Relating Events in Narrative

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 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 of early language development.The book offers a pioneering approach to the interactions between form and function in the development and use of language, from a typological linguistic perspective. The study is based on a large crosslinguistic corpus of narratives, elicited from preschool, school-age, and adult subjects. All of the narratives were elicited by the same picture storybook,Frog, Where Are You?, by Mercer Mayer. (An appendix lists related studies using the same storybook in 50 languages.) The findings illuminate both universal and language-specific patterns of development, providing new insights into questions of language and thought.

Preface, Ruth A. Berman, Dan I. Slobin; Part I Introduction; Chapter Ia Different Ways of Relating Events: Introduction to the Study, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Chapter Ib Research Goals and Procedures, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Part II Development of Functions; Chapter IIa Narrative Structure, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Chapter IIb Knowledge of Goal/Plans: A Conceptual Basis for Narrating Frog, where are you?, Tom Trabasso, Philip C. Rodkin; Part III Development of Linguistic Forms; Chapter III0 Overview of Linguistic Forms in the Frog Stories, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Chapter IIIa Development of Linguistic Forms: English, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Chapter IIIb Development of Linguistic Forms: German, Michael Bamberg; Chapter IIIc Development of Linguistic Forms: Spanish, Eugenia Sebastián, Dan I. Slobin; Chapter IIId Development of Linguistic Forms: Hebrew, Ruth A. Berman, Yonni Neeman; Chapter IIIe Development of Linguistic Forms: Turkish, Ayhan A. Aksu-Koç; Part IV Development of Form-Function Relations; Chapter IV0 Form-Function Relations in the Development of Narrative, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Chapter IVa Temporal Relations in Narrative: Simultaneity, Ayhan Aksu-Koç, Christiane von Stutterheim; Chapter IVb The Development of Relative Clause Functions in Narrative, Lisa Dasinger; Chapter IVc Filtering and Packaging in Narrative, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Chapter IVd Foreshadowing and Wrapping up in Narrative, Michael Bamberg, Virginia Marchman; Part V Conclusions; Chapter V0 Implications, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Chapter Va Becoming a Proficient Speaker, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; Chapter Vb Becoming a Native Speaker, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin; bm-Chapter 1 Coda, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac SlobinAppendices, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobinfn_app1_1 Frog, where are you?, Mercer MayerGlossing and Transcription Conventions, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac SlobinResearch Using Frog, where are you?, by Mercer Mayer, Ruth A. Berman, Dan Isaac Slobin;