Immersion in the Storyworld:

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Immersion in the Storyworld

• Foregrounding and Backgrounding in Yapese
  Narrative

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Two aims 1. To account for tense-aspect
alternations in Yapese narrative 2. To
synthesize two theoretical approaches

• Two approaches
• 1. Textlinguistics (Labov 1972, Dry 1983,1988,
  1992, Fleischman 1990)
• Uses naturalistic data
• Focuses on entire monologic texts
• Structuralist-functional
• How does the structure of the text affect the
  form of the clause?
• How does narrative work?
• 2. Discourse Processing (Zwaan Radvansky 1998,
  Zwaan 2004)
• Experimentalist uses constructed language data
  to tightly control variables
• Cognitivist
• How is the imagined world of the story
  represented?
• How does narrative work?

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Key Concepts from Textlinguistics

• Definition of a minimal narrative
• two clauses which are temporally ordered that
  is, a change in their order will result in a
  change in the temporal sequence of the original
  semantic interpretation (Labov 1972 360)

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Foreground and Background

• Foregrounded or narrative
• clauses
• Iconic
• Sequential do not overlap
• Form the skeleton of the plotline

• Backgrounded, non-
• narrative or free clauses
• May be reordered
• May overlap the foregrounded clauses in time
• Describe temporally unordered qualities of
  setting, characters, etc.

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• Foregrounding and backgrounding as a cline
• (Fleischman 1985, 1990, Givón 1987)
• Multiple levels of foregrounding backgrounding
  in mesoamerican languages (Jones Jones 1979)
• Tense-aspect as a marker of degrees of foreground
  in multiple languages
• Bafut (Bantu, NW Cameroon, Mfonyam 1994)
• Old French (Fleischman 1985, 1990)
• Tokelauan (Hooper 1998)
• Australian English (Engel Ritz 2000)

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Discourse Processing Approaches Theoretical
Insights

• The Situation Model framework
• (van Dijk Kintsch 1983, Johnson-Laird 1983,
  Kintsch 1998, Zwaan and Radvansky 1998, Zwaan
  2004)
• Comprehenders keep track of a mental
  representation of the world evoked by linguistic
  input.

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Zwaan's (2004) Immersed Experiencer Framework
(IEF)

• Influenced by perceptual/experiential model of
  language comprehension (e.g. Barsalou 1999)
• comprehension is the vicarious experience of the
  described events through the integration and
  sequencing of traces from actual experience cued
  by the linguistic input
• (Zwaan 2004 38)

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Zwaan Radvansky's (1998) Five Situational
Dimensions

• Space
• Protagonist Object
• Time
• Causality
• Intentionality

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Time

• Iconic events are processed more easily than
  events out of order.
• (Ohtsuka Brewer 1992, van der Meer et al. 2002)
• IEF explanation We experience events in the
  order in which they occur.

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Intentionality

• Events connected as goal-satisfaction chains are
  more easily processed than events which are not
  so connected. Uncompleted goals are more
  accessible than completed goals.
• (Rinck Bower 2004, Trabasso Suh 1993, Suh
  Trabasso 1993, Albrecht Myers 1995, Lutz
  Radvansky 1997, Radvansky Curiel 1998)
• IEF explanation We put ourselves in the shoes of
  the protagonist and draw on our experiences of
  satisfying goals.

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Causality

• Events connected by chains of cause-and-effect
  are more easily processed than those events which
  are not connected in such a fashion.
• (Duffy et al. 1990, Singer et al. 1992,
  Hallordson Singer 2002)
• IEF-style explanation Event grouping (á la Zacks
  Tversky 2001) draws on experiences of causal
  connection.

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Event types predicted to give rise to greater
immersion in the narrative world

• Iconic rather than non-iconic events
• Causally connected over non-causally connected
• Goal satisfaction chains over chains unconnected
  by intentionality
• (c.f. Zwaan 2004 for remarks in a similar spirit)
• Also, telic events are unmarked in narrative
  context (Magliano Schleich 2000, Fleischman
  1990)

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• Is there morphological evidence which supports
  the discourse processing evidence?
• Do more prominent events in narrative give rise
  to a sense of a deeper vicarious experience?

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TMA marking in Yapese

• Independent Pronoun TMA Markers
• Gimeew bea marweel.
• du.ind prog work
• You (dual) are working.
• Pronoun precedes the TMA marker.
• Contrast singular/dual/plural number.
• Postverbal subject agreement is absent.

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TMA marking in Yapese

• Clitic pronoun TMA Markers
• Ka mu marweel gow.
• perfect 2.cl work du.agr
• You (dual) have worked.
• TMA marker precedes the pronoun.
• Contrast singular/plural number.
• Subject triggers postverbal agreement, which
  preserves the dual/plural alternation neutralized
  by the pronouns.
• Undergo vowel change in the third person singular.

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Labov's (1972) Model of Narrative Structure

• (Abstract)
• Orientation
• Complicating Action
• (Coda)
• Evaluation

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Orientation

• Habitual clauses which present characters in
  terms of customary actions.
• Take maa 'habitual' (IPTMA).
• Maruweel rook' ea maa lifith ea
• work 3.sg poss FM hbt weave idf
• qurwaech.
• hats
• His work is (habitually) weaving hats.

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Orientation

• Presentative clauses introduce characters
• Progressive clauses describe their current
  actions
• Strategy 1
• Baay l'agruw i scientist ...
• exist two NPC scientist
• There are two scientists ...

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Orientation

• Presentative clauses introduce characters
• Progressive clauses describe their current
  actions
• Strategy 1
• Tomm'oon ni ngea yib ea
• first/before subcl inc.3.sg come.3.sg.intr idf
• rea yakoq neam, ma qer ea yi
• sg storm dist.dmn then h.prx FM idfpro
• bea gachoworiy ea chugum
• prog gather.tns idf possessions
• Before that storm came, there, they were/are
  gathering up possessions

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Orientation

• Presentative clauses introduce characters
• Progressive clauses describe their current
  actions
• Strategy 2
• Kaakaroom ni kaakaroom ea qimmoey
• long.time AdvP long.time FM non-pres.exist
• lagruw i maabgol
• two NPC marry.intr
• Once upon a time there was a married couple

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Orientation

• Presentative clauses introduce characters
• Progressive clauses describe their current
  actions
• Strategy 2
• Reeb ea rraan ma qeree
• one idf day then h.prx.FM
• qii faafeal ba guwchiig nga
• non-pres.3.sg.nom play.intr ref dolphin with
• ba gaaf i wul
• ref clsfr NPC feather
• One day, then, there, a dolphin was playing with
  a feather

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Orientation

• Strategy 1 presentative baay, progressive bea
  (IPTMA)
• Strategy 2 non-present presentative qimmoey,
  non-present qu (CPTMA)
• Narrators may switch from strategy 1 to strategy
  2 but not vice versa.

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Complicating Action Background Clauses

• States take stative ba (IPTMA) (or unmarked
  stative verb)
• Ba maal'aaf ea gi ni
• stat far.intr idf loc relpro
• baay ea maarket riy.
• exist idf market locpro
• The market is far. (Lit. The place where the
  market exists is far.)

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Complicating Action Background Clauses

• Actions completed prior to current deictic center
• Take perfect ka (CPTMA)
• ... mea chöb lingaan ea rea n'ean neam ni
  wan'uug ea ba booyoch, ma faqän gu changar nga
  laang ma kea yib ea chigiy ko rea naqun neam nga
  but' ...
• ... then something over there made an explosive
  sound, to my mind like a gunshot, and when I
  looked up, the ceiling of that house had come
  down toward the ground ...

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Complicating Action Background Clauses

• Events of lesser importance
• Events simultaneous to current deictic center
• Take qu 'non-present' (CPTMA)

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Complicating Action Background Clauses

• Ma qer ea qii paer
• then h.prx FM non-pres.3.sg.nom settle.intr
• nga qii soen naag fa
• inc non-pres.3.sg.nom wait tns def
• dalip i pagäl ni walaagean.
• three NPC boys relpro brothers.3.sg.poss
• Then there she settled into waiting for her
  three brothers.

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• a. Mea qunguy ea tuug
• Then he clenched his fist,
• zero TMA
• b. nga qii foeleeg ko fa pi moongkii
• and started sizing up the monkeys. inceptive
  non-present
• c. Ma kii qunguy fa pi moongkii ea tuug
• And the monkeys had clenched their fists,
• perfect non-present
• d. nga qu ra foeleegeed ngaak'.
• and started sizing him up ...
• inceptive non-present

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Functions of qu 'non-present'

• 1. In the orientiation, to express actions prior
  to the onset of the complicating action.
• 2. Within the complicating action, to express
  events of lesser importance.
• 3. Within the complicating action, to express
  events which are simultaneous to each other.
• Analysis Qu sets up a secondary, comparative
  deictic center.
• Note that events on the second center are iconic
  with respect to each other.

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Complicating Action

• Three strategies for marking narrative clauses.

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Zero marked clauses are iconically ordered and
take their reference point from the previous
zero-marked clause

• Mea yaen ba gayow.
• Then one of them left.
• Suul
• It returned
• ma kea feek boechii niig ni kea liiq
• and it had picked up a little fish that it had
  killed.
• Boechii niig ni ba m'uuth rachangalean.
• A little fish whose spikes are sharp.
• Qeree yib i rugöy ea rachangal riy ko fa rea
  looth...
• There, it came to poke the thorn there into the
  eel ...

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Semantics of nga 'inceptive'

• Inceptive
• Nga gu waen nga maqut ...
• Im going to go to the taro patch ...
• Result of a cause
• ...ma kii yib ea maar ni ba geel ko fa rea
  paapaaq rooraed nga kii yim.
• ... and then a strong sickness came to their
  father, and so he died.
• Purpose or intent
• Ma qer ea yib fa gäl neam ea pagäl nga ra qabiich
  gaed.
• Then the two boys arrived, in order to eat."

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• Nga indexes causality and intentionality.
• It is predicted to occur at high points of
  narrative action.
• ... mea thurury nga luweed
• and he pushed her into the well
• ngea lumach
• so that she drowned
• ngea yim'.
• and she died.

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Narrative peaks are marked by ka qu 'perfect
non-present'

• Ma qer ea kii yaen i taay fa rea duug nga thiliin
  fa gäl malangean ea yaam'
• Here, he had come to put the basket between the
  two gravestones
• ma kii yoeg fa rea bug i thiin.
• and he had said the words.
• Mea qunguy qawochean
• He closed his eyes
• ma faqän i pithig
• and when he opened them
• ma kea sug fa rea duug magungaen.
• the basket had been filled with excrement.

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• Iconicity, causality and intentionality
• (i) are found with more highly foregrounded
  clauses
• (ii) index the perception of real world events as
  predicted by the IEF
• Telicity unmarked default for narrative.

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• What about ka qu at the peak?
• Seems to run counter to IEF predictions
• non-present
• perfect
• "pragmatic reversal" (Fleischman 1990)
• Old French marker of narrative peak flouts
  narrative conventions
• Mesoamerican languages (Jones Jones 1979)
  marker of peak is frequently identical to
  high-focus background marker

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• Possible IEF-style explanation
• Ka qu and other "pragmatic reversal" indicators
  of narrative peak index the "surprise" factor of
  reportable narrative events

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Summary of Results

• IEF predictions are reflected in morphology
• IPTMA are most highly backgrounded
• "Pragmatic reversal" peak has a possible IEF
  explanation but remains to be investigated
  experimentally