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The functions of rhetorical structure: A study of Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Anthony C. Woodbury
Anthony C. Woodbury
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of texas at Austin
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Abstract

Discourse structure in Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo (CAY) narrative and conversation is examined, and a general notion of rhetorical structure is proposed, growing out of recent work in the poetics of Native American oral literature. Rhetorical structure in a given language would consist of prosodically and intonationally signaled phonological phrasing along with whatever other significant formal features consistently pattern or interact with it (minimally surface syntactic constituency, typically also the system of sentence adverbs and conjunctions, further intonational features, and patterns of parallelism and repetition). Findings for CAY as well as other works in the literature indicate at least four important communicative functions for rhetorical structure in addition to its role in verbal art: organization of information, expression of affective meaning, indexing of genre, and regulation of dialogic interaction. (Discourse, syntax–phonology–discourse interaction, ethnopoetics; Native America, Alaska, Yupik Eskimo)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 153 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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