Form and Meaning in Literature: Deixis and the Portrayal of Personal, Social and Financial Relations in Pride and Prejudice
Journal Title: Çankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences - Year 2018, Vol 12, Issue 1
Abstract
This study considers the relationship between form and meaning in literature by looking at the use of deixis in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The study takes insights from pragmatics to focus on personal, social and discourse deixis and uses quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the frequency of personal pronouns, proximity pronouns and titles and to consider how deixis affects the themes of emotional relations, social class and the role of women. The frequency of personal pronouns and titles in Pride and Prejudice was compared with the British National Corpus and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Findings of both the quantitative and qualitative analysis indicate that the way selected language forms are used reflects how emotional relationships develop in the novel, the social status of the characters and the role of women in Pride and Prejudice. The study goes on to discuss how deixis and themes relate to the literary techniques of irony and to a lesser extent ambiguity. Keywords: Deixis, pragmatics, literature, language form, meaning, Jane Austen.
Authors and Affiliations
Philip Glover, Adwaa Sabah Shukur Al-Tekreeti
Keywords
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Editor’s Preface
Çankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences has reached its 12th issue this year with the contributions of the colleagues who shared their valuable studies with us, the reviewers who devoted their valuab...