Structure of Narratives in British English Conversation

This paper is an analysis of narratives in British English conversation. It shows that prosody and gestures made by the speaker align to the pragmatic structure of narratives and are especially used to distinguish the climax, e.g. the point of the narrative. Indeed I will show that the climax is most of the time uttered with a slower speech rate and higher voice intensity than the rest of the narrative. It is also accompanied by more gestures than the other parts of the narrative, and for the narrative to be successful these gestures must show speaker concern for the partner in the interaction.