Storytelling and retelling in Bulgarian: a contrastive perspective on the Bulgarian adaptation of MAIN

Abstract

Bulgarian belongs to the South Slavic language group but exhibits specific linguistic features shared with the non-Slavic languages of the Balkan Sprachbund. In this paper, we discuss linguistic and cultural aspects relevant for the Bulgarian adaptation of the revisedEnglishversionof The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN). We addresstypological properties of the verbal system pertaining to a differentiated aspectual system and to a paradigm of verbal forms for narratives grammaticalized as renarrative moodin Bulgarian. Further, we consider lexical, derivational and discourse cohesive means in contrast to the English markers of involvement and perspective takingin the MAIN stories.