Luận văn a study on grammatical metaphor in english business letters

However, the conclusions are by no moans roprascntatives of business ieHors in all cases, The theoretical framework for the analysis of grammatical metaphor in this paper is mainly ‘base

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

A STUDY ON GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN

ENGLISH BUSINESS LETTERS

(Nghiên cứu về ẩn dụ ngữ pháp trong thư thương mại tiếng Anh)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi, 2011

ASTUDY ON GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN

ENGLISH BUSINESS LETTERS

(Nghién citu vé Gn du ngit phap trong the throng mai tiéng Anh)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60.22.15

Supervisor: Dr NGUYEN HUY KY

Hanoi, 2011

2 Objentives of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Mcthods of the study

5 Design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER |: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: OVERVIEW ON

SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Metaphor, based on the association of similarity, is one af the two basic types of semantic

transference Gnetaphor and metonymyy) that have been an interest for a great number of

linguistic researchers According to Galperin (1981), the term “metaphor” can be understood

as the transfercuee of some gualily fiom one subject lp another Halliday gives @ more detailed notion, metaphor is a verbal transference; a variation in the expression of meanings which involves a nomliteral use of a word In particular, metaphor is an irregularity of content that consisis on the use of a word in a sense different from its proper one and relaled to il in terms of similarity Let’s see examples (1) and (2)

(1) The sky is crying,

(2) The old profe:

Following the previous definitions, (1) includes an example of metaphor, ie, “crying”

or emeritus is a rack thal is heeoming brittle with age

This word is used for something resembling that which it usually refers to, that is, it is used

to refer to the weather state of being raining although it usually refers to the physical and emotional state of being crying Example (2) includes a metaphor, too, In this case, the word

“zock” is used in an improper sense, it refers to beings having the quality of being hard and the reason for this transference is the resemblance belwacn the literal and metaphorical references of this term, thatis, the resemblance between rocks and hard persons

Metaphor is very important feature in human language and is always a subject of central intcrest in the study of stylistics But traditional linguistics has long focused only on lexical metaphor whereas systemic functional linguistics has paid much attention on grammatical rietaphor, a term derived from the notion thal "the form of the grammar relates riaturally to the meanings that are being encoded” (Halliday 1994; xvii)

To be a teacher of ESP of business field, I have found that gramunatical metaphor seems to be

a strange notion to our students so I would like to make an investigation info grammatical

anctaphor in business Ictters with the hope of bringing this knowledge into my teaching work.

2) What types of grammatical metaphor are used in Tinglish business letters?

3 Scope of the study

Within the limitation of a minor thesis, this study only attempts to find out grammatical metaphor in the chosen corpus of Tinglish business letters The corpus is a collection of 20 authentic real-life English business letters randomly chosen from the eBook titled Instant

Business Letters Kit by Shawn Fawcett | think such a corpus is large enough for a M.A minor

thesis However, the conclusions are by no moans roprascntatives of business ieHors in all cases,

The theoretical framework for the analysis of grammatical metaphor in this paper is mainly

‘based on the systemic functional linguistic theory by M.A.K Ifalliday, Christian Matthiessen,

and James Martin, who are considered as the representatives of systemic functional linguistics After analyzing grammatical metaphor used in the chosen letters, some suggestions for pedagogical implication are also given wilh the hope of helping FSP students casily approach grammatical metaphor in general and in business letters in particular

4 Methods af the study

The study employs the combination of quafitative and quantitative methods Qualitative method helps the study approach the business letter samples and find out the general features and grammatical metaphor used in these letters After the qualitative analysis, the data is also quantitatively analyved In the investigation of data, the descriptive method is employed lo give a detailed description of grammatical metaphor found in the corpus «After the desciiption

of the data, the combination of analytic and synthetic methods will be smployed

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction ‘rhis part introduces the rationale, the objectives, the scope and the riethođs of the sindy:

Part B; Development This part is divided into three chapters

Chapter | deats with the theoretical background of ths study An over view of

functional grammar is provided with important concepts relevant to the topic framework.

English has been widely used in almost every field, particularly in business As a popular means of commumication, English is considered a key to success in international business And in this business world, in spite of widespread developments in communication technology, business letters are still widely used in the world as a main channel of business correspondence To achicve desirable results in communicating through business Iett

Desides taking, some remarkable features into account such as: style, language, structure of a business letter, an aspect of the lexicogrammer which involves a higher level of complexity

in the process of production and interpretation of clauses — the usc of grammatical metaphor

should be paid a great attention, too However, it has not attracted enough research attention,

If we have a good knowlodge af graenatical metaphor, wo oan achicve the desired effsc when dealing with business letters, We may have a better and more thorough understanding of this written fype of discourse

A fictional analysis of grammatical metaphor in discourse, especially in business letters will be very helpful to benefit English lcamers in better understanding and cmploying target Janguage and thus improving the communicative competence more effectively,

‘Those theorcticat and practical significanees have inspired me to earry oul A Sturdy

on Grammatical Metaphor in English Business Letters

2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of this paper ara

@ to give a general understanding of grammatical metaphor in the light of functional

It is hoped that with these objectives, a full understanding of the use of grammatical metaphor

in business letters will be achieved

Therefore, (hz research questions raised here are:

1) Whatis the ftequency of the use of granunatical metaphor in English business letters?

Chapter 2 focuses on the notion of metaphor from traditional and new views Then the notion of grammatical metaphor will be clarified Types of grammatical metaphor wil! be also discussed in this chapter

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study Virstly, some linguistic features of English

for further studies basing on the limitations af the thesis.

2.5 Classification of Graimmatical Metaphor 15 2.5.1 Ideational Metaphor cà co cề ho nh ecesee L5

3.1, Introduction 0 etter aed

3.2 Delinition of Business Letters 22,

3.3 Classification of Busiess Letters cee BD 3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters .0 0.0.0.6 cece teeter need

3.4.1 Characteristics of Business letters in general 23

3.4.2 Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode 24

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters 26

3.5.1 Data analysis framework 26

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SFG: Systemic Functional Grammer

GM: Grammatical Metaphor

ESP: English for Specific Pumpases

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Genre, register and language

Figure 2: Metafunctional Layering

Figure 3: Independence of metafunctions

Figure 4: Mapping of components

Figure 5: Two perspectives an metaphor -

Figure 6: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation

Figure 7; Direction of metapharization -

‘Table 1: Types of grammatical metaphor

Table 2: Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in business leliers

Table 3: Types of grammatical metaphor used in the corpus

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SFG: Systemic Functional Grammer

GM: Grammatical Metaphor

ESP: English for Specific Pumpases

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Genre, register and language

Figure 2: Metafunctional Layering

Figure 3: Independence of metafunctions

Figure 4: Mapping of components

Figure 5: Two perspectives an metaphor -

Figure 6: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation

Figure 7; Direction of metapharization -

‘Table 1: Types of grammatical metaphor

Table 2: Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in business leliers

Table 3: Types of grammatical metaphor used in the corpus

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SFG: Systemic Functional Grammer

GM: Grammatical Metaphor

ESP: English for Specific Pumpases

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Genre, register and language

Figure 2: Metafunctional Layering

Figure 3: Independence of metafunctions

Figure 4: Mapping of components

Figure 5: Two perspectives an metaphor -

Figure 6: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation

Figure 7; Direction of metapharization -

‘Table 1: Types of grammatical metaphor

Table 2: Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in business leliers

Table 3: Types of grammatical metaphor used in the corpus

English has been widely used in almost every field, particularly in business As a popular means of commumication, English is considered a key to success in international business And in this business world, in spite of widespread developments in communication technology, business letters are still widely used in the world as a main channel of business correspondence To achicve desirable results in communicating through business Iett

Desides taking, some remarkable features into account such as: style, language, structure of a business letter, an aspect of the lexicogrammer which involves a higher level of complexity

in the process of production and interpretation of clauses — the usc of grammatical metaphor

should be paid a great attention, too However, it has not attracted enough research attention,

If we have a good knowlodge af graenatical metaphor, wo oan achicve the desired effsc when dealing with business letters, We may have a better and more thorough understanding of this written fype of discourse

A fictional analysis of grammatical metaphor in discourse, especially in business letters will be very helpful to benefit English lcamers in better understanding and cmploying target Janguage and thus improving the communicative competence more effectively,

‘Those theorcticat and practical significanees have inspired me to earry oul A Sturdy

on Grammatical Metaphor in English Business Letters

2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of this paper ara

@ to give a general understanding of grammatical metaphor in the light of functional

It is hoped that with these objectives, a full understanding of the use of grammatical metaphor

in business letters will be achieved

Therefore, (hz research questions raised here are:

1) Whatis the ftequency of the use of granunatical metaphor in English business letters?

2.5 Classification of Graimmatical Metaphor 15 2.5.1 Ideational Metaphor cà co cề ho nh ecesee L5

3.1, Introduction 0 etter aed

3.2 Delinition of Business Letters 22,

3.3 Classification of Busiess Letters cee BD 3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters .0 0.0.0.6 cece teeter need

3.4.1 Characteristics of Business letters in general 23

3.4.2 Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode 24

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters 26

3.5.1 Data analysis framework 26

3 Limitations al the study - 38

4 Suggestions for further studies

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Metaphor, based on the association of similarity, is one af the two basic types of semantic

transference Gnetaphor and metonymyy) that have been an interest for a great number of

linguistic researchers According to Galperin (1981), the term “metaphor” can be understood

as the transfercuee of some gualily fiom one subject lp another Halliday gives @ more detailed notion, metaphor is a verbal transference; a variation in the expression of meanings which involves a nomliteral use of a word In particular, metaphor is an irregularity of content that consisis on the use of a word in a sense different from its proper one and relaled to il in terms of similarity Let’s see examples (1) and (2)

(1) The sky is crying,

(2) The old profe:

Following the previous definitions, (1) includes an example of metaphor, ie, “crying”

or emeritus is a rack thal is heeoming brittle with age

This word is used for something resembling that which it usually refers to, that is, it is used

to refer to the weather state of being raining although it usually refers to the physical and emotional state of being crying Example (2) includes a metaphor, too, In this case, the word

“zock” is used in an improper sense, it refers to beings having the quality of being hard and the reason for this transference is the resemblance belwacn the literal and metaphorical references of this term, thatis, the resemblance between rocks and hard persons

Metaphor is very important feature in human language and is always a subject of central intcrest in the study of stylistics But traditional linguistics has long focused only on lexical metaphor whereas systemic functional linguistics has paid much attention on grammatical rietaphor, a term derived from the notion thal "the form of the grammar relates riaturally to the meanings that are being encoded” (Halliday 1994; xvii)

To be a teacher of ESP of business field, I have found that gramunatical metaphor seems to be

a strange notion to our students so I would like to make an investigation info grammatical

anctaphor in business Ictters with the hope of bringing this knowledge into my teaching work.

Chapter 2 focuses on the notion of metaphor from traditional and new views Then the notion of grammatical metaphor will be clarified Types of grammatical metaphor wil! be also discussed in this chapter

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study Virstly, some linguistic features of English

for further studies basing on the limitations af the thesis.

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Metaphor, based on the association of similarity, is one af the two basic types of semantic

transference Gnetaphor and metonymyy) that have been an interest for a great number of

linguistic researchers According to Galperin (1981), the term “metaphor” can be understood

as the transfercuee of some gualily fiom one subject lp another Halliday gives @ more detailed notion, metaphor is a verbal transference; a variation in the expression of meanings which involves a nomliteral use of a word In particular, metaphor is an irregularity of content that consisis on the use of a word in a sense different from its proper one and relaled to il in terms of similarity Let’s see examples (1) and (2)

(1) The sky is crying,

(2) The old profe:

Following the previous definitions, (1) includes an example of metaphor, ie, “crying”

or emeritus is a rack thal is heeoming brittle with age

This word is used for something resembling that which it usually refers to, that is, it is used

to refer to the weather state of being raining although it usually refers to the physical and emotional state of being crying Example (2) includes a metaphor, too, In this case, the word

“zock” is used in an improper sense, it refers to beings having the quality of being hard and the reason for this transference is the resemblance belwacn the literal and metaphorical references of this term, thatis, the resemblance between rocks and hard persons

Metaphor is very important feature in human language and is always a subject of central intcrest in the study of stylistics But traditional linguistics has long focused only on lexical metaphor whereas systemic functional linguistics has paid much attention on grammatical rietaphor, a term derived from the notion thal "the form of the grammar relates riaturally to the meanings that are being encoded” (Halliday 1994; xvii)

To be a teacher of ESP of business field, I have found that gramunatical metaphor seems to be

a strange notion to our students so I would like to make an investigation info grammatical

anctaphor in business Ictters with the hope of bringing this knowledge into my teaching work.

English has been widely used in almost every field, particularly in business As a popular means of commumication, English is considered a key to success in international business And in this business world, in spite of widespread developments in communication technology, business letters are still widely used in the world as a main channel of business correspondence To achicve desirable results in communicating through business Iett

Desides taking, some remarkable features into account such as: style, language, structure of a business letter, an aspect of the lexicogrammer which involves a higher level of complexity

in the process of production and interpretation of clauses — the usc of grammatical metaphor

should be paid a great attention, too However, it has not attracted enough research attention,

If we have a good knowlodge af graenatical metaphor, wo oan achicve the desired effsc when dealing with business letters, We may have a better and more thorough understanding of this written fype of discourse

A fictional analysis of grammatical metaphor in discourse, especially in business letters will be very helpful to benefit English lcamers in better understanding and cmploying target Janguage and thus improving the communicative competence more effectively,

‘Those theorcticat and practical significanees have inspired me to earry oul A Sturdy

on Grammatical Metaphor in English Business Letters

2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of this paper ara

@ to give a general understanding of grammatical metaphor in the light of functional

It is hoped that with these objectives, a full understanding of the use of grammatical metaphor

in business letters will be achieved

Therefore, (hz research questions raised here are:

1) Whatis the ftequency of the use of granunatical metaphor in English business letters?

Chapter 2 focuses on the notion of metaphor from traditional and new views Then the notion of grammatical metaphor will be clarified Types of grammatical metaphor wil! be also discussed in this chapter

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study Virstly, some linguistic features of English

for further studies basing on the limitations af the thesis.

3 Limitations al the study - 38

4 Suggestions for further studies

3 Limitations al the study - 38

4 Suggestions for further studies

2) What types of grammatical metaphor are used in Tinglish business letters?

3 Scope of the study

Within the limitation of a minor thesis, this study only attempts to find out grammatical metaphor in the chosen corpus of Tinglish business letters The corpus is a collection of 20 authentic real-life English business letters randomly chosen from the eBook titled Instant

Business Letters Kit by Shawn Fawcett | think such a corpus is large enough for a M.A minor

thesis However, the conclusions are by no moans roprascntatives of business ieHors in all cases,

The theoretical framework for the analysis of grammatical metaphor in this paper is mainly

‘based on the systemic functional linguistic theory by M.A.K Ifalliday, Christian Matthiessen,

and James Martin, who are considered as the representatives of systemic functional linguistics After analyzing grammatical metaphor used in the chosen letters, some suggestions for pedagogical implication are also given wilh the hope of helping FSP students casily approach grammatical metaphor in general and in business letters in particular

4 Methods af the study

The study employs the combination of quafitative and quantitative methods Qualitative method helps the study approach the business letter samples and find out the general features and grammatical metaphor used in these letters After the qualitative analysis, the data is also quantitatively analyved In the investigation of data, the descriptive method is employed lo give a detailed description of grammatical metaphor found in the corpus «After the desciiption

of the data, the combination of analytic and synthetic methods will be smployed

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction ‘rhis part introduces the rationale, the objectives, the scope and the riethođs of the sindy:

Part B; Development This part is divided into three chapters

Chapter | deats with the theoretical background of ths study An over view of

functional grammar is provided with important concepts relevant to the topic framework.

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Metaphor, based on the association of similarity, is one af the two basic types of semantic

transference Gnetaphor and metonymyy) that have been an interest for a great number of

linguistic researchers According to Galperin (1981), the term “metaphor” can be understood

as the transfercuee of some gualily fiom one subject lp another Halliday gives @ more detailed notion, metaphor is a verbal transference; a variation in the expression of meanings which involves a nomliteral use of a word In particular, metaphor is an irregularity of content that consisis on the use of a word in a sense different from its proper one and relaled to il in terms of similarity Let’s see examples (1) and (2)

(1) The sky is crying,

(2) The old profe:

Following the previous definitions, (1) includes an example of metaphor, ie, “crying”

or emeritus is a rack thal is heeoming brittle with age

This word is used for something resembling that which it usually refers to, that is, it is used

to refer to the weather state of being raining although it usually refers to the physical and emotional state of being crying Example (2) includes a metaphor, too, In this case, the word

“zock” is used in an improper sense, it refers to beings having the quality of being hard and the reason for this transference is the resemblance belwacn the literal and metaphorical references of this term, thatis, the resemblance between rocks and hard persons

Metaphor is very important feature in human language and is always a subject of central intcrest in the study of stylistics But traditional linguistics has long focused only on lexical metaphor whereas systemic functional linguistics has paid much attention on grammatical rietaphor, a term derived from the notion thal "the form of the grammar relates riaturally to the meanings that are being encoded” (Halliday 1994; xvii)

To be a teacher of ESP of business field, I have found that gramunatical metaphor seems to be

a strange notion to our students so I would like to make an investigation info grammatical

anctaphor in business Ictters with the hope of bringing this knowledge into my teaching work.

2.5 Classification of Graimmatical Metaphor 15 2.5.1 Ideational Metaphor cà co cề ho nh ecesee L5

3.1, Introduction 0 etter aed

3.2 Delinition of Business Letters 22,

3.3 Classification of Busiess Letters cee BD 3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters .0 0.0.0.6 cece teeter need

3.4.1 Characteristics of Business letters in general 23

3.4.2 Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode 24

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters 26

3.5.1 Data analysis framework 26

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SFG: Systemic Functional Grammer

GM: Grammatical Metaphor

ESP: English for Specific Pumpases

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Genre, register and language

Figure 2: Metafunctional Layering

Figure 3: Independence of metafunctions

Figure 4: Mapping of components

Figure 5: Two perspectives an metaphor -

Figure 6: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation

Figure 7; Direction of metapharization -

‘Table 1: Types of grammatical metaphor

Table 2: Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in business leliers

Table 3: Types of grammatical metaphor used in the corpus

3 Limitations al the study - 38

4 Suggestions for further studies

3 Limitations al the study - 38

4 Suggestions for further studies

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Metaphor, based on the association of similarity, is one af the two basic types of semantic

transference Gnetaphor and metonymyy) that have been an interest for a great number of

linguistic researchers According to Galperin (1981), the term “metaphor” can be understood

as the transfercuee of some gualily fiom one subject lp another Halliday gives @ more detailed notion, metaphor is a verbal transference; a variation in the expression of meanings which involves a nomliteral use of a word In particular, metaphor is an irregularity of content that consisis on the use of a word in a sense different from its proper one and relaled to il in terms of similarity Let’s see examples (1) and (2)

(1) The sky is crying,

(2) The old profe:

Following the previous definitions, (1) includes an example of metaphor, ie, “crying”

or emeritus is a rack thal is heeoming brittle with age

This word is used for something resembling that which it usually refers to, that is, it is used

to refer to the weather state of being raining although it usually refers to the physical and emotional state of being crying Example (2) includes a metaphor, too, In this case, the word

“zock” is used in an improper sense, it refers to beings having the quality of being hard and the reason for this transference is the resemblance belwacn the literal and metaphorical references of this term, thatis, the resemblance between rocks and hard persons

Metaphor is very important feature in human language and is always a subject of central intcrest in the study of stylistics But traditional linguistics has long focused only on lexical metaphor whereas systemic functional linguistics has paid much attention on grammatical rietaphor, a term derived from the notion thal "the form of the grammar relates riaturally to the meanings that are being encoded” (Halliday 1994; xvii)

To be a teacher of ESP of business field, I have found that gramunatical metaphor seems to be

a strange notion to our students so I would like to make an investigation info grammatical

anctaphor in business Ictters with the hope of bringing this knowledge into my teaching work.

2) What types of grammatical metaphor are used in Tinglish business letters?

3 Scope of the study

Within the limitation of a minor thesis, this study only attempts to find out grammatical metaphor in the chosen corpus of Tinglish business letters The corpus is a collection of 20 authentic real-life English business letters randomly chosen from the eBook titled Instant

Business Letters Kit by Shawn Fawcett | think such a corpus is large enough for a M.A minor

thesis However, the conclusions are by no moans roprascntatives of business ieHors in all cases,

The theoretical framework for the analysis of grammatical metaphor in this paper is mainly

‘based on the systemic functional linguistic theory by M.A.K Ifalliday, Christian Matthiessen,

and James Martin, who are considered as the representatives of systemic functional linguistics After analyzing grammatical metaphor used in the chosen letters, some suggestions for pedagogical implication are also given wilh the hope of helping FSP students casily approach grammatical metaphor in general and in business letters in particular

4 Methods af the study

The study employs the combination of quafitative and quantitative methods Qualitative method helps the study approach the business letter samples and find out the general features and grammatical metaphor used in these letters After the qualitative analysis, the data is also quantitatively analyved In the investigation of data, the descriptive method is employed lo give a detailed description of grammatical metaphor found in the corpus «After the desciiption

of the data, the combination of analytic and synthetic methods will be smployed

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction ‘rhis part introduces the rationale, the objectives, the scope and the riethođs of the sindy:

Part B; Development This part is divided into three chapters

Chapter | deats with the theoretical background of ths study An over view of

functional grammar is provided with important concepts relevant to the topic framework.

2.5 Classification of Graimmatical Metaphor 15 2.5.1 Ideational Metaphor cà co cề ho nh ecesee L5

3.1, Introduction 0 etter aed

3.2 Delinition of Business Letters 22,

3.3 Classification of Busiess Letters cee BD 3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters .0 0.0.0.6 cece teeter need

3.4.1 Characteristics of Business letters in general 23

3.4.2 Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode 24

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters 26

3.5.1 Data analysis framework 26

2.5 Classification of Graimmatical Metaphor 15 2.5.1 Ideational Metaphor cà co cề ho nh ecesee L5

3.1, Introduction 0 etter aed

3.2 Delinition of Business Letters 22,

3.3 Classification of Busiess Letters cee BD 3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters .0 0.0.0.6 cece teeter need

3.4.1 Characteristics of Business letters in general 23

3.4.2 Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode 24

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters 26

3.5.1 Data analysis framework 26

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SFG: Systemic Functional Grammer

GM: Grammatical Metaphor

ESP: English for Specific Pumpases

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Genre, register and language

Figure 2: Metafunctional Layering

Figure 3: Independence of metafunctions

Figure 4: Mapping of components

Figure 5: Two perspectives an metaphor -

Figure 6: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation

Figure 7; Direction of metapharization -

‘Table 1: Types of grammatical metaphor

Table 2: Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in business leliers

Table 3: Types of grammatical metaphor used in the corpus

Chapter 2 focuses on the notion of metaphor from traditional and new views Then the notion of grammatical metaphor will be clarified Types of grammatical metaphor wil! be also discussed in this chapter

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study Virstly, some linguistic features of English

for further studies basing on the limitations af the thesis.

English has been widely used in almost every field, particularly in business As a popular means of commumication, English is considered a key to success in international business And in this business world, in spite of widespread developments in communication technology, business letters are still widely used in the world as a main channel of business correspondence To achicve desirable results in communicating through business Iett

Desides taking, some remarkable features into account such as: style, language, structure of a business letter, an aspect of the lexicogrammer which involves a higher level of complexity

in the process of production and interpretation of clauses — the usc of grammatical metaphor

should be paid a great attention, too However, it has not attracted enough research attention,

If we have a good knowlodge af graenatical metaphor, wo oan achicve the desired effsc when dealing with business letters, We may have a better and more thorough understanding of this written fype of discourse

A fictional analysis of grammatical metaphor in discourse, especially in business letters will be very helpful to benefit English lcamers in better understanding and cmploying target Janguage and thus improving the communicative competence more effectively,

‘Those theorcticat and practical significanees have inspired me to earry oul A Sturdy

on Grammatical Metaphor in English Business Letters

2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of this paper ara

@ to give a general understanding of grammatical metaphor in the light of functional

It is hoped that with these objectives, a full understanding of the use of grammatical metaphor

in business letters will be achieved

Therefore, (hz research questions raised here are:

1) Whatis the ftequency of the use of granunatical metaphor in English business letters?

2) What types of grammatical metaphor are used in Tinglish business letters?

3 Scope of the study

Within the limitation of a minor thesis, this study only attempts to find out grammatical metaphor in the chosen corpus of Tinglish business letters The corpus is a collection of 20 authentic real-life English business letters randomly chosen from the eBook titled Instant

Business Letters Kit by Shawn Fawcett | think such a corpus is large enough for a M.A minor

thesis However, the conclusions are by no moans roprascntatives of business ieHors in all cases,

The theoretical framework for the analysis of grammatical metaphor in this paper is mainly

‘based on the systemic functional linguistic theory by M.A.K Ifalliday, Christian Matthiessen,

and James Martin, who are considered as the representatives of systemic functional linguistics After analyzing grammatical metaphor used in the chosen letters, some suggestions for pedagogical implication are also given wilh the hope of helping FSP students casily approach grammatical metaphor in general and in business letters in particular

4 Methods af the study

The study employs the combination of quafitative and quantitative methods Qualitative method helps the study approach the business letter samples and find out the general features and grammatical metaphor used in these letters After the qualitative analysis, the data is also quantitatively analyved In the investigation of data, the descriptive method is employed lo give a detailed description of grammatical metaphor found in the corpus «After the desciiption

of the data, the combination of analytic and synthetic methods will be smployed

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction ‘rhis part introduces the rationale, the objectives, the scope and the riethođs of the sindy:

Part B; Development This part is divided into three chapters

Chapter | deats with the theoretical background of ths study An over view of

functional grammar is provided with important concepts relevant to the topic framework.

Chapter 2 focuses on the notion of metaphor from traditional and new views Then the notion of grammatical metaphor will be clarified Types of grammatical metaphor wil! be also discussed in this chapter

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study Virstly, some linguistic features of English

for further studies basing on the limitations af the thesis.

3 Limitations al the study - 38

4 Suggestions for further studies