Abstract
In story and discourse proper names may be seen as one of five basic choices confronting the text producer: proper name (given name, surname); specific description (the tall one); classifier (the woman); pronoun (they); and zero anaphora. In Grimaud [1, 2], I studied cross-cultural (Hungarian and American) strategies in the use of those categories; in the present article, I look at some of the psychological implications of the various possible category choices by having twenty-five students comment on their preferences for one of the three versions of Sherwood Anderson's short story “The Strength of God” (in Winesburg, Ohio, 1919); a proper name only, a description only, and the mixed original version. Two influences dominated: a “friendliness” factor of proper names or descriptions (depending upon subject) and expectations concerning text coherence. Seven narrative maxims are postulated to account for the socio-cultural influences on preference for names in narrative.
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