Article

Dream-reporting discourse

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Abstract

On the basis of an empirical corpus several linguistic patterns of dream reporting are noted. Specifically, observations are made regarding the linguistic structures, the pragmatic patterns and the text structures of dream reports. In particular, it is noted that dream reports define a discourse situation that does not abide by the requirements on cooperation such as those stipulated by Grice. By contrast, with all their contentual peculiarities dreams are conveyed in a language that formally is not different from the one employed in general discourse.

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... This may be because the other's experience does not affect the listener, but also because dream narratives do not always submit to the "requirements on cooperation," such as clarity, matter-of-factness, and reasonable information content, which otherwise regulate our discourse (Grice 1975, 64-74). The dream narrators may proceed in a different way from what the listener expects and forsake their communicative responsibility, even though the dream narrative does not in the formal sense greatly differ from the linguistic conventions of discourse (Shanon and Eiferman 1984). ...
... Benny Shanon and Rivka Eiferman (1984) have examined the nature of dreamreporting discourse and noted that it does not deviate from the behavioral norms of standard language in either vocabulary or syntax. It does, however, display deviations in the linguistic structures (e.g., the use of the present tense in speaking of the past, the use of direct speech instead of indirect, and the odd use of the definite article), pragmatic patterns (e.g., the narrator does not clearly indicate whether his claims refer to the dream world, the real world, or both), and text structure (e.g., the contentual pointedness of the text, ill-defined terms, poor connectedness and coherence). ...
Article
This article focuses on popular dream narration and interpretation, drawing from material gathered in Finland. The Finnish Folklore Archives and university students provided some of the examples, and others are from responses to questionnaires in newspapers and women's magazines.
... This may be because the other's experience does not affect the listener, but also because dream narratives do not always submit to the "requirements on cooperation," such as clarity, matter-of-factness, and reasonable information content, which otherwise regulate our discourse (Grice 1975, 64-74). The dream narrators may proceed in a different way from what the listener expects and forsake their communicative responsibility, even though the dream narrative does not in the formal sense greatly differ from the linguistic conventions of discourse (Shanon and Eiferman 1984). ...
... Benny Shanon and Rivka Eiferman (1984) have examined the nature of dreamreporting discourse and noted that it does not deviate from the behavioral norms of standard language in either vocabulary or syntax. It does, however, display deviations in the linguistic structures (e.g., the use of the present tense in speaking of the past, the use of direct speech instead of indirect, and the odd use of the definite article), pragmatic patterns (e.g., the narrator does not clearly indicate whether his claims refer to the dream world, the real world, or both), and text structure (e.g., the contentual pointedness of the text, ill-defined terms, poor connectedness and coherence). ...
Article
Full-text available
This editorial serves as an introduction to Journal of Finnish Studies, Volume 16, Issue 1.
... This may be because the other's experience does not affect the listener, but also because dream narratives do not always submit to the "requirements on cooperation," such as clarity, matter-of-factness, and reasonable information content, which otherwise regulate our discourse (Grice 1975, 64-74). The dream narrators may proceed in a different way from what the listener expects and forsake their communicative responsibility, even though the dream narrative does not in the formal sense greatly differ from the linguistic conventions of discourse (Shanon and Eiferman 1984). ...
... Benny Shanon and Rivka Eiferman (1984) have examined the nature of dreamreporting discourse and noted that it does not deviate from the behavioral norms of standard language in either vocabulary or syntax. It does, however, display deviations in the linguistic structures (e.g., the use of the present tense in speaking of the past, the use of direct speech instead of indirect, and the odd use of the definite article), pragmatic patterns (e.g., the narrator does not clearly indicate whether his claims refer to the dream world, the real world, or both), and text structure (e.g., the contentual pointedness of the text, ill-defined terms, poor connectedness and coherence). ...
Book
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Volume 16, Number 1 of the Journal of Finnish Studies includes the following articles: Anna Kuismin: "Building the Nation, Lighting the Torch: Excursions into the Writings of the Common People in Nineteenth-Century Finland" Sinikka Aapola-Kari: "Finnish Girlhood in the Twentieth Century: Public Representations and Private Stories" Sirpa Salenius: "Frances Willard's Peep at Finland" Outi Fingerroos: "Karelianism in Present-Day Finland" Annikki Kaivola-Bregenjøj: "Traditional Dream Narration and Interpretation" Kirsi Hänninen: "Encounters with the Unknown: Finnish Supernatural Narratives in the Early Twenty-First Century"
... The present study aimed to assess whether the different experience representation that spoken and written language seems to imply (Halliday, 1985) is also found in dream reports or whether this difference does not influence this kind of report. On the one hand, results seem to confirm the specificity of dream reports as a story (Pinto & Salzarulo, 1998;Shanon & Eiferman, 1984): in dreams there is also a narrated content which is not rendered by any of the single psycholinguistic categories utilized per se, but which does emerge globally as a whole. Even though a dream is not constituted by free association, it still does not follow the classic narrative schema: in fact, unconnected sequences freely coexist and the dreamer does not worry about the spatial temporal and logic consequentiality. ...
... As regards bizarreness, considering the synoptic tendency that written language seems to impress on the referred experience (Halliday, 1985), it was particularly interesting to examine whether discontinuity variables underwent textual resolution, also because of the greater internal consistency in written text, due to a higher degree of monitorability. In this case, it would seem that, in spite of the strict adherence to the recalled information flow which does organize the report (Pinto & Salzarulo, 1998), and of its speciality as a text (Shanon & Eiferman, 1984), the structural properties of written language have an impact on text production. On the basis of this framework, in fact, also considering the supporting recall function carried out by unusual features in home dreams (Foulkes, 1979(Foulkes, , 1996, we could expect that all bizarreness characteristics were preserved; instead, this is partly not the case. ...
Article
Based on structural differences between spoken and written language, the purpose of this paper was to investigate whether spoken and written communication imply a different representation in reporting an experienced dream. In fact, the clausal-dynamic quality of the former and nominal-synoptic quality of the latter, with the consequent differences in length, cohesion and density, could enhance/reduce the perceptual character and narrative structure of report features often considered in order to assess sleep mentation. In particular, we wondered whether, after eliminating all the elements responsible for the more conspicuous quantitative differences across the two forms (false starts, repetitions, digressions, redundancies), we would obtain two equivalent ways of reporting dreams. Three hundred and two (101 males and 201 females) subjects, raging in age from 18 to 40 years, participated as volunteers in the study and were asked to complete a dream diary daily for 14 days, by tape-recording their own dreams and putting them down in writing. The reports were analyzed by a psycholinguistic system. Results indicated that the report modality is able to affect the dream experience representation, conditioning the figurative (re)translation carried out by the tester: written forms show a loss of hallucinatory information and a non-complete correspondence also of the bizarreness features with respect to the spoken texts. Partialling out for length eliminated any difference between spoken and written dream reports on bizarreness; on the other hand, controlling the sequence effect of the report did not introduce changes. Methodological and theoretical implications were discussed.
... Веселова 2002: 172). Колективно искуство одређује и меру препознатљивости типа наратива, те је тако за приче о сновима очекивана епизодична структура, успостављање каузално-темпоралних веза, одређена мера занимљивости, али слушаоце неће изненадити ни нелогичност и фрагментарност (Kaivola-Bregenhøj 1993: 216-217; о одликама дискурса снова в. Shanon, Eiferman 1984). За формирање, рецепцију и потенцијалну трансмисију прича о сновима важни су, наглашава већина теоретичара, и унутартекстовни (структура, семантика -усмереност на значења валидна на личном и ширем социјалном нивоу, вредности кодиране културом и традицијом, нпр. ...
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This study examined the tactics and components employed in Jordanians' dream reports to fulfil their communicative purpose. Drawing on Swales' schematic structure, six moves were identified. The opening move encompasses religious, formal, or informal greetings, often featuring a direct quotation from Islamic greetings. The second move involves the identification of the dreamer, typically utilizing the third person, indicating a tendency among dreamers to conceal their identity and refer to others within their family. The third move focuses on conveying the dream content, representing the pivotal element in the communicative interaction between the dreamer and interpreter. The fourth move comprises the request for interpretation, involving appeals to the interpreter for assistance in discerning the dream's meaning. The fifth move consists of appeals, which are prominently present in a majority of Jordanian dreams. The final move entails the closing, wherein formulaic phrases are commonly employed, invoking blessings from Allah upon the interpreter, expressing gratitude, or making additional appeals. The study highlights the significance of these formulaic phrases as a distinct move within Jordanian dreams, with prevalent examples being "Please, I need interpretation and thank you very much" or "I need interpretation and thank you." The corpus analyzed in this study was sourced from Sheikh Falah Mufleh's Facebook page.
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Presents the data obtained when night dream reports, collected by waking Ss during REM sleep, are completed by a complementary morning interview. The authors data collection technique aims at facilitating the storage of the dream experience in long-term memory, at assisting in the recall of this experience the next morning, and at obtaining a maximum level of information which communicates the contents of the dream as completely as possible. The night and complementary morning reports of 15 23–56-yr-olds (1 dream per Ss) were analyzed by 2 judges. Each S added an important amount of information in the morning interview: on the whole 622 new pieces of information, which contributed to eliminate ambiguities and substantially changed the way in which the experimenters visualized and understood the dream experience were added. The additional information did not make the contents of the dream more coherent, and most of it (78%) could not have been deduced from the elements mentioned in the night report. Specific features of dream mentation also appeared in the additional morning information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Special sages of the definite article and of negation are discussed in the light of Minsky's concept of the frame. On the one hand, the latter concept is employed in order to explain the unconventional usages, on the other hand the linguistic phenomena are taken as indicators to what is in the frame.
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Dream reports are examined as a function of the real world and dream contents to which they correspond. It is noted that the said correspondence is not a sufficient determinant of the verbal realizations of the dream reports. An account of such reports calls for additional rules which order pragmatic constraints. These rules bear on a conversational-based analysis of presupposition and suggest that the semantics of natural language is not exhausted by a Tarskian theory of truth.