CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF WOMEN LANGUAGE AT THE LEXICAL LEVEL IN SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

In this study, the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used to examine the common sense assumptions about gender that underlie the use of language in Sense and Sensibility in British society. CDA recognizes that common sense assumptions allow human beings to interpret language and to make sense of the social world; at the same time these assumptions are also permeated with ideologies that contribute to the construction and revalidation of unequal power relations. This study, then, as a part of highlighting the saliency of gender as a social category in Sense and Sensibility in British society, illustrates inequalities in the assumptions about women and men that are embedded in the linguistic practices of the heroes and heroines in Sense and Sensibility. The analysis occurs at a lexical level and this thesis is one that based mainly on qualitative study with quantitative as a supplement. As one of the first comprehensive attempts to apply the framework of CDA to Sense and Sensibility, this study demonstrates its utility as an analytic framework. It argues that women language in Sense and Sensibility also shares some common qualities in comparison with the other researches. In addition, this thesis suggests that CDA has the potential to expose common sense assumptions concerning not only gender but also other aspects of British society in Sense and Sensibility such as discrimination and prejudices based on social status and so on.