Incorporating recipient evaluations into stories

Evaluation constitutes a central feature of personal stories in conversation. Storytellers introduce evaluation into their narratives in various ways, including cases of appropriating assessments offered by their listeners. A storyteller may orient to the content of listener assessments and respond to them in various (positive or negative) ways, suspending the narrative in progress to comment or altering its direction. Shared assessments can lead to higher involvement and increased rapport with consequences for subsequent interaction between the participants. Rejections of listener assessments are much less frequent than ratifications: rejection of a listener assessment expresses the teller’s refusal to have it count as part of the overall evaluation of the story in progress.

Published online: 11 October 2010
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.20.1.09nor