Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-7tdvq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-21T16:05:22.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A feature of performed narrative: the conversational historical present1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Nessa Wolfson
Nessa Wolfson
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Education, The University of Pennsylvania
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The historical present, the use of the present tense to refer to past events, is a feature of narrative which has long been recognized. The object of this analysis is the use of the historical present tense specifically in narratives which occur in everyday conversational interactions. This usage will be referred to as the conversational historical present to distinguish it from the use of this tense in other genres such as travelogues and jokes. In the analysis of the occurrence of the conversational historical present, it was found that features of the relationship between the speaker and the audience had a strong influence. This is true not because the use of the linguistic feature itself is socially stratified, but rather because it functions as one of a set of features which appear in a specific type of narrative and is therefore governed by norms of interaction which constrain the social behavior involved in the recounting of such narratives. The fact that the use of the conversational historical present is an interactional variable in this respect has had important theoretical and methodological implications for the analysis which is reported here. The basic theoretical point is that in the study of the conversational historical present one sees a perfect example of the relationship between linguistic structure and language use.

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , August 1978 , pp. 215 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Birdwhistell, R. L. (1970) Kinesics and context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Brown, G. (1880) The grammar of English grammars. New York: William Wood.Google Scholar
Brown, R. & Ford, M. (1961) Address in American English. In Hymes, D. (ed.), Language in Culture and Society. New York: Harper and Row. 234–244.Google Scholar
Brown, R. & Gilman, A. (1960) The pronouns of power and solidarity. In Sebeok, T. A. (ed.), Style and language. Cambridge, Mass.: The Technology Press. 253–76.Google Scholar
Curme, G. O. (1931) A grammar of the English language. Boston: D. C. Heath.Google Scholar
Diver, W. (1963) The chronological system of the English verb. Word 19. 141–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E. (1975) Frame analysis. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1974a) Foundations in sociolinguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hymes, D.(1974b) Breakthrough into Performance. In Ben-Amos, D. & Goldstein, K. (eds) Folklore, performance and communication. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1977) Discovering oral performance and measured verse in American Indian narrative, New Literary History VIII (3).Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1957) Shifters, verbal categories and the Russian verb. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, Russian Language Project.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. (1927) A modern English grammar on historical principals. Parts 3, 4, and 5.Google Scholar
Joos, M. (1964) The English verb. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966) The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Leech, G. (1971) Meaning and the English verb. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Palmer, F. R. (1965) A linguistic study of the English verb. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Shuy, R., Wolfram, W. & Riley, W. (1968) Field techniques in an urban language study. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Sweet, H. (1892) A new English grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Wolfson, N. (1976a) Speech events and natural speech: some implications for sociolinguistic methodology. LinS 5 (2).Google Scholar
Wolfson, N. (1976b) The conversational historical present in American English narrative. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Wolfson, N.(1977 ms.) CHP as a discourse feature.Google Scholar