The structure and meaning of president nguyen minh triet’s speech addressed on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the foundation of thang long

CHAPTER 3: THE MEANING AND STRUCTURE OF PRESIDENT 19NGUYEN MINH TRIET’S SPEECH ON THE OCCASION OF 1000 TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THANG LONG – HANOI 3.1.. Forthose reasons, I ha

This study presents an attempt to apply systemic functional grammar to investigating apolitical speech addressed by President Nguyen Minh Triet on the occasion of the 1000thanniversary of the foundation of Thang Long – Hanoi Based on a brief overview of systemicfunctional grammar introduced by Halliday, the study focuses on language functions(ideational metafunction, interpersonal metafunction, and textual metafunction) which arerepresented via transitivity pattern, mood pattern and theme - rheme pattern, and on cohesion(grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion) of the text The findings show that in terms oftransitivity pattern, relational process is predominant, in terms of mood pattern, declarativemood is in the widest use and topical theme which forms unmarked one is the most strikingfeature in terms of theme pattern Moreover, grammatical cohesion represented by referenceand conjunctive devices and lexical cohesion shown via repetition, synonyms, meronyms andhyponyms make the text more cohesive and coherent The analysis proves that systemicfunctional grammar is the smartest choice for those whose concern is for structure andmeaning of a particular text

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……… i

ABSTRACT …… ……… ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… iii

LIST OF MARKERS AND ABBREVIATIONS ……… ……… iv

LIST OF TABLES ……… v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……….……… 1

1.1 Rationale of the Study ……… 2

1.2 Aims of the Study ……… 2

1.3 Scopes of the Study ……… 2

1.4 Method of the Study … ……… 2

1.5 Data Collection ……… 2

1.6 Design of the Study … ……… 3

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ……… 4

2.1 Introduction ……… ………….…… 4

2.2 The Linguistic System ……… 4

2.3 Metafunctions ……… ………….…… 5

2.3.1 Ideational Metafunction ……… 5

2.3.2 Interpersonal Metafunction ……… 9

2.3.3 Textual Metafunction …….……… 10

2.4 Cohesion ……… 12

2.4.1 Concept of Cohesion ……….……… 12

2.4.2 Types of Cohesion ……… …… 12

2.4.2.1 Grammatical Cohesion …… ……… 12

2.4.2.2 Lexical Cohesion ……… …… 15

2.5 Concluding Remarks ……… 18

III CHAPTER 3: THE MEANING AND STRUCTURE OF PRESIDENT 19

NGUYEN MINH TRIET’S SPEECH ON THE OCCASION OF 1000 TH

ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THANG LONG – HANOI

3.1 Introduction ……… 19

3.2 The Context of the Chosen Text ……… 20

3.3 Contextual Configuration of the Text ……… 20

3.4 Clauses and Clause Complexes ……… 22

3.5 The Analysis of the text in terms of Transitivity, Mood and Theme ……… 27

3.5.1 The Transitivity Pattern ……… 27

3.5.2 The Mood Pattern ……… 32

3.5.3 The Theme – Rheme Pattern ……… 36

3.6 The Cohesion of the Text ……… 40

3.6.1 Grammatical Cohesion ……… 41

3.6.2 Lexical Cohesion ……… 43

3.7 Structure of the Text ……… 45

IV CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION ……… 48

4.1 Recapitulation ……… 48

4.2 Implications for the Study ……… 49

4.3 Suggestions for Further Study ……… 49

REFERENCES ……… ……… 50

LIST OF MARKERS AND ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Types of Circumstances ………

Table 2: Clause and Clause Complexes ………

Table 3: Transitivity Pattern of the Text ………

Table 4: Mood Pattern of the Text ………

Table 5: Theme–Rheme Pattern of the Text….………

Table 6: Grammatical Cohesive Devices of the Text …… ………

Table 7: Conjunctive Devices of the Text ………

Table 8: Lexical Devices Summary ………

9

22 28 33 37 40 42 43

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION1.1 Rationale of the Study

The more modern society is, the more complex language has become It has evolved to satisfyhuman needs, and the way it is organized is functional with respect to these needs Animportant move in linguistics in recent years has introduced a new model and method ofdescription of language known as Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in which everythingcan be explained, ultimately, by reference to how language is used Different from formalgrammar which focuses on written language and deals with rules of correct usage rather thanwith meaning and context of the text, functional grammar centers on both written and spokenlanguage and emphasize how linguistic structures express meaning and views language as acommunicative resource, not as grammatical rules It is considered “an effective tool ofanalysis, which solves the issues left out by traditional grammar” as it helps understand humanlanguage more deeply

With its own benefits, SFG has been thoroughly investigated by many well-known linguistsworldwide such as M.A.K Halliday (1994), G.Thompson (1996), C.M.I Mathiessen (1997),etc In Vietnam, though it has received considerable attention, there has not much research on

this except Cao Xuân Hạo with the work “Tiếng Việt – Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức năng” (1991), and the work “Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú Tiếng Việt mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống” by Hoàng Văn Vân (2002) and some other researches on other aspects like “Thematic structure in Vietnamese” by Đỗ Tuấn Minh and “Bàn thêm về phạm trù thức trong Tiếng Anh

và tiếng Việt (theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống)” by Trần Hữu Mạnh, etc The reason is that

SFG is still new in Vietnam Thus, an investigation into Vietnamese from systemic functionalperspective seems a hard and time - taking work for not only linguists but researchers as well.However, those studies have made great contributions to the development of functionalgrammar in Vietnam and inspired me to choose this grammar model as the theoreticalframework for my MA thesis Furthermore, I myself find SFG really useful and interesting as

it provides us an analytic tool to examine the logico-semantic relations that structure a textthoroughly and comprehensively Moreover, I would like to try myself in a new but excitinglinguistic field, analyzing a Vietnamese text – its structure and meaning from systemicfunctional perspective to see how the findings can help my understanding of Vietnamese Forthose reasons, I have decided to choose SFG as the field of my study and take “The meaningand structure of President Nguyen Minh Triet’s speech addressed on the occasion of the 1000thanniversary of the foundation of Thang Long – Hanoi: A systemic functional analysis” as atext for my thesis, using Halliday’s functional grammar as a theoretical framework.

1.2 Aims of the Study

Within the framework of a minor thesis, the study aims at:

 Examining some basic notions related to the meatafunctions of language: experiential, interpersonal and textual metafunction

 Analyzing the meaning and structure of President Nguyen Minh Triet’s speech addressed

on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the foundation of Thang Long – Hanoi based on thesystemic functional framework

 Suggesting some pedagogical implications

1.3 Scope of the Study

As a minor thesis, not all aspects of functional grammar are explored but only some of themsuch as linguistic system, metafunctions and cohesion The focus of the study, however, doesnot lie in the theoretical findings but hopefully, on this fundamental theory, will enlighten thepolitical text analysis

1.4 Methods of the Study

With a view to analyzing the meaning and structure of a Vietnamese text, descriptive andanalytical methods are used The former is concerned with the description of the main areas offunctional grammar and the latter deals with the analysis of the text for discussion

1.5 Data collection

The text is transcribed from the speech addressed by President Nguyen Minh Triet on theoccasion of the 1000th anniversary of the foundation of Thang Long, Ha Noi on 10th October2010

1.6 Design of the Study

This thesis is divided into four chapters as follows:

 Chapter one – Introduction – presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the study,

scope of the study, methods of the study, data collection, and the research design

 Chapter two – Theoretical Background – supplies some fundamental and theoretical

concepts for the study: linguistic system, metafunctions and cohesion analysis

 Chapter three – The Analysis of President Nguyen Minh Triet’s speech addressed on the occasion of the 1000 th anniversary of the foundation of Thang Long - Hanoi – focuses on its

meaning and structure

 Chapter four – Conclusion – summarizes the results of the study and offers some

suggestions for teaching and learning as well as for further studies

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDS2.1 Introduction

This chapter will re-examine some basic concepts that are considered to set the theoreticalorientation for the study: the linguistic system, metafunctions and cohesion Examples aretaken from grammar books by such famous linguists as Halliday (1985, 1994), Geoff Thomson(1996), Hoàng Văn Vân (2002, 2005 & 2006), and other researchers like Đỗ Tuấn Minh

(2006), Thái Minh Đức (2004), etc

2.2 The linguistic system

Language is viewed as systems of meaning potential in human interaction that are realized byvarious structures formed in certain contexts which are studied under register In systemicgrammar, register is conceptualized in terms of three parameters: field, tenor and mode

- Filed of discourse refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is

taking place: what is it that the participants are engaged in, in which the language figures as someessential components?

- Tenor of discourse refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants, their

statuses and roles: what kind of role relationships of one kind or another, both the types of speechrole that they are taking on in the dialogue and the whole cluster of socially significant relationships

in which they are involved?

- Mode of discourse refers to what part the language is playing, what it is that the

participants are expecting the language to do for them in that situation: the symbolic organization ofthe text, the status that it has, and its function in the context, including the channel (is it spoken orwritten or some combination of the two?) and also the rhetorical mode, what is being achieved by thetext in terms of such categories as persuasive, expository, didactic and the like

(Halliday in Halliday & Hassan, 1989:12)

These three variables are deemed to be the only aspects of the context of situation of a text thatare linguistically relevant to accomplish a particular social goal It will be embedded in the text

by being realized in the semantic and grammatical structures of the text

2.3 Metafunctions

From the sociological point of view, Halliday (1970, 1985) developed a theory of thefundamental functions of language into three broad metafunctions: ideational, interpersonaland textual Each functional component corresponds to each parameter register as the workinghypothesis: field - ideational; tenor - interpersonal; mode - textual

2.3.1 Ideational Metafunction

Language is used to organize, understand and express our perceptions of the world and our

consciousness It is the means of representing reality and known as the ideational function It

consists of experiential meanings and logical meanings (Halliday, 1994: 179) The experientialfunction is concerned with contents or ideas whereas the logical function is about therelationship between ideas

2.3.1.1 Process types

Experiential meanings are realized through the system of transitivity that, according toHalliday (1994), construes the world of experience into a manageable set of process types.Like English, Vietnamese transitivity systems are composed by six types: Material Process,Mental Process, Verbal Process, Behavioral Process, Relational Process, and Exitential Process(for more detailed discussion of the Process types in Vietnamese, see Hoàng Văn Vân (2002,2005))

Material Process is the process of doing or happening There is an obligatory participant, the Actor, which is the doer of the action and an optional participant named Goal or Range Sometimes a material clause in Vietnamese may optionally specify a Recipient (the one to whom something is given) or a Client (the one for whom something is done) In Vietnamese,

the Recipient (realized by a nominal group) precedes the Goal; the Client may either precede

the Goal or occur in the final position of the clause, marked with a preposition “cho” They are represented via such kinds of Vietnamese verbs as “bay đi, hoàn thành, nấu, chơi, etc.”

Followings are some examples referring to Material process:

(1a)

(1c)

Actor Aspectual marker Process: material Range

Mental process is the process of cognition, perception, affection and desideration There are

always two participants in this process: the conscious one called the Senser and the Phenomenon that enters into or impinges on the Senser’s consciousness Those verbs as

“thích, muốn, yêu, căm ghét, sợ hãi, etc.” help indicate this type of process Here is an

example:

(2)

Verbal Process is the process of saying, speaking or talking The participants taking part in

this process are often the Sayer (any conscious or unconscious participant responsible for the act of saying), the Receiver (the one to whom the saying is addressed), the Target (the one that the verbalization is directed to) and the Verbiage (the message itself) This process is often

represented by “hỏi, chúc mừng, nói, kể, tuyên án, kết tội, etc.” in Vietnamese For examples:

Sayer Process: verbal Target

Behavioral Process, which is on the borderline between mental and material process, is the

process of physiological and psychological behavior Traditionally, there is usually one

obligatory participant referred to as Behaver and in some Vietnamese cases, exists

unnecessary participant known as the Phenomenon which is not a restatement of the process.

Notably, there are some kinds of Vietnamese verbs making this type of process somehow

confusing with mental process For instance, “nhìn, nghe, tìm, mơ, sờ, ngửi, etc.” are often

mentioned to represent behavioral process whereas “nhìn thấy, nghe thấy, tìm thấy, sờ thấy,

ngửi thấy, etc.” belong to mental process Here are some illustrations:

(4a)

Behaver Process: behavioral Circumstance: Extent: Duration

(4b)

Relational Process is the process of being, having and being at It comes under three subtypes:

intensive, circumstantial, and possessive Each of these carries one of the two modes:

attributive and identifying Verbs like “trở nên, phát triển, giữ, nhìn, trông, nom, cảm thấy,

etc.” belong to attributive process and “làm, đóng vai, chiếm, kéo dài, gọi, đặt tên, giống, etc.”

represent identifying process

in which the verb represents the process is implied so the adjectival phrase carries out the role

of both process and attribute Two participants

Identified (the one is identified) and Identifier

identifying process) For instance:

participate in the identifying mode are

(the one enters into or impinges in the

(5a)

Identified / Token Process: Relational Identifier /Value

(5c)

Existential Process is the process of existing They have only one participant, called the

Existent and one or two circumstantial elements This process is often shown by Vietnamese

verbs like “treo, ngồi, nổi lên, đặt, mọc, xuất hiện, xảy ra, đính, có, còn, etc.” For example:

(6)

Circumstance: place Process: Relational Existent

2.3.1.2 Circumstances:

Besides the participants, circumstances may be freely accompanied by circumstantial elementstypically realized by adverbial groups, prepositional phrases and nominal groups Theyessentially encode the background against which the process takes place According to HoàngVăn Vân (2002: 340), there are 8 types of circumstances as follows:

Order Type Subtypes Examples

3 Manner Means, quality, Thông qua đối thoại, thắm thiết, riêng,

comparison chung, giọng rất lạnh…

4 Cause Reason, purpose, behalf Cho tổ quốc thân yêu, vì nhân dân, …

5 Accompaniment Comitation, addition Với cậu, mang theo giấy tờ tùy

thân…

6 Role Guise, product Như một người bạn, thành hai phần

bằng nhau……

Table 1: Types of Circumstances

For examples:

(7a)

Actor Process: material Circumstance: direction Circumstance: Accompaniment

Circumstance: cause: behalf Process: mental Phenomenon

2.3.2 Interpersonal Metafunction

The speaker is using language as the means of his own intrusion into the speech event: theexpression of his comments, attitudes and evaluations, and also of the relationship that he sets

up between himself and the listeners - in particular, the communication role that he adopts of

informing, questioning, greeting, persuading, and the like (Halliday, 1994: 71)

Mood and Residue, two components of a clause, are often used to express the interpersonal

function The Mood shows what role the speaker selects in the speech situation and what role

he assigns to the addressee The Residue is “the remainder of the clause” (Halliday, 1994:

74) which consists of three functional elements: Predicator, Complement and Adjunct.

Quite different from mood structure in English, Vietnamese mood structure, according to Thái

Minh Đức (2004: 441), “consists of two functional components: Negotiatory elements which have the function of carrying the argument forward and the Remainder, which can be left out when the argument is in progress.” Hoàng Văn Vân (2009) indicates that the Negotiatory

elements (equivalent to Mood in English) consist of the Predicator and the Negotiator

including polar interrogative particles (phải không, có phải…… không, sao / hay sao, chứ);

elemental interrogative items (khi nào, tại sao, ai, ở đâu); imperative

particles (hãy, đi, nghe, nhé) and aspectual particles (đã, đang, rồi, chưa) The Remainder

consists of Subject, Complement, and Adjunct like Residue in English Here are someillustrations:

Negotiator Subject Predicator Complement Adjunct Negotiator

‘relevance’ or the enabling function As a message structure, a clause consists of a Theme

accompanied by a Rheme The Theme is the element which serves as the point of departure

of the message, and the Rheme is the part from which the Theme is developed.

The Theme may be realized by a nominal group, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial group or

even a clause in predicated theme It may be single or multiple, marked or unmarked A

theme is single when the thematic element is represented by just one constituent – a nominalgroup, an adverbial group, or a prepositional phrase On the contrary, it is multiple when it has

a further internal structure of its own

There exist three types of theme: topical theme, textual theme and interpersonal one Topical theme is the one that is conflated with an experiential element of the clause; it may be participant, circumstance or process Textual theme shows the meaning relevant to the

context, both the co-text and context of situation It can be (i) continuity adjuncts

(continuatives) like “ồ, vâng, được, dầu sao đi nữa, thế thì, thôi được, hừm, nào, này, thế, etc.”

(ii) structural adjuncts (Structurals) and (iii) conjunctive adjuncts (Conjunctives) such as

“sau đó, chẳng bao lâu, tương tự, vì vậy, trong hoàn cảnh đó, tuy vậy, thêm vào đó, tựu trung

lại, etc.” Interpersonal theme is expressed by such modal adjuncts as “có lẽ, dĩ nhiên, rõ

ràng, thường thường, đôi khi, theo ý kiến của tôi, thật tình mà nói, hãy, đừng, chớ, etc.”

An unmarked theme is one that is usual or typical and it often conflates with the Subject whereas a marked theme is one that is unusual It is often the subject in imperative clauses

and existential clause or “something other than subject” (Halliday, 1994: 44) like compliment,adjunct or even predicate in other types of clauses Followings are some examples to illustratethematic structure in Vietnamese:

(9a)

Mọi người đều cố gắng để công việc hoàn thành kịp thời

(9b) Thế rồi may mắn thay nó gặp lại người bạn cũ

Textual Theme Interpersonal Theme Topical Theme

2.4 Cohesion

2.4.1 The Concept of Cohesion

Cohesion is viewed as a semantic concept referring to the relations of meaning that existwithin the text, and that define it as a text It occurs where the interpretation of some element

in the discourse is dependent on that of another, the one presupposes the other

Actualization of cohesion depends on both selection of some option from systematic resources (reference, ellipsis, substitution, and conjunction) and the presence of some other elements

(repetition, synonym, antonym, meronymy and collocation) which resolves the presuppositionthat this sets up We relatively refer to two types of cohesion: grammatical and lexical whichwill be explained thoroughly in the following parts

2.4.2 Types of Cohesion

2.4.2.1 Grammatical Cohesion

In linguistics, grammar refers to the logical and structural rules that govern the composition ofsentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language Grammatical cohesion refers tothe structural content of a text

previously mentioned information in the text Cataphoric reference refers to any reference that “points forward” to information that will be presented later in the text Exophoric reference refers to any reference within the same nominal group or phrase which follows the

presupposed item For cohesion purposes, anaphoric reference is the most relevant as it

“provides a link with a preceding portion of the text” (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 51); hence it

is the most common usage For examples:

(10 a) Nó khóc suốt đêm Thằng bé nhà Lan đã ốm hai ngày nay rồi.

(cataphoric reference)

(10 b) Nam là một sinh viên giỏi Cậu ấy luôn đứng nhất lớp trong các kì thi.

(anaphoric reference)

Functionally speaking, there are three main types of cohesive references: personal,

demonstrative, and comparative Personal reference keeps track of function through the

speech situation using noun pronouns like “cô ấy, anh ta, chị ấy, bà ta, chúng tôi, etc.” and

possessive determiners like “của tôi, của chúng ta, của mình, etc.” Demonstrative reference

keeps track of information through location using proximity references like “đây, kia, này, khi

đó, etc.” Comparative reference keeps track of identity and similarity through indirect

references using adjectives like “giống, khác, hơn, bằng, etc” For instance:

(11 a) Nam đã lấy vợ Anh ấy có vẻ rất hạnh phúc.

2.4.2.1.2 Substitution

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), substitution is the relation between linguistic items,

such as words or phrases and in terms of linguistic level, it is a relation on the grammatical level, the level of grammar and vocabulary It consists of three subtypes:

lexico-nominal substitution, clausal substitution and verbal substitution However, in Vietnamese,the two formers seem more common

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 cái, con, đứa,

etc Here is an illustration:

(12) Có ba cậu bé đang bơi trên sông Cậu lớn nhất là con bác Ba.

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 However, this

is hardly seen in Vietnamese

Clausal Substitution is the one “in which what is presupposed is not an element within the

clause but an entire clause.” The linguistic items used as substitutes in Vietnamese are “như

vậy, vậy, thế, etc.” For example:

(13) A: Cô ấy xinh đấy chứ!

B: Tôi không nghĩ thế 2.4.2.1.3 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, ellipsis can bestudied in terms of nominal ellipsis, verbal ellipsis and clausal ellipsis

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976: 144)

Nominal Ellipsis occurs within nominal group It is the ellipsis of a Head with optional

modification (premodifier / postmodifier) For example:

(14) A: Ăn bánh nữa không?

B: Không Đây là cái (bánh) thứ ba rồi.

Verbal Ellipsis appears within verbal group An elliptical group presupposes one or more

words from a previous verbal group This hardly takes place in Vietnamese

Clausal Ellipsis takes clause as the point of departure It relates to the question and answer in

a dialogue There may exist Yes / No Ellipsis or Wh – Ellipsis For instance:

(15) A: Này, Nam bay vô Sài Gòn chiều nay rồi.

B: Thật sao? Vậy mà nó chẳng nói cho tao biết (chiều nay nó bay) gì cả.

2.4.2.1.4 Conjunctive Cohesion

Another type of cohesion is conjunction that “constitutes a cohesive bond between twoclauses” (Halliday, 1994: 180) Cohesive conjunction is the logical-semantic organization ofpropositions within a discourse It allows the speaker/ writer to set up relationships betweenideas It is viewed in different ways, however, in this thesis; I would like to put an emphasis onHalliday’s classification: Elaboration, Extension and Enhancement

In elaboration, “one clause elaborates on the meaning of another by further specifying or

describing it” (Halliday, 1994: 225) A clause can be elaborated by apposition (in which some

element is represented or restarted like “ví dụ, chẳng hạn như, nói cách khác….) or by

clarification (in which some element is summarized, reinstated, made more precise or clarified

for purposes of discourse, for example, “thật ra, tóm lại, tựu trung lại, ít nhất, etc.)

In Halliday’s view when “one clause extends the meaning of another by adding something new

to it”, it is called extension It is displayed by (i) addition which consists of positive (thêm vào

đó, và…), adversative (mặt khác, tuy nhiên, nhưng…) and (ii) variation that is made up by

replacive (thay vào đó, trái lại), subtractive (ngoài ra, ngoại trừ), and alternative (thay vào đó).

Halliday (1994) also states that in enhancement, one clause enhances the meaning of another

by “qualifying it in one of a number of possible ways” There are four elements that constitute

enhancement: (i) spatio-temporal (đằng sau, bất cứ nơi đâu, sau đó, tiếp theo, cuối cùng thì, ngay lập tức, lần tới,etc.); (ii) manner (vì thế, theo cách khác, tương tự, mặt khác, etc.); (iii)

causal-conditional (vì vậy, kết quả là, vì lí do đó, vì mục đích đó, trong trường hợp đó, etc); and (iv) matter (đây, đó, theo mặt đó, nơi nào đó, etc.)

2.4.2.2 Lexical Cohesion

Halliday and Hasan (1976) view lexical cohesion as the “phoric” cohesion establishedthrough the structure of the lexis, or vocabulary, and hence (like substitution) at thelexicogrammatical level According to them, reiteration and collocation are two main types oflexical cohesion

2.4.2.2.1 Reiteration

Reiteration includes five subtypes: repetition, synonymy, antonymy, superordinate,meronymy and general word

2.4.2.2.1.1 Repetition

Repetition refers to the same lexical item with the same meaning occuring more than one in

the same discourse (Hoang Van Van, 2006: 81)

E.g: Hôm qua tôi đã gặp cậu bé Cậu bé xem chừng rất thích đi với anh.

2.4.2.2.1.2 Synonymy

Synonymy refers to the relation between different words bearing the same meaning or nearly the same meaning for a particular person, object, process or quality

(Hoang Van Van, 2006: 81)

E.g: - Mời bác xơi cơm ạ!

2.4.2.2.1.3 Antonymy

Antonymy describes opposite or contrastive meaning between two word items

(Hoang Van Van, 2006: 81)

E.g: Nam dạo này béo lên đấy, chẳng bù cho khi trước, nó gầy quá.

2.4.2.2.1.4 Hyponym and co – hyponym

The main idea of hyponymy is “inclusion”; that is, a lower term (hyponym) is included in an

upper term (the superordinate) (Hoang Van Van, 2006: 82)

E.g: Trong số các loại hoa quả bán ở chợ, táo và cam là loại giá rẻ và an toàn nhất.

In the example above, “táo, cam”’ are hyponyms of “hoa quả” and “táo” and “cam” are hyponyms

co-2.4.2.2.1.5 Superordinate and meronymy

Superordinate is known as co-occurence of the same or some higher level of generality.Meronymy is where lexical items are in a “part-whole” relationship with each other.Consequently, the relation between two parts is one of co-meronym

(Hoang Van Van, 2006: 83)

E.g: Cây cam này cành, lá tươi tốt, nhưng chẳng thấy quả đâu cả.

In the example above, “cành, lá” are meronymy of “quả”, “quả” is superordinate of “cành,lá”; “cành” and “lá” are co-meronymys

2.4.2.2.1.6 General word

General word is known as a class of general nouns which have generalised reference withinthe major noun classes, such as “human nouns”: people, person, man, woman, boy; “object

nouns”: thing, object; “place nouns”: place (Hoang Van Van, 2006: 83)

E.g: Lan là một giáo viên nữ rất thành đạt trong hội đồng sư phạm nhà trường.

In this example, “hội đồng sư phạm” is general word for human participant It includes “giáo viên nữ” anaphorically

2.4.2.2.2 Collocation

Collocation is obtained as cohesion that is achieved through the association of lexical items

that regularly co-occur in certain context (Halliday & Hasan, 1976: 319)

According to Hoàng Văn Vân (2006), collocation is made up of three types as follows:

 Resultative collocation refers to the relation of one item leading to the outcome of another item: gió – thổi; đêm – tối; giết – chết…

 Modificational collocation refers to the relation holding between an item and one of its

inherent qualities: mưa – to; gió – lớn; chạy – nhanh…

 Contextual collocation does not represent a cause-effect relation but expectation can bemade between the process and the participant The words concerned are merely nouns and verbs:

giáo viên – dạy / giải thích; học sinh – học tập / nghiên cứu ……

2.5 Concluding Remarks

In this chapter, some fundamental and theoretical concepts relevant to the purpose of thestudy have been discussed They are field, tenor and mode that make up linguistic system andalso three functions of language that serve to express three largely independent sets ofsemantic choice: (i) the transitivity pattern shows representative meaning: what the clause isabout, which is typically some process, with associated participants and circumstance; (ii) themood pattern expresses interpersonal meaning: What the clause is doing as a verbal exchangebetween speaker / writer and audience/ reader; and (iii) the theme pattern represents theorganization of the message: how the clause relates to the surrounding discourse, and to thecontext of situation in which it is being produced Moreover, cohesion concept and types aretaken into consideration in the study so as to provide a brief framework of systemic functionalgrammar for analysis The following chapter focuses on the speech addressed by PresidentNguyen Minh Triet on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the foundation of ThangLong - Hanoi based on the systemic functional approached mentioned before hand

CHAPTER 3 THE MEANING AND STRUCTURE OF PRESIDENT NGUYEN MINH TRIET’S SPEECH ADDRESSED

ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF

THANG LONG - HANOI3.1 Introduction

Systemic functional grammar was originally developed by M.A.K Halliday in the 1960s andhas now come to be recognized as a major force in linguistics It is functional grammarbecause the conceptual framework on which it is based is functional rather than formal as itapproaches the language from a semantic point of view; more precisely, it examines thesemantic functions of the language forms In order to analyze a text in terms of systemicfunctional grammar, it is necessary to view the term “text” from different perspectives

In the most general conception, a text can be “a written or spoken passage.”

(Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, 1990)

A text can be defined as “any written record of a communicative event The event itself involves oral language (for example, a sermon, a casual conversation, a shopping transaction)

or written language (for example, a poem, a newspaper advertisement, a wall poster, a shop list, a novel)”

(D Nunan, 1993: 7-8)

In terms of linguistics, the word text itself is used “to refer to any passage, spoken or written,

of whatever length, that does form a unified whole… It is a unit of language in use It is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence; and it is not defined by its size…… A text is best regarded as a semantic unit.”

(Halliday & Hasan, 1985)

Obviously, the more notions the term “text” carries, the harder it is to obtain With thesedifficulties, in this study, an effort is made to explore the structure and meaning of a politicalspeech as a text The procedures and conventions used in the analysis are based on the

framework of Halliday’s (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar; Halliday and Hasan’s (1985) Language, Text and Context: Aspect of Language in Social-Semiotic Perspective; Halliday & Hasan (1976) Cohesion in English The analysis will be carried out

from the context of the text chosen, the context situation of the text in terms of the threecontextual parameters: field, tenor, mode; clauses and clause complexes analysis; thetransitivity pattern; the mood pattern; the theme - rheme pattern to the grammatical and lexicalcohesion analyses

3.2 The Context of the Chosen Text

The text is the speech addressed by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet on the occasion

of the 1000th anniversary of the foundation of Thang Long - Ha Noi on 10th October 2010.The speaker is President Nguyen Minh Triet, a famous politician, who became the sixthVietnamese President and held this post from June 2006 to July 2011 His speech marked theturning point to Hanoi as it officially celebrated its 1000th anniversary The targeted hearers,

therefore, are firstly all the Vietnamese leaders “Thưa các đồng chí lãnh đạo Đảng, Nhà nước, Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam,” secondly the Vietnamese who made great contributions to Vietnam’s independence “Thưa các đồng chí lão thành cách mạng, các mẹ Việt Nam anh hùng”, thirdly Vietnamese people “Thưa toàn thể đồng bào, đồng chí và chiến sỹ cả nước,”

and lastly all the honored guests However, this speech is to publicize the whole world aboutthe 1000th Thang Long anniversary so the targeted audience is extended to people all over theworld who care about the history as well as the development of Vietnam in general and Hanoi

in particular

It is a Vietnamese text; however it carries its own features in meaning and structure

3.3 Contextual Configuration of the Text

It is undeniable that context is an integral part of language It does not reveal everything but itcan help understand a great deal about the language used According to Halliday (1994),

context consists of three parameters: field, tenor, and mode These features of the text can be shown in the following summary:

3.3.1 Field

Field of discourse refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is takingplace (Hoang Van Van, 2006: 40) In terms of field, the text is a speech written to announcethe Vietnamese in particular and people worldwide in general that Thang Long - Hanoi hasexperienced 1000 years’ development and today is its 1000th anniversary Throughout thetext, many process types are effectively used, predominantly relational process that indicatesthe state of being of Thang Long – Hanoi and material process showing the Vietnamesecontributions to Hanoi’s development Mental and verbal processes are employed to conveyVietnamese people’s emotion and gratitude to people throughout the world Existential andbehavioral processes are rarely used to show the existence of Thang Long - Hanoi So manyparticipants occur in the whole text, mainly identified (13/90); carrier (12/90); actor (10/90);sayer (6/90); senser (5/90); existent (5/90) and behaver (1/90)

3.3.2 Tenor

Tenor is defined by Eggins (1994: 63) as “the social role relationships played by interactants”

In the text above, there exists the relationship between the speaker and the audience Thespeaker, President Nguyen Minh Triet, plays the role as the announcer, using political andformal lexis whereas the audience, the whole Vietnamese and the whole world, act as the oneswho receive President Nguyen Minh Triet’s message Indicative mood is favourable in thewhole text, of which 87 clauses are in declarative mood, 2 clauses are in interrogative mood.There are only two clauses using the aspectual particle “sẽ” showing prediction andVietnamese determination to be friends with other nations all over the world

3.3.3 Mode

The Mode refers to textual meaning or thematic structure of the text In this text, it is a to-face communication, and the speaker uses his own language to summarize the developingprocess of Thang Long – Hanoi from its first foundation up to now and to announce the

face-1000th anniversary of the foundation of Thang Long – Hanoi to the public domestics and

overseas The channel in this text mostly belongs to the auditory one There is a high lexical density with a large number of content words and parataxis and low grammatical intricacy.

3.4 Clause and Clause Complexes Analysis

The analysis of the text into clause and clause complexes and their logico-semantic relations can be presented as follows:

Table 2: Clause and Clause Complexes

Thưa toàn thể đồng bào, đồng chí và chiến sỹ cả nước,

IV (4) Hôm nay, tại Thủ đô yêu dấu, chúng ta long trọng tổ chức Đại lễ kỷ

niệm 1000 năm Thăng Long - Hà Nội

V (5) Thay mặt Đảng, Nhà nước, Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam, tôi thân ái

gửi tới đồng bào, chiến sỹ Thủ đô và cả nước, kiều bào ta ở nướcngoài lời chào mừng nồng nhiệt và lời chúc tốt đẹp nhất

(9) và nguyện cùng các dân tộc trên thế giới phấn đấu cho cuộc sống hòabình của nhân loại, sự phồn vinh của mỗi dân tộc và hạnh phúc củamỗi con người

Thưa các vị khách quý, thưa toàn thể đồng bào, đồng chí!

(11) Cách đây tròn 1000 năm, vào mùa thu năm 1010, tiếp nối sự nghiệp

dời đô từ Hoa Lư về Thăng Long,(13)

mở ra thời kỳ phát triển huy hoàng của kinh đô quốc gia Đại Việt.(14)

Từ mốc son lịch sử đó, đến thời đại Hồ Chí Minh quang vinh, trải

qua 1000 năm với bao biến cố thăng trầm,(15)

Thăng Long - Hà Nội vẫn tư thế vững vàng, khí phách hiên ngang,XI

(16)

xứng đáng là trái tim của cả nước

(17)

để hôm nay cả dân tộc trùng phùng

XII (18) Vào giờ phút thiêng liêng này, toàn thể đồng bào ta từ mọi miền

trong nước và ngoài nước, từ thành thị đến nông thôn, từ núi rừngđến hải đảo, đang hướng về Thủ đô, Ngàn năm Văn hiến

(23) chúng ta trân trọng những đóng góp của cả nước với Thủ đô và

những đóng góp của Thủ đô với cả nước

(29)nơi lắng đọng hào khí Thăng Long, hồn thiêng sông núi,(30)

nơi kết tinh(31)

và tỏa sáng trí tuệ Việt Nam,(32)

tỏa sáng lương tri và phẩm giá con người

như Nguyễn Trãi đã từng khảng khái:

(35)Như nước Đại Việt ta từ trước, vốn xưng nền Văn hiến đã lâu XVIII (36) Núi sông bờ cõi đã chia,

(37)phong tục Bắc - Nam cũng khác(38)

và tuy mạnh yếu có lúc khác nhau,

(39)song hào kiệt đời nào cũng có

(40)Văn hiến là nền tảng(41)

hình thành tinh thần độc lập, tự chủ và chủ quyền bất khả xâm phạm

(45)

và tự hào về Thủ đô Anh hùng – Danh hiệu cao quý mà Đảng, Nhànước và nhân dân ta đã tặng cho Thăng Long - Hà Nội

(46)Đứng giữa Thủ đô huy hoàng trong ngày Đại lễ,XXII

(47)chúng ta thành kính bày tỏ lòng biết ơn vô hạn đối với Tổ tiên và cácthế hệ tiền nhân đã có công khai sáng kinh thành Thăng Long

(48)

Chúng ta thành kính tưởng nhớXXIII

(49) và biết ơn vô hạn Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh vĩ đại, các nhà yêu nước,cách mạng tiền bối, các anh hùng liệt sỹ, các thế hệ công nhân, nôngdân, trí thức, lực lượng vũ trang Hà Nội và cả nước, kiều bào ta ởnước ngoài đã có công xây dựng và bảo vệ Thủ đô

(50)Biết bao trí tuệ, mồ hôi, xương máu của ông cha ta đã đổ vào mỗiXXIV

thửa ruộng, mỗi con đê, mỗi đoạn đường, mỗi góc phố

Suốt mấy ngàn năm, nhân dân ta có bao ngày được ngơi nghỉ?

(55)Bao nhiêu thế hệ cứ tiếp nối nhau,

hiến dâng cho Thủ đô và Tổ quốc cuộc đời mình, cả tuổi trẻ, tình yêu

và hạnh phúc(58)

để bảo vệ từng tấc đất của tổ tiên nguồn cội

XXXI (65) Suốt chiều dài lịch sử, Thăng Long- Hà Nội luôn tiêu biểu cho khát

vọng hòa bình, chủ nghĩa nhân văn, tinh thần nhân đạo và hòa hiếucủa dân tộc Việt Nam

(66) Hồ Hoàn Kiếm gắn với huyền thoại Đức Thái Tổ Lê Lợi trả lại gươmthần sau khi đại thắng quân xâm lược,

XXXII

(67) mãi mãi là hình tượng sống động về tinh thần yêu chuộng hòa bìnhcủa người Thăng Long- Hà Nội- Việt Nam

XXXIII (68) Chúng ta chân thành cám ơn sự thông cảm, ủng hộ và giúp đỡ to lớn

của nhân dân tiến bộ toàn thế giới

(69)Việt Nam, Hà Nội đang và sẽ là bạn,(70)

là đối tác tin cậy của các nước, các thủ đô, các thành phố,XXXIV

(71) góp sức xây dựng cộng đồng khu vực và quốc tế hòa bình, hữu nghị,hợp tác và phát triển

XXXV (72) Kỷ niệm Ngàn năm Thăng Long- Hà Nội là dịp để chúng ta tiếp tục

khẳng định những phẩm chất cao quý và truyền thống tốt đẹp: Vănhiến, anh hùng, hòa bình, hữu nghị của Thủ đô, của đất nước conHồng, cháu Lạc

(73)

Đó cũng chính là lẽ sống,XXXVI

và phát huy lên một tầm cao mới trong thời đại Hồ Chí Minh.

XLI (83)

càng thêm yêu(84)

cả nước và Thủ đô còn nhiều khó khăn, thách thức ở phía trước.(90) Để xứng đáng với Tổ tiên, với lịch sử hào hùng của dân tộc,

(91) toàn thể nhân dân Việt Nam ở trong nước, ngoài nước nguyện đoànkết một lòng,

XLV (92) đem tất cả tinh thần và sức lực, trí tuệ và tài năng,

(93) phấn đấu xây dựng Thủ đô Hà Nội ngày càng văn minh, hiện đại,giàu đẹp,

(94)

sánh vai cùng Thủ đô các nước trên thế giới;

(95) tích cực góp phần xây dựng Tổ quốc Việt Nam xã hội chủ nghĩa, hòa

bình, thống nhất, độc lập, dân chủ và giàu mạnh theo mong ước củaChủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh kính yêu

XIV, XV, XVI, XIX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXIX, XXXII, XXXIV, XXXVI,XXXVIII, and XLIV Notably, there are 6 clause complexes made up by 4 or 7 clausesimplexes: XI, XVII, XVIII, XXVII, XLI, and XLV.

Most of the clauses in the clause complexes are in paratactic relation showing their interdependence Their semantic relations are mainly of extention (VIII; XXI; XXIII; XXV; XXIX; XXXII; XXXIV; XXXVI; and XXXVIII) adding new information to the given one There is only one elaborating relation in XV to further specify Vietnam’s campaign “cả nước

vì thủ đô, thủ đô vì cả nước” Hypotactic relation is represented in 15 clauses such as X, XI,

XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XXII, XXIV, XXVII, XLI, XLIV and XLV torepresent the dependent relationship among clauses in a clause complex The problem here isone clause complex not only contains one kind of relation but also two kinds or even more.Let take clauses numbered XVIII and XLV as examples In those clause complexes,hypotactic and paratactic relations are combined to make the text cohesive and persuasive It

is unusual that in the text appears one full stop between “Hà Nội là một Thủ đô anh hùng của Việt Nam, anh hùng trong chiến đấu và anh hùng trong lao động” and “anh hùng vì độc lập,

tự do của Tổ quốc, anh hùng để mưu cầu hạnh phúc cho nhân dân” suggesting that there are

two clause simplexes in here However, they both represent one semantic structure in thespeaker’s thinking so they make up one clause simplex in my analysis

3.5 The Analysis of the text in terms of Transitivity, Mood and Theme

3.5.1 Transitivity pattern

As can be seen from the tabe below, in terms of transitivity, of 99 clauses, there are 35 of

relational process which is represented via 27 verbs as follows (xứng đáng in 16, 90; thể hiện

in 25, 33; là in 24, 26, 42, 59, 60, 67, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74 &75; hình thành in 41; có in 51, 54 & 76; tỏa sáng in 31 & 32; tiêu biểu in 65; còn in 89) showing the state of being or possession of

Thang Long, Ha Noi Being quite different from English, this kind of process can be shown

through verbless clauses in Vietnamese such as 15, 17, 20, 37, 38, 80 & 86 Material process

is used in 31 clauses (tổ chức in 4, gửi in 5, trân trọng in 8 & 23, tiếp nối in 11, dời in 12, mở

ra in 13, trải qua in 14 & 19, hướng về in 18, gắn bó in 21, tôn vinh in 28, chia in 36, bày tỏ

in 47, đổ in 50, chắn in 52, ngăn in 53, tiếp nối in 55, chiến đấu in 56, hiến dâng in 57, bảo vệ

in 58, khuất phục in 63, góp sức in 71, truyền lại in 77, phát huy in 78, mừng in 87, đem in 92, phấn đấu in 93, sánh vai in 94, xây dựng in 95) They are all used to describe what the