Melola Discovery

← Melola Discovery

Open access Jurnal

Linguistic Agency and Emotional Lexicon in Jane Eyre: A Corpus-Assisted Literary Analysis for English Language Teaching

ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities · Vol. 9 No. 2 (2026) · pp. 297–306

DOI
10.34050/els-jish.v9i2.50931
ISSN
2621-0835, 2621-0843
Published
2026-06-02
Publisher
Hasanuddin University
Language
en
License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

Abstract

This study investigates the construction of linguistic agency and emotional expression in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë through a corpus-assisted stylistic approach. The research aims to examine how syntactic structures, modality, pronoun usage, and emotional vocabulary reflect the protagonist’s psychological transformation and evolving identity throughout the narrative. The study employs a qualitative descriptive design supported by corpus-assisted analysis within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The corpus was constructed from the complete text of the novel, consisting of approximately 183,000 words, from which 450 linguistic units and 1,248 clauses were purposively selected and analyzed across three narrative phases: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The findings reveal a significant shift from passive to active constructions, indicating the development of linguistic agency and self-determination. The analysis of modality demonstrates an increasing use of volitional expressions such as will and shall, reflecting stronger interpersonal authority and autonomy. Furthermore, the emotional lexicon evolves from expressions associated with fear, sorrow, and repression toward vocabulary emphasizing freedom, hope, independence, and self-worth. These findings suggest that language functions as an important mechanism for the construction of identity, agency, and emotional transformation within literary discourse. The study also highlights the pedagogical relevance of corpus-assisted literary analysis in English Language Teaching (ELT), particularly in fostering students’ linguistic awareness and critical interpretation of literary texts.

Keywords

Collaboration network of the authors

22 authors · 41 co-authorship links · 2 across different organisations

Hover or tap a name to highlight its co-authors. Double-click to open the author's page.

  • Universitas Muhammadiyah Kendari
  • Institut Agama Islam Negeri Kendari
  • Affiliation unknown
  • Different organisations
  • Same organisation
  • Affiliation unknown
  • Thicker line = more joint articles · bigger circle = more articles
Show as table
Co-authorOrganisationJoint articles
Herawaty AbbasAffiliation unknown3
Abbas AbbasAffiliation unknown3
Hamzah A MachmoedAffiliation unknown2
Abdul Hakim YassiAffiliation unknown2
Ardianto AzisUniversitas Muhammadiyah Kendari1
Usman UsmanInstitut Agama Islam Negeri Kendari1
Arsam ArsamUniversitas Muhammadiyah Kendari1
Maulana Dalyan TahirAffiliation unknown1
Nur HikmahAffiliation unknown1
Nurjannah SyarifuddinAffiliation unknown1
Nurul FadhillahAffiliation unknown1
Noer Jihad SalehAffiliation unknown1
Nurfitriana ZainalAffiliation unknown1
Wahyu Pratama PutraAffiliation unknown1
Karmila MokogintaAffiliation unknown1
Husnul Khatimah NurAffiliation unknown1
Hamzah MachmoedAffiliation unknown1
Iffah Al HikmahAffiliation unknown1

Affiliations come from OpenAlex; journal OAI-PMH metadata carries none. Authors without an OpenAlex ID are matched by name, which can merge or split people.

Metadata source: OAI-PMH (metadata jurnal) https://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/jish/oai, first harvested 3 Nov 2026, last seen 3 Nov 2026.
Original metadata (oai_dc) 
<oai_dc:dc xmlns="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/  http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
	<dc:title xml:lang="en">Linguistic Agency and Emotional Lexicon in Jane Eyre: A Corpus-Assisted Literary Analysis for English Language Teaching</dc:title>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Muliyani, Muliyani</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Sahib, Harlinah</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Azi, Rahmawati</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Bahmansyur, Bahmansyur</dc:creator>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Linguistic agency</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Emotional lexicon</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Corpus stylistics</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Systemic Functional Linguistics</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Jane Eyre</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">ELT</dc:subject>
	<dc:description xml:lang="en">This study investigates the construction of linguistic agency and emotional expression in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë through a corpus-assisted stylistic approach. The research aims to examine how syntactic structures, modality, pronoun usage, and emotional vocabulary reflect the protagonist’s psychological transformation and evolving identity throughout the narrative. The study employs a qualitative descriptive design supported by corpus-assisted analysis within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The corpus was constructed from the complete text of the novel, consisting of approximately 183,000 words, from which 450 linguistic units and 1,248 clauses were purposively selected and analyzed across three narrative phases: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The findings reveal a significant shift from passive to active constructions, indicating the development of linguistic agency and self-determination. The analysis of modality demonstrates an increasing use of volitional expressions such as will and shall, reflecting stronger interpersonal authority and autonomy. Furthermore, the emotional lexicon evolves from expressions associated with fear, sorrow, and repression toward vocabulary emphasizing freedom, hope, independence, and self-worth. These findings suggest that language functions as an important mechanism for the construction of identity, agency, and emotional transformation within literary discourse. The study also highlights the pedagogical relevance of corpus-assisted literary analysis in English Language Teaching (ELT), particularly in fostering students’ linguistic awareness and critical interpretation of literary texts.</dc:description>
	<dc:publisher xml:lang="en">Hasanuddin University</dc:publisher>
	<dc:date>2026-06-02</dc:date>
	<dc:type>info:eu-repo/semantics/article</dc:type>
	<dc:type>info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion</dc:type>
	<dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
	<dc:identifier>https://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/jish/article/view/50931</dc:identifier>
	<dc:identifier>10.34050/els-jish.v9i2.50931</dc:identifier>
	<dc:source xml:lang="en">ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities; Vol. 9 No. 2 (2026): JUNE; 297-306</dc:source>
	<dc:source>2621-0835</dc:source>
	<dc:source>2621-0843</dc:source>
	<dc:source>10.34050/els-jish.v9i2</dc:source>
	<dc:language>en</dc:language>
	<dc:relation>https://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/jish/article/view/50931/14485</dc:relation>
	<dc:rights xml:lang="en">Copyright (c) 2026 Muliyani, Harlinah Sahib, Rahmawati Azi, Bahmansyur</dc:rights>
	<dc:rights xml:lang="en">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0</dc:rights>
</oai_dc:dc>