Metadiscursive Markers Across Three Feminist Waves: A Sociolinguistic Study

To investigate the variance in the use of metadiscursive markers by female authors through the different stages of the feminist movement, this study cross-examined the use of metadiscursive hedges and boosters as defined by Hyland’s metadiscourse model in Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and Luce Irigaray’s The Sex Which Is No One, respectively corresponding the three feminist waves. All samples of the said markers were collected among which those used to metadiscursive effects were identified by two raters. The proportions and frequency of the use of both markers were determined and analyzed within samples and between samples. The results of a Chi-Square test showed a significant difference in the use of both hedges and boosters within each work and between them. The data indicated that all three authors used metadiscursive hedges significantly more frequently than metadiscursive boosters. The results also revealed that there was a significant increase in the frequency of hedges moving from the first wave to the second but a slight decrease in moving from the second to the third wave, which shows that the increase was maintained. The data also showed a consistent significant increase in the frequency of boosters from the first wave to the second and from the second to the third. The findings suggest that in the course of the feminist movement, female authors have increasingly made bolder and firmer statements and claims in their works while simultaneously using a more cautious style to mitigate the boldness of their claims and more efficiently influence their readers.