Unfolding Interpersonal Meanings through the Transgendered Language: A Discourse-based Study of Julie Khan's Speeches

Abstract

Aim of the Study: This paper aims at unfolding the embedded ideologies in transgenders' speeches by taking experiential meta function of meaning into consideration.

Methodology: Drawing on the Systemic Functional approach of Appraisal Analysis (Martin & White, 2005) and Register Model (Halliday, 2014) this paper unfolds the fabrication of the viewpoints by exploring linguistic patterns of evaluation in the selected text. The wholesome thirty-two clause data is taken from Julie Khan’s two social speeches.

Findings: The analysis demonstrates the linguistic patterns that transgenders employ to appraise their emotions through their speeches and to show how particular attitudinal meanings express certain emotional attitudes. The findings illustrate the use of positive, negative, unhappy, disappointed, appreciative, desired, and judgmental linguistic patterns to appraise the transgendered hidden perspectives. Furthermore, the analysis reveals society's negative and judgmental attitude toward transgenders and how they have been deprived of their basic human rights in a highly polarized Pakistani society.

Conclusion: Conclusively, the study illustrates the way language is used to build textual personas, and to control interpersonal positioning and relationships, as well as how the trans voice reveals the socio-cultural reality of the transgendered people. The study is significant because it reveals the biased and marginalized attitudes of society towards transgenders and the perspectives of transgenders about themselves and society.