Interview with the storyteller

I did a little interview with the storyteller and asked the moves she made during the storytelling. The story was told in Chinese while the storyteller code-switch from Chinese to English several times. When she talked about “Highland Mall” and “the mall,” instead of using the word "百貨公司" (Department store), she used English word “mall.” She mentioned that we do not have the corresponding word representing the concept of the “mall” because we only have the concept of department stores. Also, when talking about the retailer’s name, Express, she figured that it was easier for listeners to understand and for her to say it without translating it. She also used “cashier” instead of “售貨小姐”(the person who sells goods) to represent the person who sells stuff in the shop because “cashier” was shorter and easier to pronounce than the corresponding Chinese word. The same rationale was applied to the word “couple” and “confused.” Code-switching heighten our attention of semantic and morphological differences between languages, as well as the cultural diversity behind the story.

In the middle of the storytelling, the storyteller asked the listeners whether they know which shop she was talking about. She shifted the genre of communication which evoked the change of participation structure. The narrative mode has turned out to be a conversational mode with interactions since the storyteller wish to clarify or to negotiate meaning with the listeners. This shows that genre of speech is constantly changing based on the context and the focus of the interaction. As mentioned in the work of Bauman and Briggs (1990), one genre can be embedded within a token of another.