A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Metalanguage In Dialogues Of Narrative Fictions

Metalanguage is a concept originated from modern logic. In 1933, Tarski has distinguished object language from metalanguage in order to solve the "the liar’s paradox". And the distinction between object language and metalanguage is accepted in linguistics. Generally speaking, there are two linguistic approaches to the notion of metalanguage. One is oriented towards representation, and the other is oriented to communication. In the first approach, metalanguage does not represent the world directly; rather it represents the representations of the world. In the second approach, metalanguage is seen as part of everyday communication and the metalinguistic function is regarded as one of several simultaneous functions of linguistic. So far, the previous studies of metalanguage are relevant to debates about what linguistic systems were universally like in semantic, semiotic, and functional terms.However, from the social and ideological perspective, metalanguage as a discourse, mediates social relationships, social identities, and power imbalances and structures social interaction. That means there are social values that fill out particular social contexts of metalanguage use,and thus to analyze its meaning requires a critical sensitivity. And in narrative fictions, metalanguage is widely used as a device to make stories more realistic and vivid in dialogues to highlight the code of the characters, describe their character’s verbal behavior, and make implied authorial comments. By analyzing the metalanguage in dialogues, the conflict of ideology can be revealed.This thesis consists of five chapters. Following the introductory chapter, Chapter Two first introduces the concept of metalanguage, focusing on its definition and classification, and then reviews previous studies on metalanguage so as to illuminate the necessity of analyzing metalanguage in narrative fictions in the framework of critical discourse analysis (CDA). In Chapter Three, the theoretical framework of this project, including CDA and dialogism, is advanced. In Chapter Four, a critical discourse analysis of the ideology and power relations underlying the metalanguage of narrative fictions is then conducted, focusing particularly on some excerpts of dialogues in Lady Chatterley’s Lover by the famous British novelist D. H. Lawrence, so as to illustrate how to conduct a critical discourse analysis of metalanguage in narrative fictions from the perspectives of CDA and dialogism. Chapter Five concludes this thesis by summarizing the major findings of the study, acknowledging the limitations and then making some prospects for further research in relevant fields.