A Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Dream Narratives: Japanese and Mandarin

B on Labov & Waletzky’s (1) displacement method, Cariola (2) demonstrated that elicited dream narratives follow a homogenous structure of 1) Topic introduction, 2) Orientation, 3) Complication, 4) Evaluation, and 5) Coda. Topic introduction units can be defined as conversation turn sequences with which the interviewer or conversational partner may introduce the topic of the dream. In relation to interview situated dream recall, some participants also mirror the topic introduction in the form of conversational transactional markers (i.e., “ok”, “basically”, or filled pauses “ah...ah”). Transactional markers may be used to divide the conversational task situation into two distinguishable parts (i.e., the researcher’s question and the participant’s answer), which also signifies the shift of responsibility to the narrator as his/her task “has to be completed, opened and closed in a specific time limit”. From a conversational perspective, the employment of a transactional marker also categorizes the researcher-participant conversation as a transactional talk because it is primarily based on fulfilling a voluntary task. Therefore, the transactional marker may be perceived as an illocutionary act; thus, the agreement to A Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Dream Narratives: Japanese and Mandarin