Configuring Markedness Theory of Opposition in Qaisara Sheraz’s Typhoon: A Feministic Binary Opposed Linguistic Analysis

This paper aims to explore the status of women accompanied by patriarchal practices in Pakistan. The linguistic features are analyzed to find the stereotypes as the product of marked and unmarked socio-cognitive structures. Markedness theory of binary opposition has been implied as a theoretical framework. The data includes a few of the lines of the novel selected through purposive sampling. The research proposes qualitative enumeration of the feministic binary opposition. The results show the binary oppositions as marked and unmarked structures of cultural practices enduring cognitive strata through generational practice. The marked suppressive roles of women are subjected to overdue unmarked dominant roles of men. Unmarked dominant roles of the males exhibited the unjust behavior of men around Naghmana, Gulshan, and Chuadharani Kaniz. The results also depicted the negative concepts associated with roles attributed to the unmarked notion of women. The negative roles for women as unmarked concepts show their suppressive roles. The research is significant in analyzing the binary roles as the cause of unequal social relations. It implies the markedness of linguistic choices as a tool to analyze the social structure through binary opposition. The research is particular in providing an additional hierarchy of feminine markedness in the theory of binary opposition. The study also contributes to cognitive studies by implying unmarked dominant roles as the result of naturally existing, frequent, and socially practiced cognitive strata.