VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ĐÀO THỊ MINH TÂN A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE MEANING AND STRUCTURE OF THE STORY “THE SELFISH GIANT” BY OSCAR WILDE BÌNH DIỆN NGỮ PHÁP CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG VỀ CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA TRUYỆN NGẮN “GÃ KHỔNG LỒ ÍCH KỶ” CỦA OSCAR WILDE M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HANOI, 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ĐÀO THỊ MINH TÂN A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE MEANING AND STRUCTURE OF THE STORY “THE SELFISH GIANT” BY OSCAR WILDE (BÌNH DIỆN NGỮ PHÁP CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG VỀ CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA TRUYỆN NGẮN “GÃ KHỔNG LỒ ÍCH KỶ” CỦA OSCAR WILDE) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi, 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ……………………………………………………………. i ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………… ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………………………………………………….
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………. iv LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………… vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study. 2 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 3 1.
Theories of systemic functional grammar. The Transitivity structure …………………………. The Mood structure. 11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
The thematic structure …………………………. 21 CHAPTER III: THE MEANING AND STRUCTURE OF THE STORY “THE SELFISH GIANT” 1. The Context of the Chosen Text. Clauses and Clause Complexes.
The analysis of the text in terms of Transitivity, Mood and Theme.The Transitivity Pattern .The Mood Pattern .The Theme – Rheme Pattern. The Cohesion of the Text. 27 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Contextual Configuration of the text.
38 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 40 4. Implication of the Paper. Suggestions for Further Study. XXXIX TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii LIST OF TABLES Table A: Process types, Category meaning, and key participants Table B: The main types of circumstances and their features Table C: Themes and features Table 1: Clause and Clause Complexes Analysis Table 2: Clause and Clause Complexes relationship Table 3: Transitivity pattern of the text Table 4: the Mood pattern of the text Table 5: The Thematic pattern of the text Table 6: Grammatical Cohesive Devices of the Text Table 7: The analysis of the text in terms of Transitivity, Mood and Theme TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale There are many grammatical paradigms and each of them views language from different perspectives. And among those, systemic functional grammar is a very new trend which has not been known much in Vietnam. Up till now, there have been only two works which study functional grammar. The first is Tiếng Việt – Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức năng by Cao Xuân Hạo (1991) and the second is Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú Tiếng Việt – mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống by Hoàng Văn Vân (2002).
Both of them have contributed much to the study of this field and brought the paradigm which has not yet been highlighted in Vietnamese schools closer to Vietnamese learners. In contrast to traditional grammars that place importance on language form, systemic functional grammar (SFG) emphasizes how language is used to express meaning i. it focuses on the functions of language. Moreover, SFG interprets language as interrelated sets of options for making meaning and seeks to provide a clear relationship between functions and grammatical systems (Halliday, 1994).
It is closer to our language in daily life, and thus can help us to see and understand human language more deeply and comprehensively. It can be said without exaggeration that functional grammar is „an effective tool of analysis, which solves the issues left out by traditional grammar‟. In addition to that, functional grammar also offers us an analytical tool of looking at the whole text and the grammatical features which are typical characteristic of that kind of text. For the above-mentioned reasons, I have decided to choose “A systemic functional perspectives on the meaning and structure of the story „The selfish Giant‟ by Oscar Wilde” as the topic of my thesis, using Halliday‟s functional grammar as the theoretical framework.
Aims of the study Within the framework of the paper, the study attempts to: Re-examine some of the most important issues related to the experiential, interpersonal and textual aspect of language. Analyze the meaning and structure of the story “The selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde based on the systemic functional module. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Scope of the study The study does not attempt to cover all aspects of functional grammar but limits itself to some main areas of functional grammar.
In other words, only issues relating to the analysis of the text are taken into consideration. These are transitivity structure, mood structure, theme – rheme system and cohesion. The text used for illustration is the short story “The selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde. Methods of the study: The aim of this paper is to analyze the meanings and structures of a short story.
Therefore, description and analysis are the principle methods of the study. The descriptive method is concerned with the description of main areas of functional grammar. The analytic method is concerned with the analysis of the text. Design of the Study The paper is designed in four chapters Chapter one: Introduction – presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, scope of the study, methods of the study and the research design of the study.
Chapter two: Literature review – provides some fundamental and theoretical concepts for the study: systemic functional theory, metafunctions, and cohesion analysis. Chapter three: The study of the text “The selfish Giant” focuses on the meaning and structure of the text. The last chapter: Conclusion – summarizes the results of the study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Introduction This chapter attempts to provide a theoretical orientation for the study. We shall be concerned with systemic functional theory and some features of systemic functional grammar. In addition, we shall present briefly three components of meaning in language and cohesion analysis. Theories of Systemic Functional Grammar Systemic functional grammar is a grammar model developed by M.
Halliday (1994) which takes a functional approach to grammar, analyzing language as a social-semiotic of communicative meaning-making. Language and interaction are defined by context and this model seeks to show how contextual meaning is expressed in grammar. SFG is „systemic‟ in that grammar consists of a series of choices that can be made in order to express ideas; in other words, language represents a system network within which language choices are meaningful in relation to other choices that are suppressed. It is „functional‟ in that the systems achieve certain functions which are realized in the lexico-grammar of the language.
There are three „metafunctions‟ which form the basic foundation on which systemic functional grammar (SFG) is based. These functions are labelled as 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. While all three metafunctions act together to produce meaning, in SFG they each have their own grammatical system.
The ideational metafunction consists of the experiential and logical metafunction. The experiential metafunction is about the natural world, that means it shows the way language is used to express our perception of the world, and explains how we use language to describe „doings‟ and „happenings‟. Experiential metafunction is concerned with clauses as representation. The experiential metafunction reflects the field parameter of register.
Experiential meanings are realized through the system of TRANSITIVITY which is realized as „processes‟ in a verb phrase constituent and its associated participants. The interpersonal metafunction is about the social world, especially the relationship between speaker and hearer, and is concerned with clauses as exchange. As Halliday (1994: 68) puts it: “The most fundamental types of speech role, which lie behind all the more specific types that we may eventually be able to recognize, are just two (i) giving, and (ii) demanding”. This TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 means there are two roles in exchange: giving and demanding.
He goes on to analyze the nature of the commodity being exchanged into (a) goods-and-service and (b) information. The MOOD realizes this metafunction and elements of modality, tense and polarity are taken into account. The textual metafunction is about the verbal world, especially the flow of information in a text. It organizes clauses as messages realized by speakers who arrange the ways in which the various groups and phrases in the clause are ordered with the THEME system.
The THEME system includes Theme and Rheme. The Theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the message, and the Rheme is the part in which the Theme is developed. The Transitivity structure Transitivity is the semantic category which expresses what the clause is about. In Halliday‟s terms, transitivity is a part of the ideational function of the clause.
The ideational function of the clause is concerned with the “transmission of ideas.” Its function is that of “representing „processes‟ or „experiences‟: actions, events, processes of consciousness and relations” (1985:53). The term “process” is used in an…extended sense, “to cover all phenomena…and anything that can be expressed by a verb- event, whether physical or not, state, or relation” (Halliday, 1976:159). Halliday further notes that the “processes” expressed through language are the product of our conception of the world or point of view. He notes “Our most powerful conception of reality is that it consists of “goings-on”: of doing, happening, feeling, being.
These goings-on are sorted out in the semantic system of the language, and expressed through the grammar of the clause… The clause evolved simultaneously in another grammatical function expressing the reflective, experiential aspect of meaning. This…is the system of TRANSITIVITY. Transitivity specifies the different types of process that are recognized in the language, and the structures by which they are expressed (Halliday, 1985:101)” Transitivity processes can be classified into material, relational, mental, verbal, behavioral, and existential processes, according to whether they represent processes of doing, being, sensing, saying, behaving, or existing, respectively. All types of processes are subsumed under the basic semantic framework consisting of three components: i) the process itself, which will be expressed by the verb phrase in a clause.
ii) the participants in the process, which refer to the roles of entities that are directly involved in the process : the one that does, behaves or says, together with the passive one that is TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 5 done to, said to, etc. The participants are not necessarily humans or even animate; the term “participant entities” would be more accurate (Halliday, 176:160). The participant entities are normally realized by noun phrases in the clause. iii) the circumstances associated with the process, which are typically expressed by adverbial and prepositional phrases.
This framework has the potential of interpreting one's experience of reality. That is the speaker's/writer's experience of the external world and the world of his consciousness. So, clause as process has the function of expressing what reality is all about. This is semantically categorized as process of doing, happening, feeling etc.
The following sections account for these major processes realized in the transitivity system, and the participant roles that are involved in the processes. Material processes Material processes are processes of doing in the physical world. The basic meaning of the material process is that some entity does something, undertakes some actions. One identification criteria for material process is that they can be probed by the question “What did X do?