A Critical Analysis and Representation of Social Actors in “Bijan and Manijeh”: Van Leeuwen's (2008) Sociological- Semantic Model

Van Leeuwen’s (2008) critical discourse analysis approach is one of the analytical approaches of text. It has two main components including exclusion and inclusion, each one having different sub-components. The purpose of this research is to study and analyze the way the components of exclusion including suppression and backgrounding and some components of inclusion comprising impersonalization, categorization, personalization, passivation, generalization, and their subcomponents are manifested in representing social actors in “Bijan and Manijeh” story from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. In this regard, different types of sentences in this work were identified and counted. Then the usage frequency, percentage, and significance level of each component and the relevant sub-components were assessed via statistical analysis and Chi-square test. The research results show that the poet has used all sub-components of exclusion and the given components of inclusion under investigation in this story. Besides, Chi-square test results designate there is a comparatively significant relationship between the application frequencies of major intended components compared with each other and also their sub-components. The analysis of exclusion results reveals the poet does not have a tendency to secretly represent the social actors. Also, the results of the inclusion components under study demonstrate the poet has used positive appraisement and subjection sub-components and has tried to characterize the social actors more effectively with a positive value. Moreover, in most sentences, the social actors are represented by giving reference to their utterances, physical features, and using similes and metaphors.