Performative Features in Adults' Haitian Creole Narratives

Abstract

This study evaluated structures and patterns of the narrative performance from 10 native Haitian adults (5 women and 5 men). Haitian Creole narratives were (a) analyzed and coded for nine West African features (repetition, parallelism, detailing, tonality, ideophone, digression, imagery, allusion, and symbolism) and (b) analyzed for nonverbal behaviors associated with speech using five gesticulation characteristics (hand, arm, feet, head movements, and facial expressions). Results suggested that Haitian Creole narratives most frequently utilized three patterns of West African storytelling features: tonality, repetition, and detailing.