EPISODE AND EVENT STRUCTURE IN CHILD ORAL NARRATIVES

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of episode and event structure in child narratives. The analysis is based on the material of 126 oral unprepared narratives, elicited by Russian native children of the age 4;7-7;6 during a series of experiments. The results prove that the narrative skills develop gradually but at the age between 5 and 6 there is a noticeable leap when children start producing adult-like narratives with complete episode structure and elaborated event descriptions.