Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1983

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Curriculum and Instruction

Major Professor

Mark A. Christiansen

Committee Members

Norman Sander, Thomas K. Ryan, Lester N. Knight

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretically based methodology to account for sex related stylistic variables in writing. Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf was used as a vehicle for developing an approach to the study of women's language. First of all, I interpreted the language of the novel in terms of speech act theory and found that the language of the narrator can be explained by speech act theory to be consistent with the overall progression within the novel. I found that Woolf flouted the rules governing the novel, biography, and women's language. Secondly, I used quantitative analyses to describe the language of the text. After identifying relevant variables, I sampled the text and used the CALAS program (Computer Assisted Language Analysis System) to analyze the samples at the sentence semantic level. I then tested statistically the results for significant differences between samples. I found that by examining role relations at the sentence semantic level, according to the rules of case grammar as defined by Walter A. Cook, the irony of the text can be said to be registered at a deeper level than in the overall progression or subject matter of the text. The study of syntax did not support the idea that chapters stylistically represent literary period styles. The quantitative analyses demonstrate that significant differences in styles within the text are due to Orlando's sex.

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