xxxix The narrator includes a coda if there is to be a moral or message to
be learned from the story.
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3. The features of Narrative Text
a. Purpose
The social function of narrative text is to amuse, entertain and to deal with actual or vicarious experience in different ways; narratives
deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turn finds a resolution. It has the following
characteristics.
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Research has shown that narrative constitutes an important discursive resource used by speakers across a range of social contexts
and setting to accomplish many different social functions. It is clearly the case that “narratives are highly portable discursive units”. Stories
can be told to entertain jokes, folktales, anecdotes, to justify and explain accounts, and descriptions of events, to instruct the
‘cautionary’ tale, fables, and to establish social norms gossip. But even more importantly, stories tell us who we are: they are central to
our social and cultural identity.
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b. Types of Narrative
There are many types of Narrative. They can be imaginary, factual, or combination of both. They may include fairy stories,
mysteries, science, fiction, romances, horror stories, adventures
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Mark and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 2…., p.12
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Wido H. Toendan, Reading Comprehension 2, Bandung: Global House Publications, 2009, p. 105
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Joanna Thornborrow and Jennifer Coates, The Sociolinguistics of Narrative,
Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2005, p.3
xl stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, ballads, slice
of life, and personal experience.
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c. Schematic Structure
Generic Structure or schematic structures in narrative text are: 1
Orientation: sets the scene and introduces the participants. 2
Evaluation: a stepping back to evaluate the plight. 3
Complication: a crisis arises. 4
Resolution: the crisis is resolved, for better or for worse. 5
Reorientation: optional
d. Language features
There are some linguistic features in narrative text : 1
Focus on specific and usually individualized participants. 2
Use of material processes and this text, behavioral and verbal processes.
3 Use of relational processes and mental processes.
4 Use of temporal conjunctions and temporal circumstances.
5 Use of past tense.
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4. The Examples of Narrative Text
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