VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ---------------- ---------------- PHẠM THUÝ HẰNG AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH INQUIRY LETTERS IN ONLINE SHOPPING FROM A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR'S PERSPECTIVE Phân tích thư yêu cầu tiếng Anh trong mua bán trực tuyến theo quan điểm ngữ pháp chức năng hệ thống M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 60 2215 HA NOI - 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ---------------- ---------------- PHẠM THUÝ HẰNG AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH INQUIRY LETTERS IN ONLINE SHOPPING FROM A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR'S PERSPECTIVE Phân tích thư yêu cầu tiếng Anh trong mua bán trực tuyến theo quan điểm ngữ pháp chức năng hệ thống M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 60 2215 SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HƯƠNG GIANG, M. HA NOI - 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement.ii Table of contents.iii Abbreviations used in this thesis .v List of Tables and figures.
Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study.
Design of the study.4 Chapter 1: Theoretical background. The role of Grammar in Discourse Analysis. Theories of Systemic Functional Grammar. Ideational Meaning and its realisation through the system of Transitivity.
Interpersonal Meaning and its realisation in the Mood and Modality system. Textual Meaning and its realisation through the system of Theme and Information focus13 Chapter 2: An Analysis of English inquiry letters from a Systemic Functional Grammar's perspective 2. English inquiry letters. Inquiry letters: Types and contexts.
Template of an English inquiry letter. Features of English inquiry letters in shopping online from a systemic functional grammar's perspective 2. Transitivity in terms of Experiential Meaning. Mood in terms of Interpersonal Meaning.
Thematic structure in terms of Textual Meaning. 29 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv Chapter 3: Implications of the study. Implications for writing an English inquiry letter. Suggested exercises for practising writing English inquiry letters.
Summaries and findings. Suggestions for further study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com v ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS THESIS Cir : Circumstance Comp : Complement Fin : Finite No. of cls : Number of clauses Mat : Material Men : Mental Pro : Process Pred : Predicator Rel : Relational LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1.
Types of process in English Table 1. Process types, their meanings and participants Figure 1. A fragment of the Mood system in English Table 2. Distribution of processes in English inquiry letters Table 2.
Distribution of Mood choice in English inquiry letters Table 2.3: Distribution of Modal verbs in English inquiry letters Table 2.4: Distribution of Theme in English inquiry letters TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Thanks to the open-door policy and renovation process, Vietnam has been expanding its relationship with a lot of countries all over the world in all fields, especially in economic field. English, therefore, has been widely used and it is considered a key to every success. In today's fast-moving society, like many other fields, the economy has many changes with a variety of business.
Selling and buying things happen not only at the real markets, shops, supermarkets but also on the Internet through websites, or in other words that is "online selling". People do not have to go to the shops, supermarkets or markets for seeing, choosing and shopping for products. What they have to do is to go online, access the website and search for samples of products or the information of the products they want to buy, and then buy them online. With a variety of products, forms of business and the expansion of commercial co- operation with many other countries in the world, emails for exchanging information about products between Vietnamese companies and foreign companies, between customers and sellers are getting more and more popular and necessary.
These emails are one kind of inquiry letters. Therefore, a linguistic study on English inquiry letters is, of no doubt, highly relevant and we hope that it can reveal the nature of English inquiry letters and suggest linguistic improvements that make communication through those documents more effective. Aim of the study The study is conducted to investigate some features of language used in English inquiry letters requesting samples or information about products in shopping online - from a Systemic Functional Grammar‟s perspective in order to provide deeper theoretical and practical insights into English inquiry letter texts. Then, based on the research findings some suggestions are offered for improving the writing English inquiry letters.
This study hopes to help people who are working in economic field or those who are interested to understand perfectly and compose this kind of text better. The research is carried out by answering the following questions: TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. What is an English inquiry letter? 2. What are the features of language used in English inquiry letters in shopping online from a Systemic Functional Grammar's perspective? 3.
What implications does the study have for learners of English to compose a good English inquiry letter? 3. Scope of the study The object of the study is the English inquiry letter. However, not all kinds of inquiry letters are covered but only the kind of letter that requests samples or information about products in shopping online is chosen. There are fifteen English inquiry letters under investigation and all of them are in English.
Moreover, because of the limitation of a minor thesis, this study will analyze English inquiry letters from a Systemic Functional Grammar‟s perspective, which is explored only in terms of three metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual functions through an analysis of Transitivity, Mood and Theme-Rheme. Methods of the study To achieve the aims of the study, the following activities will be conducted. Firstly, set up a framework of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in order to define characteristics of English inquiry letters that request samples or information about products in shopping online as a type of discourse. Secondly, fifteen English inquiry letters that request samples or information about products in shopping online will be described and analyzed in terms of some grammatical devices: Transitivity, Mood and Theme-Rheme.
Thirdly, necessary comments and conclusions as well as suggestions are made according to the data analyzed. Design of the study The study consists of three parts. Part I is Introduction. It presents the rationale of the study, states the aims of the study, and identifies the specific tasks and the scope of the study.
Also, it provides an outline of the method to be applied and the structure of the study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 Part II is Development and it consists of three chapters: Chapter 1 is Theoretical background of the study involving the subject under consideration: The grammatical role in Discourse analysis and Theories of Systemic Functional Grammar. Chapter 2 presents English inquiry letters in general and discusses the most typical features of English inquiry letter texts requesting samples or information about products in shopping online under a Systemic Functional Grammar's perspective: Transitivity in terms of Experimental Meaning, Mood in terms of Interpersonal Meaning, Thematic structure in terms of Textual Meaning. Chapter 3 is Implications for writing an English inquiry letter requesting samples or information about products in shopping online.
Part III is Conclusion. It summarizes the main points discussed throughout the study. Limitations and suggestions for further study are also presented in this part. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.
The role of grammar in Discourse analysis As we know, Discourse analysis is a new branch of linguistics. "It is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used. Discourse analysts study language in use: written texts of all kinds, and spoken data, from conversation to highly institutionalized forms of talk". (Michael Mc Carthy: 5) There are several approaches to discourse analysis including pragmatics approach, language variation, interactional social- linguistics, conversation analysis, integrated approach.
Each approach plays an important role and they study discourse in different aspects. In this thesis, we base on Systemic Functional Grammar to analyze English inquiry letters as a kind of discourse. The importance of grammar in discourse analysis is obvious as Halliday stated ". and it is sometimes assumed that this (discourse analysis) can be carried on without grammar- or even that it is somehow an alternative to grammar.
But it is an illusion. A discourse analysis that is not based on grammar is not an analysis of all, but simply a running commentary on a text." Moreover, according to Halliday, language has three functions: ideational, interpersonal and textual. All these functions are reflected in the structure of the clause. Therefore, when analyzing a discourse, it is important that we should analyze the grammar.
Theory of Systemic Functional Grammar Systemic functional linguists have summarized the way in which human beings use language under three broad categories and maintained that these categories of user are guided by three metafunctions. They are ideational, interpersonal and textual functions. Ideational function and its realisation through the system of transitivity Transitivity is the system of grammatical choice, which involves the experiential meanings of the clause. Transitivity choices have relations with the field of discourse, so given what the discourse is about, analysts can predict the choice of processes that the interactants are making to achieve their communication goals, and given the process types used in a discourse, analysts can work out the meanings interactants are trying to communicate.
Transitivity, therefore, is sometimes, referred as process type. Each process, TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 5 as pointed out by Halliday (1994:107), consists of three components in principle: (i) the process itself, (ii) the participants in the process and (iii) circumstances associated with the process. There are six types of process in English: Material, Mental, Relational, Behavioural, Verbal and Existential. Each of process has its own features and the following figure is a diagrammatic summary of these process types, and they will also be investigated briefly for more understanding.
RELATIONAL having having attribute identity EXISTENTIAL symbolizing existing world of abstract relation happening saying VERBAL (being cheated) being doing sensing cheating, thinking changing physical world of MATERIAL world consciousnes s doing (to) feeling acting MENTAL behaving seeing BEHAVIOURAL Figure 1. Types of process in English (Source: Halliday 1994:108) TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 6 (i) Material processes: processes of doing Material processes express the notion that some entity 'does' something, which may be "done" to some other entity, for example, reading, running, cooking, etc. They answer the question "What did X do?" or "What happened?". Potential participant roles are ACTOR (or Doer of the process), GOAL (or Thing affected by the process), RANGE (or Thing unaffected by the process), BENEFICIARY of the process.
The following are examples: John arrived the dog bit the baby Actor Process: Material Actor Pro: Material Goal I bought my sister a shirt Actor Process: Material Recipient Goal (ii) Mental processes: Processes of sensing Mental processes encode the inner world of cognition (which is realized through verbs of thinking, knowing, understanding), perception (which is realized through verbs of seeing, hearing), affection (which is realized through verbs of liking, fearing). All mental processes involve two participants: Sensor (one who thinks, feels, senses and wants), and Phenomenon (one that is thought of, felt, sensed and wanted). Here are the examples: Mary knows the answer Sensor Process: mental: cognition Phenomenon Michael wants a laptop Sensor Process: Mental: Affection Phenomenon (iii) Relational processes: Processes of being The main characteristic of relational processes is that they relate a participant to its identity or description. Relational process is typically realized by the verb "be" or some verbs of the same class.