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Reported dialogue and pragmatic particles in the narratives of preadolescents
Author(s) -
Levey Stephen
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/1467-971x.00298
Subject(s) - narrative , variation (astronomy) , negotiation , interpersonal communication , psychology , identity (music) , developmental psychology , social psychology , gender studies , sociology , literature , aesthetics , art , social science , astrophysics , physics
This research report examines variation in the quotative system of a group of 23 preadolescents. It explores how variation in reported speech is used particularly by female speakers in their creation of performed narratives, which communicate affective involvement with retold events, and simultaneously seek the engagement of addressees who are invited by way of dramatized recounts to vicariously re‐experience significant episodes in the past. Variation in the use of specific quotative forms is linked to differences in the narrative styles of preadolescent girls and boys. Furthermore, distributional differences between girls' and boys' use of certain pragmatic particles which can be used to negotiate interpersonal alignments and mark assumptions of shared knowledge and experience, furnish compelling additional evidence of different orientations towards the construction of narrative recounts. The findings suggest that the girls and boys in this study access discourse features in varying frequencies and that these differences are arguably bound up with aspects of gender identity.