Introduces the theory that the conversational historical present (CHP) in itself has no significance. It is the switching between CHP and the past tenses that is the relevant feature. (Author/CFM)

An important development within counseling and psychotherapy has been the emergence of narrative perspectives in theory and practice. Counselors are viewed as responsible for helping clients "re-author" parts of their life-story. Discusses the origins of this approach within psychology and social science. Identifies the central elements…

Interviewed 51 children ages 4 and 5, to obtain narrative representations of mothers--generating Positive, Negative, and Disciplinary representation composites. Found that children who had more Positive and Disciplinary representations and fewer Negative representations had fewer behavior problems and less psychological distress. Older children…

Suggests American screenwriters experiment with the lighting, colors, perspectives, angles, and positioning of images in works of art to generate narrative. Argues that American screenwriters, unlike European counterparts, unnecessarily adhere to the concept that characterization is essential to generate narrative. (KEH)

Examines the 1984 party platforms from the perspective of Walter Fisher's narrative paradigm. Concludes that though the two party's narratives followed different strategies, they both displayed the internal consistency required by Fisher's perspective as they reflected transcendent values that were both relevant to and consistent with party…

Examination of stories invented by four- and five-year olds indicated that narrative skill was a better predictor of the inclusion of conflict and psychological causation in a story than was age. Plotted narratives included conflict and psychological causation more often than did less-structured narratives. (BC)

Tests how well two models of text comprehension (one referential and one causal) predicted the importance ratings and the recall of procedural texts. Finds better predictive power of the causal model for importance ratings; neither model performed well with recall; and neither model was as predictive of procedural text as they were in previous…

Establishes that narrative theorists of the Hellenistic period described the ill-defined technique of architectonic parallelism by way of its absence, criticizing less elaborated works as unfinished and half-finished. Offers two narrative complexes from the "Gospel of Mark" as case examples of his assumptions of audience awareness as a…

Contends that some narrative/conversational models of family therapy draw selectively from Foucault and Derrida's ideas, perpetuating constructivist neglect of social context and power. Sees disregarded aspects of Foucault and Derrida's work as contributing to understanding of these concepts. Sees merit of poststructuralism being capacity to…

Describes an ethnographic study of African American toddlers and families that focused on children's productive competence in naturally occurring narrativelike conversation. Examines emergence of narrative competence; posits definition incorporating minimal requirements for child participation within the fundamental essence of narrative structure.…

Considers how in the fantasy series "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "His Dark Materials," by C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman respectively, the authors use symbols and themes from "Paradise Lost." Notes that each author's narrative choice uses his view of cosmic order to persuade readers that obedience should be…

How do we talk about events we perceive? And how tight is the connection between linguistic and nonlinguistic representations of events? To address these questions, we experimentally compared motion descriptions produced by children and adults in two typologically distinct languages, Greek and English. Our findings confirm a well-known asymmetry…

Much contemporary social theory has emphasised the key role that cultural and other narrative plays in any human understanding of moral self and agency. However, in those modern social contexts in which literacy has been widespread, such access to narrative has also been largely via the written word: those significantly educated in cultural…

In 1991, David Macaulay was awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal for his picturebook, "Black and White" (1990). He believed the Caldecott committee's choice communicated many messages to readers of all ages: "that it is essential to see, not merely to look; that words and pictures can support each other; that it isn't necessary to think in a…

Background: Children who meet language test criteria for specific language impairment (SLI) are not necessarily the same as those who are referred to a speech and language therapist. Aims: To consider how far this discrepancy reflects insensitivity of traditional language tests to clinically important features of language impairment. Methods &…