4　The Organization of the Book

This book contains five parts.The introduction gives a critical survey of Jane Austen's linguistic studies, which first examines carefully the various studies of Jane Austen's novels abroad and at home and concludes that there is still insufficient studies on her study of interpersonal relationships from the linguistic perspective. A more detailed and systematic study of interpersonal relationship from the linguistic perspective is in great need. This book would take linguistic theories as the guidance to explore the art of language in representing the interpersonal relationship of Austen's three pieces of major fiction.

The first chapter explores the male-female relationship in Pride and Prejudice from the cooperative principle, which suggests that a character should be cooperative in the interaction. There are four maxims, the maxim of quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relevance and the maxim of manner. On one hand, the application of CP and its four maxims is typical of mutual understanding and respect between males and females. On the other hand, the violation of CP and its four maxims creates misinterpretation and difficulty for characters to be fairly treated. The violation also leads to hierarchy, which can be both social and moral. This chapter aims to find out how the observation and violation produce different interpersonal relationships between men and women.

The second chapter illustrates the parent-child relationship in Emma from the perspective of interpersonal metafunction, which is linked to mood and modality. The mood analysis is applied in the restricted love of parents from two aspects, the clause types, and mood construction and it is meaningful in the disclosure of parents' personality and their relationship with children. The modality study is adopted in the exploration of children's spontaneous growth from the perspectives of modal operators and modal adjuncts. The study of modality in narration and conversations manifests the distorted and difficult growth of the young children.

The third chapter examines female friendship in Persuasion from the perspective of speech representation, which may adjust the narrative distance between the narrator, the reader and the character to realize different relationships. Direct speech representation shortens the distance between the character and the reader, and then both the listener in the novel and the reader can hear the speech. Without the interference of the narrator, the reader can make their own judgments of the character and the content of the conversation. It proves that direct speech representation counts in the exhibition of disharmonious relationship. While indirect speech representation plays an important role in the reflection of compatible company between women, which serves as the interpreter between the speaker and the words to the readers. The narrator concludes and intervenes by means of speeches. It depicts the feelings and emotions of characters, and facilitates the interaction between the reader and characters. Indirect speech representation plays a sizable role in the reflection of spiritual companionship between female characters.

The book explores the interpersonal relationship in Austen's major novels from the perspective of linguistic theories, which is of significant theoretical and practical meaning. It tries to make good use of the cooperative principle, interpersonal metafunction, and speech representation to explore various human relationships in the three representative novels of Jane Austen, and it avoids technical jargons as far as possible. It shows how an understanding of language may deepen the response to literary texts, and therefore enriches the literary studies and promotes the understanding of Austen's fiction. As an attempt at the application of linguistic theories to the studies of literary language, it may be of help to both linguistic and literary research.