A Corpus-Based Study of Characterization of Mother in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: A Transitivity Analysis of Mrs. Weasley in The Harry Potter Novels

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Kunrada Chiranorawanit
Passapong Sripicharn

Abstract

This paper utilizes corpus techniques to analyze the characterization of Mrs. Weasley in the Harry Potter novels. With the corpus investigation of the children’s and young adult fiction, the normally overlooked instances of this mother character can be closely attended to. The clauses that contain the title of her name are categorized into the different Transitivity process types in Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). Once some patterns of her Transitivity representation emerge, her frequent clause participant functions and common collocations can be determined. These findings can be considered with the six types of mother in literature that were gathered from the author’s survey of literary analyses. The one that Mrs. Weasley could be identified with is ‘the good mother’ of the traditional kind. Strengthened by the language evidence, this characterization of mother can be put to a test whether it sustains through the plot phases. By generating three sub-corpora that reflect relevant themes, the intensity of the mother’s role is found consistent with her personal and the public fear. From the sophisticated plot, the methodological synergy between Transitivity and corpus brings to surface the maternity that seems to never dismiss in the creation of these fantasies. The revelations of the character taps into the language use that not only causes wonder about the literature but also helps those who are non-native speakers relate language forms to their meanings that may not, or cannot, be informed by the traditional English grammar.

Article Details

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Research articles

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