a systemic funtional 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

The analysis of the text in terms of Transitivity, Mood and Theme.... LIST OF TABLES Table A: Process types, Category meaning, and key participants Table B: The main types of circumstanc

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

HANOI, 2011

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

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 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Design of the study 2

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 3 1 Introduction 3

2 Theories of systemic functional grammar 3

2.1 The Transitivity structure ……… 4

2.1.1 Material processes 5

2.1.2 Relational processes: ……… 6

2.1.3 Mental processes……… 7

2.1.4 Verbal processes… 7

2.1.5 Behavioural processes 8

2.1.6 Existential processes 9

2.1.7 Circumstances: ……… 10

2.2 The Mood structure 11

2.3 The thematic structure ……… 12

2.4 Cohesion ……… 18

2.4.1 Grammatical cohesion 18

2.4.1.1 Reference……… …… 18

2.4.1.2.Conjunction……… 19

2.4.1.3 Ellipsis……… 19

2.4.1.4 Substitution: 19

2.4.2 Lexical Cohesion 20

2.4.2.1 Repetition 20

2.4.2.2 Synonymy 20

2.4.2.3 Antonymy…… 21

2.4.2.4 Hyponomy 21

2.4.2.5 Meronymy 21

2.4.2.6 Collocation 21

CHAPTER III: THE MEANING AND STRUCTURE OF THE STORY “THE SELFISH GIANT” 1 Introduction 22

2 The Context of the Chosen Text 22

3 Clauses and Clause Complexes 22

4 The analysis of the text in terms of Transitivity, Mood and Theme 23

4.1.The Transitivity Pattern 23

4.2.The Mood Pattern 25

4.3.The Theme – Rheme Pattern 26

5 The Cohesion of the Text 27

5.1 Grammatical Cohesion 27

5.1.1 Reference 27

5.1.2 Conjunctive Devices 31

5.1.3 Substitution………… 32

5.2 Lexical Cohesion 32

5.3 Contextual Configuration of the text 38

CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 40 4.1 Recapitulation 40

4.2 Implication of the Paper 40

4.3 Suggestions for Further Study 41

References ……… 42

Appendix 2 ……… … VI

Appendix 5 ……… XXIV

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

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.e 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

2 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

3 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

4 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

5 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

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

2 Theories of Systemic Functional Grammar

Systemic functional grammar is a grammar model developed by M.A.K 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

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

2.1 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

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

2.1.1 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?”

Material processes have two inherent participants involved in them The first of these is the Actor, which is an obligatory element and expresses the doer of the process The second is the Goal, which is an optional element and expresses the person or entity (whether animate or inanimate) affected by the process

The following examples illustrate these constructions:

Material processes take the third participant It is called Receiver – the one that benefits from the

process For example:

Actor Process material Goal Receiver

Of course, it is possible to reverse Actor- Goal in a passive form, placing a Goal at an initial position and Actor at the end of the sentence, such as:

Goal Process : material Actor

2.1.2 Relational processes

Relational processes are concerned with the process of being, being at, and having Normally, a relationship that exists between two participants associated with the process is considered, but unlike the case of material process, a participant does not affect the other participant in a physical sense

The types of relational process are quite complex and controversial The type comes under three

subtypes (i) intensive (ii) possessive and (iii) circumstantial

 Intensive expresses an “x is y” relationship, one is the other – the relationship between the two terms is one of sameness

 Circumstantial denotes an “x is at y” relationship, – the relationship between the two terms is one of time, place, manner, cause, accompaniment, matter or role

 Possessive, an “x has y” relationship - the relationship between the two terms is one of ownership, one entity possesses another

Each of the three types can appear in two distinct modes: Attributive and Identifying

i) Attributive mode: “y is an attribute of x”

In the attributive mode a qualitative attribute is assigned to an entity The structural elements expressing this mode of process are Attribute and Carrier The Carrier is always realized by a noun or a nominal phrase, and the Attribute by an adjective or a nominal phrase The attribute may be ascribed as a quality (intensive), and as a circumstance (circumtantial), or as a possession (possessive);

For example:

ii) Identifying : “y is the identity of x”

In the identifying mode, one entity is used to identify another The relationship between them varies according to the type of relation process: Token and Value (intensive), of

phenomenon and circunstance of time, place etc (circunstantial), or owner and possession (possessive) The structural function of the participants in each case are Identified and Identifier The identifying process is reversible, because the identifying process involves two independent nominal participants

For example:

Identified / Token Process: relational Identifier/ Value

2.1.3 Mental processes

Mental processes encode the meanings of feeling or thinking Mental processes are

“internalized” processes Grammatically, all mental processes involve two participants:

Senser - the conscious being who is involved in a mental process by feeling, thinking, or perceiving and Phenomenon which is felt, thought, or perceived by the conscious Senser

Mental process verbs can be subcategorized into three types:(l) perception (sensing, hearing, seeing etc.), (2) affection (liking, loving, fearing etc.) and (3) cognition (thinking, knowing, understanding etc.)

Examples of each type are as follows

Senser Process : mental Phenomenon

2.1.4 Verbal processes

Verbal processes are processes of saying, and it exists on the borderline between mental and relational processes Just like saying and meaning, the verbal process expresses the relationship between ideas constructed in human consciousness and the ideas enacted in the form

of language (Halliday, 1994:107) Examples of verbal processes are “I said I am happy” and

“The chairperson calls for the meeting.” Note that “saying” is used in an extended sense and the

“speaker” need not be a conscious being (unlike a Senser in mental process), hence a verbal

process includes any kind of exchange of meaning, such as “The booklet tells you how to find a job” or “The clock says it is ten.” The participant who is speaking is called Sayer, the addressee

to whom the process is directed is Target, and what is said is Verbiage, for example:

I announced that the new bill will be passed

Sayer Process : verbal Verbiage

The element “what is said” may be either directly quoted or indirectly reported

For example:

Behaver Process : behavioural Phenomenon

Some other examples of behavioural processes are sit, dance, sing, lie (down) (near material processes), think, watch, look, listen (near mental processes), talk, gossip, grumble, chatter (near verbal processes), smile, laugh, cry, frown (physiological processes expressing states of consciousness), sleep, breathe, cough, yawn (other physiological processes) (Halliday,

Subject although it has no representational function Frequently an existential clause contains a distinct circumstantial element of time or place The object or event that is being said to exist is called Existent An Existent can be any kind of phenomenon, such as a thing, person, object, institution or abstraction, action, or event

For example:

Process : existential Existent Circumstance : Place

The writer has discussed all the types of processes in details The summary of the types of process together with their general category meaning and the principal participant functions that are associated with each will be shown in the table below

Action „doing‟

Event „happening‟

Attribution „attributing‟ Carrier, Attribute

Identification „identifying‟ Identified, Identifier; Token, Value

Table A: Process types, Category meaning, and key participants

(Source: Halliday, 1994: 143)

2.1.7 Circumstances

This element functions to provide more information about circumstances in which

participants take part in the process It adds meaning to a clause by describing the context within which the process takes place

Circumstance is realized by adverbial groups, prepositional phrases or nominal groups

Circumstantial elements lie at the end of the continuum and they occur in all types of process and with the same significance wherever they occur

Circumstance expresses supplementary information, such as place, time, extent, matter, manner, duration, condition, means, etc

The main types of circumstances and their features are shown in the table below:

Extent Distance, duration For three hours

Location Place, time In June, from Paris

Manner Means, quality,

comparison

With a hammer

Cause Reason, purpose For, for the sake of, because of, thanks

to, Contingency Condition, concession,

default

In case of, in spite of, in the absence of

Accompaniment Addition with; as well as, besides, instead of,

except [for]

Role Guise, product I came here as a friend

Aren‟t you growing into a big girl?

Table B: The main types of circumstances and their features

(Source: Halliday 1994: 151)

Here are some examples of the use of circumstances

• Ali had slept in the car (location,place)

• See you in the morning (location,time)

• They pulled the ropes again (extent frequency)

• He pleased her with his gift (means, manner)

• She has lived here for eight years (temporal, extent)

2.2 The Mood structure

The mood structure is responsible for the organization of the clause as an interactive event which involves the speaker/writer and the listener/reader It is the mood that expresses the speech role the speaker/writer adopts for himself By doing so the speaker/writer also assigns the role the listener/reader is supposed to assume to complement the interactive event In an interactive event the speaker will be either giving information or demanding information Giving and demanding are defined according to the nature of their commodity exchange: 'goods-&-service' for offer and command and 'information' for statements and questions In 'goods- &-service' the commodity exchanged is strictly non-verbal: what the speaker/writer demands is an

object or action In this case language is just a means to achieve an end For example: Bring me the book or Do your homework first According to Halliday ( 1985.p.70-71) because the

commodity exchanged in 'goods & service' cannot be affirmed or denied they are not proposition, so he prefers to label this type of exchange as 'proposal' 'Proposition' stands for the exchange of information in which case language is the end as well as the means, and the answer

is always a verbal one As stated by Halliday, propositions can be affirmed or denied, doubted, contradicted, insisted on and so forth

Choices in the mood structure realizes the expression of mood in the clause and the mood component is comprised of the mood element and the residue

The mood element consists of two parts: The subject which is a nominal group and the finite element which is part of a verbal group The subject is the entity about which the proposition is made It is the subject which is held responsible for the clause as exchange The finite element has the function of making the proposition finite, it relates the proposition to the context in the speech event This may be done either by reference to the time of speaking, primary tense, in which case it is expressed by means of a modal operator So, the verbal operator expressing finiteness is either temporal or modal Besides expressing tense and modality, the finite element also expresses polarity, the semantic category specifying whether

something is either positive or negative

In English, the subject plus the finite element are responsible for the indicative, the grammatical category which functions as general principle behind the expression of mood That is, within

indicative the order of the subject and the finite element is what in English determines the role the speaker and listener have in the exchange of information This is expressed as follows: a) Subject before Finite realizes 'declarative‟

b) Finite before Subject realizes yes/no interrogative

c) In WH-interrogative

i) Subject before Finite if the WH-element is the Subject,

ii) Finite before Subject otherwise

The Residue is the element in the mood structure which expresses the remaining part of the clause It consists of three elements: the Predicator, the Complement and the Adjunct

- The function of the predicator is fourfold: (i) It specifies time reference other than reference to the time of the speech event (ii) It specifies various other aspects and phrases like

seeming, trying, hoping (iii) It specifies the voice (active or passive) (iv) It specifies the process

that is predicated of the Subject

- Complement: A Complement is an element within the Residue that has the potential of being Subject but it is not It is typical realized by a nominal group

- Adjunct: An Adjunct is an element that has not got the potential of being Subject It is typically realized by an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase

t

2.3 The thematic structure

The three systems expressing the major categories of the semantic system have the clause

as entry condition So, they describe the text in the light of its function in the structure of the clause The thematic structure is responsible for the organization of the clause as message It consists of two elements: Theme and Rheme Theme functions as the „starting point for the message‟ (Halliday, 1985a: 39), the element which the clause is going to be „about‟ has a crucial

effect in orienting listeners and readers Theme is the starting point of the clause, realised by whatever element comes first Rheme is the rest of the message, which provides the additional information added to the starting point and which is available for subsequent development in the text The Theme and the Rheme are responsible for the organization of the clause as communicative event Hence, the thematic structure is the category which gives the clause its character as message

The different choice of Theme has contributed to a different meaning and English uses first clausal position as a signal to orient a different meaning of the sentences For example:

read a very good book last night

An read last night

An read a very good book last night was a very good book

he read a very good book last night

In each case above, the writer starts the message from a different point, that is, to choose a different Theme for the clause And also, the different choice of Theme has contributed to a different meaning What makes these sentences different is that they differ in their choice of

theme and they tell us what An, A very good book, Last night, What An read is going to be about

The Theme may be expressed as follows:

2.3.1 Simple Theme

Simple theme contains only topical theme which expresses the main topic of the clause

Simple theme can be expressed by one constituent which may be a nominal group, adverbial group or prepositional phrase For example:

The man in the wilderness said to me

Very carefully she put him back on his feet again

Tom, Tom, the piper‟s son stole a pig and away did run

When the thematic structure is represented by two or more elements which are explicitly grouped within the clause to form a single constituent of the thematic structure, we call it Thematic equatives This element is typically the Theme but it may function as Rheme

For example:

What the duke gave to my aunt

The one who gave to my aunt that teapot

The way Mary washed her children‟s face

was that teapot was the duke was this

2.3.2 Multiple Themes

From the Theme theory, the first position in the clause is important and the kernel sentence structure may be altered to bring elements to the front of the sentence when the speaker or writer decides where to start the sentence and the beginning of each sentence is its theme In English three possible themes are found: Textual theme (discourse markers and conjunctions); + Interpersonal theme (vocatives); + Topical theme (SVOA elements) And this clause is said to

have multiple Themes

- Textual theme, functioning to relate the meaning of the particular clause to other parts of the text;

- Interpersonal theme, often functioning to code the speaker‟s or writer‟s personal judgement on meaning;

- Topical theme, functioning as the point of orientation for the experiential meanings of the clause;

yes, no, well, oh, now, which signal that a new move is beginning)

- Structural (conjunction: and , or,

nor, either, neither, but, yet, so, then, when, while, before, after, until, because, even, in case… or WH relative: which, who, whose,

when, where, that…)

- Conjunctive: relate the clause to the

preceding text such as that is, for instance; rather; in any case; in fact; in short; actually; and, also, moreover; but, on the other hand; instead; meanwhile, then; likewise; so; if; yet; as to that;

personal name

- modal: any of the model Adjunct

which expresses the speaker‟s judgment regarding to relevance of the message such

as probably, possibly, certainly, perhaps, maybe; usually, sometimes, always; occasionally, generally regularly; of course…;

I think, in my opinion, personally; frankly,

to be honest; honestly; please, kindly; evidently; hopefully; in general; strictly speaking; wisely; to my surprise…

- mood-making: a finite verbal operator

- WH (interrogative or relative)

Table C: Themes and features

(Source: Halliday 1994: 54)

Below are some examples of multiple theme:

Please doctor don‟t give me any more of that nasty medicine modal vocative finite topical

Rheme

Theme

On the other hand maybe on a week day it would be less crowded

conjunctive modal topical

Rheme

textual interpersonal experiential

Theme

2.3.3 Theme in clause complexes

We have known the position of themes in single clauses and now we will have a look at themes in clause complexes, clauses consisting more than one clause Let‟s take the following sentence as an example:

As the universe expanded, the temperature of the radiation decreased

There are two different ways of analysing of the dependent clause and each captures different aspect of what is going on

As the universe expended, the temperature of the radiation decreased

2.3.4 Theme and Mood

The choice of Theme depends on the choice of Mood

2.3.4.1 Theme in declarative clauses:

i) Unmarked Theme - the Theme is conflated with the Subject

E.g:

The two Indians stood waiting

The Indian who was rowing them was working very hard

Of course it's an accident

ii) Marked Theme - In this case, the theme is something other than the subject It may be an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase which function as adjunct in the clause The most marked type of theme is said to be the one functioning as complement

E.g:

Across the bay they found the other boat

And when they got down there you find he hasn't actually got any

What she had felt he never knew

2.3.4.2 Theme in interrogative clauses

In an interrogative clause the natural theme of a question is 'what I want to know'

- Polarity (yes/no) questions: unmarked theme = finite + subject (What the speaker wants

to know is the polarity „yes or no?‟) Normally, the first word (finite operator) of verbal group together with nominal group functions as subject

E.g:

Are you interested in syntax?

Would you like a cup of tea?

By the way, were you serious about moving to London?

- Wh-questions: unmarked Theme = Wh-word (What the speaker wants to know is the identity of some element in the content.) Nominal group, adverbial group or prepositional phrase functions as interrogative (WH-) element

E.g:

What are you doing here?

Where has my little dog gone?

How many miles to Boston?

Marked Theme choices are relatively rare with questions, please see the following sentence

After the party, where did you go?

2.3.4.3 Theme in imperative clauses

In an imperative clause, the basic message is 'I want you to do something' The imperative

is the only type of clause in which the Predicator (the verb) is regularly found as Theme Verbal group functions as Predicator, plus preceding don't if negative

E.g:

Wake me up before the coffee break

Don't disturb me while I'm taking a nap

Let's have a look at recipe (let's, plus preceding don't if negative)

2.4 Cohesion

The concept of cohesion is a semantic one which refers to relations of meaning that exist

within the text, and that define it as a text Cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some elements in the discourse is dependent on that of another The one presupposes the other, in the sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by resource to it When this happens, a relation

of cohesion is set up, and the two elements, the presupposing and the presupposed, are thereby at least potentially integrated to a text

Cohesion is expressed partly through the grammar and partly through vocabulary We can refer therefore to grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion

2.4.1 Grammatical cohesion

Grammatical cohesion refers to the structural content In Cohesion in English, M.A.K

Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan identify five general categories of cohesive devices that create coherence in texts: reference, ellipsis, substitution, lexical cohesion, and conjunction

2.4.1.1 Reference

Reference expresses the relationship of identity which exists between units in discourse

There are four main types of reference: (1) anaphoric, cataphoric, and exophoric reference; (2) personal reference; (3) demonstrative reference; and (4) comparative reference

Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition

For example:

A man was walking on the street He seemed to be looking for something

Cataphoric reference is the opposite of anaphora: a reference forward as opposed to backward in the discourse Something is introduced in the abstract before it is identified For example:

"Here he comes, our award-winning host it's John Doe!"

Exophoric reference is used to describe generics or abstracts without ever identifying them e.g."everything" The prefix "exo" means "outside", and the persons or events referred to in this manner will never be identified by the writer For example:

The picture has just been painted

Personal reference is reference by mean of function in the speech situation, through the category of person

E.g Mary and Peter are on holiday They have three days off

Demonstrative reference is the reference by mean of location, on a scale of proximity It is expressed through determiners: this/ that; these/ those and adverbs: here / there

E.g Leave that there and come here

Causal conjunctions deal with cause and effect, reason and result Causal conjunctions are

expressed by so, hence, thus, therefore, …

2.4.1.3 Ellipsis

Ellipsis is an omission of certain elements from a sentence or clause and can only be

recovered by referring to an element in the preceding text Like substitution, there are 3 kinds of ellipsis: nominal, verbal and clausal ellipsis

E.g1: A: I think you are right

B: I am sure I am (right)

E.g2: A: Lan has gone to Ho Chi Minh city this morning

B: Has she? She didn‟t tell me ( that she had gone to Ho Chi Minh)

2.4.1.4 Substitution:

Substitution is a process of replacing one item with another within a text Halliday and

Hassan (1976:88) also states that “substitution is the relation between linguistic items, such as

words or phrases and in terms of linguistic level, it is a relation on the lexico-grammatical level,

the level of grammar and vocabulary”

E.g.: A: What ice-cream would you like?

B: I would like the pink one

i) Nominal substitution

Nominal substitution is the use of a substitute word to replace the Head of a corresponding nominal group The noun functioning as the Head is always countable such as one, ones, and same

E.g There are 3 books on the table Which one do you like to borrow?

ii) Verbal substitution

Verbal substitution in English is „do‟ This operates as Head of a verbal group, in the place

that is occupied by the lexical verb and its position is always final in the group

E.g …the words did not come the same as they do

iii) Clausal substitution

In this substitution what is presupposed is not an element within the clause but an entire

clause The linguistic items used as substitutes in English are so and not

E.g A: She is a lovely girl

It refers to words that are repeated in a text This includes words which are inflected for tense

or number and words which are derived from particular items

Example: Algy met a bear The bear was bulgy

The lexical item which contributes to cohesion here is of course the word 'bear' (not Algy and bulgy)

I‟m just not one of those blokes that find approaching women easy The book assumes all men are confident, or that if they really like a girl, they‟ll overcome their shyness The opposite is true

Couple: Jen and Stuart

2.4.2.6 Collocation

Collocation describes associations between vocabulary items which have tendency to co-occur, such as combination of adjectives and nouns; verb and nouns

CHAPTER III : THE MEANING AND STRUCTURE OF THE STORY

“THE SELFISH GIANT”

Halliday‟s (1994) An introduction to functional grammar, Halliday and Hasan‟s (1997) Cohesion

in English

The analysis will proceed from the context of the chosen text, clauses and clauses complexes, the transitivity pattern, the mood pattern, the theme-rheme pattern, the grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion to a summary of the context of situation of the text in terms of the three contextual parameters: field, tenor, and mode

2 The chosen text

The chosen text is taken from the English coursebook: English – American Literature used by English department – ULIS - VNU published in 2000 The title of the story is “ The selfish Giant” It was written by Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer and poet, who admired unselfishness, kindness and generosity and despised egoism and greed His perspective is well reflected in the story “The selfish Giant” The story is used to develop reading and help third- year -students of English at ULIS – VNU to understand more about English literature Time allowance for the text is 90 minutes

3 Clauses and clause complex analysis

The text consists of 262 clauses which make up 90 clause complexes The clauses in the clause complexes are in both paratactic relation and hypotactic relation Their semantic relations are of elaboration, extension, and enhancement Twenty clause complexes (III, V, X, XVII) are

of quoting and quoted characterising the dialogic portion of the text The problem here is one clause complex not only contains one kind of relation but also two kinds or even more

For clauses and clause complexes and the relationship between clauses in details, see appendix 1

and 2

4 The analysis of the text in terms of Transitivity, Mood and Theme

Due to the page limitation of a minor M.A thesis, the analysis of the text in terms of transitivity, mood and theme will not be presented here For more details, see appendix 7

4.1 The transitivity pattern of the text

The text is a narrative about a selfish Giant who has a very beautiful garden The children like to play there among the trees and flowers And then the selfish Giant, returning from a long holiday, drives out the children He does not want to share his garden with others Therefore, it is always winter in his garden and the Giant feels so lonely in that cold white weather But one day, the appearance of the children, especially a little boy helps the Giant to realize the value of sharing, love and friendship

Through the transitivity analysis of the text, we can have deeper and more details of the story‟s

content

In terms of transitivity, of 262 clauses, 105 are material process (were coming in 1, go in 2, play

in 3, broke out in 7, bore in 8, came in 15, visit in 16, return in 22, arrived in 23, ran in 27, built

in 33, put in 34, wander in 41, slipped in 55, roared in 68, blew in 69, rattled in 38, dressed in

77, jumped in 43, crept in 113, covered in 119 and etc.) They are all used to describe the

physical actions of main characters Material process is a good choice to demonstrate what the

Giant had done to prevent the children from playing in his garden (built the wall, put up a notice board, etc.) and the reaction of the children before the Giant‟s prohibition (ran away, came running back, wander round the wall, play on the road, crept in etc.) and the what the Giant had done when he saw the little boy (crept downstairs; open the front door; went out into the garden; stole up behind him; took him gently in his hand; put him up into the tree; took the axe; knocked down the wall) and the actions of the natural phenomenon in his garden during cold winter (slipped back, went off to sleep, roared, rattled, broke, blew, covered, ran round and etc.)

Relational process is represented via verbs in 54 clauses as follows (was in 4, 6, 21, 35,39, 54,

78, 100,116,117 and etc; is in 28, 70, 80, 89, 91, 259; had in 36 ; have in 118, were 18,44,47,48,58, sounded in 95; must be in 97 etc.) showing the state of being of the trees,

flowers, grass and the children or possession of the actors, the Giant and the children The perception, affection and cognition of the Giant and the children in the story are thoroughly

shown in 34 mental clauses (saw in 24, 53, understand in 30, did not like in 40, forgotten in 59,

heard in 94, thought in 96, see in 101,111,115, know in 144, found in 179 and etc.) Moreover,

communicative activities between characters in the story are well represented in 31 verbal

clauses (cried in 14, 26, 60, said in 19, 29, 45,71 , talk in 43, ask in 72 and etc.) There are 25

clauses showing their behaviours (sat in 9, sang in 10,166, listen in 12, sing in 49, sleep in 56,

sat in 82, 213, danced in 92, dancing in 103, look out in 110, laughing in 124, crying in 132,

watched in 214) and 13 clauses denoting their existence (stood in 5; was in 6, 116, 229, were in

47, 50, 243; will be in 85; standing in 128; hung down in 232 )

The result found is understandable as it helps serve the meaning of the story and the purpose of the author Here, material process is used most to express the outer experience of the characters

or in other words the characters use actions to denote their feeling and thought The Giant used actions to stop the children from playing in his beautiful garden and then used actions to show his love to the little boy and the children The children used actions to show their fear when they

saw the Giant, to express their happiness when they were in the garden The Snow, the Hail, the

Frost and the North Wind used actions to show their power during winter This partly explains why the material process is predominant in the story

It can be seen clearly from the analysis that most of the processes are in the simple past tense

(205/262) characterising the actions that occured in chronological order (the children used to go;

It was a large lovely garden; the birds sat on the trees; when he arrived, he saw the children; the

children ran away; the garden became winter again ) The present tense (16/26) is used

mainly in direct speech to state the facts about the characters and the phenomenon around them

(e.g My own garden is my own garden; what are you doing here?; this is a delightful spot; he is

too selfish; it is your garden now; we don‟t know; I have many beautiful flowers .) Simple

future is used to show the Giant‟s will, promise (e.g I will allow nobody to play in it but myself;

I hope there will be a change in the weather; I will knock down the wall ) and also the will of the Snow and the Frost (We will live here all the year round)

The circumstantial components in the clauses of the text are mainly of place (in the Giant‟s garden; on the trees; on the road; on the roof; round and round the garden); time (,in the spring time, in the autumn, one day, one morning, now, in the evening, ); direction (to him, to his ears,

through the whole, from the grass, to the Giant, out in to the garden, across the grass, to the

child); means (with her great white cloak, in furs, with frost and snow, with white blossoms.);

accompaniment (with them, with him, with me, with the Giant); Behalf (for the children); frequency (again, every afternoon, every day,once); duration (all day long,, for seven years, for ever and ever, any longer); quality (a fas as he could,, fast, suddenly, bitterly, gently); comparison: (like stars, the best, all); product (into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, into

blossoms,)

The circumstantial components in the clauses of the text are mainly of location (of place and time) This is understandable because the setting where the story took place was in the Giant‟s

garden and his castle and this is a narrative so the story is organized in chronological order

The transitivity pattern of the text is shown in table 3 (see appendix 3)

4.2 The Mood Pattern of the text:

The mood patterns in the text show the relationship between the writer and the readers as

well as between characters themselves From the analysis, it can be seen that personal pronouns

served as subjects are dominant in the text ( they, he, she, it) Personal pronouns in third person

are frequently used in the text to avoid repetition of nouns

Besides, we can also see from the text that three subjects: the Giant, the children and the

special little boy in the clauses of the text are repeated quite a lot in the text (the Giant:18 times; the children: 12 times; the boy/child: 8 times) This account for one of the main characteristics of

the narrative: repetition

The finite elements in the narrative are combined mainly with the simple past tense whereas in the dialogue between characters, variety of tenses are employed such as the simple present tense (is in 7, have in 12, am in 23, are in 64); the present perfect (has forgotten in 59, has come in

107, has gone in 191); the simple future tense ( will allow in 28, there will be in 85 , will knock

down in 147, will live in 61, shall be in 148)

Some modal elements are used in the text 9 clauses contain modality: can, could, must, may,

would Two of them express the writer‟s judgement about the characters‟ inability

to perform the actions (could not in 130 and 212) and one about the ability of the character (could in 115) One of them expresses the characters‟ (as subject) inability to perform the actions (cannot in 79) and one show the characters‟ ability (can in 30) Three of them express the

obligation (must in 72,97 and 192) and one clause shows the possibility to perform an action (may in 247)

As a narrative, 235 of the clauses are in form of declarativewhich is one of the

typical features of a narrative Six of them are in interrogative mood Both of them appear in the dialogue exchanges between characters in the story It‟s the declarative mood that makes the

story easy to follow and coherent The mood pattern of the text is represented in table 4 ( see appendix 4)

4.3.The Theme-Rheme Pattern of the text

The analysis of the text in terms of theme and rheme shows that most of the themes in the text belong to the topical type Of 171 clauses and clause complexes analyzed for theme, 124 have unmarked theme and 47 have marked theme The third personal pronouns are used as theme

in most unmarked type and in these cases, themes are the main characters of the story, namely the Giant, the children, the little boy Circumstances are mainly used as marked theme to express the chrological order of the story (1, 5, 15, 18, 47, 48,74, 88, 93, 113, 115, 126, 128, 173, 181,

182, 200, 207, 219, 225, 233, 235, 242 ) 18 marked ones are in the dialogic portion (V, X, XI,

XVII, XXIII, XXVII, XXXI, XXXIV, XL, LI, LIII …) expressing the logical relations of elaboration and enhancement Proper names, animate nouns and third personal pronouns as theme predominate in the text Using a proper noun at the beginning of the text, then the third person participant reveals the development of the story, and the proper noun somewhere again emphasizes the presence of the main character Moreover, in the story, we can see that Oscar Wilde, a master of the genre of prose writing, frequently used the patterns in Theme and Rheme

to drive his narrative forward Very often, one element of the rheme of one clause is used as the theme of the subsequent clause or sentence In the following example, we can see how Wilde introduces the word „tree‟ as new information in one sentence and then immediately picks it up and uses it as Theme in the following sentence

….the Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put

him up into the tree And the tree broke at once into blossom

114 clause complexes contain textual theme (I, III, IV, VII, XII, XV, XVI, XVIII, XXIV, XXVI, XXVIII, XXIX, XXX …) What is interesting here is that although there are dialogue portions in the text, there is only one interpersonal theme in the text (LXXIX) This suggests that the text may

be written to be read or told

The Theme- Rheme pattern of the text can be represented in table 5 (see appendix 5.)

5 The cohesion of the text

5.1 Grammatical cohesion:

According to Halliday and Hasan (1997), there are four main types of grammatical cohesive devices: reference, ellipsis, substitution, and conjunction It can be seen from the text that almost all of grammatical cohesive device types do exist in this text except for ellipsis It is worth noting that there are a number of different types of reference such as anaphoric, cataphoric, exophoric, personal reference, and demonstrative reference, which will be presented

in Table 6 (see appendix 6) Conjunctive devices can be found quite a lot and they are analyzed

in different categories such as additive, adversative, causal, durative and temporal However, there is only one clause contains ellipsis

5.1.1 Reference

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), there are three main kinds of reference: personal reference, demonstrative reference, and comparative reference Of which, the two first contain anaphoric reference, cataphoric and exophoric one The table in appendix 6 shows a great deal of all grammatical cohesive devices found in the text The first column represents the cohesive devices, the second one is about interpretative source, the third gives the phoric status

of the tie and chain relation (the address of all the preceding members in the chain) is presented

in the last column ( See appendix 6)

It is obvious that though the text consists of 262 clauses, there are 270 phenomena of reference, of which 254 are anaphoric reference showing backward relationship, two are cataphoric showing foreward relationship, the last is exophoric reference representing the entities that are first mentioned 270 cohesive devices are employed and each clause includes at most two ties whether anaphoric and cataphoric or anaphoric and exophoric This suggests that the text is highly cohesive

As can be seen clearly that personal reference is predominant in the text 160/270 refering to main characters - the Giant, the children and the little boy and the last are for demonstrative reference The grammatical cohesive devices of the text can be displayed as follows:

Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in

R.P R.D

the Giant's garden It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass Here and there

TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

He was a very selfish Giant

R.P

The poor children had now nowhereto play They tried to play on the road, but the road

was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it They used to wander round

come at last," said the Giant; and he jumped out of bed and looked out

5.1.2 Conjunctive Devices:

According to Halliday (1994, p.324), two clauses can constitute a cohesive bond by

using the choice of a conjunctive adjunct (an adverbial group or prepositional phrase), or of one

of a small set of conjunctions, mainly and, but, or, nor, yet, so , then at the beginning of the

clause Below are some kinds of conjuntive devices employed in the text:

devices

Clause (in clause)

As it can be seen from the analysis above, a number of conjunctive devices are used to constitute grammatical cohesion mainly between clauses in clause complexes and partly between clause

complexes Of which conjuntive word “and” is widely in use to show elaborating relation This

is perhaps the most basic way of combining clauses Then “but and so” are of favour to represent

cause in enhancing relation between clauses In order to show the subsequence of the story,

conjunctive devices showing time are employed such as “ then, after that” It is the conjunctive

devices that make the text more cohesive and coherent to follow

5.1.3 Substitution

41 Anyone can understand that

 Any one can understand my own garden is my own garden

5.2 Lexical cohesion

The lexical cohesion is based on Halliday (1976) and Hasan‟s (1984) procedures The analysis of the text focuses on such lexical cohesive ties as repetition, antonym, synonym, meronym, hyponym, and collocation It can be clearly seen from the text that the text has a lot of repetition, which is a very popular in a narrative especially for children withrepetitive, rhythmic and patterned language This characteristic makes this short story easy to memorize The details will be presented as follows

Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in

COL

the Giant's garden It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass Here and there

over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in

REP COL/SYN/ MER

the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore

COL/SYN/ MER HYP HYP

rich fruit The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop

their games in order to listen to them "How happy we are here!" they cried to each other

ANT

One day the Giant came back He had been to visit his friend the Cornish ogre, and had

COL REP

stayed with him for seven years After the seven years were over, he had said all that he

TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

He was a very selfish Giant

The poor children had now nowhereto play They tried to play on the road, but the road

was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it They used to wander round

the high wall when their lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside

"How happy we were there," they said to each other

Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds

Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter The birds did not care to sing

in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom Once a beautiful flower

put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the

children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep The only people

REP

who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost "Spring has forgotten this garden," they

cried, "so we will live here all the year round." The Snow covered up the grass with her

COL

great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver Then they invited the North

MER HYP REP HYP

Wind to stay with them, and he came He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day

MER COL

about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down "This is a delightful spot," he said,

"we must ask the Hail on a visit." So the Hail came Every day for three hours he rattled

But the Spring never came, nor the Summer The Autumn gave golden fruit to every

garden, but to the Giant's garden she gave none "He is too selfish," she said So it was

REP

always Winter there, and the North Wind, and the Hail, and the Frost, and the Snow

danced about through the trees