Abstract :
Discourse markers that are largely used in everyday talk carry out various functions in conversations. One of the conversational genres in which discourse markers are highly used is conversational narrative. Conversational narratives are the interactional productions of (the) teller(s) and listener(s), and also they are the textual reflections of the events that are experienced in past time and told in a sequence in the time of storytelling. In this stoytelling which comprises of a sequence of events, both tellers and listeners use discourse markers for different purposes. This study aims to demonstrate the functions of ondan sonra as a discourse marker in Turkish conversational narratives. To this end, this study grounds on Conversation Analysis (Jefferson, 1978; Sacks et al., 1974) and Narrative Analysis (Labov and Waletzky, 1967; Labov 1972, 1997). The analysis which is carried out in the interface of these two study fields focuses on the narrative, conversational and interpersonal functions of ondan sonra in conversational storytelling. The data of the study includes 100 single and 12 complex conversational narratives gathered from 11 recordings of natural conversations in family gatherings whose participants are native speakers of standard Turkish. The findings show that ondan sonra has various teller- and receiver-oriented functions in addition to the function of ‘continuity marker used in order to sequence the events’ as Özbek (1998a) suggested. The teller-oriented functions for narrative structure are sequencing the events in an temporal order, connecting the bound narratives to the first one, initiating the category of Complicating Action and initiating the category of Resolution. For conversational organisation, the teller-oriented functions are taking the turn and holding the floor, and for interpersonal interaction the only teller-oriented function is attracting the attention of the receivers to a specific point. In addition to them, the analysis shows that receivers use ondan sonra in order to initiate a turn and show their interest to the storytelling in conversational narratives.
