Vol. 1, ed. by Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger, and Paul Portner, 946–970. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue