2

Try as I might, I cannot find a term that technically describes errors in re-telling a story, sometimes known as Chinese whispers or by other similarly idiomatic expressions.

I would have thought "narration error" would be a suitable term, but Googling finds it is not used as a linguistics phrase.

This would reflect the idea of "speech error", which is a widely used term to indicate errors from the morpheme to the phrase level (see Speech error). This covers 'slips of the tongue', spoonerisms and so on.

So can anyone find me an understandable and neutral term (one that does not arbitrarily refer to telephones, grapes, milk, or Chinese people)?

Improve this question
3
  • For most words there is an accepted pronunciation, and for most sentences there is an accepted syntactic order. Varying from those can be called a speech error. But stories in general are not nearly as well-structured as sentences or words, and in fact people with the ability to tell a story well at will are rare. We call such people poets or writers or singers or storytellers or politicians, and they follow their own rules. So talking about a "narration error" is awfully broad and undefined -- how would you tell what counted as an error from what simply counted as a lack of talent?
    – jlawler
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 16:56
  • I think Jeremy here has got it right, calling it a retelling error. A major application that is focussed on in the literature seems to be participant event narratives in court settings. My own problem was lexicographic - in the Oceanic (southwest Pacific) language I am documenting, the islanders have a word they will apply to someone who makes a speech error or 'doesn't tell the story right (not from lying but by mistake)'. I think they'll understand 'retelling error', but would never have understood what a 'telephone game' or 'Chinese whispers' would mean.
    – IanS
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 22:11
  • Ah, well in that case, it makes sense. There are quite strict formal narrative traditions in all oral cultures. Kipling made a poem out of it: "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,/And every single one of them is right!"
    – jlawler
    Commented Jul 30, 2014 at 2:30

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

This is not an authoritative answer.

But, I'm not sure one exists. I'd never heard a neutral term for it, but I like your suggestion. It looks like people could almost use 'retelling error' (http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/16/1/16.abstract), but haven't. I think it's a good candidate, though: 'retelling' seems to be the most precise term for what you describe, and it is already in use in academic papers about this.

The 'error' half is sometimes referred to as 'mutation' or just 'change', but I think you're correct to go with 'error' (and for the reason you mention).

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    I like your suggestion, and I'll use it. I can't vote your answer up yet because of currently having less than 15 votes reputation. Incidentally it seems to me that there is an opportunity for somone to publish an academic paper to define the field.
    – IanS
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 22:02

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.