A study on projection and its realization in President Barack Obama’s speech at a campaign event in Las Vegas

A study on projection and its realization in President Barack Obama’s speech at a campaign event in Las Vegas Trần Hồng Vân Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English L

A study on projection and its realization in President Barack Obama’s speech at a campaign

event in Las Vegas

Trần Hồng Vân

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ

Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Prof.Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Năm bảo vệ: 2013

Abstract The thesis attempts to investigate one of the two logico-semantic relations in

clause complexes – projection from the viewpoint of systemic functional grammar and its realization in President Barack Obama’s speech at a campaign event in Las Vegas on October 24th, 2011 In chapter 1, the author provides an overview of systemic functional grammar, the metafunctions of language according to Halliday’s view, the clause complex and the relationship between its clauses Chapter 2 investigates projection relations in English which consists of level of projection, mode of projection and speech function of projection Basing on the basic understanding of projection, in chapter 3, the author analyzes the projection relations of clause complexes in President Obama’s speech Through the analysis, the underlying meaning of the speech can be revealed The last part recapitulates the results of the study, presents the implications

and makes some suggestions for further research

Keywords Tiếng Anh; Phóng chiếu; Phóng chiếu; Cú pháp

Content

1 Rationale of the study

Language is the central study of linguistics It is a system of communication that is made

of speech or writing It emphasizes the “arrangement of sounds or written representation into

larger units, e.g morphemes, words, sentences, utterances” (Richards et al., 1992) This arrangement is known as grammar Crystal (2004) emphasizes the importance of grammar in a

language It is as important as the skeleton, the heartbeat, the nervous system and the intelligence

of a language, because without grammar, there can be no meaningful or effective communication (Crystal, 2004) Grammar is the foundation for people to express themselves If people can understand the way grammar works, they are sure to be able to use a language effectively Hence, grammar is not only important for teachers or students, but it has a particular significance for anyone who wants to master a language (Crystal, 2004) Knowing the importance of grammar, many scholars are engrossed in studying it The linguistics history has seen many trends of grammar with their advantages and disadvantages such as traditional grammar,

most popular trend of grammar is functional grammar that is developed by Halliday and some other linguists such as Hassan, Morley, Bloor, etc While other trends of grammar focuses on the rules of wordings, functional grammar is concerned with the meaning and functions of a language

In Vietnam, functional grammar is studied by such grammarians as Cao Xuân Hạo (1991)

with Tiếng Việt: Sơ thảo Ngữ pháp chức năng and Hoàng Văn Vân (2005) with Ngữ pháp kinh

nghiệm của cú tiếng Việt: Mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống

In Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, students have a chance to take an approach to functional grammar to discover new features of this innovative trend of grammar For the author, what attracts her the most is projection That is the reason why she chooses to analyze the realization of projection in a speech by President Obama It is expected that the analysis of projection will reveal the underlying meaning of the President’s speech

2 Aim of the study

The aim of the study is to explore how different types of projection are realized in President Obama’s speech at a Campaign Event in Las Vegas In order to achieve this aim, an overview of the key concepts of functional grammar relevant to the study is in need of exploration to provide the theoretical framework for the analysis

3 Research question

With such an aim as mentioned, the following question is raised for exploration:

How are projections realized in President Obama’s speech at a Campaign Event in Las Vegas?

4 Scope of the study

In order to make the most convenience for the author, the study only focuses on exploring one of the two subtypes of logico-semantic relations between clauses: projection The text chosen for analysis is President Obama’s speech at a Campaign Event in Las Vegas on October

24th, 2011

5 Methods of the study

This study uses two main methods: descriptive method and analytical method The descriptive method is used to re-examine the basic notions of systemic functional grammar and,

in particular, the notion of projection in the clause complex The analytical method, on the other hand, is employed to analyze President Obama’s speech to reveal the different logico-semantic meanings of the text

6 Design of the study

The study is divided into 3 parts:

Part A – Introduction – presents the rationale, the aim, the research questions, the scope, the methods and the design of the study

Part B – Development – consists of 2 chapters Chapter 1 – Theoretical background presents the overview of systemic functional grammar and the notions of clause complex and projection Chapter 2, the main chapter of the thesis, explores the realization of projections in President Barack Obama’s speech at a Campaign Event in Las Vegas

Part C – Conclusion – recapitulates the results of the study In this part, the author reviews such concepts as systemic functional grammar, metafunctions of language, clause complex and two logico-semantic relations in clause complex More importantly, the analysis of President Obama’s speech in terms of projection is summarized in part C This last part also makes some implications for teaching and learning English and some suggestions for further study

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