The Representation of Social Actors In Interchange Third Edition Series: A Critical Discourse Analysis

This study takes a critical discourse analysis approach to investigate the linguistic representation of male and female social actors and construction of gender identities in the Interchange Third Edition. The analytical models used are van Leeuwen's (1996) framework and Halliday's transitivity model (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). The findings of this study indicated a differential representation of social actors in that females were portrayed as more prominent, successful, active, independent, expressive and assertive in comparison with males. Generally, it seems that attempts have been made to bring women from margin to the foreground. Moreover, females are associated with high status activities. This challenges traditional values that exclude and demean the value of women in society implying that women are as crucial as men to the community's function.