Talk-in-interaction and reported discourse: the impact of social class on the construction of self-narrative

Narrative has been used as a frame to analyse sociolinguistic phenomena (Labov and Waletzky’s, 1967), but more research is needed on the specific features of narrative discourse. Following Bernstein’s (1964) study on social class in child narrative constructions, this investigation looks at the relationship between social class and the use of reported speech within narrative discourse, e.g. whether the speech is more performative and frequent in working-class individuals. The project collates an interdisciplinary body of literature on narrative as talk-in-interaction (e.g. Semino et al. 1997) and provides a fresh constructivist perspective on forms of reporting with respect to social class. I conducted 30 semi-structured interviews, half with working-class and half with middle-class individuals, that included a range of topic questions prompting narrative responses. Initial results indicate that, as well as a difference in the amount of reported speech used (more from working-class participants), there is also a difference in how the speech is reported. Types of reporting such as direct quoting with impersonation appeared more in working than middle-classes. The chosen reported speech types are affected not only by class, but also reflect the participants’ social aspirations – demonstrating how discursive identity construction influences the speaker’s narrative production.

References:
Bernstein. B. (1964). Elaborated and Restricted Codes. American Anthropologist. 66(6), 55-69. Semino, E., Short, M. and Culpeper, J. (1997). Using a Computer Corpus to Test a Model of Speech and Thought Presentation. Poetics. 25, 17-43.
Labov, W. and Waletzky J. (1967). Narrative Analysis. Journal of Narrative & Life History. 7(1-4), 3-38.