Spoken Language Features and Narrative Structure

Features of Spoken Language

Social partners have a choice of recording, social, or geographical range; they can even switch languages or register for greater expressiveness. The text is flexible in planning. The selection of information supports digressions, thematic breaks, repetitions; the structure of the text can be changed, and the more informal the text, the more numerous and more general the topics.

Spontaneity is reflected in linguistic forms such as frequent exclamatory and interrogative sentence patterns, and the syntax is simple. It respects the logical order of the elements of the phrase and includes frequent ellipses. Shared time and place are manifested through indexicals. Elements specific to the colloquial register appear and can be quoted. According to the established relationship between sender and receiver, various forms of address or vocatives are used.

Narrative

Narrative is a type of text that includes real or fictional events that happen to characters in a certain time and space.

Structure: External and Internal

The external structure of the narrative is how the text is distributed, i.e., the various component parts. The external structure organizes the text into formal sections; depending on the type of story, they are called paragraphs, chapters, parts, treaties, books, scripts, acts and scenes, head and body.

The internal structure refers to the content and depends on the order in which events occur and the narrative point of view. They are distinguished into three parts:

• Planteamiento (Exposition): Context presents aspects of where events unfold;
• Node (Conflict): There is a conflict: the protagonist faces natural elements, other characters, or himself;
• Outcome (Resolution): The conflict is resolved and leads to a new stable situation.

Chronological Order and Narrative Structures

If we look at chronological order in which events occur in the narrative, we find the following narrative structures.

• Linear: When you follow the chronological order of events, as in Don Quixote.
• In medias res: When the story begins in the middle and then goes back, revealing the background, and continues in linear order.
• Flashback: When the narrative moves from the present to the past.
• Flash-forward: Less common; the narrator anticipates what will happen in the future.
• Counterpoint: Different narrative sequences alternate.

Narrator and Point of View

The narrator is the person recounting the events; he or she is a subject belonging to the text, created by the author, and should not be confused with the author.

The narrative point of view is the perspective from which the story is told. It is the narrator who organizes, explains, and gives voice to the characters when it deems fit.

Types of Narration

• External — Omniscient narrator: Knows everything about the characters, from the most intimate to the most external, and can appear to be present in several places at once.
• External observer: Only considers what can be observed.
• Domestic — Narrator protagonist: The protagonist of the events recounts them and offers a version of events influenced by his or her viewpoint.