Variation in Discourse
Midwestern Narrative Style
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8728294 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Barbara Johnstone (0000-0002-1916-3155, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 195-195 |
| Publication date | 1990-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1283 • E-ISSN: 1527-2133 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/455909 |
| OpenAlex | W1980829790 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 7 |
ENORMOUS PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE in the description of the sounds, words, and grammar of varieties of American English during the past seventyfive years, and especially during the last quarter century. Both in the older tradition of dialect geography and in the newer paradigm of variation studies pioneered by Labov, research on variation in phonology, morphology, and syntax has been relatively unified in focus and in methodology, and its results-though much work still remains to be done-have been relatively clear and cumulative. The same cannot be said, however, of research on variation in American speech at the level of discourse. While there has been some interest in discourse-level variation, different researchers have pursued this interest by examining different sorts of variables, with a variety of differing research methodologies based on differing views about what constitutes the relevant level of analysis. It is not my purpose in this paper to propose a unified paradigm for the study of discourse variation. I will simply point out that there is one sort of discourse variation-regional variation-which has not so far been systematically studied, and sketch a description of some of the characteristics of one discourse genre in one region of the United States. I will show how one feature of Midwestern storytelling style, namely the use of highly specific detail, is tied in several ways to local norms for interaction and for the interpretation of talk. The paper is organized as follows. First, I provide a brief overview of previous research on discourse-level variation in American speech. I then discuss my general research question: Is there regional variation in discourse, and, if so, what might be the parameters of such variation? I next turn to an analysis of spontaneous personal-experience narratives told by one group of Midwesterners, focusing on their use of details. After summarizing relevant research on personal-experience narrative, I will show how the characteristically highly detailed, realistic style of these Midwestern narratives is tied to regional folk perceptions about language and language use
Art · Astronomy · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Variation (astronomy · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 1997 - 2020 (24) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |