1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT ------ ------ NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN VERBAL PROCESS AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE U. PRESIDENT BARRACK OBAMA’S VICTORY SPEECHES (QUÁ TRÌNH PHÁT NGÔN VÀ SỰ THỂ HIỆN CỦA NÓ TRONG CÁC BÀI DIỄN VĂN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARRACK OBAMA) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60. 15 Hanoi, July, 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT ------ ------ NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN VERBAL PROCESS AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE U.
PRESIDENT BARRACK OBAMA’S VICTORY SPEECHES (QUÁ TRÌNH PHÁT NGÔN VÀ SỰ THỂ HIỆN CỦA NÓ TRONG CÁC BÀI DIỄN VĂN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARRACK OBAMA) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60. Hà Cẩm Tâm Hanoi, July, 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 6 NOTATIONAL CONVENTION Tran: transitivity Pre: predicate Fini: Finite Com: complement Cir: circumstance Adj: Adjunct Sub: Subject Pro: process Mate: material LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Notational convention iv Table of content v CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Aims of the study 2 3.
Scopes of the study 2 4. Method of study 3 5. Design of the study 3 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4 1. The grammar of Experiental meaning: Transitivity 8 3.
Process, Participant and Circumstance. Verbal process in English 16 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Structure of a Verbal process 16 4. Components of the Verbal process 17 4.
The Verbiage 19 CHAPTER III: THE STUDY 21 1. Declarative clauses in the data 22 3. The verb “Say” 28 4. The verb “Tell” 29 4.
The verb “Ask” 30 4. The verb “Promise” 31 4. The verb “Speak” 31 4. The verb “Call” 32 4.
The verb “Respond” 33 4. The verb “Question” 33 4. The verb “Wonder” 33 4. The verb “Agree, Disagree” 34 4.
The verb “Offer” 34 4. The verb “Answer” 34 4. The verb “Declare” 35 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Personal pronouns 35 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 37 1.
Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCE I Appendix 1 II Appendix 2 VII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 10 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Human‘s language has developed through thousands of years. From the very first time, although in very difficult living conditions, man tried to ―invent‖ his own language to communicate, to live and survive. Besides, man has always wanted to understand more about the nature of language.
In their book, Thomas Bloor and Meriel Bloor (1995) once mentioned that linguists and grammarians ―have struggled to understand more about how human language is structured and how communication takes place‖. Grammar, among other branches of linguistics, therefore, can be seen as the most beautiful tool to satisfy this desire. With the other three grammatical paradigm such as traditional grammar, structural grammar, and transformational generative grammar, functional grammar has had a significant impact on language teaching over the years. Systemic functional grammar (SFG) or systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a model of grammar that was developed by Michael Halliday in the 1960s.
It is part of a broad social semiotic approach to language called systemic linguistics. The term "systemic" refers to the view of language as "a network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making meaning"; The term "functional" indicates that the approach is concerned with meaning, as opposed to formal grammar, which focuses on word classes such as nouns and verbs, typically without reference beyond the individual clause. Systemic functional grammar is concerned primarily with the choices that the grammar makes available to speakers and writers. These choices relate speakers' and writers' intentions to the concrete forms of a language.
Traditionally the "choices" are viewed in terms of either the content or the structure of the language used. In SFG, language is analyzed in three different ways, or strata: phonology, lexico grammar and semantics. SFG presents a view of language in terms of both structure (grammar) and words (lexis). The term "lexico grammar" describes this combined approach.
Trying to incorporate meaning, function, context and grammatical categories, functional grammar has provided the learners of language with an analytic tool of looking at the whole text and the grammatical features which are characteristics of that kind of text. Functional grammar has been studied by many functional grammarians like Halliday LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. In Vietnamese, the first functional grammar studies that should be counted as Cao Xu©n H¹o‘s (1991) TiÕng ViÖt: S¬ th¶o ng’ ph¸p chøc n¨ng; Hoµng V¨n V©n‘s (2002), Ng’ ph¸p TiÕng ViÖt – VÞ tõ hµnh ®éng. These studies are the first attempts to bring the diagram which has not yet been highlighted in Vietnamese schools closer to the Vietnamese learners.
With the same purpose, I choose functional grammar as the area of study for my M. However, because of the limitation of time and resources, I am not able to cover all aspects of functional grammar. What I would like to do is to limit myself to a sub-area of functional grammar, the transitivity system, of which the study focuses on one of the processes in the transitivity system of English verbal process. My thesis would like to touch upon how verbal process operates and the its applications in spoken text – speeches and how it helps speakers persuade the listeners.
The study will use Halliday‘s functional grammar as the theoretical framework. Aims of the Study Within the framework of an M.A thesis, the study is aimed at: examining some of the most important issues related to verbal process. analyzing the use of verbal process in some victory speeches of the U. offering some suggestions for learning and teaching.
Scopes of the Study As stated in 2., the study does not cover all aspects of functional grammar but limits itself to a sub-area of functional grammar. In particular, the study focuses on examining verbal process in two victory speeches delivered by U. President Barrack Obama. To narrow the topic down to these two focuses, it is firstly essential to identify the linguistic space in which verbal process in located.
In this belief, the study examines in depth the functional systemic theory and the primary concepts of systemic theory, such as context, metafunctions, the grammar of experience and its representations in the transitivity system. The transitivity system consists of six processes, one of which is, according to functional linguists, verbal process. This is the first focus of the study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 12 The second focus of the study is to take a deep look on verbal process in English and explore its usage and efficiency in persuading listeners.
Method of the Study This study is primarily concerned with analyzing verbal processes in a particular text. In order to fulfill this aim, it uses two main methods: (i) the quantitative, which is concerned with the description of verbal process in English, and (ii) the qualitative, which is concerned with the realization of the process in victory speeches. Special attention will also be paid to those which are not only formally but also semantically similar. Through the analysis, the writer hopes to find anything different in the way the U.
President made speeches and how he could win the election to become the very first colored man to hold the power. 5 Data Collection Data for the research will be selected from different sources. All the examples for investigation can be both in spoken and written style. Data for analyzing verbal processes will be collected in some victory speeches of the new U.S president Barrack Obama.
Since the study is concerned with the aspect of grammar which confines to clauses and clause complexes, examples of the whole text seem not to be necessary. Design of the Study This study is organized around four chapters: The first chapter – The Introduction – presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, scopes of the study, methods of the study, data collection and the research design. Chapter two – Theoretical Background- is concerned with the theoretical orientations of the study, systemic-functional theory, the notions of language and context, the metafunctions of the language, the grammar of experience: transitivity, and the different process types in the transitivity system. Chapter three – The Study – focuses on the application of this process in a real life text.
Chapter four – The Conclusion – provides the major findings of the thesis and offers some implications of the study and some suggestions for further study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 13 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 14 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDS This chapter will provide theoretical orientations for the study. It attempts to explore the notions of the language and context, the functions of language, the different types of the process, and the different types of circumstances available in a language which are expresses in the system of transitivity. Functional Grammar Functional Grammar (FG) is a general theory of the organization of natural language as ever developed by Simon C.
Halliday and others. In the theory functional notions play essential and fundamental roles at different levels of grammatical organization. The theory is based on data and descriptions of many languages, and therefore has a high degree of typological adequacy. FG offers a platform for both theoretical linguists interested in representation and formalism and descriptive linguists interested in data and analysis.
Halliday developed a theory of the fundamental functions of language, in which he analyzed lexicogrammar into three broad metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual. Each of the three metafunctions is about a different aspect of the world, and is concerned with a different mode of meaning of clauses. The ideational metafunction is about the natural world in the broadest sense, including our own consciousness, and is concerned with clauses as representations. The interpersonal metafunction is about the social world, especially the relationship between speaker and hearer, and is concerned with clauses as exchanges.
The textual metafunction is about the verbal world, especially the flow of information in a text, and is concerned with clauses as messages. In each metafunction an analysis of a clause gives a different kind of structure composed from a different set of elements. In the ideational metafunction, a clause is analyzed into Process, Participants and Circumstances, with different participant types for different process types (as in Case Grammar). In the interpersonal metafunction, a clause is analyzed into Mood and Residue, with the mood element further analyzed into Subject and Finite.
In the textual metafunction, a clause is analyzed into Theme and Rheme. Systemic functional linguistics is one of several functional theories in the current disciplines of linguistics which conceives of text as social interaction. It is thus suited not only for increasing the interpreter‘s understanding of the language of texts to be LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 15 interpreted, but also for relating those texts to theirs context. Systemic functional linguists view language as systems of meaning potential in human interaction that are realized by various structures.
The organizing concept is not a structure described by rules, but as communicative behavior, as meaning making in a context of a culture, the behavior matrix within which all social interactions take place. The choice to engage in a culturally recognized social process is made at the level of genre plane. Choices made on the level of genre are realized by the configurations of context-of-situation variables. In systemic theory, these variables are used to talk about the aspects of the immediate context that are embedded in a text.