This document discusses analyzing representations of womanhood in the literary works of Sarojini Naidu through metaphors. It provides context that Sarojini Naidu was a celebrated Indian writer in the late 19th/early 20th century. The document outlines its objectives to analyze two of Naidu's poems using lexical analysis and schema theory to understand perspectives on womanhood in pre-independent India. It describes Richard's framework for analyzing metaphors, as well as Halliday's functional view of language. Specific methods discussed include lexical analysis focusing on reiteration and collocation, and schema theory regarding reinforcement and refreshment. The document analyzes Naidu's poem "An Indian Love Song" to demonstrate this approach.

1. Womanhood in Indian Culture through
Metaphors in the Literary Works of Sarojini
Naidu
Atula Ahuja
2013

2. Sarojini Naidu
1879-1949
Sarojini Naidu was one of India’s
few most celebrated woman
writers and statesmen She was
highly educated and well
exposed to the cultures of the
world but firmly grounded in her
own.
She wrote poems brimming with
prolific metaphors and using
English language to write as if it
were her own mother-tongue.
Her poems are set in the Indian
landscapes with vivid images
of the sights and sounds, joys and
travails of Indian society and
culture.

3. Main Objective
1. Use a combination of the bottom-up approach and the
top- down approach. In other words, apply lexis analysis
as well as schema theory to analyse the two poems by
Sarojini Naidu.
2. Employ Halliday’s functional view of language to
understand perspectives about ‘womanhood’ in the pre-
independent India, from the metaphors she used in her
poems.
3. To demonstrate the notion of ‘schema reinforcement’
and ‘schema refreshment’.

4. Methodology
I A Richard’s Framework- Tenor and Vehicle
Lexis Analysis
Schema theory
IA Richard’s Framework (1936) Philosophy of Rhetoric
Tenor: Is the subject or concept to which the metaphor is applied
Vehicle: Is a metaphoric term through which the tenor is expressed.
Ground: constitutes the features that are common between the tenor and the
vehicle.

5. Lexis Analysis
The Functional View of Language by Halliday (1971) outlines 3
functions:
1. Ideational Function: main idea or content/subject, writer’s or
speaker’s experience/interaction between the external world &
own internal world. Tenor corresponds the ideational function.
2. Interpersonal Function: constructs the writer’s and
reader’s identity.
3. Textual function: organizes a piece of communication
meaningfully.
Textuality or lexical signaling- linguistic choices signal genres, registers,
textual patterns

6. Criteria for Textuality
Textuality: In CDA, text becomes concrete communication
when connected with context.
Texts: Elements of social events as they bring about changes
in the beliefs, attitudes, values.
Writers and speakers use text to construct the world as they see
it.
Seven criteria that make text meaningful- Beaugrande &
Dressler
1. Cohesion
2. Coherence
3. Intentionality
4. Acceptability
5. Informativity
6. Situationality
7.Intertextuality
Cohesion
Halliday and Hasan have identified five kinds of cohesive
devices in English: reference, substitution, ellipsis,
conjunction and lexical cohesion

7. Lexical Cohesion
Lexical cohesion is non-grammatical. Refers to the “cohesive
effect achieved by the selection of lexical items or vocabulary
that are related in some way to those that have gone by.”
Lexical cohesion = Reiteration, Collocation
Reiteration: repetition of an earlier item- synonym, superordinate,
pronoun or general word
Collocation: pertains to incidents of lexical items that co-occur within
the same text and within the same lexical environment.
Lexical cohesion provides
1.relation between pairs of words
2. Collocations also determines the sense of each word in a given
context.

8. The Schema Theory
Bartlett: “Schema‘ as the basic unit in the organisation of prior
knowledge.”
Our understanding, perceptions and memory are shaped on the
basis of prior knowledge.
Comprehension crucially depends on the availability and
activation of relevant prior knowledge.
Literary texts tend to challenge and modify the readers' existing
schemata, which means that literary texts can disrupt the ordinary
application of schemata and have the potential to cause schema
change.

9. vorganized
meaningfully.
vDynamic-changes
and adapts with new
knowledge.
vReinforced when
knowledge simply
confirms existing
schema
vReorganized and
refreshed if old
schema is disrupted.
Schema Theory
Schema is an abstract but structured cluster of interlinked
concepts. It may be configured into a range of concepts or sub-
schemata.
Diagram (Davis, 1991)

10. Richard’s Framework to analyse poems on
Womanhood
Using Richard’s framework, poems
on womanhood were further divided
into tenors of womanhood.
Two most prominent tenors
identified were: 1.
2.
Two poems that express these tenors
will be analyzed today.
as a lover
as a widow

11. Woman as a
SHE
LIKE a serpent to the
calling voice of flutes,
Glides my heart into thy
fingers, O my Love!
Where the night-wind, like a
lover, leans above
His jasmine-gardens and
sirisha-bowers;
And on ripe boughs of
many-coloured fruits
Bright parrots cluster like
vermilion flowers.
HE
Like the perfume in the petals of a rose,
Hides thy heart within my bosom, O my love!
Like a garland, like a jewel, like a dove
That hangs its nest in the Asoka tree,
Lie still, O love, until the morning sows
Her tents of gold on fields of ivory.
lover
An Indian Love Song
by
Sarojini Naidu

12. An Indian Love Song
Through the lens of Halliday’s Functional View of Language
A Lexis analysis
Ideational Function:
What idea of the world is portrayed or conceptualized
through words and images?
What are the lexical items that construct the external
and internal world?
1. Love song (Title)
2. O’ my love! (Lines 2, 8, 11)
3. heart (Line 2)
4. thy heart…….. my bosom (Line 8)
5. Like a lover.. (line 3)
Where are they? What time is it?
1. night-wind leans above His jasmine
gardens (line 3) 2. Sirisha- bowers (line 4)
3. ripe boughs(line 5)
4.. many coloured fruits,
5. Bright parrots (line 6)
night wind- (line 3)
World of LOVE,
two lovers

13. An Indian Love Song
Through the lens of Halliday’s Functional View of Language
A Lexis analysis
Textual Function: grammatical systems responsible for managing
the flow of discourse.
1. The text in poem is organised meaningfully.
2. The language and vocabulary used makes sense in the
context of love.
3. It fulfils the seven criteria for determining meaningfulness.
4. Lexical cohesion- instances of reiteration and collocation.
Reiteration- line 1, 2: serpent- my heart line 2: thy
fingers- my love, line 3: night wind- lover
lines 7,8: perfume- thy heart, lines 9-11: garland, jewel,
dove- O love, lines, 9-10: dove- that
lines 11-12: morning- her

14. An Indian Love Song
Through the lens of Halliday’s Functional View of Language
A Lexis analysis
Collocations: the tendency of certain lexical items to co-occur
that are associated with one another in some way. They bear a
semantic connection.
1. night-wind 2. jasmine- gardens 3. sirisha- bowers 4. many-coloured 5.
vermilion flowers 6. O’ my love 7. tents of gold
8. Fields of ivory

15. An Indian Love Song
Through the lens of Halliday’s Functional View of Language
A Lexis analysis
Lexical Signaling: also helps in achieving textuality.
Lexical choices signal: 1. organizational patterns, 2. registers, 3.Genres
1. A poem on love, organized into 2 parts:
Her voice and His voice.
Lyric. rhythm rhyming scheme- abbcac
Register:
Rhyming words- love- above-love-dove,
fruits- flutes
Hyperbole- O my love!
Personification- 1. glides my heart
2. hides thy heart
3. night wind (like a lover) leans above His
jasmine…. 4. Morning sows, her tents of gold
Metaphors and similes
(Like a serpent)….glides my heart...
The night wind (like a lover) leans
above his jasmine gardens…..
Bright parrots (like vermilion
flowers)
Poetry Genre & register

16. An Indian Love Song
A Lexis analysis
Interpersonal Function: Identity of the two speakers is constructed. Maintaining
social and personal relations
SHE:
1. Glides my heart into thy fingers- her identity as his LOVER
2. O’ my love!- his identity as her BELOVED
HE:
1. Hides thy heart in my bosom – his identity as someone in love, someone who
cherishing her. He is doing the act of loving.
2. O’ my love!- his identity as her BELOVED
To understand characters’ or Naidu’s own attitudes and
comments on the content.
Poems complete comprehension depends on activation
of relevant prior knowledge or Schema.

17. An Indian Love Song
A Cognitive analysis
We have to read in-between the words and interpret the metaphors.
1. Like a serpent to the calling voice of flutes…
Activate Serpent Schema
* snakes are reptiles * can bite * can be harmful * repugnant
* revered in some cultures * snake charmers tame them * swaying
2. Like a perfume in the petals of a rose
Activate Perfume Schema
* fragrant * invisible * appeals to your sense of smell * kept in a
container * if you don’t cap it tight, it will evaporate! Vanish!
What is the point of views, feelings, attitudes of lovers towards each
other? OR Naidu’s own stance on the idea of love and lovers?

18. An Indian Love Song
A Cognitive analysis
1. Like a garland …..lie still.
Activate Garland schema/festival schema/temple schema
* made of flowers, leaves, beads * decorative * for Gods
* cultural significance- symbol of reverence * devotion * praise
2. Like a jewel……. lie still.
Activate Jewel Schema
* beautiful *sparkles * precious/treasure *appeals *kept with care
3. Like a dove that hangs its nest…….lie still
Activate Dove Schema- messenger of love, intelligent
* gentle * delicate * loving, caring, caring * dedicated * supportive
Until morning sows her tents of gold
on fields of ivory
Night Schema, Morning Schema
Sun schema Fields Schema
Most schemas conform universally
accepted norms of love and lovers
CONFIRMED
Garland schema- CHANGED/ADAPTED
serpent schema- DISRUPPTED

19. Schema Refreshment
In sorrow of her bereavement
What longer need hath she of loveliness
Whom Death has parted from her lord's caress ?
Put by the mirror of her bridal days. . . .
Why needs she now its counsel or its praise?
Shatter her shining bracelets, break the string
Threading the mystic marriage-beads that cling Loth to
desert a sobbing throat so sweet,
Unbind the golden anklets on her feet,
Divest her of her azure veils and cloud
Her living beauty in a living shroud.
DIRGE

20. Schema Refreshment
DIRGE
What need “hath she of loveliness”?
“Put by the mirror of her bridal days?”
“Shatter”, “Break” “desert”
“Unbind the anklets”
“Divest” her of azure veils
“Cloud” “living shroud.”
To some, the text will pose a challenge
and destruct their existing schemaand
build a new one. (schema
refreshment)
For some it may lead to schema
adding or schema adapting.

21. CONCLUSION
There is a possibility of combining linguistic
description and schema theory in the analysis
of texts.
In fact, for an accurate interpretation of
literary texts, including poetry, the schema
theory approach can be usefully and
systematically related to the linguistic analysis,
and applied to understand the text world.

22. Thank you