LINGUIST List 25.3040
Thu
Jul 24 2014
Review: Discourse
Analysis; Ling & Literature; Socioling: Labov
(2013)
Editor for this issue:
Malgorzata Cavar <gosialinguistlist.org>
Date: 25-Mar-2014
From: Marta Lupica Spagnolo
<luspagnm
gmail.com>
Subject: The Language of Life
and Death
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Book announced at
http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-3441.html
AUTHOR: William Labov
TITLE: The Language of Life and Death
SUBTITLE: The Transformation of Experience in
Oral Narrative
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2013
REVIEWER: Marta Lupica Spagnolo, Free
University of Bozen-Bolzano
INTRODUCTION
At the time when Labov and Waletzky were asking
themselves in 1967 about the criteria for
recognizing narrative in speech and the
relation between the sequence of clauses and
events in a narration, narrative analysis was a
quite unexplored field of research in
linguistics. In proposing a framework for
formal and functional analysis of oral
narratives of personal experience, they laid
the groundwork for a linguistics approach to
this issue. Fast-forward 50 years later,
William Labov extensively returns to these and
related questions in the book “The Language of
Life and Death: The transformation of
Experience in Oral Narrative”. Intriguingly, he
shows how the transfer of the speaker´s
experience to the audience is achieved by the
narration of events that concern one of the
seemingly most incommunicable
topics--death.
“The Language of Life and Death” was published
by Cambridge University Press in 2013. On the
one hand, the book aims to illustrate a
framework for structural analysis and
comparison of oral narratives which, after the
first formulation in 1967, was further
developed by the author in later essays (see,
e.g., Labov 1997, Labov 2006). On the other
hand, Labov purposes the grasping of mental
processes and linguistic strategies followed
and exploited by the speakers by composing a
narrative of great emotional impact on the
audience. That is, one that succeeds in
transferring the experience of the speaker to
the listener/reader. Assuming that the teller
transforms the narrated experience in the
interests of the self without lying, the
processes of narrative reconstruction and
construction are seen as modeled by the
maximization of three principles (the first and
the second inversely correlated):
reportability, credibility and tellability.
SUMMARY
In the introduction, Labov accounts for his
(first) interest in sampling oral narratives of
personal experiences that involve highly
reportable topics (death, sex and moral
indignation) as elicitation technique for
obtaining vernacular data. Furthermore, he
contextualizes his own approach to narrative in
sociolinguistics and discourse analysis
literature. “Big stories”, as told in
sociolinguistic interviews, are chosen as
material for the present book in consideration
of their “archetypical” form (p. 8). Since the
speaker is not constrained by competition for
the floor, he/she can develop a narrative in
its full structure in a sociolinguistic
interview. Nevertheless, the effects of
audience design are considerably
underrepresented in such an elicitation setting
in comparison with what happens in ordinary
conversation (see, e.g., some essays in Bamberg
2007 for a discussion on the topic).
The concept of “tense” is central in a
linguistic definition of narrative as discussed
in Chapter 1. A narrative is a particular way
of retelling past events that actually happened
whereupon the order of independent clauses
corresponds to “the order of the original
events referred to” (p. 15). Actually, really
produced narratives are often a succession of
narrative clauses, i.e., independent clauses
separated by a temporal juncture, and free and
restricted clauses, which cover a more extended
temporal range and are often headed by stative
verbs or verbs in progressive tense. The
linguistic alternation between clause types,
and the related oscillation between recounting,
orienting and evaluating sections,
distinguishes narratives from other genres
which report past events. Furthermore, another
empirically observed characteristic feature of
narratives is the rarity of flashbacks as a
result of the egocentric principle.
The first step in producing a narrative is the
recursive reconstruction of the chain of causal
relationships that connects the most reportable
event with its initiating matrix; that is, the
triggering event or situation that is perceived
by the teller as not needing any further
explanation. By the following process of
narrative construction, the complicating action
is typically completed by other elements and
sections: abstract, orientation, evaluation,
resolution, and coda. They normally accomplish
further narrative or communicative tasks. Apart
of reporting past events, a main function of
narratives is, in fact, to assign “praise and
blame to the actors involved” (p. 35). This
goal shapes the structure of a narrative. For
example, it drives the teller in the choice of
the initiating event and in the placement of
the orientation. Even the omission of events or
the interruption of the causal chain of
narrative clauses with postponed orientation
elements, evaluative remarks or instrumental
acts can be justified in consideration of this
purpose.
In the narratives of Chapters 3 and 4, the
protagonists are respectively faced with a
life-threatening escalation of violence and
with a traumatic confrontation with death and
dead bodies. To exemplify the previous
theoretical discussion in these and following
chapters, the sequence of events underlying
each narration is rebuilt. Unclear causal
connections between narrative clauses are
interpreted through inquiry into the teller´s
cultural background or through his commitment
to assign or avoid assigning moral
responsibility to the actors. Very
interestingly, linguistics forms that serve
polarizing or integrating strategies of the
speaker are identified. For instance,
quasi-modal verbs, such as “started to”, “ready
to” etc., and zero-causative verbs, such as
“drive”, are respectively ambiguous in regard
to “the presence or the absence of the
activity” and to the assignment of agency (p.
57). Thus, their use allows the narrator to
avoid taking a position about these issues by
reporting a past experience without lying.
A peculiarity of the narratives about
premonitions and communication with the dead in
Chapter 5 is the nature of the most reportable
event. In these narrations, the most reportable
event concerns the temporal “distribution of
information” to the participants (p. 97).
Moreover, syntactic and lexical complexity is
employed in a singular way so as to increase
the narrative impact. Despite the audience´s
possible skepticism regarding these topics and
the related risk for the teller of “losing
face” (p. 90), the narrator succeeds in
generating interest and credibility.
Each of the following four chapters (6-9)
contains a single narration that the author
defines as “epic” because of its thematic and
formal features. Indeed, these narratives are
“episodic in principle” and deal with the
struggle of an extraordinary person against
“hopeless odds” (p. 107). Furthermore, these
narratives differ from the previous stories
regarding their style and basic strategies.
Instead of achieving emotional impact and
objectivity by eliding events or by presenting
objects as witnesses, the teller gives an
extensive account of the social background and
resolution of the story. As the selected epic
narratives are all told by women, gender
differences can be recognized in the
prototypical way of narrating personal
experiences. However, a common feature of
female and male narratives, which emerges from
the analysis conducted hitherto, is the
interaction of requests and responses in
forming the skeleton of narrative structure (p.
145). The reference to conversational analysis
and to the concept of “adjacency pair” suggests
the profitability of the interplay of different
approaches in studying narration. Among the
most interesting linguistics features of these
narratives are the particular name and naming
strategies employed, such as the use of
non-anaphoric pronouns to refer to the most
important person in the context (p. 119), and
the switch between codes or the choice between
local and non-local variants in order to
characterize the direct speech of a figure (p.
135) or to position the self relating to
community values (p. 128).
A multi-episodic male narrative, which is
embedded in a daily conversation, is analyzed
in Chapter 10. The same structural features and
similar polarization strategies emerge as in
the previous stories elicited during
interviews. At the end of the conversation, the
speaker continues recounting past events, but
the report “does not take narrative form” (p.
174). As in another narrative of Chapter 4 (pp.
82-87), the lack of narrative construction
could depend on the speaker´s attitude towards
the past experience. Indeed, the development of
a personal narrative seems to require emotional
control and a confident interpretation of his
past.
The style and prosodic pattern of Donald Wise´s
narratives in Chapter 11 especially deserve the
label “epic”. In recounting his spectacular
robbery of the gas man, Donald uses a typical
rhythmic pattern of a toast´s recitation by
pronouncing a syllable extra-long in the last
clause. Referring to research that discusses
the oral origins of traditional epic poems
(see, e.g., Lord 1960), Labov considers in this
chapter the reciprocal influences and
similarities between oral epic narratives and
oral narratives of personal experiences.
Chapter 12 opens with an oral narrative of an
historical fact told by an historian in
retirement during an interview. The example
introduces the reader into the long-standing
dispute over the role and legitimacy of
(personal) narratives in historical writing. In
the following three chapters (13-15), Labov
analyzes four historical narratives regarding
the question of their (more or less extensive)
employment of the same techniques found in oral
narratives of personal experience. The four
narratives are collected from three historical
books written by diverse authors in very
different periods: “The History of England” by
Lord Macaulay, “Tudor England” by S.T. Bindoff
and the Old Testament. The method developed in
the previous chapters proves to be useful in
reconstructing the interpretation of the past
conveyed by the author to the reader.
In the last chapter, the author proposes an
“eight-point” schema for the analysis of any
given narrative or episode in a narrative that
would help by enhancing their comparability
(pp. 223-224). In addition, he returns to the
crucial functions of narration. The transfer of
the speaker´s experience to the audience relies
on the credibility of the causal sequence of
narrated events, i.e., on its plausibility in
regard of the listener´s knowledge of human
behavior (p. 225). Furthermore, it is based on
the creation of empathy (p. 227). Thus,
evaluative devices, such as the evocation of
alternative universes by means of negative
sentences or verbs in modis irrealis and the
placement of the orientation, serve the
transferring function of a narrative by
achieving identification and by conveying the
point of view of the teller without distorting
the facts.
EVALUATION
“The Language of Life and Death” is a
comprehensive book which encourages reflections
on linguistics issues and more general topics.
Labov offers a detailed account of oral
narratives of personal experiences regarding
their structures and functions and suggests a
generalization of his approach to the study of
other narrative types; namely, oral epic
narratives and written historical narratives.
Furthermore, he provides the reader with a
picture of people´s handling and conceiving of
the end of their and other people´s lives by
discussing a selection of prototypical stories.
The settings and periods of collection of these
narratives range from the sixties to the
eighties, and from the suburbs of Philadelphia
to a rural area in Utah. Each of these stories
is embedded and documents the particular social
and cultural environment of the teller. At the
same time, the book can also be read as a
journal of the field research of the author and
his students. Indeed, Labov describes the
occasion and the participants of the interviews
often by referring to his personal
relationships with them.
Language-centered strategies are recognized by
Labov at different levels of narrative
generation. The ambiguities of the English
language are functionally exploited by the
narrator in order to present his experience in
the best light without saying an untruth (p.
36). Moreover, the report of communicative
interactions between the figures structurally
serves the construction of a plausible and
easily interpretable casual chain of events.
Indeed, it provokes prefabricated associations
in the listener founded on his communicative
experience (p. 146). For its dramatizing
effects, direct speech is often quoted in a
narrative, whereupon its omission and
substitution by simple mention of the speech
act can function either as a polarizing or
integrating technique (pp. 172-173). Again, the
expression of evaluative remarks mainly depends
on the purely verbal construction of parallel
universes, thought negation, and verbs in
irrealis moods (p. 226). Thus, the generation
of a narrative relies on language in different
ways. Linguistic structures and speech are
employed for constructing narratives and are
also the topic of narratives because the teller
often reports speech events.
Recurrently, Labov recaps the purposes and
outcomes of his analysis and explains the
concepts and grammatical distinctions he uses,
addressing not only a public of linguists.
Nevertheless, the book cannot be considered an
introduction to narrative analysis in
sociolinguistics, nor does it want to. The
bibliography is essential and other possible
approaches are only briefly discussed in
relation to the account which the author
embraces. In my opinion, a greater number of
examples that do not fit in the model of
narratives of personal experience would
highlight the similarities with historical
narratives discussed in the last chapters in a
more convincing way. In this regard, the
exemplification of narrative and non-narrative
techniques in Bindoff´s historical passage “The
Death of Essex” and the comparison of this
“intermediate genre” with a fully developed
narrative by the same author are very useful
(p. 207). In the same way, the discussion about
“unsuccessful” narratives in chapters 4 and 11
enlightens ex negativo the boundaries of the
research object.
Finally, the stories about premonitions and
communication with death are especially
fascinating because of the high tension between
reportability and credibility. Interestingly,
Deppermann & Lucius-Hoene (2006) also
exemplify by means of an oral narration about
death premonition the controversial thesis that
narratives can be argumentatively structured.
According to the authors, the argumentative
construction of the episodes becomes evident by
embedding the monologic speech of the teller in
implicit skeptical questions (Deppermann &
Lucius-Hoene 2006: 137). Referring to
narratives in Chapter 5, Labov notes the
struggle of the teller with a silent “although”
that conditions the delivery of the most
reportable event (p. 94). As in Deppermann
& Lucius-Hoene 2006, interesting research
outlooks are opened by further analysis of such
narratives with a high persuasion demand and by
the evaluation of their implications on the
genre theory.
REFERENCES
Deppermann, Arnulf & Lucius-Hoene,
Gabriele. 2006. Argumentatives Erzählen. In A.
Deppermann and M. Hartung (eds.), Argumentieren
in Gesprächen. Gesprächsanalytische Studien.
Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag. 130-144.
Labov, William & Waletzky, Joshua. 1967.
Narrative Analysis: Oral Version of Personal
Experience. In J. Helm (ed.), Essays on the
Verbal and Visual arts. Proceedings of the 1966
annual spring meeting of the American
Ethnological Society. Seattle: University of
Washington Press. 12-44.
Labov, William. 1997. Some Further Steps in
Narrative Analysis. The Journal of Narrative
and Life History 7. 395-415.
Labov, William. 2006. Narrative
pre-construction. Narrative Inquiry 16(1).
37-45.
Lord, Albert B. 1960. The Singer of Tales.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bamberg, Michael. 2007. Narrative: State of the
Art. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Marta Lupica Spagnolo is a Ph.D. student at
Free University of Bozen/Bolzano and Università
degli Studi di Pavia (Italy). For her Ph.D.
dissertation, she is currently working on the
language biographies of people who have moved
from the Balkans Peninsula to South Tyrol. She
earned her M.A. in Linguistics at the
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, with a thesis
in Corpus Linguistics on the productivity of
some morphological categories in texts of
non-native German writers. Her research
interests are mainly focused on
sociolinguistics, language contact, morphology
and corpus linguistics.
Page Updated: 24-Jul-2014