A Socio-Pragmatic Study of Identity Crisis in Fadia Faqir’s Willow Trees Don't Weep
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/wjfh.Vol21.Iss4.1360Keywords:
alienation, Fadia Faqir, hedges, identity crisis, socio pragmaticAbstract
The current study explores the theme of ‘identity crisis’ in Fadia Faqir’s Willow Trees Don't Weep (2014) from a socio-pragmatic perspective. The study aims to examine the identity crisis using socio-pragmatic tools, delineate the aspects of identity crisis and showcase the social factors that shape the main character’s identity crisis. To conduct this study, an eclectic model incorporating Searle's (1969) taxonomy of speech acts, Prince et al.’s (1982) hedges and Grice’s (1975) conversational implicature will be used. The analysis reveals that only representative and expressive speech acts are utilized, with the representative speech act of stating being the dominant one. For hedges, modal verbs are the dominant ones. Only the quantity maxim is violated resulting in conversational implicature. Additionally, the main character has shown three aspects of identity crisis, namely self, social and religious, which are highly affected by social factors such as family dynamics, gender roles, and societal norms.
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