Discovering Virginia Woolf's Linguistic Tapestry in "A Haunted House" and "The Widow and The Parrot" with a Systemic Functional Linguistic Lens

Abstract

The study using SFL framework investigates the patterns Virginia Woolf woven in two of her stories "A Haunted House" and "The Widow and the Parrot". Both stories deal with supernatural elements, but they diverge in the pattern when a SFL based analysis was carried out. Having a detailed examination of transitivity and thematic structure we discovered distinguished linguistic strategies to showcase supernatural atmospheres. The data reveal that both stories employ unmarked inanimate themes with material processes, yet their process type distribution and narrative integration vary greatly. In "A Haunted House," integration of supernatural and emotions is done by employing more stable spread of marked (16%) and unmarked themes (33% animate, 51% inanimate) with a dominant proportion of material processes (80%). Whereas "The Widow and the Parrot" displays a divergent distribution with enhanced relational processes (30% vs 8%) drawing clear boundaries between supernatural sections (70% inanimate themes) and compassionate texts (100% animate themes). This comparative investigation validates Woolf's intact pattern to create supernatural elements and discovers that she uses different processes to integrate elements of supernatural and emotions throughout her story 'A Haunted House' and disintegrate supernatural and compassionate texts in 'The Widow and the Parrot'.