A Comparative Study On The Turn-taking Of The Hero And The Heroine In Jane Eyre

Discourse is said to be made up of turns and is a process in which speakers take turns. Hence, it is probable to study discourse from the perspective of the turn-taking system, including written discourse and spoken discourse. However, although there are abundant studies on spoken discourse from the perspective of the turn-taking system, little research could be found in written discourse.As a world famous novel with many dialogues, Jane Eyre is a good sample for turn-taking analysis. Generally speaking, Jane Eyre tells a romantic story between Rochester and Jane, most of whose dialogues are two-person dialogues. Thus, the author chooses those two-person dialogues as the material for study.The present research is a comparative study on the turn-taking of the hero and the heroine in their two-person dialogues, addressing two major research questions: (1) What's the difference between turn length of the hero and the heroine in their two-person dialogues? (2) What's the difference between turn types of the hero and the heroine in their two-person dialogues?The author first gives an integrated definition of turn based on previous definitions, aiming to pave the way for counting the turn. Then, the author introduces the quantitative turn-taking analysis model of Li Huadong and Yu Dongming, focusing on turn length and turn types of discourse. As Li Huadong and Yu Dongming say, turn length is the result of dividing the total number of a speaker's words by the total number of his turns, and turn types consist of initiative turns, responsive turns, initiative turns after response, interruption and monologue. In order to make a comparative study on the differences between turn length of and turn types employed by the hero and the heroine in their two-person dialogues, the author chooses eleven two-person dialogues as the research material.By collecting and analyzing the data, we make the following finding that turn length of the hero is longer than that of the heroine. Besides, there are differences between the hero and the heroine, regarding the use of five turn types, namely initiative turn, responsive turn, initiative turn after response, interruption and monologue. More specifically, the hero uses more initiative turns than the heroine, but less responsive turns than the heroine. Besides, the hero uses less initiative turns after response than the heroine and less interruptions than the heroine. But, the hero uses much more monologues than the heroine.The present study applies the quantitative turn-taking analysis model to the written discourse of novels and helps literature fans to have a better understanding of the novel Jane Eyre in terms of its characters and the story development.