Dhammma’s Books of Vipasssana Isan Monks: A Study of Structure and Styles in Narrative Discourse

Abstract

           This research aimed to study 1) types of narrative discourse structures, and 2) types of styles in narrative discourse structures by collecting data from 20 titles of Dhamma Books of Vipassana Isan. The results of the research found that, out of 40 narrative discourse structures, there were 5 types of narrative discourse structures found in the Dhamma Books of Vipassana Isan, described in order based on frequency of use. For the most part, 15 of them were historical and travel narrative discourse structures, followed by 14 of sacred
narrative discourse structures, 6 of discourse structures of narrations regarding nuns, upasaka and upasika, 3 of ethnic and traditional narrative discourse structures, and 2 of discourse structures of narrations regarding women who were obstacles in dhamma practice. For types of styles, the narrative discourse structures found in the Dhamma Books of Vipassana Isan consisted of 3 stylistic attributes, described in order based on frequency of use as follows: complexity attributes, accounting for 111.4 per 1,000 words; explicitness attributes, accounting for 72.1 per 1,000 words; solidarity attributes, accounting for 56.8 per 1,000 words. In this regard, there were 4 linguistic markers found in the complexity attributes, which were conjunctions, relative pronouns, prepositions, nominalized noun phrases; 2 linguistic markers found in the explicitness attributes, which were lexical indicators, premise indicators; 4 linguistic markers found in the solidarity attributes, which were first and second person pronouns, address terms, sentence-final particles, and elaborating words.