ジュネット以降では、アメリカのシーモア・チャトマンの『ストーリーと言説』Story and Discourse、『小説と映画の修辞学』、日本の藤井貞和の『平安物語叙述論』『物語理論講義』、三谷邦明の『源氏物語の言説』、山岡實の『「語り」の記号論』、カナダのパトリック・オニールの『言説のフィクション』などに発展が見られる。ジェラルド・プリンスの『物語論辞典』も錯綜した用語を対照するのに便利な著作である。
The representation (as product and process, object and act, structure and structuration) of one or more real or fictive EVENTS communicated by one, two, or several (more or less overt) NARRATORS to one, two, or several (more or less overt) NARRATEES. — Prince, Gerald、A Dictionary of Narratology, Revised Edition (2003)
伝統的に「視点」の問題として扱われてきた。物語世界の情報を把握するために誰の視点を採用するか(あるいは採用しないか)ということを扱う領域である。「視点」(viewpoint, point of view)という用語には「目で見る」という視覚に限られるニュアンスが強いので、"focalisation"(焦点化)という用語が提案されている。焦点化には大きく分けて3つの種類がある。
^"narrative. The representation (as product and process, object and act, structure and structuration) of one or more real or fictive EVENTS communicated by one, two, or several (more or less overt) NARRATORS to one, two, or several (more or less overt) NARRATEES." Prince 2003, p. 58 より引用。
^"”Mary is tall ... ” do not constitute narratives, since they do not represent any event." Prince 2003, p. 58 より引用。
^"even such possibly uninteresting texts as ”The man opened the door,” ”The goldsifh died,” ... are narratives" Prince 2003, p. 58 より引用。
^"the DISCOURSE states the STORY." Prince 2003, p. 92 より引用。
^"story. ... The CONTENT plane of NARRATIVE" Prince 2003, p. 93 より引用。
^"story. ... the NARRATED as opposed to the NARRATING;" Prince 2003, p. 93 より引用。
^"story. ... ; the EXISTENTS and EVENTS represented in a narrative." Prince 2003, p. 93 より引用。
^"existent. ... Along with EVENTS, existents are the fundamental constituents of the STORY." Prince 2003, p. 28 より引用。
^"event. ... Along with EXISTENTS, events are the fundamental constituents of the STORY." Prince 2003, p. 28 より引用。
^"story. ... the ”what” of narrative as opposed to its ”how”" Prince 2003, p. 93 より引用。
^"story. ... as opposed to its EXPRESSION plane or DISCOURSE;" Prince 2003, p. 93 より引用。
^"existent. An ACTOR or an item of SETTING;" Prince 2003, p. 28 より引用。
^"existent. ... the subject and object of ”Susan looked at the table” designate existents." Prince 2003, p. 28 より引用。
^ ab"stasis statement. A NARRATIVE STATEMENT in the mode of is, one presenting a STATE and, more specifically, establishing the existence of entities by identifying them or qualifying them" Prince 2003, p. 92 より引用。
^"stasis statement. ... cf. ”Mary was an engineer” and ”Mary was happy”" Prince 2003, p. 92 より引用。
^"event. A change of STATE manifested in DISCOURSE by a PROCESS STATEMENT" Prince 2003, p. 28 より引用。
^"narrative statement. An elementary constituent of DISCOURSE independent of the particular medium of narrative MANIFESTATION: the discourse ... state the story through a connected set of narrative statement. ... process statement. A NARRATIVE STATEMENT in the mode of Do or Happen ... stasis statement. A NARRATIVE STATEMENT in the mode of is" Prince 2003, pp. 64, 79, 92 より引用。
^"act. ... Along with the HAPPENING, one of two possible kinds of narrated EVENTS;" Prince 2003, p. 1 より引用。
^"happening. Along with the ACT ..., one of two possible kinds of narrated EVENTS;" Prince 2003, p. 39 より引用。
^"act. ... a change of state brought about by an AGENT" Prince 2003, p. 1 より引用。
^"act. ... a change of state ... manifested in discourse by a PROCESS STATEMENT in the mode of do" Prince 2003, p. 1 より引用。
^"act. ... ”Mary solved the problem” represents an act" Prince 2003, p. 1 より引用。
^"happening. ... a change of state not brought about by an AGENT" Prince 2003, p. 39 より引用。
^"happening. ... a change of state ... manifested in discourse by a PROCESS STATEMENT in the mode of Happen." Prince 2003, p. 39 より引用。
^"happening. ... ”it started to rain” and ”Mary was hit by a falling rock” represent happenings." Prince 2003, p. 39 より引用。
^ ab"discourse. 1. The EXPRESSION plane of NARRATIVE" Prince 2003, p. 21 より引用。
^"discourse. ... the ”how” of narrative as opposed to its ”what”" Prince 2003, p. 21 より引用。
^"discourse. ... as opposed to its CONTENT plane or STORY;" Prince 2003, p. 21 より引用。
^"Discourse has a SUBSTANCE (a medium of MANIFESTATION ... ) and a FORM" Prince 2003, p. 21 より引用。
^"discourse. ... ”The man ate, then he slept” and ”The man slept after he ate” have the same discourse substance (the written English language) but different discourse forms." Prince 2003, p. 21 より引用。
^ abc"narrative medium. The SUBSTANCE of the EXPRESSION plane of narrative; the medium in terms of which the narrative manifests itself." Prince 2003, p. 63 より引用。
^ abcd"substance. ... the substance of the expression can be said to be equivalent to the medium of narrative MANIFESTATION (language, film, etc.)" Prince 2003, p. 95 より引用。
^"manifestation. The SUBSTANCE of the DISCOURSE or of the EXPRESSION plane of narrative ...; the medium ... of narrative representation." Prince 2003, p. 49 より引用。
^"discourse. Discourse has a SUBSTANCE ( ... oral or written language, still or moving pictures, gestures, etc.)" Prince 2003, p. 21 より引用。
^"narrative medium. ... With written narrative, for example, that medium is written language; with oral narrative, it is oral language." Prince 2003, p. 63 より引用。
^"form. ... the form of the content can be said to be equivalent to ...; and the form of the expression to the constituents (NARRATIVE STATEMENTS) that state the story and, more specifically, determine the ORDER of presentation, the narrative SPEED, the kind of COMMENTARY, and so on." Prince 2003, p. 21 より引用。
^"There are two basic kinds of narrative statement: PROCESS STATEMENTS ... and STASIS STATEMENT" Prince 2003, p. 64 より引用。
^"stasis statement. ... Along with the PROCESS STATEMENT, it is one of two kinds of statements with which the DISCOURSE states the STORY." Prince 2003, p. 92 より引用。
^"process statement. A NARRATIVE STATEMENT in the mode of do or happen; a statement presenting an EVENT and, more specifically, an ACT or a HAPPENING." Prince 2003, p. 79 より引用。
^"process. The transformation from one state to another." Prince 2003, p. 79 より引用。
^"物語言説をまず「時間」「焦点化」「語り」という三つのカテゴリーに分け、時間は「速度」「順序」「頻度」に下位区分します。" 李 2016, p. 171 より引用。
^"tempo. A rate of narrative SPEED." Prince 2003, p. 98 より引用。
^"ELLIPSIS, SUMMARY, SCENE, STRETCH, and PAUSE are the five major tempos in narrative." Prince 2003, p. 98 より引用。
^"「速度」は 1)情景法、2)要約法、3)伸長法、4)休止法、5)省略法の五つに分類されます。" 李 2016, p. 171 より引用。
^"物語内容としては何も起こっていないにもかかわらず、物語言説だけが存在する ... これを「休止法」と呼びます。" 李 2016, p. 171 より引用。
^"物語内容としては一瞬の出来事でも、物語言説では何頁にも引き延ばす ... これを「伸長法」と言います。" 李 2016, p. 171 より引用。
^"物語内容とそれを語るのにかかった時間が同じだと考えられる場合、その物語言説の速度は「情景法」である" 李 2016, p. 171 より引用。
^"百年続いた戦争をたった一行で「戦争は百年続いた」と書けば ... 物語言説の速度は「要約法」です。" 李 2016, p. 171 より引用。
^"物語内容としては何かが起こっているにもかかわらず、物語言説ではそれについてまったく語られない場合、それは「省略法」と呼ばれ" 李 2016, p. 171 より引用。
^"descriptive pause. A PAUSE occasioned by a DESCRIPTION." Prince 2003, p. 19 より引用。
^"Not all pauses are descriptive pause: some are the result of COMMENTARY." Prince 2003, p. 19 より引用。
^"pause. ... A pause can be occasioned by a description or by a narrator's commentarial excursuses." Prince 2003, p. 71 より引用。