Proceso de construcción y estructura del instrumento

Thus far, we have seen a clear example of a story preface with Satoko initiating the telling of a ‘story’ by seeking permission to tell it. There are other instances of

storytelling being used to get unstuck, but in a modified form that is different from what has been described thus far. This is the situation in which the potential recipient of the ‘story’ makes the request or at least provides the other person with a prompt to start a ‘story’. Here, the story preface is initiated by the recipient, not the teller. This type of storytelling ‘set up’ is not only seen in institutional talk, but also in ordinary conversation. A common example is when one friend lays the groundwork for another person to tell a story. (See Goodwin, 1986, for examples of wives prefacing stories for their husbands to tell and Mandelbaum, 1987, for the idea of storytelling being ‘recipient-driven’ as well as ‘teller-driven’.)

In the example below, the choppiness of Ian’s formulation in line 9 could be due to uncertainty over the direction of the talk. He might have wanted to discuss the historical significance of the date (December 7) as being Pearl Harbor Day (line 7), but chose not to when the implication was not noticed in line 8. Instead in line 9, after some struggle to reformulate his remark in line 7, Ian moves to close the opening sequence. In line 9, he uses the standard prompt for these talks to get the first topic nominated.

I have included earlier lines (1-8) in order to capture how line 9 is preceded by a potentially awkward moment at the very beginning of the talk. There is a sense of wanting to get to the opening topic (line 9) in order to keep the talk going. Some kind of transition is needed between the rather automated greetings to establish the date and year and the topics of the conversation proper. (This is reminiscent of telephone talk where there could be an awkward transition moving from the greetings to the matter of the call.) Once the main topic is stated (line 10), the ‘story’ unfolds turn by turn in coordination with the receipts. (The same sequence appeared in Chapter 4, Excerpt 8 to show

agreement of topic. Here it is used to show how a topic elicitation could serve as a story preface.)

Excerpt 3: Masako no. 5, school annual editor

1 I: Okay, let’s start in our usual way. What’s today’s date? 2 M: January the twenty fifth.

3 I: Uh. And what year? 4 M: Twenty oh three.

5 I: Twenty oh three. Okay. When was the last time ah we had a conversation? 6 M: Well in December?

7 I: Yeah. I looked today December seventh. 8 M: Oh.

→9 I: So it’s yeah um over one month ago. Um. What’s today’s opening topic? 10 M: My school life.

11 I: Okay. Go ahead.

12 M: Now I’m making a book. The book is called (?) my school’s all students. I 13 belong to school council.

14 I: Uhuh.

15 M: Yeah. So now I am very busy. 16 I: Oh.

Ian seems to be stumbling through line 9 with a couple of ‘um’s breaking up the first utterance and marking a transition from the greeting and first topic (line 5) to inquiry of the main topic (line 9): “What’s today’s opening topic?” This question seems to serve as a kind of story preface elicitation attempt (i.e., a prior turn used to set up a preface) in the form of a prompt. Unlike the previous excerpt (2) where the ‘preface’ is initiated by the potential teller, here it is used as a device for topic nomination. While there are instances of the speaker having a fully formed story in mind, in most cases, the recipient of the ‘story’ needs to have a series of questions ready to guide the making of the ‘story’. Here we see how both participants contribute to the storytelling: The teller supplies the topic and the recipient provides questions to shape the topic into the beginning of a ‘story’.

The topic elicitation in line 9 functions both as a way to get a topic familiar to Masako nominated and as the first of three steps to get the telling of the story underway: (1) The topic is nominated (line 10). (2) The topic is approved (line 11). (3) The topic starts to get elaborated (lines 12-13). Once these steps are taken the turns are exchanged smoothly. A final point is to draw attention to the importance of the elicitation in line 9. Without this question asking for a topic, the talk might have stalled around lines 8-9. There is a certain dependency displayed by the student-participant on the teacher-participant to set up the situation for her to talk about herself. This seems related to Lerner’s idea of assisted storytelling.

Some readers might expect there to be a closing move for the story such as Labov’s evaluation and coda since I mention above about ‘moving through a storytelling sequence’. Eggins and Slade note: The storytelling genres which they analyze (e.g., narratives, anecdotes, and recounts) “all make some kind of evaluative comment which marks the significance of the events described” (1997, p. 262). So having a closing to the ‘story’ as well as an evaluation helps define the structure of the storytelling.

Closing a story

If we fast forward to the latter part of the ‘story’ about being the school yearbook editor, we can see how it ends.

46 M: I hand in the paper to the company￪. So company types the paper. 47 I: Oh.

48 M: It comes back and I check.

49 I: So you’re lucky you don’t have to input. 50 M: Yes, but the company::y makes many mistakes 51 I: Oh.

52 M: Hh.

53 I: Yeah, I don’t know too. I hand in something sometimes ah I have to correct 54 many things=

55 M: =Yes.

56 I: Maybe it’s natural. 57 M: Yes.

58 I: So what do you think about this experience? Are you glad (1) you’re the editor?

→59 M: (2) Ah:h. (3) Well. Sometimes bad. But usual::ly ((like singing)) uu not bad. Hh. 60 I: So did you volunteer for this?

61 M: (2) Yes. 62 I: Uh. 63 (2)

→64 I: I think that’s great ah you volunteered ah usual students [Hhh 65 M: [Ah 66 I: maybe think I don’t want to do that.

Two points can be made about storytelling in this example. First, there are evaluations. We see an elicited one in line 59 followed by another one by the recipient in line 64 and 66. These lines serve as a coda that summarizes the respective feelings of each participant as well as brings this story to an end. Second, Ian takes an increasingly active role in the sequence from line 53 while Masako takes on a lesser one. However, with the initiation of questions (line 58) inquiring how Masako evaluates the experience, we see her taking an extended turn (line 59). Ian tries to take the topic further, but it appears Masako does not have anything more to say (e.g., silence in lines 61 and 63). Ian initiates a move (in line 64) which looks like a coda to bring closure to the ‘story’ with a summarizing statement. Possibly this move helps participants move out to the silences and the overlap by

releasing them from the ‘story’ which has been told.

Thus, we see that they do have closure (sometimes) and that it can help them get ready to move on to the next topic. While clear closings are not always noticeable in the data, when they do happen, it could be that reaching some sort of evaluative agreement associated with a proper ending of the ‘story’ is helpful. Sacks (1972) says stories can have endings and that “we can inspect the items that occur at their close to see whether

they can be seen to make an ending” (p. 342). Just as participants can orient to the start of a storytelling, they can also orient to the end.