i HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT ***** NGUYỄN THỊ HUYÊN NOMINALIZATION IN LEGAL DISCOURSE: A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS DANH HÓA TRONG VĂN BẢN LUẬT PHÁP: PHÂN TÍCH THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG M.A THESIS English Linguistics 60 22 15 HANOI – 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ii HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT ***** NGUYỄN THỊ HUYÊN NOMINALIZATION IN LEGAL DISCOURSE: A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS DANH HÓA TRONG VĂN BẢN LUẬT PHÁP: PHÂN TÍCH THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG M. THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Prof. HOÀNG VĂN VÂN HA NOI - 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES .…viii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Significance of the study. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Method of study. Design of the study. 4 CHAPTER 1: THEORITICAL BACKGROUND.
An overview of grammatical metaphor theory. Definitions of grammatical metaphor. Classification of grammatical metaphor. Metaphors of modality.
Metaphors of mood .2 What is nominalization? .3 Functions of nominalization. Categories of nominalization. 14 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Zero derivational nominalization (conversion).
24 CHAPTER 3: REALIZATION OF NOMINALIZATION IN ENGLISH legal discourse: “Convention On The Rights Of The Child”. English Legal discourse. Classification of English legal discourse. Characteristics of English legal language.
Realization of nominalization in prescriptive legal text “Convention on the Rights of the Child”. Frequency of nominalization. Typical types and characteristics of nominalization. Typical types of nominalization.
Some typical characteristics of nominalization. Semantic role of nominalization realized in terms of ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions. In terms of ideational metafunction. In terms of interpersonal metafunction.
38 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. In terms of textual metafunction. 41 PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Implications for teaching and translating English legal discourses.
To teachers and students:. Limitation and suggestions for further studies. 45 APPENDIX A APPENDIX B LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for special purposes SFG: Systemic functional grammar T: Theme R: Rheme NP: Noun phrase CONV: Conversation FICT: Fiction ACAD: Academic DV: Deverbal nominalization DA: Deadjectival nominalization TH: That- clause TO: To- clause WH: Wh- clause ING: Ing- clause LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com viii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1a: Analysis of congruent form page 6 Figure 1b: Analysis of metaphorical form page 7 Table 1.1: Modality system page 8 Table 2.1: Converted nouns page 16 Table 2.2: Types of to-clause complements across registers page 22 Table 3.1: Frequency of occurrence of nominalization page 30 Table 3.2: Type of nominalization page 31 Table 3.3: Ideational realization of nominalization page 36 Table 3.4: Interpersonal realization of nominalization page 38 Table 3.5: Textual realization of nominalization page page 39 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nominalization is one of the most prominent features of formal written discourses.
According to Fowler (1991:79), “English is a sort of nominalized language” so nominalization characterizes almost all English written texts and its frequency of occurrence varies in different functional varieties, especially those formal functional varieties. As one type of very formal written discourse, English legal discourse is noted for its high frequency of nominalization. Apart from the roles of nominalization in constructing the specific characteristics for this genre, nominalization is also one of the grammar structures causing a higher degree of ambiguity in legal discourses. When nominalizing, semantic information is usually left out, which increases the degree of ambiguity and the difficulty in correctly decoding the sentence.
Therefore, understanding the nature and characteristics as well as the roles of nominalization in English legal discourse will make great contribution to the perception of this discourse genre, which is very necessary in today‟s world when globalization and integration has become an inevitable trend. Thus, it is of great necessity to conduct a study on the phenomenon of nominalization in legal discourses if we want to learn more about this important variety of English and benefit the reading and writing of English legal discourses as well as help translators much easier in translating Vietnamese legal discourses into English and vice versa. Using the theory of systemic functional grammar which is considered a satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon of nominalization as developed by Halliday (1994) and some other systemic linguists, this thesis attempts to explore how nominalization is realized in English legal discourse with the hope that it will help readers to recognize the importance of nominalization for the comprehension and manipulation this specific genre. Significance of the study The result of this study may help improve the ability of understanding English legal discourses and limit avoidable misunderstandings in interpreting legal discourses.
It also makes contribution to the teaching and learning of ESP for English teachers and students LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 majoring in law. Besides, this thesis hopes to assist the translation of Vietnamese legal discourses into English and vice versa. Aims of the study The aim of the study is to make an inquiry into how nominalization is realized in English legal discourse. To achieve this aim, the study will examine the nature of nominalization, its functions as well as its types.
Besides, the main characteristics of English legal discourse will be pointed out to set the base for finding out the typical realization of nominalization in this legal discourse. Thus, to achieve the aim of the study, the main research question needs to be raised for exploration is: How is nominalization realized in English legal discourse? However, to find the answer for this main question, two following questions must be investigated first: 1. What is nominalization? 2. What are the main characteristics of English legal discourse? 4.
Scope of the study The scope of this study is just to investigate the typical realization of nominalization in English legal discourse. Since this genre consists of various subtypes, within the limited space for a minor thesis, I only explore the use of nominalization in one of genre in English legal discourse - prescriptive legal text. In this thesis, the legal text “Convention on the Rights of the Child” (1989) was chosen as data for my study. Method of study This is a case study which sets its main objective of investigating how nominalization is realized in English legal discourse using systemic functional grammar as the theoretical framework.
To achieve the goal of the study, both quantitative and qualitative method will be employed. These two methods are complimentary with the quantitative approach being LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 used to collect and categorize data and the qualitative one to interpret the statistics taken from the data. Design of the study The study consists of three chapters: Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study. This chapter focuses on introducing important concepts in systemic – functional linguistics relevant to the topic of the thesis such as definitions of grammatical metaphor and its classifications.
Chapter 2 investigates the general notion of nominalization in the light of the systemic functional theory and some other linguistic approaches. In this chapter, nominalization‟s definitions, functions and classification will be presented. Chapter 3 provides the background knowledge of English legal discourse by giving its definition, classification and main characteristics. Then, an attempt is made to find out how nominalization is realized in English legal discourse.
In this part, the frequency of occurrence of nominalization, its typical types, characteristics and semantic roles seen from ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions will be investigated. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 THEORITICAL BACKGROUND 1. Introduction Grammatical metaphor is one of the most interesting theoretical notions developed by Halliday (1985/1994) and some other systemic linguists such as Thompson (1996), Martin (1985), etc. In this chapter, the first focus is to examine the concept of grammatical metaphor in systemic functional linguistics.
We will start by providing the definitions of grammatical metaphor. Then, different views on the classification of grammatical metaphor are also presented. An overview of grammatical metaphor theory 1. Definitions of grammatical metaphor The concept of grammatical metaphor arose from the ancient time by the Ancient Greek philosopher - Aristotle.
For him, metaphor was defined as “one word for a concept used to refer to another one”. Therefore, metaphor involves a transference. His theory of metaphor puts the primitive foundation for the concept of grammatical metaphor which has been developed by modern linguistists two thousand years later. The concept of grammatical metaphor was then introduced in Halliday‟s An introduction to Functional Grammar (1985/1994).
In this book, Halliday revised and improved his Functional Grammar constantly, and put forward the concept of grammatical metaphor. Halliday took a new approach which is different from the traditional one, looking metaphor “from above” as “variation in the expression of a given meaning” not “from below” as “variation in the meaning of a given expression” of the traditional approach. For him, metaphor is also a transference, which uses a kind of grammar means to replace another, but expresses the same grammatical meaning. From this point, grammatical metaphor has its unique performance characteristics as a kind of grammar phenomenon.
The congruence and metaphor are two means to express the meaning, both of which have difference in the event of the order, frequency, and cognitive habit. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 According to Halliday and Martin (1993: 79) cited in Wang (2002), a grammatical metaphor (GM) is a substitution of one grammatical class, or one grammatical structure, by another; for example, “his departure instead of he departed”. Put it simply, the process of depart has been turned into a noun. Another systemic linguist who is also concerned about the concept of grammatical metaphor is Thompson.
In his book – Introducing functional grammar (1996: 165), he defined grammatical metaphor as the expression of a meaning through a lexical- grammatical form which originally evolved to express a different kind of meaning. The expression of the meaning is metaphorical in relation to a different way of expressing the „same‟ meaning which would be more congruent. Consider the following examples: [1:1] (i). Water evaporates from a puddle.
Evaporation occurs more quickly in hot weather. (ii) is grammatical metaphor because in this sentence a process evaporates is rendered in a nominal type Evaporation. Classification of grammatical metaphor Systemic linguists often pay attention to the function of grammatical metaphor when classifying different types of grammatical metaphor. According to Halliday, language has three metafunctions involved in one clause: ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function.
Language is used to organize, understand and express our perception of the world by the ideational function, which can be divided into experiential function and logical function. The experiential function is mainly associated with the ideas, while the logical is concerned with the relationship between ideas. People use language to communicate with other people, to express their feelings and attitude by interpersonal function. On the basis of these metafunctions, Halliday (1994: 343) classifies grammatical metaphor into two main types: metaphors of mood (including modality) and metaphors of transitivity.
In terms of model of semantic functions, these are, respectively, interpersonal metaphors and ideational metaphor. When classifying grammatical metaphor, Martin (1992) seems more detailed. He divided it into ideational (logical and experiential), interpersonal and textual metaphor. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.Van (1999) shows that an instance of grammatical metaphor may be involved in more than one metafunction.
This means that a congruent realization in the interpersonal metafunction may have its metaphorical realization in the experiential metafunction. For example, [1:2] (i) She should go to the meeting.