1887
Volume 15, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1874-8767
  • E-ISSN: 1874-8775
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This article investigates the extent to which TED talks can be considered a narrative register. This study analyses ‘narrative versus non-narrative discourse’ (Biber 1988) in a corpus of TED talks ( = 2483). TED talks were found to be typically non-narrative (−2.47 mean). However, there was a great degree of variation, with approximately 10% of talks ( = 257) classified as narrative. When TED talks were compared to registers in prior studies they were close to academic prose and presented a similar pattern in terms of disciplinary variation, with ‘soft’ disciplines closer to narratives. When textual data was examined, the average TED talk was found to weave narrative and descriptive elements, but were found to be more descriptive overall.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/etc.00051.win
2023-03-27
2025-02-07
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Anderson, Chris
    2016TED talks: The official TED guide to public speaking. London: Nicholas Brealy.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Baker, Lida, Laurie Blass, Jessica Williams, Lynn Bonesteel & Christien Lee
    201721st Century Communication [textbook series]. Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bértoli-Dutra, Patrícia
    2014 Multi-Dimensional analysis of pop songs. InTony Berber Sardinha, Marcia Veirano Pinto & Douglas Biber (eds.), Multi-Dimensional analysis, 25 years on: A tribute to Douglas Biber, 149–176. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.60.05ber
    https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.60.05ber [Google Scholar]
  4. Biber, Douglas
    1988Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511621024
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511621024 [Google Scholar]
  5. 2006University language. Studies in Corpus Linguistics 23. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.23
    https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.23 [Google Scholar]
  6. Biber, Douglas & Susan Conrad
    2009Register, Genre, and Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511814358
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814358 [Google Scholar]
  7. Biber, Douglas, Susan Conrad, Randi Reppen, Pat Byrd & Marie Helt
    2002 Speaking and writing in the university: A multidimensional comparison. TESOL Quarterly36(1). 9–48. 10.2307/3588359
    https://doi.org/10.2307/3588359 [Google Scholar]
  8. Biglan, Anthony
    1973 The characteristics of subject matter in different academic areas. Journal of Applied Psychology57(3). 195–203. 10.1037/h0034701
    https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034701 [Google Scholar]
  9. Bu, Han, Jeffrey Connor-Linton & Lifei Wang
    2020 Linguistic variation in the discourse of corporate annual reports: A multi-dimensional analysis. Discourse studies22(6). 647–677. 10.1177/1461445620928231
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445620928231 [Google Scholar]
  10. Cassidy, Sugimoto, Mike Thewall, Vincent Larivière, Andrew Tsou, Philippe Mongeon & Benoit Macaluso
    2013 Scientists popularizing science: Characteristics and impact of TED talk presenters. PLoS One8(4). e62403. 10.1371/journal.pone.0062403
    https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062403 [Google Scholar]
  11. Condi de Souza, Renata
    2014 Dimensions of variation in TIME magazine. InTony Berber Sardinha, Marcia Veirano Pinto & Douglas Biber (eds.), Multi-Dimensional analysis, 25 years on: A tribute to Douglas Biber, 177–196. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.60.06sou
    https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.60.06sou [Google Scholar]
  12. Csomay, Eniko
    2005 Linguistic variation within university classroom talk: A corpus-based perspective. Linguistics and Education15(3). 243–74. 10.1016/j.linged.2005.03.001
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2005.03.001 [Google Scholar]
  13. Dummet, Paul, Helen Stephenson, David Bohlke & Lewis Lansford
    2016–2018Keynote [textbook series]. Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Gallo, Carmine
    2015Talk like Ted. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Gray, Bethany
    2011 More than discipline: Uncovering multi-dimensional patterns of variation in academic research articles. Corpora8(2). 153–181. 10.3366/cor.2013.0039
    https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2013.0039 [Google Scholar]
  16. Iberri-Shea, Gina
    2011 Speaking in front of the class: A multi-dimensional comparison of university student public speech and university language. Classroom Discourse2(2). 251–267. 10.1080/19463014.2011.614061
    https://doi.org/10.1080/19463014.2011.614061 [Google Scholar]
  17. Karia, Akash
    2015TED talks storytelling: 23 storytelling techniques from the best TED Talks. AkashKaria.com
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Longhurst, Tim
    2008 The TED commandments e rules every speaker needs to know. Tim Longhurst’s Blog. www.timlonghurst.com/blog/2008/05/16/the-ted-commandments-rules-every-speaker-needs-to-know/ (Last accessed12 August 2020).
  19. Mattiello, Elisa
    2017 The popularisation of science via TED talks. International Journal of Language Studies11(4). 77–106.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Nadeem, Nahla
    2021 “Stories that are worth spreading”: A communicative model of TED talk narratives. Narrative Inquiry31(2). 434–457. 10.1075/ni.19037.nad
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19037.nad [Google Scholar]
  21. Nini, Andrea
    2019 The multi-dimensional analysis tagger. InTony Berber Sardinha & Marcia Veirano Pinto (eds.), Multi-Dimensional analysis: Research methods and current issues, 67–94. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 10.5040/9781350023857.0012
    https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350023857.0012 [Google Scholar]
  22. Sardinha, Tony Berber
    2014 25 years later: Comparing Internet and pre-Internet registers. InTony Berber Sardinha, Marcia Veirano Pinto & Douglas Biber (eds.), Multi-Dimensional analysis, 25 years on: A tribute to Douglas Biber, 81–108. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.60.03ber
    https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.60.03ber [Google Scholar]
  23. Thompson, Paul, Susan Hunston, Akira Murakami & Dominik Vajn
    2017 Multi-Dimensional analysis, text constellations, and interdisciplinary discourse. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics22(2). 153–86. 10.1075/ijcl.22.2.01tho
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.22.2.01tho [Google Scholar]
  24. Yorke, John
    2013Into the woods: How stories work and why we tell them. London: Penguin Books.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/etc.00051.win
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/etc.00051.win
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error