My doctoral dissertation examined the structure of initiations in conversational storytelling in Arapaho. Using the data of the Arapaho Conversational Database, I analyzed over one hundred naturally-occurring narratives, and Multi-Unit Turns in conversations of fluent native speakers of that language. The analysis demonstrated different categories of initiating devices in the language that help speakers establish the bid for an upcoming extended turn. Phonologically, speakers tend to elongate certain words at the beginning of their initiation and use a varying intonation that signals incompletion of their turn. Morphologically, habitual past tense and subordinate clauses help speakers establish a narrative setting to indicate the follow-up of the main clause or event. Lexically, initiations tend to employ spatio-temporal references that create a narrative plane different from the conversational one. Finally, a few interactional devices, such as self-repair, increments, and participant response, allow the speaker to begin telling a story successfully.
One of the significant claims of this research concerns the tellership rights of the speakers. While these devices help the speakers halt the conventional turn-taking sequences, they also establish their authority in telling the story. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates that such initiations that use multiple initiating devices also contribute to the speaker's authority (and knowledge), allowing them to hold the floor for the duration of the narrative.
The completion of this dissertation was financially supported by the National Scientific Foundation (grant # 2010588). In addition, the Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Indian Reservation played a significant part in making this research possible.
2019 - 2021
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