Nghiên cứu cơ sở lịch sử, xã hội và tính mới của việc sử dụng ngôn ngữ trong tác phẩm ‘Kiêu hãnh và định kiến’ của Jane Austen

Secondly, Jane Austen‟s distinctive writing style was thoroughly discussed through the language use in three leading conversations between the two main characters -Darcy Fitzwilliam and

Nghiên cứu cơ sở lịch sử, xã hội và tính mới của việc sử dụng ngôn ngữ trong tác phẩm

„Kiêu hãnh và định kiến‟ của Jane Austen

Nguyễn Kim Oanh

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Dr Phạm Đăng Bình

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract: The study firstly aimed at giving some certain information about the

temporary English society and literature of the early eighteenth and late nineteenth centuries Secondly, Jane Austen‟s distinctive writing style was thoroughly discussed through the language use in three leading conversations between the two main characters -Darcy Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Bennet - in her „Pride and prejudice‟, which satired the vices of her society, as portraying the concepts of „sincerity and vulgarity‟; so powerful that none could escape from The result of the study briefly expressed the researcher‟s own viewpoint about the matter of love and love expressing;

as well as major findings and contributions were also stated to recommend a number of things for readers to consider in the choice of widening their knowledge in literature

Keywords: Ngôn ngữ; Tiếng Anh; Sử dụng ngôn ngữ

Content

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

This initial part stated the problem and the rationale of the study, together with the aims, objectives, the scope of the study, and the overview of the rest of this research paper Above all, it was in this part that the research question was identified to work

as clear guidelines for the whole research

1 Rationale of the study

In the eighteenth century, the readers were delighted by a new form of prose, which was called „novel‟ for the first time by Daniel Defoe – the first considerable British novelist A „novel‟ with a certain length did bring amusement, pleasure and joy to those who were concerned when the contemporary British society was dreadfully chaotic in the virtue of the changes in the monarch In the innovation of this new form of prose, there appeared a remarkable number of writers and their works They were coined to emphasize not only the social changes but also the imaginary stories, which exposed their hope for a better life, so even the family or social class problems were best put

down in words by one of the most famous female novelist in Britain and all over the world – Jane Austen

She was also said to be the first novelist capable of “conveying both interior and

exterior of human life” as well as “developing the means of representing the

totality of human life” (Ian Watt, 1957)

2 Aims of the study

This study was carried out with the hope of exploring the background of the temporary Britain leading to the remarkable changes in its literal history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries especially in the view on British novels

The study also aimed at answering the question: “What is Jane Austen‟s

distinctive writing style?” The answer to the question would help the students of

Linguistics, the novel's readers as well as those who wished to specialize in

English Literature realize what made Austen one of the most successful female novelist of the century

3 Methodology of procedures

3.1 Design of the study

The study was divided into three main parts While Part One dealt with the general information which contained the rationale, aims and objectives, methodology and scope

of the study, Part Two went into further details of the historical and social background; and the newness of language use in Jane Austen‟s Pride and Prejudice through four chapters The suggestions for further research would not be omitted in the last part

3.2 Data collection and data analysis

The study used the descriptive and contextual methods of data collecting and analyzing

Basing on the huge resources of library and internet materials, the researcher analyzed and then agglutinated those ideas into her own brief clear and understandable viewpoints

On the other hand, several differences in the changeable literal trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would be briefly stated in her Analysis on how main characters exposed their own „pride‟ and „prejudice‟ in some certain circumstances through the three volumes

4 Scope of the study

As could be seen from the title, the study strongly focused not only on the historical and social background but also on the language use of the novel which played the most important role

To understand that newness of language use in the novel, the researcher had to pay her full attention to the main characters‟ leading conversations in the three volumes which helped expose the cherish love and the theory of „pride‟ and „prejudice‟ – the

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Definitions of key terms

To be able to analyze the newness of language use through the three acts of the novel, there were several key terms: discourse and discourse analysis, literary style and language use, which needed to be deeply understood So for the purpose of providing a clear and deep understanding of the matter, this first chapter would focus on the definitions

of those key terms while mentioning some necessary information about previous studies that related to the matter of the study

1.1 Discourse and discourse analysis

Through centuries, 'discourse' was defined in various ways by a number of scholars

„Discourse‟ was 'stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified and

purposive' (Cook 1989:156)

Sharing a lot in common with Malinowski, linguists (Hymes, 1960s; Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969; Grice, 1975; and Halliday and Hasan, 1973, 1978, 1989, 1994) had drawn certain

attention to this branch by clarifying some “contextual, grammar and cohesional

models as well as pragmatic and conversational viewpoints”

However, at the limitation of the minor thesis, the researcher wanted to focus on the

role of contextual analysis in the three major discourses for the reason that

'context' was created by the discourse and vice versa

More systematically, Halliday (1989) developed a model of contextual analysis, just

following the context of situation, which included three components as followed:

Components of a

SITUATION

Feature of the context

Field of discourse what was happening, to the nature of the social action that

was taking place

Tenor of discourse Who were taking part in the situation

Mode of discourse The role assigned to language

1.2 Literary style

Literary style was defined in various ways by a number of scholars

According to Geoffrey Leech and Mick Short, Literary style referred to “linguistic choice

in general” or to “those aspects of linguistic choice which concern alternative ways of rendering the same subject matter” (cited by Mitchell, A & McGee, K 2011:

31-32)

Similarly with those scholars, David Watson in „The Elements of Style‟ (1915),

defined literary style as “the translation of thought into language” This identification of the style surely did not fail in “width and generality” In other words,

there was no doubt, as the widespread belief in the existence and the power of something

so called when words, sentences and voice were carefully chosen to be the means or the medium of the garment of the certain processes of thought It gave a distinction to certain writers or compositions because even though it was not so easy to recognize an author‟s style, readers were still able to see her literary

accent of a school, a nation or an age which could be clarified through the concrete whole form by means of a number of concrete parts

1.2.1 Word choice

General speaking, nouns and verbs were the main medium, which helped readers visualize and convey the meanings of a novel, and a novel writer was said to be good only if she knew when to choose or weed out the words concisely and precisely It

should be words which were “active verbs, concrete nouns and specific adjectives”

(cited in „The Elements of Style‟, 2000)

1.2.2 Sentence fluency

Easily seen in well-known novels that readers mostly were attracted by a variety of

sentences with different lengths and rhythms which was called “the flow and rhythm

of phrases and sentences”; in other words, it was „Sentence fluency‟ All the ideas were

carefully considered, chosen and then arranged in various structures to reflect the main themes of the novel They were not like in speaking when people could not rethink or revise the ideas for effect To make the sentences fluent, sounding like an own style, the writer would re-choose the words, delete redundancies, make vague or ambiguous words much clearer to convey the greatest effect as possible

1.2.3 Voice

There was an old saying: “Style is the dress of thoughts”; and literary style was most

clearly defined by an author‟s voice Although voice was difficult to be drastically measured, it was the essential element that revealed the writer‟s personality to the extreme; and in „Pride and Prejudice‟, Jane Austen was successful in

portraying characters with a great sense of irony

In those hidden language, actions, differences and communications, irony was seen as

an art or a means of worth and effective persuasion in speeches when it

allowed people to convey the meaning above what was said As Socrates (cited by Colebrook, 2004) once implied, irony was used by saying one thing and meaning

another which resulted in an insistence Irony was believed to bring about “truth and

recognition” even if that truth was hard to be recognized and not fully meaningful

1.3 Language use

Language use was said to be “the people‟s production and understanding of a set of

sentences with particular meanings” (cited in “Irony” by Colebrook, 2004) In fact, the

term “language use” received a certain attention from literary scholars, but more clearly and closer to Halliday‟s theory that the researcher based on when analyzing the discourses, Clark (2000) developed the theory by Gumperz and Hymes (1964, 1972) and once acknowledged that the speakers‟ word and sentence meaning came first in theories of language structure That was the reason for his further study in the use of words and sentences in his “Arenas of Language use” According to him, the meaning would be clearly recognized through the properties of the three certain arenas: 1 Participants 2 Social processes 3 Collective activities

1.3.1 Participants

The participants were the speakers and the speakers‟ attendants – the addressees - and certain so-called participants in the actions They had certain additional roles – depending

on each situation – that helped define what the speakers said and meant In conversations, they were speakers and listeners

1.3.2 Social processes

The language that was used should be depended on what the social processes were For instance, in the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth, they used the language, which fit their social attitude towards the other even when the first

impression might be wrong They spoke to the other in an ironic manner and voice due to the awareness of their own „pride‟ and „prejudice‟ toward the social status The novel ended when they both came to expose love to each other despite the social differences

1.3.3 Collective activities

Three main acts of the novel included a number of activities that brought the characters to take part in and to accomplish the social processes People spoke and listened to one another in collaboration and in coordination as to bridge the communication gap and to reach the goal revealed at the end of the novel

Even though the language use was seen from various viewpoints, there was no doubt that they had some similarities in the use and choice of words and sentence structures, which were so typical for each character in different contexts

1.2 Previous studies

Through centuries, not only the content but also the literary style in „Pride and prejudice‟ was discussed a thousand times by a big number of scholars from all over the world However, several ambiguous and contradictory viewpoints began to be discovered in the process of analyzing the novel such as Tory or Enlightenment feminism, individual society, etc By synthesizing the related studies, several ideas were recognized and considered some typical features, which helped exposing Jane Austen‟s distinctive writing style under the English society in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

CHAPTER 2 ANALYTICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Introduction to Jane Austen

Born on the sixteenth of December, 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire, England, Jane Austen was the seventh of the clergyman George Austen‟s children and shared the most intimate relationship with her sister Cassandra who had never got married Jane Austen was in possession of a great desire in reading from her father – a rector who lived an uneventful life at the birthplace but always encouraged his daughters to read passionately as much as they could Not only Jane but other Austen children from time

to time presented short plays watched by the family and neighbours for entertainment, which helped create the warm and friendly living environment and the close

relationship amongst family members, which helped generate her writing ability as well

as give her the ideas for the later works

2.2 Introduction to 'Pride and Prejudice'

2.2.1 Summary

Mr and Mrs Bennet lived their uneventful life with five daughters at Longbourn in Herfordshire In the absence of a male heir, their property would pass by entail to a cousin, William Collins who lately came to the town, aiming to marry a fine woman in the neighbourhood The story really started when Elizabeth and four other sisters –

Mr and Mrs Bennet‟s daughters – were wanted to go to the welcome ball of Mr Bingley – a new single rich bachelor coming to the neighbourhood, together with his two sisters and friend – Fitzwilliam Darcy Mrs Bennet – a miraculously tiresome mother - was consumed by the desire to see her daughters married and seemed to care

for nothing else in the world because she believed: “It is a truth universally

acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of wife” This ball brought Bingley and Jane – the eldest Bennet girl – together through an

actual attraction, and Elizabeth‟s „first impression‟ toward Mr Darcy - “the proudest,

most disagreeable man in the world” who would never be welcomed again in

Longbourn Furthermore, he was

one of the two – with Mr Bingley‟s sister – adding intensified aversion to the separation of Bingley and Jane later on

Meanwhile Mr Collins got a marriage refusal when he proposed to Elizabeth Promptly he transferred his affection to Charlotte Lucas which was finally accepted Elizabeth once again was brought into a contact with Darcy in Pemberley, in Derbyshire where Darcy proposed to her in terms that did not conceal his pride but got an indignant rejection back During this visit, Elizabeth reached the news that her sister Lydia eloped with Wickham, son of the steward of the Darcy property The story was untied since Darcy‟s letter to Elizabeth and they finally engaged, back to Longbourn and the relationship between Bingley and Jane was also renewed, and then ended in a happy engagement

2.2.2 Themes

The short courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth was an example of “one of the most

cherished love stories” (Spark notes, 2012) in the English literature which displayed

the „Pride‟ and „Prejudice‟ even when their love and marriage was built and maintained through their common interests in reading Elizabeth, who even did not have a home-tutor, had a great desire in reading books while Darcy

exposed his reading interest in preserving his father‟s big library in the house,

revealed during Elizabeth‟s stay in Pemberley and led to the readers‟ realization of

a suitable match – Darcy and Elizabeth