NARRATIVE FRAME SHIFTING By ISABEL KUGLER MCGAUGH Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Cognitive Science Cognitive Linguistics CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May, 2021 2 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Isabel Kugler McGaugh candidate for the degree of Master of Arts* Committee Chair Vera Tobin Committee Member Fey Parrill Committee Member Todd Oakley Date of Defense March 10th, 2021 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. 3 Contents Introduction . 6 1. Core Concepts . 8 1.1 Frames . .8 1.2 Frame shifts . .10 1.3 Micro and Macro Viewpoints . 12 1.4 Narrative Surprise . 14 1.5 Micro and Macro Frame Shifts . .15 1.6 The Narrative . .18 1.7 Film as a Medium . 19 2. Micro Frame Shifts . .21 2.1 Film Micro Frame Shift . 21 2.2 Textual Micro Frame Shift . .28 3. Macro Frame Shifts . 30 3.1 Radio Play Macro Frame Shift . 31 3.2 Book Macro Frame Shift . .. .. .35 3.3 Film Macro Frame Shift . .37 4.Conclusion . .47 4 List of Figures 1. Core Concepts 1.1 Macro frame shift framework visualization . .18 2. Micro Frame Shifts 2.1 Start of Vogon pursuit scene . 22 2.2 Shot associated with Frame trigger . .23 2.3 Shot associated with Frame shift trigger . 24 2.4 Shot of character’s response to frame shift . .24 3. Macro Frame Shifts 3.1 Start of Deep Thought conversation scene . 38 3.2 Shot of Zaphod asking about the ultimate question . 39 3.3 Shot of character’s response to Deep Thought . 40 3.4 Shot of planet super computer reveal . 40 3.5 Shot of character’s response to frame shift . .41 3.6 End of conversation with Deep Thought about the ultimate question . 42 3.7 Specific macro frame shift visualization . 47 5 Narrative Frame Shifting Abstract By ISABEL KUGLER MCGAUGH This paper discusses the use of the cognitive linguistics concepts of frames, frame shifting, and micro and macro viewpoint construction to analyze the narrative "The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" as told in a radio play, a book and a movie. The goal of this paper is to show how frame shifting can occur at micro and macro levels of a narrative and demonstrate that the mechanics of macro frame shifts are the same as the mechanics of micro frame shifts, as are the effects that macro frame shifts induce in an audience. The surprise that is caused in one-line jokes is the same as the surprise that occurs at major narrative twists which implement macro frame shifts. In addition, macro frame shifts are fundamentally consistent between the same narrative presented through different mediums, because of how critical macro frame shifts are to the plot of the narrative. 6 Introduction There are many ways to analyze the structure of narratives, but cognitive linguistics provides several uniquely useful concepts to apply towards this effort. For example, frame shifts are what happens when the contents of a sentence are first presented in the context of one semantic frame and then a secondary frame is triggered, causing a reinterpretation of the content of the sentence in terms of the second frame (Coulson, 2001). Frame shift analysis is mostly performed on the level of individual sentences rather than with respect to the structure of larger narratives. However, in tandem with another concept from cognitive linguistics, it becomes feasible to investigate frame shifting at a larger scale. Work on viewpoint analysis within narratives has indicated that viewpoints are constantly constructed on a sentence level throughout a story. Dancygier (2012) has shown that in addition to these small-scale viewpoints, larger viewpoint structures are commonly projected from sentence level structures to become the viewpoint structures that can characterize large sections of a text and even the entire narrative as a whole. Sentence level structures are denoted as micro level viewpoints, and larger textual level viewpoints are called macro level viewpoints (Dancygier, 2012). Given that framing is a component of viewpoint construction, it is similarly possible to address frame shifting at both macro and micro levels of a text. This analysis shows the consistent nature of the effect of frame shifting even when applied to larger linguistic structures, with the surprise that is caused by one-line jokes being fundamentally the same type of surprise implemented in twist endings. Larger and more 7 scripted forms of communication like books and movies still rely on the same linguistic features seen at the level of single utterances that can occur in day-to-day speech, and these linguistic features contribute to the structure and form of longer works. In the sections below, I will begin by laying out the previous work that has been done on large- scale and small-scale frame shifting. I will first address frames as a whole, before moving into frame shifts and concluding with viewpoint construction in narratives. In all three cases, I will clearly define the concept at issue, address previous applications of these concepts, and provide explicit concrete examples of the concepts in action. Next, using these concepts of frame shifts, micro-level constructions and macro- level constructions I intend to demonstrate that the narrative “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (Adams, 1978; Adams, 1979; Jennings, 2005) uses macro-level frame shifts at key points of the plot to force a reader to reinterpret large sections of the text at once, and so create surprise in the reader. In addition, I will be examining the narrative of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” as adapted into three distinct mediums: a radio play (Adams, 1978), a book (Adams, 1979), and a movie (Jennings, 2005). By examining the macro frame shifts present in all three mediums I hope to demonstrate that the trigger and narrative implementation of macro frame shifts can remain remarkably consistent despite the variation in affordances lent by each medium. In all three mediums the delivery for a frame-shift trigger is primarily delivered through dialogue, and the frames utilized remain consistent across adaptations. To demonstrate these claims, I will first need to address the added difficultly of examining film as a medium, and the way in which visual media interacts with viewpoint 8 construction. To address this, I will refer to an earlier work of cognitive linguistics comparing a movie adaption of a book to its book counterpart (Forceville, 2002), and define important film terms relevant to viewpoint construction, mostly in regard to shot types. Then, I will apply this cinematic approach to the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy” in its movie adaption and single out an example of a micro frame shift. This analysis will both demonstrate the contrastive differences of macro and micro frame shifts and provide a concrete example of frame analysis in the movie medium. I will also discuss an example of a micro frame shift in the book and discuss how micro frame shifts are utilized for humorous effect in this comedic narrative. Finally, to prove my main claim regarding the function of macro frame shifts, I will present a detailed analysis of one macro frame shift critical to the plot of the story (across all adaptations) and compare how this macro frame shift is triggered in each medium. 1. Core Concepts 1.1 Frames Frames are a well-established mechanism for explaining the relationship between the meaning of words, and the experiences individuals have interacting in a range of social situations (Fillmore, 1976). The core idea behind framing is the concept of background, and how background knowledge shapes the meaning of words and creates categories. A frame arises from repeated exposure to similar situations and is a way of representing a stereotypical scenario representing the core features of many specific instances of a general situation. Frames are a useful mental way of structuring 9 information, as creating a frame provides generalized slots for a scenario that can be filled with the specifics of a singular situation. At the same time, a frame comes with certain presumed fillers for slots in the frame that are representations of the most typical fillers for the slot based on your personal experience. As such, frames provide a way of structing our past experiences into meaningful schematizations that both help us predict or presume certain information in a given scenario but are also flexible enough to be applicable to specific instances of a scenario and can help us focus attention to the relevant features of a situation. An example of a frame would be the commercial transaction frame, which is a representation of the generalized scenario in which two or more people exchange goods or services. The frame immediately calls up certain slots, like the role of a buyer and seller, along with currency, and a good or service that is being exchanged for. The frame is broad enough to be adaptable to specific contexts, as seen in sentences like: “My mom bought me a tea set from Amazon for Christmas.” In this sentence, the mother of the speaker (me) is the buyer, the company Amazon is the seller, and the good being exchanged for money is a tea set. The frame is adaptable to specific circumstances in that slots can be filled with the specifics of a single circumstance, but frames are also adaptable in regard to the slots that are in play. The amount of money that the tea set cost was not included in the sentence but is a component of the transaction frame as a whole.