VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES. HỒ PHƯƠNG THẢO A STUDY ON THE USE OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION IN THE SHORT STORY “ALL GOLD CANYON” BY JACK LONDON FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE (Nghiên cứu viêc̣ sử du ̣ng liên kế t ngữ pháp trong truyêṇ ngắ n “All Gold Canyon” của Jack London theo quan điể m ngữ pháp chức năng hê ̣ thố ng) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES. HỒ PHƯƠNG THẢO A STUDY ON THE USE OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION IN THE SHORT STORY “ALL GOLD CANYON” BY JACK LONDON FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE (Nghiên cứu viêc̣ sử du ̣ng liên kế t ngữ pháp trong truyêṇ ngắ n “All Gold Canyon” của Jack London theo quan điể m ngữ pháp chức năng hê ̣ thố ng) M.
MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, Hồ Phương Thảo, hereby declare that the work in this thesis is the result of my own research. It is recognized that should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary actions could be taken and penalties could be imposed in accordance with university policies and rules. Hanoi, December 2014 Hồ Phương Thảo i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof.
Hoàng Văn Vân, Dean of the School of Graduates, Vietnam National University Hanoi, for his continuous support, encouragement throughout this research. I also would like to thank him for his clear guidance, insightful comments and dutiful supervision. My sincere thanks also extend to all my teachers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their enthusiastic lectures during this MA program. My sincere gratitude goes to Dr.
Le Hung Tien and the staff members of the Department of Post – Graduate Studies for their valuable support. Finally, I wish to extend my profound thanks to my family, friends and classmates with their whole-hearted support and encouragement. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study aims to find out grammatical cohesion in the story "All Gold Canyon" by Jack London basing on the theoretical framework by Halliday and Hasan (1976). The research findings show that grammatical cohesion is used in a very high rate to connect the text together.
Furthermore, among different types of grammatical cohesive devices, reference and conjunction account for most of cohesion with 74% and 24% respectively, which shows that the text is highly cohesive. Substitution and ellipsis, in contrast, take up only 1% for each type. This may indicate that there are few conversations among characters. In other words, the imbalance use of cohesion helps depict the writing style of literary documents in general and of Jack London in particular.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iii LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS. vi Part A – INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study. Aim of the study and research questions. Scope of the study. Methods of the study.
Design of the study .3 Part B – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Overview of systemic functional linguistics. Text and its texture. The concept of cohesion.
Types of cohesion .12 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 1. The context of the chosen text. Grammatical cohesive devices in the story ―All Gold Canyon‖. Anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference.
Realization of different types of reference .31 Part C – CONCLUSIONS MAJOR FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 1. Suggestions for English learners in writing skill. Limitations and suggestions for further studies. Suggestions for futher studies.
I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The percentage of anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference Table 2: The percentage of different types of reference Table 3: The distribution of personal reference in the story Table 4: The percentage of substitution in the story Table 5: The percentage of ellipsis in the story Table 6: The percentage of conjunction in the story LIST OF DIAGRAMS Diagram 1: The percentage of grammatical cohesion in the story Diagram 2: The percentage of demonstrative reference in the story Diagram 3: The percentage of the definite article "The" in the story Diagram 4: The percentage of conjunctive devices in the story vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale of the study Being a learner of linguistics, I started wondering myself ―what is the function of language?‖ It comes as no surprise that I may see language as a medium of communication; however, it cannot be restricted to the description of the nature of language. Linguistics, thus, becomes an appealing field for me to conduct a research to have deeper understanding this complex nature of language. Along with other branches of linguistics, grammar appears to be a rich land in which many scholars are engrossed in exploring it with different theories.
The linguistics history has seen developments of various approaches to grammar, known as traditional grammar, universal grammar, descriptive grammar or generative grammar. However, since the appearance of systemic functional grammar (SFG), it has received a great attention from many followers in linguistics research. In comparison with other approaches that focus on the rules, forms that structure language, SFG accounts for how language is used in contexts for communicative purposes (Halliday, 1994). It concerns with both spoken and written language.
SFG, therefore, can be considered the most useful tool for text analysis. In Vietnam, thanks to credited scholars such as Cao Xuân Hạo (1991) with Tiếng Việt: Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức năng, Hoàng Văn Vân (2002/2005) with Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú tiếng Việt: Mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống, a number of significant researches have been conducted from SFG perspective. This provides us, learners at the Department of Postgraduate Studies, invaluable sources of reference as well as great inspiration to carry out more studies in this field. Among many aspects of SFG, I have decided to conduct a study on one specific phenomenon with the title “A Study on the Use of Grammatical Cohesion in the Short Story “All Gold Canyon” by Jack London from Systemic Functional Grammar Perspective”.
There are two main reasons for the choice of this topic. The first and foremost, I wish to understand more about cohesion – an essential element 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com in creating the text, and particularly to discover in what way the author used grammatical cohesion to develop his story. Besides, I have been fascinated with numerous Jack London’s short stories and novels since I was a high school student. Therefore, ―All Gold Canyon‖ by Jack London turns to be a good text for my analysis.
To compare with Jack London’s other well-known works, ―All Gold Canyon‖ appears to be unfamiliar to many readers. However, it gave me much impression when I first read for Jack London’s development of ecological thought and his writing style. Aim of the study and research questions The aim of this study is to investigate how Jack London uses grammatical cohesive devices to develop his story. In order to achieve the above aim, three research questions are raised for exploration: - What is grammatical cohesion as conceptualized in systemic functional linguistics? - How does Jack London use grammatical cohesive devices to develop the story ―All Gold Canyon‖? - What implications and suggestions should be made for teachers and students of English in teaching and learning writing paragraphs and essays? 3.
Scope of the study In this study, I do not have an ambition to cover all aspects of functional grammar and all relations providing links in a text. Only issues related to grammatical cohesion such as framework, elements and features are taken for study. The ground for investigation in this study is the system of cohesion and grammatical cohesion developed by Halliday and Hasan (1976). The illustration of text analysis is the chosen story ―All Gold Canyon‖ by Jack London.
2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Methods of the study The study is undertaken with a view to examine how grammatical cohesion is used to develop a text. Given the scope of this study, the quantitative and qualitative methods will be employed. That is to say, this study will focus on the collection and analysis of the study as data to explain a particular phenomenon.
Counting and measuring would be common forms for this method. These statistical results will be followed by qualitative method which is used to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons and the effectiveness of the application of grammatical cohesive devices in Jack London’s ―All Gold Canyon‖ as well. The base for procedures and conventions applied in the study is the theoretical framework of Halliday’s. Structure of the study The study consists of three main parts: introduction, development and conclusion.
The introduction presents the rationale of study, the aim and the scope of the study. It also presents the methods employed for analysis and the outline of the study structure. The development is subdivided into two chapters Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study in which the main concepts of systemic functional grammar are reviewed to establish the framework for analysis and discussion in Chapter 2. Chapter 2 analyzes the short story ―All Gold Canyon‖ using Halliday and Hasans’ (1976) grammatical cohesion system as the theoretical framework.
The conclusion summarizes what has been studied, points out the limitations of the study, presents educational implications, and makes some suggestions for future research. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 - THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Introduction This chapter is concerned with the examination of some systemic functional concepts which are relevant for the analysis and discussion in Chapter 2.
I will start with an overview of systemic functional linguistics. Then I will look at the system of cohesion in English, presenting in some detail the sub-types of grammatical cohesion. Overview of systemic functional linguistics For a long time, grammar has been a branch of linguistics which has attracted much attention from many scholars in the world. They aim to give satisfactory explanations on the nature of language from their points of view.
Chomsky’s theory views grammar as a set of rules which allow or disallow certain sentence structures. Ultimately, more so than traditional grammar, formal grammar concentrates on structure, that is the way in which classes of words and phrases are combined. Through this period of teaching both types of grammar some linguists, were thinking to generate one more developed grammar which is functional systemic grammar (Halliday et al, cited in Cope, 1993). Unlike the former ones, SFG is more sociological in orientation, such that it is more concerned with relating grammar to its function within society.
From its early birth, functional theories of grammar are those approaches to the study of language that see the functions of language and its elements to be the key to understand linguistic processes and structures. Functional theories of language propose that since language is fundamentally a tool, it is reasonable to assume that its structures are best analyzed and understood with reference to the functions they carry out. Functional theories of grammar differ from former theories of grammar, in that the latter seeks to define the different elements of language and describe the way they relate to each other as systems of formal rules or operations.