An Investigation into Processes in English Challenge Quotes in light of Functional Grammar

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES TRẦN MỸ QUỲNH AN INVESTIGATION INTO PROCESSES IN ENGLISH CHALLENGE QUOTES IN LIGHT OF Da Nang, 2022 THE UNIVERSITY OF

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

TRẦN MỸ QUỲNH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO PROCESSES

IN ENGLISH CHALLENGE QUOTES IN LIGHT OF

Da Nang, 2022

THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language Studies,

The University of Da Nang

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH HOA

Examiner 1: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền

Examiner 2: Dr Ngũ Thiện Hùng

The thesis was orally defended at the Examining Committee Time: 11th August 2022

Venue: University of Foreign Language Studies

-The University of Da Nang

This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at:

- The University of Da Nang – The Center for Learning Information Resources and Communication

- Center for Information Technology and Learning Resources,

University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Da Nang

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

Life is full of challenges that sometimes seem insurmountable In fact, no one grows up without facing at least one challenge in life, through which we also learn and become stronger The challenging times that we all face may be common situations such as medical diagnosis, divorce, job loss, disappointments in love, or financial crises, etc When we accidentally encounter one of them, we may let ourselves get depressed and be not sure how to move forward and even small challenges may build up over time and turn into bigger ones Whatever the case, some words of wisdom or challenges quotes sometimes can give us extra mental motivation we need to keep going in order to overcome such obstacles and improve our future life situations

Most overcoming challenges quotes are taken from literature or speech, even scenes from a movie, elements of a painting, a passage of music, etc These kinds of quotes are displayed through all forms of media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the internet, etc Quotes are sayings repeated exactly as written or spoken without changing any of the words compared to the original Therefore, language used in challenge quotes still keeps their author‟s language characteristics In general, challenge quotes may consist of one or more sentences, complete or incomplete ones, but they are still successful in conveying the message of authors and giving motivation to others Good challenge quotes must draw the attention of the readers by creating a desire to overcome the obstacles in life Actually, feelings of depression or sadness THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

during tough times are very normal, but problems may get worse when we become stuck in those emotions At such times, reading one or two meaningful challenge quotes absolutely helps us to stay resilient and positive in order to cope with any difficulty In other words, good challenge quotes remind us that we are capable of learning how to overcome and grow no matter the obstacles we face Challenge quotes are usually given in the form of single sentences or short paragraphs that are found on a number of online websites Besides, to understand challenge quotes more deeply, from the linguistic perspective, quotations can be analyzed which attempts to describe language in actual use and their contexts, to facilitate learners‟ interpretation in light of functional grammar According to Halliday in “Halliday‟s Introduction to Functional Grammar”, there are six types of processes: Material, Relational, Mental, Behavioural, Verbal and Existential It is obvious that these processes play a vital part in functional grammar The process is considered as the main organized form of the clause

as representation and used as a procedure to describe a figure of happening, doing, sensing, saying, being or having In addition, process can be analyzed in both written and spoken discourses, and quotations are the combination of both content and organization Hence, studying processes, especially in the English challenge quotes can be useful to users of English majoring in English as Foreign Language

For all the reasons presented, the researcher decided to

choose “An Investigation into Processes in English Challenge

Quotes in light of Functional Grammar” as the topic of the

master thesis Last not but least, the findings of the paper are expected to illustrate the processes in functional grammar and provide some useful knowledge of lexico-grammatical features of English Challenge Quotes for people who are interested in this field THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aims of the Study

The study is aimed at illuminating the linguistic characteristics of Processes used in English Challenge Quotes The findings of the study can assist the researcher in gaining a clear understanding of the language value of English Challenge Quotes in light of Functional Grammar

1.2.2 Objectives of the Study

This research is intended to deal with the following objectives:

- To identify and describe the Processes found in English Challenge Quotes

- To find out and describe the verbs involved in the Processes in English Challenge Quotes

- To describe and analyze the Participants and Circumstances involved in English Challenge Quotes

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research questions for this study are:

1 What types of processes are manifested in English Challenge Quotes?

2 What verbs are involved in the processes in English Challenge Quotes?

3 What participants and circumstances are involved in the processes in English Challenge Quotes?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

As stated above, the research is restricted to analyzing the linguistic features of Processes used in English Challenge Quotes

in light of Functional Grammar Therefore, the central concept in this study is exploration and discussion on the frequency of six types of Processes applied in English Challenge Quotes In addition, each Process comprises three typical parts namely the THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

Process itself, the Participant, and Circumstances and the process

is realized by a verb (Halliday, 1994) For that reason, in this study, the researcher concentrates on types of verbs, Participants and Circumstances involved in the Processes with the hope that it will discover how the use of Processes in English Challenge Quotes is effective in convincing and motivating readers to confidently deal with obstacles in life

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

To the extent, the researcher expects that the results of the investigation can help to illustrate the role of six Processes and their elements in the clause for representing experience in light of Functional Grammar, especially the clauses in English Challenge Quotes Additionally, it is hoped that the study enables to illustrate the processes in functional grammar and provide a practical reference source for people who are interested in this field

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The study includes five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

Chapter 5: Conclusions

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND 2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1.1 Functional Grammar

In Functional Grammar there are three distinct although closely related sense: in its interpretation (1) of text: in the sense that it is designed to account for how language is used, everything THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

that is said or written Over tens of thousands of generations of constant use, language has shaped into a system which can satisfy human needs Therefore, “A functional grammar is essentially a

„natural‟ grammar, in the sense that everything in it can be explained, ultimately, by reference to how language is used” (Halliday, 1994) (2) of the elements of linguistics structures: each elements in a language is explained by reference to its function in the total linguistics system Accordingly, “a functional grammar that all that construes all the units of a language-its clauses, phrases, and so on In the other words, each part is interpreted as functional with respect to the whole” (Halliday, 1994) (3) of the system: the fundamental components of meaning in language are functional components They are Ideational (to understand the environment), Interpersonal (to act on the others in it) Combined with these two is a third component, the „Textual‟, which breathes relevance into the other two These three generalized meanings are termed „Metafunctions‟

2.1.2 Ideational Metafunction

In this research, Ideational Meaning plays a vital role to represent a clear explanation since this study explores and analyzes the clausal grammar from a perspective of FG, construing our experiment of the world, enacting our social roles and relations and enable the creation of text To put it into technical terms, the study will closely examine the network of the Ideational Metafunction and their lexico-grammatical realization

2.1.3 The Process

According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2014), the Transitivity System construed the world of experience into a manageable set of Process Types Each Process Type has its own model or schema for construing a particular domain of experience THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

as a figure of a particular kind-a model such as the one illustrated above for construing signification: Token (usually) + Process (means) + Value (mostly)

For Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), a Process often consists of three elements: the Process itself, Participant associated with the process, and Circumstance

2.1.4 Types of Process

2.1.4.1 Material Process

When the Process in the clause is used to represent the experience of events and actions, it is called Material Process (Halliday and Matthiessen) There are two Participants involved

in Material Processes: The Actor and the Goal

Material Process can also consist of four other Participants, namely Beneficiary or Recipient, Scope, Client, and Attribute

2.1.4.2 Mental Process

While external experience is represented by Material Processes, the internal experience is represented through the Mental Process (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014) Two Participants in this Process are Senser and Phenomenon Halliday and Matthiessen divided the Mental Processes into four types namely Perceptive, Cognitive, Desiderative and Emotive

2.1.4.3 Relational Process

Thirdly, Relational Processes are Processes of being in the world of abstract relations (Thompson, 2004) Bloor and Bloor (2004) explain that Relational clauses are typically realized by

the verb “be” or some verb of the same class For instance,

“seem”, “become”, “appear” and etc

Usually, there are three types of Relational Processes named Intensive, Possessive, and Circumstance

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Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) found that Participants of Relational Process are categorized into four subtypes These are: Carrier, Attribute, Token and Value

2.1.4.4 Behavioural Process

Behavioural Processes are processes of human physiological and psychological behavior (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014) The important participant labeled as Behaver, which is typically like Senser, but the process functions more like the one of doing

2.1.4.5 Verbal Process

Verbal Process is the process of saying, and it falls between the Mental Processes and the Relational Processes (Thompson, 2004) Just like saying and meaning, the Verbal Process is mixed between the ideas constructed in human consciousness and the ideas enacted in the form of language

2.1.4.6 Existential Process

Existential Process represents that things exists and

happens (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004) The sentence pattern

is normally started with "there" as Subject or with a copular verb

"exist"

2.1.5 Circumstances

Circumstance is the third part of a sentence It can be a word, a group, or a clause They often come before or after the Processes They appear freely on any type of Processes as well as carry the same meaning wherever they are However they are not able to stand alone and do not have any meaning when being alone

2.1.5.1 Extent

The Circumstance of Extent explicates the extent of the unfolding of spatial and temporal The spatial and temporal are the sub-categories of the Circumstance of Extent and the THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

interrogative forms for Extent are “how far?, how long?, how many” (measure units)? “How many times?”

2.1.5.2 Location

The Circumstance of Location construes the location of the unfolding of the process in spacetime (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004)

2.1.5.3 Cause

According to Halliday and Matthiessen, (2004) “The Circumstantial element of Cause construes the reason why the process is actualized”

2.1.5.4 Matter

Matter mentions “what” or “with reference to what” and is probed by “what about?” The interrogative form is “what about?”

Accompaniment refers to “with” or “without who” or

“what” and is can be probed by “who” or “what else?”

2.1.5.8 Contingency

Contingency states on which the actualized of the process depends on what, which includes three subcategories: Condition, Concession and Default

2.1.5.9 Angle

The last Circumstantial Element is Angle that shows either

to the Sayer of a Verbal clause, with the sense of “as… says” or

to the Senser of a Mental clause, with the sense of “as … thinks” THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

2.1.6 English Challenge Quotes as Texts

2.1.6.1 Definition of “Text”

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), "text is regarded

as a semantic unit of language in written form that is used to convey a complete message." In addition, Nunan (1993) stated

“Text is a written record of a communicative event which conveys a complete message and the size of the text can vary from single words to books spreading to hundreds of pages” In this study, text is considered as a semantic unit of language in written form with a definable communicative function that is used to convey a certain message

2.1.6.2 Definition of “Quote”

Quote is regarded as “a group of words or a short piece of writing taken from a book, play, speech, and repeated because

it is interesting or useful” In this research, the quotes were

2.1.6.3 Definition of “Clause”

A clause is the highest unit of Functional Grammar Based

on the definition of Halliday (1994), a clause is a composite entity, which is constituted not of one dimension of structure but

of three (subject, actor, and theme) Each of the three functions construes a distinctive meaning He labels them „clause as message‟, „clause as exchange‟, and „clause as representation‟

2.1.6.4 English Challenge Quotes

All in all, in this study, English Challenge quotes are texts denoting challenges They help to convey the message of authors and give motivation to others to overcome obstacles in life The quotes collected on the Brainyquote site will be analyzed with the aim of building up the data for detailed investigation

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2.2 PREVIOUS RELATED STUDIES

Functional Grammar has been the fundamental for many studies over a wide range of fields Lavid, Arús and Zamorano-Mansilla (2010) in the book namely “Systemic Functional Grammar of Spanish: A Contrastive Study with English” devoted their effort to contribute to recent descriptive accounts of the clause grammars of different languages from the systemic functional perspective They also showed how meaning is construed by lexico-grammatical patterns in text in different textual and contextual environments Likewise, Li (2019) in the article “Analysis of Discourse from Perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar” discussed the main theoretical aspects of the systemic functional grammar: levels of language and the relationships among them and illustrated the value of systemic functional grammar in terms of discourse analysis In the research entitled “Systemic Functional Grammar and its pedagogical implications”, Ning (2008) focused on the application of systemic Functional Grammar to language study and illustrated how this approach can be helpful to language teaching

Besides the works of Functional Grammar theory mentioned above, the theory of Process and related elements has been attracting the considerable number of researchers For instance, Adjei (2015) in the journal article “Transitivity in Political Discourse – A Study of the Major Process Types in the

2009 State-of-the-Nation Address in Ghana” used the transitivity model to analyze how President John Evans Attah Mills manipulates language in his first State-of-the-Nation address to express his political message to his people She collected 536 clauses in the State-of-the-Nation address to use for the analysis and found out that material processes dominate the speech among the major process types

In Viet Nam, the number of well-known researchers who THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

have shown their passion for Functional Grammar is also significant Typically, Cao Xuân Hạo (1991) with “Tiếng Việt:

Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức năng” presented the results of a Vietnamese research process from the point of view of Functional Grammar The book was considered as an important milestone in the history of Vietnamese language studies Another author who should be mentioned is Hoàng Văn Vân (2002) with “Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú Tiếng việt – Mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng

hệ thống” The book was under the English title “An Experiential Grammar of the Vietnamese Clause: A Functional Description”

He emphasized basic concepts of the transitivity system as well

as the the processes in Vietnamese grammar In 2012, he published a book entiled “An Experiential Grammar of the Vietnamese Clause” He focused on the description of the experiential grammar of the clause and the system of transitivity

in Vietnamese based on Halliday‟s Functional Grammar‟s framework

Nguyễn Thị Tú Trinh, Phan Văn Hòa, Trần Hữu Phúc (2017) made some suggestions on how to identify and classify Behavioral Processes in English and Vietnamese by analyzing

200 behavioural clauses in English and Vietnamese collected from short stories and novels In the article entitled “The Language of Vietnamese School Science Textbooks: A Transitivity Analysis of Seven Lessons (Texts) of Biology 8”, Hoàng Văn Vân (2020) made his attempts to explore the transitivity features of seven lessons (texts) of a Vietnamese science textbook and showed that the very high frequency of material and relational processes was employed in constructing biological knowledge in Science textbooks

However, to the best of the researcher‟s knowledge, there THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG