narrative ordinary events labov

In most sociolinguistic studies of the speech community, narratives of personal
experience play a prominent role. Within the sociolinguistic interview, narratives are
one of the primary means of reducing the effects of observation and recording. In
dissecting the stylistic shifts within the interview, narratives consistently show a shift
towards the vernacular—that is, towards the first-learned style of speech that is used in
every-day communication with friends and family (Labov 2001). Many of the results of
this concentration on narrative are incorporated into the figures on style shifting of
linguistic variables (Trudgill 1974, Cedergren 1973). Because the elicitation of narrative
is such an important methodological step, attention turned to narrative structure (Labov
and Waletzky 1963, Labov 1972). The distribution of linguistic features in the
construction of narrative has been the focus of a number of studies (e.g., Schiffrin 1981,
Silva-Corvalan 1973). Several recent publications have focused on the narratives as a
whole (Laforest 1996, Butters 2001).