MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF COLONIAL DISCOURSE IN FAÏZA GUÈNE’S MEN DON’T CRY

Abstract

This study investigates the representation of colonial discourse in selected passages from Men Don’t Crythrough a morphosyntacticlens. The study adopts a qualitative textual-analysis methodology and draws primarily on Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), complemented by insights from Hallidayan functional grammar and postcolonial approaches to language, identity, and othering. The analysis focuses on pronouns, noun phrases, verbs, tense and aspect, modality, negation, transitivity-related grammatical choices, active and passive constructions, imperatives, interrogatives, coordination, subordination, and the distribution of agency. The analysis demonstrates that grammatical structures do not merely describe the characters’ experiences; they participate in constructing unequal relations of authority and identity. The study further demonstrates that colonial discourse operates not only through explicit references to ethnicity but also through assumptions concerning civilization. The study concludes that morphosyntaxis an important site at which colonial and postcolonial ideologies are reproduced, contested, and renegotiated in Guène’s novel.