The word "story" may be used as a synonym of "narrative". It can also be used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative. A narrative can also be told by a character within a larger narrative. An important part of narration is the narrative mode, the set of methods used to communicate the narrative through a process narration (see also "Narrative Aesthetics" below).
Along with exposition, argumentation and description, narration, broadly defined, is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse. More narrowly defined, it is the fiction whereby the narrator communicates. Stories are an important aspect of culture. Many works of art and most works of literature tell stories; indeed, most of the humanities involve stories. Owen Flanagan of Duke University, a leading that humans in all cultures come to cast their own identity in some sort of narrative form. We are inveterate storytellers.
Social Function :
To amuse, to entertain or to inform the readers or the listeners
The Generic Structure of Narrative Text :
- Orientation : It is about the opening paragraph where the characters of the story are introduced.
- Complication : Where the problems in the story developed.
- Resolution : Where the problems in the story is solved in happy ending or sad ending.
The Language Features :
- Focus on specific and individualized participants
- The use of material process (action verbs)
- The use of some behavioral and verbal processes
- The use of past tenses
- The use of temporal conjunctions and circumstances
Example of Narrative Text :
Money Isn′t Everything
Donald, Daisy, Huey, Louie and Dewey all went to visit Uncle Scrooge one cold autumn day. They knocked at the door and had to wait a long time before all the bolts were undone. Even then Uncle Scrooge looked very suspicious, as if they were Beagle Boys in disguise. The old miser was very surprised to see them all.
"Have you got a sore throat, Great- Uncle Scrooge?" chirped Louie.
"Don't be cheeky, Louie!" scolded Daisy.
"Stuff and nonsense!" croaked
Uncle Scrooge. "I have got a sore throat! The young lad's right."
"Sorry to hear that, Uncle," said Donald sympathetically. "Should I send Dewey out to get you some cough
drops?"
"No. They cost too much money nowadays," complained the old miser. "I'd rather suffer the tickle in my throat."
"You don't seem very happy, Uncle Scrooge," soothed Daisy.
"Mind your own business!" snapped Uncle Scrooge.
"Poor old Great-Uncle Scrooge," chirped Dewey, who had jumped up to sit on his Great-Uncle's knee.
"What do you mean—poor Great- Uncle Scrooge!" chuckled Uncle Scrooge. "I've got more money than Fort Knox."
"What I meant," explained Dewey, "was that I had a sore throat too, and I hardly have any money. But I bought some cough drops." With that Dewey pulled out his box of cough drops and gave them to Uncle Scrooge.
"You can have my cough drops, Uncle," smiled Dewey, "because they cured my sore throat."
Uncle Scrooge didn't know what to say. But one great big tear rolled down his face.
"Poor Great-Uncle Scrooge," echoed the triplets.
Snow White
Once upon a time there lived a little, named Snow White. She lived with her aunt and uncle because her parents were died.
One day she heard her aunt and uncle talking about leaving Snow White in the castle because they wanted to go to America and they didn’t have enough money to take Snow White with them.
Snow White didn’t want her uncle and aunt to do this. So she decided to run away. The next morning she run away from home when her aunt and uncle were having breakfast, she run away into the wood.
In the wood she felt very tired and hungry. Then she saw this cottage. She knocked but no one answered so she went inside and felt asleep
Meanwhile seven dwarfs were coming home from work. They went inside. There, they found Snow White woke up. She saw the dwarfs. The dwarfs said; “What is your name?”. Snow White said; “My name is Snow White”. One of the dwarfs said; “If you wish, you may live here with us”. Snow White told the whole story about her. Then Snow white ad the seven dwarfs lived happily ever after.
Generic Structure Analysis
1. Orientation; introducing specific participants; Snow White
2. Complication; revealing a series of crisis: Snow White’s aunt and uncle would leave her in a castle, Snow White run away, Snow White felt hungry in the wood.
3. Resolution; the crisis is resolve: the dwarfs permitted Snow White lived in their cottage lived happily
Language Feature Analysis
o Using saying verb; answered
o Using thinking verb; decided
o Using action verb; run away
o Using time conjunction; once upon a time, one day
o Using connectives; then, meanwhile
o Using past tense; she heard her uncle
One day she heard her aunt and uncle talking about leaving Snow White in the castle because they wanted to go to America and they didn’t have enough money to take Snow White with them.
Snow White didn’t want her uncle and aunt to do this. So she decided to run away. The next morning she run away from home when her aunt and uncle were having breakfast, she run away into the wood.
In the wood she felt very tired and hungry. Then she saw this cottage. She knocked but no one answered so she went inside and felt asleep
Meanwhile seven dwarfs were coming home from work. They went inside. There, they found Snow White woke up. She saw the dwarfs. The dwarfs said; “What is your name?”. Snow White said; “My name is Snow White”. One of the dwarfs said; “If you wish, you may live here with us”. Snow White told the whole story about her. Then Snow white ad the seven dwarfs lived happily ever after.
Generic Structure Analysis
1. Orientation; introducing specific participants; Snow White
2. Complication; revealing a series of crisis: Snow White’s aunt and uncle would leave her in a castle, Snow White run away, Snow White felt hungry in the wood.
3. Resolution; the crisis is resolve: the dwarfs permitted Snow White lived in their cottage lived happily
Language Feature Analysis
o Using saying verb; answered
o Using thinking verb; decided
o Using action verb; run away
o Using time conjunction; once upon a time, one day
o Using connectives; then, meanwhile
o Using past tense; she heard her uncle
