Oral Narration in Modern French

Janice Carruthers

• Introduction 1. Theoretical and Methodological Preliminaries 2. The Narrative Line: Models, Patterns, Systems 3. Tense-Switching on the Narrative Line 4. Structures between Narrative Clauses 5. Conclusions and Further Questions

The strength of the book is in showing how much more complex Tense-Switching is in oral narratives than could have been expected, and - even more importantly - the need to use all kinds of tools... It also encourages a new broader look at a whole range of different kinds of discourse with an oral dimension. And from the reader's point of view it includes, en passant, a wonderfully clear exposition of areas that s/he may have not looked at closely, given the tendency to concentrate on one approach only. Namely, Moeschler's summary of the theoretical approaches to temporal sequencing (in convenient diagram form), different approaches to tenses on the narrative line (Weinrich, Benveniste, Waugh, Vetters, Revasz, myself, and others), Smith's Narrative mode and Report Mode, Leech and Short's continuum of discourse forms (another useful diagram), Fleisshman's table of markedness oppositions for the past and present tenses in ordinary language (adapted), and, Borillo's classification of subordinators... Altogether a most enlightening book. -- Journal of French Language Studies Journal of French Language Studies Carruthers' book is a genuinely original contribution to the field that puts the performed story on the map as a new genre for linguistic study and also improves our understanding of tense usage and temporal patterning in French. -- French Studies French Studies