VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT STORY “THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE” BY OSCAR WILDE FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE (Chuyển tác và sự thể hiện của nó trong truyện ngắn “The Nightingale and the Rose” của Oscar Wilde dưới góc độ 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 LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT STORY “THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE” BY OSCAR WILDE FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE (Chuyển tác và sự thể hiện của nó trong truyện ngắn “The Nightingale and the Rose” của Oscar Wilde dưới góc độ 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 A thesis submitted for the partial fulfillment of degree of Master of Art in English Linguistics Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Language and International Studies Faculty of Postgraduate Studies I declare that this thesis hereby is the presentation of my original work.
Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions. The work was done under the guidance of Professor Hoang Van Van, at the University of Language and International Studies, Hanoi. Hanoi, September 2014 Nguyễn Quỳnh Trang i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people. Therefore, I hereby would like to express my appreciation to all of them.
First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Hoang Van Van, for his invaluable inspiration, assistance and guidance during the time I tried to complete this thesis. My sincere thanks go to all my teachers at University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) for their enthusiastic lectures during this M. I also thank Assoc.
Le Hung Tien and the staff members of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies for their enthusiastic support. Last but not least, I also owe my family, my friends and my classmates for their whole-hearted support and encouragement in bringing this study to a success. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study offers an analysis of the transitivity system used in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde using Halliday's systemic functional grammar as the theoretical framework. The main goals are to explore systemic functional grammar concepts and to use them as the framework for the analysis and discussion of the story.
It also conducts an analysis of how Oscar Wilde uses the different types of process and the attending circumstances in his story. The emerging patterns will be summarized to reveal the experiential meanings of the short story; some educational implications will be made and some suggestions will be offered for further studies. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration………………………………………………………………………….i Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….iii Table of contents…………………………………………………………………….iv List of tables………………………………………………………………………….……vi PART A: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………. Rational of the study.
Aim and objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study………………………………………………………………. Design of the study………………………………………………………………….5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND………………………………….
An overview of systemic functional grammar. The theory on transitivity………………………………………………. The transitivity system……………………………………………………….………………11 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Other participant functions…………….14 CHAPTER 2: TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT STORY “THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE”…….
The context of the chosen text………………………………. The analysis of the story into clauses …………………………………………. The transitivity analysis of the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”…. The transitivity pattern of the text…………………………………….
Circumstances used in the text………………………………………….22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……………………. The first part of the story………………………………. The second part of the story……………………………………………29 3. The third part of the story………………………………………………32 3.
The fourth part of the story……….……………………………………35 PART C: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………36 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Limitations of the study……………………………………………………………. Suggestions for further studies……………………………………….I Appendix 1: The clause analysis of the text………….I Appendix 2: The analysis of the text in terms of transitivity……………………….IX vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Process types in English…………………………………………………….9 Table 2: Types of circumstance elements…………………………….14 Table 3: Frequency of process types in the story………………….24 ABBRIVIATIONS Circ: Circumstance Pheno: Phenomenon SFG: Systemic functional grammar Accom: Accompaniment vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Of all possible human qualities, the one that wields the most power is the ability to use, understand and communicate effectively through language.
A proficient use of language allows us to communicate an exact idea from one person to another person or group of people. We can use language to let others know how we feel, what we need, and even ask questions. Clearly, language cannot be separated from human life. Being aware of the importance of language, many well-known linguists have studied the way the language is structured.
We usually call this grammar. There are many ways of describing the grammar of language. If pre-twentieth centuries approach represents traditional grammar, most twentieth-century approaches are varieties of formal grammar and functional grammar. The main thing that traditional grammar set out to teach was the parts of speech, or word classes: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and so on (Cope, 1993).
However, according to Christie (1981), it will be a “jail” when teaching traditional grammar for the students, because the teachers will be bound to teaching language structure without any reference to the learning context (cited in Cope, 1993). Like traditional grammar, formal grammar specifies all the possible grammatical structures of a language. It viewed grammar as set of rules and focused on forms of grammatical structures and their relationships to one another. Through this period of teaching both types of grammar, some linguists were thinking to generate one more developed grammar which is systemic functional grammar (Halliday et al, cited in Cope, 1993).
Many approaches to linguistics focus entirely on the purely structural characteristics of language, and ignore the possible functions of language. Thus, functional grammar appeared as a means for seeking and solving problems such as using words “in context” (Halliday, 2004). Functional grammar offers us an analytical 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com tool of looking at the whole text and grammatical features, which are typical characteristic of that kind of text. When attending the English class about functional grammar, I was immediately attracted by the question that Michael Halliday raised in his mind: “Have you ever wondered why language is structured in that way but not other ways?” His answer to this question is very simple: because it reflects the functions which language is required to serve as a means of social communication.
Besides, being a teacher of English, I am trying to find the best way for my student to approach English. After learning functional grammar, I find that describing language in terms of functional grammar enables teachers to introduce students explicitly and systematically to the choices available for making meanings about human experience in an English clause. This will be a very useful way to look at English grammar as a live system in English language and to study and apply English grammar more appropriately. With these above reasons, I decide to carry out a study on one aspect of functional grammar – the experiential meaning which is expressed through the system of transitivity.
The data supporting for analysis is the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” written by Oscar Wilde. Although this is a fairy tale with very simple plot, it contains valuable lesson about love. Moreover, I really like the way this story was told. It was a bit fanciful in that the animals and trees could speak to one another about true love, sacrifice, and death.
It is a story that could easily be memorized and retold orally. This will provide an easy understanding for the readers to approach the transitivity system of functional grammar. As shown by the title, “Transitivity and its realization in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde”, I hope that this thesis will be of some helps for my student to approach English in particular, and is a reference for anyone who wants to make researches using functional grammar as the theoretical framework. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Aim and objectives of the study This study aims to explore the experimental meanings of the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde, using systemic functional grammar as the theoretical framework. To achieve this aim, some of the following objectives are set for exploring: - Exploring systemic functional grammar concepts to establish the framework for the transitivity analysis. - Analyzing the transitivity of the story to see how Oscar Wilde uses the different types of process and the attending circumstances to reveal the experiential meanings in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”. Scope of the Study This study does not attempt to cover all aspects of functional grammar but limits itself to one aspect: transitivity and its realization in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde.
Methods of the Study The study is carried out as an attempt to understand more about the nature of transitivity and its realization in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”. To complete the study, the descriptive and analytical methods will be used as the principal methods. The descriptive method is concerned with the description of concepts related to systemic functional linguistics as well as transitivity system. The analytical method is used to analyze the text.
In some cases, some statistics are made to qualify the frequency of use of the processes used in the story. The procedures and conventions used in the thesis are based on Halliday‟s (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Design of the study The study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.
Part A, the Introduction, deals with the rationale, aim and objectives, scope and methods of the study, and design of the study. Part B, the Development, which is the main part of the thesis, includes three chapters. Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study including an overview of systemic functional linguistics, its metafunctions and the transitivity system to establish the framework for analysis and discussion in Chapter 2. Chapter 2 analyzes the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” in terms of the transitivity.
Chapter 3 summarizes the types of process and the types of circumstance used in the story, and discusses the significance of their uses. Part C, the Conclusion, offers a summary of what has been studied, points out the limitations of the study, presents educational implications and gives some suggestions for further studies. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter will provide the theoretical background of the research. I will begin with an overview of systemic functional grammar.
Then, I will present six types of process in the transitivity system and their incumbent circumstances. An overview of systemic functional grammar Systemic functional grammar developed by Michael Halliday and his colleagues has had a great impact on the approach to language. It is different from other models of grammar in that it interprets language as interrelated sets of options for making meaning and seeks to provide a clear relationship between functions and grammatical systems (Halliday, 1994). Functional linguists analyze a text, whether spoken or written, from a functional point of view.