CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PYGMALION BY GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

The theory of discourse and power, which was put forward by the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, is more and more frequently employed in literary criticism. As one kind of discourse, conversation plays an essential role in understanding drama, Pygmalion is no exception. George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion encompasses power changes that are revealed in discourse. The purpose of this paper is to show how these changes are put in discourse. To do so, four linguistic elements, namely: topic- control, interruptions, addresses, and turn- taking, are chosen to be calculated and analyzed in this play to present the change of power relation between two main characters Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins. This paper shows that critical discourse plays an essential role in understanding the change of Eliza‘s identity as well as the power-relation between her and Higgins.