Discourse Markers in Oral Narrative

Transcription Conventions

She's out. Period shows falling tone in the preceding element.

Oh yeah? Question mark shows rising tone in the preceding element.

well, okay Comma indicates a continuing intonation, drawling out the preceding element.

bu- but A single dash indicates a cutoff with a glottal stop.

says "Oh" Double quotes mark speech set off by a shift in the speaker's voice.

[and so-] Square brackets on successive lines mark

[Why] her? beginning and end of overlapping talk.
and= Equals signs on successive lines shows latching

=then between turns.

(2.0) Numbers in parentheses indicate timed pauses.

{sigh} Curly braces enclose editorial comments and untranscribable elements.

Transcripts of stories from my corpus with notes on their settings and the participants appear below in the order they were treated in the body of the article. In each case, the passage cited above will be bolded.

DOG STORY

This story was elicited during the first session of a graduate seminar in English at a large midwestern American university. The students were asked to take turns telling stories until each had told two or three. The teller, whom I call Tammy, presented DOG STORY as her first contribution. Others had also related personal narratives, but otherwise no coherence with the context was evident.

Tammy: Well uh,

I’ve always had a a real interest-

intrigue, in fact

with the behavior of animals,

and and their unique ways of of logic.

And I guess I got that from my father,

who, whose family for generations have,

uh bred foxhounds

and, hunted with them

and showed them around the country.

And through those generations

they have a lot of networking,

around the the world,

really.

where I got a first hand experience

in seeing the remarkable nature of animal behavior. He ships puppies, foxhounds all over the world. Argentina, England, all over.

And one time

this man from Florida wanted to buy a matched,

set of puppies.

And since I was, uh, off to college

and he needed the money,

he said, “okay,

but now I want you to know

that once you get ‘em,

you have to keep ‘em chained,

for at least six months.

Not just in a pen, chained.”

Well, you know this fellow figured

he knew animal behavior pretty well,

so he wasn’t going to worry about it.

So my dad crated-up these two

beautifully little matched puppies

and shipped them from Missouri to Florida,

to this man.

And reminded him,

“be sure you chain the puppies up.”

The pads were worn off their feet.

They were haggard.

They were thin.

But somehow,

those puppies had managed

to get loose from their owner in Florida

and found their way back to the farm in Missouri, where they were born.

So I think animal behavior is fabulous.

EXPOSING

Jim: In fact-

she was the daughter of the woman

who lived next door to my grandparents.

Vera: {laughs}

Jim: And er the couple, y'know.

So we had such fun as kids

and and it was she

and her sister

to whom I was exposing my brother's penis

when my-

Teddy: {laughs}

Vera: {laughing} I'm sure yeah.

Jim: in the famous incident

when my grandmother broke in on us

and shamed me for life.

Y'know really.

I'll never forget this tremendous weight of guilt.

And "Jim what are you doing."

Teddy: {laughs}

Jim: "Come out of there"

y'know "Girls go home"

and y'know.

Pamela: Wow.

Jim: Then I remember

just sitting in the livingroom

with my grandparents y'know pointedly ignoring me.

Vera: Trying to act normally.

Jim: And just y'know making me feel terrible.

And uh,

Teddy: {laughs}

Vera: {laughs}

Jim: But anyhow,

Vera: He took them in the bathroom

and showed them his brother's.

Pamela: Oh.

Jim: {laughs}

Vera: "Look what he's got."

Jim: My brother didn't mind.

Vera: Yeah {laughing}

His brother's younger than him.

Pamela: Younger.

Oh I see.

Jim: Yeah.

Vera: {laughs}

Jim: Uh but-

Vera: {laughing} Poor kid.

Pamela: Well.

Vera: "It's a visual aid.

Here's my visual aid."

Teddy: {laughing} Yes.

Show and tell.

Yeah.

Jim: {laughs}

Vera: {laughs}

Jim: {laughs}

Teddy: Sure.

Jim: But we were rudely interrupted and

Vera: {laughs}

Jim: So anyhow uh

I just got to this cut-off point

where suddenly

I had to join the woman-haters' club.

CHIPMUNK

The participants in this and the next excerpt SPIN OUT are Patricia and Ralph, the parents of two college-age daughters Amy and Marsha, who are home for the long Thanksgiving break. The family has remained sitting at the kitchen table after supper. Patricia has been describing a party she attended where she related this same story for the amusement of outsiders, but here the story is told as one familiar to those present.

Patricia: and I told the story

about you and the little chipmunk

out in the garage.

Marsha: oh. {laughing}

Amy: I kept- I kept-

I was just thinking about that the other day.

that thing scared the heck out of me.

Patricia: with all with all the:

Amy: it was twice.

Marsha: {laughs}

Amy: yeah and then you found its little cubby holes

in a box or something.

Patricia: well, what- what-

Marsha: you found all the seeds, didn't you?

Patricia: all the seeds.

Ralph: all the seeds in a plastic bag.

Patricia: right by the wood out there.

and when we moved the wood to clean it

there was the whole thing.

it must have sat against the wood

and then ate all the {laughing} [sunflowers.]

Ralph: [all the] sunflower seeds.

all the shells were in [the bag.]

Patricia: [there were] shells everywhere.

Amy: yeah and you guys wouldn't believe me.

Marsha: well I guess there was [something there.]

Patricia: [well I didn't] the first time

but the second time I did.

Amy: scared me both [times.] {laughing}

Marsha: {laughs}

Amy: and of course it happened to me.

you know, nobody else.

Patricia: little sucker was living in the garage

Ralph: living it up.

[and living high on the hog.]

Patricia: [had it made.]

he was in out of the cold

and he had something to eat.

and, and by the way,

we have to get a bird feeder.

I'll have to talk to ma

and go to that Audubon place.

SPIN OUT

Ralph: so how many cars spun out there,

[counting you.]

Marsha: [three.]

three while we were there. (2.0)

and Brad says

"that's the only thing I have in my defense

that I wasn't driving too fast."

Amy: yeah that's probably the only thing

that's keeping him,

Marsha: because he does,

he blames himself because-

Patricia: oh, it's so foolish to blame yourself

and think about it afterwards.

it happened.

it's over.

Amy: did he hit the brakes at all?

Marsha: no.

he didn't touch the brakes.

Amy: now see what-

Patricia: that's where I make my mistake.

Amy: see, I slid a couple times

but I pumped the brakes.

that one time, I was coming down a hill.

and there was a car stopped at a red-light.

and when I hit the brakes the first time,

I slid.

so I just started slamming them down.

and I stopped within inches of his bumper.

Ralph: that doesn't do any good.

slamming them down isn't going to do you any good. you're going to-

Amy: yeah but it was=

Ralph: =it's going to throw you into another skid.

Amy: yeah, but it was pumping them

and it got me stopped.

I mean,

SPADE

Woody: yeah I mean the most hilarious thing I ever saw

as a kid growing up

was in sixth or seventh grade.

in sixth or seventh grade

we lived outside of uh Philadelphia.

and these two brothers lived across the street.

Mark and Paul Tulano.

and they were very loud very Italian young men.

they were in fifth and sixth grade at the time.

and uh they were always fighting

about one thing or another.

well Paul, my friend,

uh got stuck with uh digging up the garden

in the back of the yard with a spade.

and Mark kept coming around uh to tease him.

to tease Paul.

and uh you know, Paul’s working with a spade.

and he says

"if you don’t leave

I'm going to clunk you over the head,

with this thing."

and uh {cough} and Mark’s saying

"there’s no way that you’re going to be like that,

because you you just won’t do that stuff."

"I will I will I will."

so this guy started chasing him,

kind of like like around the uh

the patch where the garden was.

and finally um uh uh his- the younger brother-

uh Mark just ran off.

and uh he was-

BASKETBALL

And I’d always-

I felt I felt like

I’d just go to the practice

just to help them out-

Lana: Right.

Audrey: But um so

when I really could look down the, the bench,

I’d never want him to look at me

because I knew that he’d put me in.

Lana: Yeah.

Audrey: And I never wanted to go in

because, like I was-

you’re playing against these girls

that are like are awesome.

And if you don’t-

If you’re not, used to playing, them

Lana: Right.

Audrey: you like y-

it’s hard to like get into it,

all right?

Lana: Right.

Audrey: So, ha

I looked down the bench

and he like looked at me

and I’m like, “Oh no.”

And he goes

okay go in for Erin Potters,

and there’s only like a minute left.

And so that’s even humiliating at that.

Lana: {laughing} Oh.

I know exactly what you mean.

PATCHED WASHCLOTHS

The source conversation for PATCHED WASHCLOTHS took place during Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Ned and Claire. Ned's parents Lydia and Frank are present, as are his brother and sister-in-law Brandon and Sherry. Claire and Brandon move back and forth to and from the adjacent kitchen, while the other participants remain seated at the dining room table.

Frank: Grandma Imhof,

she was the stingy one.

Ned: Claire has darned dish towels.

Frank: her mother did it.

sure.

ACCIDENTS

Jacob and Mark share an apartment and study at the local university. The two young men have been discussing how dangerous rough-housing can become, when Mark recalls an accident story his aunt told him. This story in turn reminds Jason of an accident reported about his own aunt.

Jacob: we’ve kept everything pretty much under control

[though this year.]

Mark: [that’s right,]

you can’t wrestle around

or bad things will happen.

Jacob: yeah, Roger got [his nose]

Mark: [you know what] happened

to my one of my aunt’s friends out in Iowa?

like when- when she was younger,

she had a headgear from braces,

and these two girls were wrestling around

just playing around, wrestling.

and one girl pulled her headgear off her mouth

and let it snap back.

and it slid up her face

and stuck in her eyes

and blinded her.

Jacob: wow.

Mark: isn’t that horrid?

that’s horrid.

Jacob: [when my-]

Mark: [blinded her] for life.

isn’t that horrid.

that's just- I mean just from goofing around,

just from screwing-

a little bit of screwing around.

and if- and another thing,

it- it- it’s terrible the things that can happen.

that’s why I don't like people

screwing around with swords

and trying to throw people in the showers

and stuff like that,

and everything like that.

Jacob: you know what happened to my aunt Florence

when she was a little girl?

spinalbiffera or something like that?