VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THẢO EXPANSION AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT STORY “RUNAWAY” BY ALICE MUNRO: FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE (Bành trướng và sự thể hiện của nó trong truyện ngắn ―Trốn chạy‖ của Alice Munro: Nghiên cứu theo quan điểm ngữ pháp chức năng hệ thống) 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 VŨ THỊ THẢO EXPANSION AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT STORY “RUNAWAY” BY ALICE MUNRO: FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE (Bành trướng và sự thể hiện của nó trong truyện ngắn ―Trốn chạy‖ của Alice Munro: Nghiên cứu theo quan điểm ngữ pháp chức năng hệ thống) 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, Vũ Thị Thảo, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my own research.
It is recognized that, should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary action could be taken and penalties imposed in accordance with the University policy and rules. Signature Vũ Thị Thảo i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân, Dean of the School of Graduates, Vietnam National University Hanoi, for his continuous support, guidance, patience and inspiration to me in researching and writing this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better supervisor for my M.
I also wish to extend particular thanks to lecturers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their positive and encouraging impacts on my work in one way or another. Finally, my special thanks and blessings go to my parents and my friends for their love and support in any respect during the completion of the thesis. Their well- being is of great inspiration to me all the time. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to examine how expansion relations between clauses are realized in the short story ―Runaway‖ by Alice Munro, using systemic functional grammar as the theoretical framework.
The research findings show that of 252 clause complexes collected from the story, the highest frequency use of expansion is enhancement, aiming to provide necessary circumstantial information to the clauses. Extension is the second dominant type and elaboration is the least popular type. Besides using explicit conjunctive signals to link the clauses, implicit ones are also used, which sometimes cause challenges to identify the type of relations. The results help to confirm the application of SFG in text analysis to understand lexico-semantic relations between clauses.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study. Aim of the study and research questions. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Organization of the study. 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY 1. An overview of systemic functional approach to grammar.
Meta-function of the language. Ideational meta-function. Interpersonal meta-function. Textual meta-function.
Clause simplex and clause complex. Types of relationship between clauses in clause complexes. Logico-sematic relations. 10 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: EXPANSION AND EXPANSION RELATION BETWEEN CLAUSES IN CLAUSE COMPLEXES 2.
Types of expansion .20 CHAPTER 3: EXPANSION RELATIONS BETWEEN CLAUSES IN CLAUSE COMPLEXES IN THE SHORT STORY “RUNAWAY” BY ALICE MUNRO 3. The chosen story ―Runaway‖ by Alice Munro. A register analysis of the story. The expansion relation between clauses in the story.
24 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data analysis and discussion. Summary of the study. Limitations and suggestions for further studies.
I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale of the study It is apparent that people have been fascinated with language and communication for thousands of years. Linguistics, therefore, becomes a growing and exciting area of study with an increasing number of theories and research conducted aiming to explain the complex nature of language and communication. Along with many branches of linguistics, grammar has been received great attention by linguists in attempts to understand how language works.
Systemic functional grammar (SFG), a theory developed by M. Halliday and his associates, provides a comprehensive account of how language is used in specific contexts for communication purposes. It looks at how language works, how it is organized and what social functions are represented. SFG differs from other previous models of grammar in that it views language ―as a social semiotic a resource people use to accomplish their purposes by expressing meanings in context‖ (Chapelle, 1998) and seeks to provide a clear relationship between functions and grammatical systems (Halliday, 1994).
SFG can also be an effective grammatical tool for text analysis as it is designed to ―make it possible to say sensible and useful things about any text, spoken or written‖ (Halliday, 1994: xv). In Vietnam, there have been an increasing number of significant studies on different aspects of SFG, which not only makes important contributions to the study of this field in Vietnam, but also becomes great source of reference as well as motivation for me to choose SFG as the theoretical framework for my MA thesis. Amongst many interesting aspects of SFG, I decided to carry out a study on a specific phenomenon – expansion relation between clauses in clauses complexes. There are two key justifications for my study titled “Expansion and its realization in the short story “Runaway” by Alice Munro: from systemic functional perspective”.
Foremost, the reason for choosing expansion is that I would like to explore how the writer constructs the text, particularly the way clauses in clause 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com complexes are expanded and developed in the text. Expansion, therefore, could help to understand the interdependency and logico-semantic relation between clauses. In addition, I am fascinated by the short story ―Runaway‖ written by the 2013 Nobel Laureate, Alice Munro, whose multi-layered writing styles and the characters portrayed in her story gave me a deep impression and inspired me to choose the story for text analysis. In light of the above mentioned, I decided to select this story for analysis to explore how expansion is realized in the text and how the findings can help to understand the way the author constructs the story.
Aim of the study and research questions The main aim of the study is to investigate the realization of expansion relations between clauses in clause complexes in the story ―Runaway‖ by Alice Munro. In order to fulfill the above mentioned aim, two research questions are raised for exploration: What is expansion in systemic functional grammar? How are expansion relations between clauses in clause complexes realized in the short story ―Runaway‖ by Alice Munro? 3. Scope of the study Within the framework of a minor MA thesis, the study cannot cover all types of relationship between clauses. Only expansion relation between clauses in clause complexes is taken into consideration.
Projection and other aspects of SFG such as transitivity, mood and modality, theme and rhyme are, therefore, not examined. The focus of the study does not lie in the theoretical findings but on the basis of these it is to enlighten the analysis of the chosen story to understand the way the author constructs the text in terms of expansion relation between clauses. Significance of the study The study is hoped to serve as a useful source of reference for those interested in this story by Alice Munro to further understand the content as well as the way clauses are built in the story and the interrelations between them. This thesis may 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com be of significance for those who are fascinated in text analysis using SFG as the theoretical framework, especially the expansion relation between clauses in clause complexes and how it is realized in a specific text.
Through the theoretical background and text analysis in the study, the study is expected to play a complementary role in research on the field of SFG in Vietnam. Methods of the study This study uses the theory of expansion in SFG as the theoretical framework to examine expansion relations between clauses and investigate how different types of expansion are realized in the short story ―Runaway‖ by Alice Munro. In this study, descriptive and analytical methods will be employed as the principal methods. The descriptive method is concerned with the description of concepts relating to the expansion relation, and the analytical method is used to analyze the text.
Some statistics are calculated to show the frequency of use of different types of expansion realized in the text. Organization of the study The study is organized into three major parts. Part A, Introduction, provides the reasons for choosing the topic, the aim, the research questions and the scope of the study, the methods of study, the significance of the study, and the organization of the study. Part B, Development, consists of three chapters.
Chapter 1 is concerned with the theoretical background of the study in which some basic concepts of SFG are re- examined. Chapter 2 gives a presentation of expansion relation between clauses in clause complexes. In this chapter, types of expansion are discussed in some details to provide the framework for the analysis of the story. Chapter 3 analyzes the story so as to see how different types of expansion are realized in the text.
Finally, Part C, Conclusion, summarizes the results of the study, points out limitations and makes some suggestions for further research. References and Appendices are presented in the last pages of the study. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY This chapter presents some of fundamental concepts of SFG, namely the metafunctions, rank scales, clauses and clause complexes. An overview of systemic functional approach to grammar Systemic functional grammar (SFG) is an approach to language description which aims to provide a comprehensive account of how language is used in context for communication.
It was originated with M. Halliday, building especially on the ideas of his teacher J. Firth, in publications from the 1960s on, with major contributions by other scholars such as Ruqaiya Hasan and, in more recent years, Jim Martin and Christian Matthiessen among many others (Chapman, 2009: 225). From early in its development, SFG has had two main distinguishing features, which are reflected in the name.
It is ―systemic‖ in that grammar consists of a series of choices that can be made in order to express ideas. The grammatical structures are then seen as the outcome of choices from those available. Sets of choices between options can most economically be shown in the form of systems (Chapman, 2009: 226). Secondly, SFG is ―functional‖ in that the systems achieve certain functions realized in the lexico-grammar of the language.
In other words, the model is oriented primarily towards meaning rather than form: that is, its aim is to describe how wordings are used in expressing meanings. What a linguistic form consists of is seen as less important than the function that it performs in the clause. Therefore, language is not just a part of ―cognitive mechanism‖ but how people use it in social functions in certain culture (Reuter, 2000). SFG is a useful tool for text analysis as it provides insightful approach into the language choices that underlie text production and comprehension.