ABSTRACT
To understand any discourse, a reader must construct an accurate mental representation of both the states and events that it describes, and the relations among those states and events. This task is complicated by the fact that a great many types of relations can exist among the elements of a discourse (e.g., causal, spatial, logical, and set-theoretical). It is further complicated by our inability, as readers, to quickly and reliably recognize some categories of relations (i.e., logical relations). These observations may explain why, relative to most genres of discourse, narratives are understood quickly and easily. Narrative events are related to one another primarily by means of easily recognized causal and enabling relations (see, e.g., Black & Bower, 1980; Fletcher & Bloom, 1988; Graesser, 1981; Lehnert, 1978; Mandler & Johnson, 1977; O'Brien & Myers, 1987; Rumelhart, 1977; Schank, 1975; Stein & Glenn, 1979; Trabasso & Sperry, 1985; van den Broek, 1990). Consider, as an example, the simple narrative shown in Table 11.1. To understand this story, a reader must construct a mental representation of 17 distinct states and events, together with 23 causal and enabling relations, as shown in Fig. 11.1 (see Trabasso, van den Broek, & Suh, 1989). “Fishing with Hand Grenades”
|
No. |
State/Event |
Category |
Level |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1. As the German army retreated across the Austrian Alps, |
Setting |
1 |
|
|
2. some of the soldiers deserted |
Event |
1 |
|
|
3. and left their weapons behind. |
Event |
1 |
|
|
4. This allowed young Walter to start a collection of hand grenades. |
Outcome |
1 |
|
|
5. At first, simply having the grenades was enough to keep him happy. |
Reaction |
1 |
|
|
6. But in time the novelty wore off |
Reaction |
1 |
|
|
7. and Walter started looking for interesting things to do with his grenades. |
Goal |
1 |
|
|
8. He decided to go fishing. |
Goal |
2 |
|
|
9. He stood in the middle of a creek |
Action |
2 |
|
|
10. and tossed a live grenade up-stream. |
Action |
2 |
|
|
11. When it exploded |
Outcome |
2 |
|
|
12. a lot of fish were stunned |
Outcome |
2 |
|
|
13. and floated to the surface of the water. |
Outcome |
2 |
|
|
14. As the current carried them by |
Outcome |
2 |
|
|
15. Walter tried to scoop them up. |
Action |
2 |
|
|
16. Unfortunately, the creek was much too fast |
Setting |
2 |
|
|
17. and he didn’t actually catch any fish. |
Outcome |
2 |
|
