STRATEGIES OF NARRATIVE STRUCTURE ANALYSIS: СOGNITIVE LINGUISTIC FRAMEWORK

Abstract

This paper offers systematic analysis of research strategies aimed at investigating formal and semantic narrative structure as well as describing its key peculiarities. In this research, generally accepted theoretical approaches to narrative texts are presented, the mechanism of narrative sequence formation is viewed, the notion of situational model and the terms related are characterized, the forming principles of universal integrative model are determined. In cognitive linguistic framework, the narrative is conceptualized as a cognitive linguistic construction characterized by the dynamic unfolding in time. Therefore, any act of narration incorporates two interrelated processes – referential and hierarchical. The former refers to coherent development of events embodied in linguistic propositions and verbally encoded within clauses and sentences, the latter deals with the inner organization of those verbal units in accordance with the narrative global theme. Taking into account the character of these processes, two narrative traditions – referentially-oriented and hierarchically-oriented – are distinguished. In the referentially-oriented framework, the attention is given to the methods of linear arrangement of the fictional events and in a broader sense – to the verbal forms and techniques providing a fixed cohesive narration. In the hierarchically-oriented framework, it refers to the description of mental models, schemas or structures built by an individual in the course of narrative understanding, while the act of narration is defined as the activity based on the conceptualization of the hierarchical struc­tureof the story narrated. Given that there are two equal approaches to the narrative structure analysis, in modern research its inner organization is viewed, as a rule, in two perspectives – as a narrative sequence (formal perspective) and as a the­matically-conditioned situational model (thematic perspective). In this paper, the external properties of the narrative structure are identified according to the provisions of W. Labov’s theory. According to this theory, the narrative structure consists of six narrative phases: Resume (general description), Orientation (initial phase), Complication (narrative conflict), Evaluation (infor­mation about the results of complications), Resolution (solving the problem) and Coda (correlation between the addressee’s factual / fictional and real worlds). The internal properties of the narrative structure are described bearing in mind T. van Dijk and W. Kintsch’s interpretation of the situational model, theoretical provisions of A. Greimas’ actant schema are also included. In the research, these theories are considered as the fundamental grounds for constructing the universal integrative model of the narrative structure, taking into account both formal and thematic aspects of its inner organization.