A LEXICO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF LEILA SLIMANI'S 'SEX AND LIES'

Abstract

This work examines a lexico-semantic analysis of Leila Slimani's 'Sex and Lies' in order to reveal the author's creative use of some lexical devices to achieve meaning in the text. The work adopts Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) as a theoretical model, since this work focuses on the deployment of lexical devices to provide meaning in the text. As a library and text-based research, the work uses a descriptive and simple random sampling technique in examining the data studied. Previous studies focused on the issues of feminism and sexuality without much attention paid to how lexical devices are used in the text to produce meaning. The work also observes that meaning do not exist in isolation rather they are connected to words. This is made possible through the author's ability to make use of some lexical devices such as synonym, antonym, polysemy, repetition, etc. to improve the textual quality of the text. The work concludes that the use of lexical devices by the authors enhance the reading and comprehension of the text by the readers.

Keywords: Sytemic Functional Grammer, Feminism and Sexuality Sex and Lies