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I only kept track of subjects and non-subjects that occurred in independent clauses. After charting both of the third person narratives, very few references to
participants occur outside of an independent clause. Only participants were tracked and not props, since props did not play a
significant role in any of the texts. In the Fish story, while the fish and the ‘fish shirt’ could be considered props, they were tracked with the other references to Bachelor
Smelt-fish since the ‘fish shirt’ is really a disguise for him. The material within quoted speech was not labeled, since quoted speech presents
a different set of variables. However, the quote formula preceding the quoted material, when one existed, was included in the analysis. Sometimes the quote formula consisted
only of a verb. In this situation, the speaker and the addressee were both given a zero reference. If no speaker, speech verb, or addressee was given, then this was not included
in the counts.
4.3.3 VIP coding chart
Although Dooley and Levinsohn do not include a VIP coding chart in their description, I found it very helpful to reorganize the data from the sequential default chart
into a format which made it easier to identify patterns between the various participants and the referring expressions used. The VIP coding chart also allowed me to quickly
identify which referring expression was used for which participants and how frequently they occurred. To create the VIP coding chart, all the participants are listed along the top
of the chart and the various referring expressions down the left-side of the chart. The
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referring expression used for each participant was then marked in the appropriate box. From this chart, it is easy to determine how often a particular referring expression is used
and for which participant. This is especially helpful in identifying whether or not a particular participant is coded in a special way and the frequency of its usage, thereby
identifying a VIP see Chapter 7.
4.3.4 Discourse profile
After the two third person narratives were charted, the texts were chunked based on surface structure features such as a change in place, time, or participants and how they
were marked in the text. After this step, I then identified each section according to the appropriate notional structure feature, such as inciting moment, developing conflict, etc.,
as well as the corresponding profile feature. I then ranked the participants for each section based on their centrality to the episode and the referring expressions used to code
the participants. I then described some of the characteristics of each section, most notably the peak episodes.
4.3.5 Discourse operations
The sequential default chart was extended to identify discourse operations as described by Longacre and Hwang forthcoming. In those instances where a non-default
coding was given, the discourse operations strategy was used to explain why a participant was either under- or over-coded.
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Chapter 5 Participant Reference Resources
