Point of view in British Sign Language and spoken English narrative discourse: the example of “The Tortoise and the Hare”

Kearsy Cormier,Helen Earis

doi:10.1515/langcog-2013-0021

Kearsy Cormier, Helen Earis

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1515/langcog-2013-0021

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Abstract

AbstractThis paper discusses how point of view (POV) is expressed in British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English narrative discourse. Spoken languages can mark changes in POV using strategies such as direct/indirect discourse, whereas signed languages can mark changes in POV in a unique way using “role shift”. Role shift is where the signer “becomes” a referent by taking on attributes of that referent, e.g. facial expression. In this study, two native BSL users and two native British English speakers were asked to tell the story “The Tortoise and the Hare”. The data were then compared to see how point of view is expressed and maintained in both languages. The results indicated that the spoken English users preferred the narrator's perspective, whereas the BSL users preferred a character's perspective. This suggests that spoken and signed language users may structure stories in different ways. However, some co-speech gestures and facial expressions used in the spoken English stories to denote characters' thoughts and feelings bear resemblance to the hand movements and facial expressions used by the BSL storytellers. This suggests that while approaches to storytelling may differ, both languages share some gestural resources which manifest themselves in different ways across different modalities.

Highlights

Expressing the point of view from which a story is being told and marking changes in point of view are key elements of narrative discourse in both spoken and signed languages
In order to compare how point of view is marked in British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English in “The Tortoise and the Hare”, role will be examined first, as this forms the basis for analysing other elements that may help to mark point of view, such as eye gaze
This graph shows that the English storytellers spend a greater percentage of time telling the story from the narrator’s perspective (44.48% for E1 and 64.78% for E2 compared to 22.69% and 18.53% for B1 and B2), whereas the BSL storytellers, B2, spend a greater percentage of time telling the story from a character’s perspective (42.35% for B1 and 76.91% for B2 compared to 38.04% for E1 and 23.4% for E2)

Summary

Introduction

Expressing the point of view from which a story is being told and marking changes in point of view are key elements of narrative discourse in both spoken and signed languages. Spoken languages can mark changes in point of view using strategies such as direct and indirect reported speech (Coulmas 1986), cou-. It is suggested that spoken languages have a third type of reported speech used primarily in literary narratives and known variously as verschleierte Rede [veiled speech], free indirect style or represented speech. Utterances of this type are phrased from the point of view of the narrator, but the content reflects the character’s speech, thought or perception (Coulmas 1986). What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air

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