ABSTRACT
The terms narration and narrative, both from Latin narrare (tell a story), cover a number of meanings, all associated with giving an account of a sequence of events.
Narration usually applies to: 1 the act or process of giving an account 2 a traditional form of discourse, the others being argument, description and
exposition. Narrative has three main meanings: 1 a continuous account in speech or writing, usually in chronological order. It may
include dialogue, present a particular viewpoint, tell a story or give an account of an event or series of events. Spoken narrative conventionally uses non-past verbs (often referred to as the ‘present historic’) to describe past events, and uses demonstrative adjectives and locative adverbs to create an impression of the here and now:
This fellow comes up to me here. He looks at me and says: ‘Could I tap you for a tenner?’ ‘For a tenner,’ says I, ‘you could hit me with a hammer.’
