An investigation into relational and verbal processes in the litterature review in view of functional grammar

THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG THÚY AN INVESTIGATION INTO RELATIONAL AND VERBAL PROCESSES IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW IN VIEW OF FUNCT

THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG THÚY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO RELATIONAL AND VERBAL PROCESSES IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW

IN VIEW OF FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

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

The University of Da Nang

Supervisor: NGU THIEN HUNG, Ph.D

Examiner 1: Nguyen Tat Thang, Ph.D

Examiner 2: Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa, Ph.D

The thesis was be orally defended at the Examining Committee Time: 09/09/2017

Venue: University of Foreign Language Studies

-The University of Da Nang

This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at:

Library of University of Foreign Language Studies,

The University of Da Nang.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

A literature review is absolutely common for researchers at any levels The purpose of a literature review is to show readers that the researcher has read, and illustrate a good grasp of the previous published works related to the researcher’s topic or field

In fact, although some reviewers of literature are very high value and achieve good feedbacks, the mainstream of them were boring, poor and not quite academic Conducting and presenting the literature review requires a variety of activities such as reading, interpreting, and analyzing, and synthesizing numerous data or ideas

As we all know, language is as an effective instrument of thought

We need a model of language that assist us to create the meaning of the text and Functional grammar can solve this because Functional grammar views language as a resource of making meaning Therefore, writers can take the advantages of the functional aspects

of language to fullfil their task in presenting an effective literature review of their research work In this sense, Functional grammar can

be considered an effective instrument to view how well the writers build the literature review We can see that Halliday’s Functional Grammar (FG) focuses on the meaning of language or communication and indicates the grammatical patterns of natural language Actually, having insight knowledge about the experiential function can assist writers to serve for the content of their literature reviews and make it easy for readers to understand the writers’ expression Especially, experiential metafunction has six process

types: Material, Relational, Mental, Behavioural, Verbal and Existential with particular functions and special kinds of verbs, which provides writers the most appropriate words to show accurate summary, thinking, comparison and judgment about the previous studies in their own literature reviews

Let’s consider some extracts from a literature review of

“Matching and Stretching Learners’ Learning Styles” published by Journal of Language Teaching and Research

“The education literature suggests that learners who are

actively immersed in the learning process will be more likely to achieve success (Dewar, 1999).”

“In Gagne‟s (1985) view, teaching strategies are conditions

required for the acquisition of knowledge and skill.”

The verb in bold “suggests”, is the verbal process and the underlined “are” is the relational process in terms of experiential

meaning The writer used the verbs to describe the special points of the achievements of previous researchers Therefore, an analysis of processes of experiential representation is a helpful theoretical model for both reviewers and the readers in writing and understanding the literature review

For these reasons above, I make a decision to conduct the

research with the title: An investigation into relational and verbal

processes in the literature review in view of Functional Grammar

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aims

This study aims to examine the relational and verbal processes

in the literature reviews in view of Functional grammar and provide the Vietnamese learners of English practical knowledge concerning

the functional aspects of the linguistic resources in presenting the literature reviews

- To identify the functional aspects of the two processes in the literature review

- To suggest some implications for producing the literature review

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

In the scope of this research I concentrate mainly on analysis

of the relational and verbal processes of the experiential function used in systems and lexico-grammatical structures which is a incredibly significant branch of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar in the literature review in terms of Functional grammar The experiential metafunction about the perception and experience of the world was analyzed in clause as representation in the literature review Besides, analysis of two processes in transitivity system such

as relational and verbal processes containing in the literature review were discovered From the analysis, it is expected that the study would help people to distinguish the distinctive features of relational and verbal processes applied in the literature review and how language represents in the literature review, so that the writers can take advantages of them to improve writing literature review skill However, such Material, Mental, Behavioral Process will not be dealt with and are put beyond the scope of this study

1.5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The study is presented in five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Background Chapter 3: Research Method

Chapter 4: Findings & discussions

Chapter 5: Conclusions & implications

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1.1 Defining Literature review

2.1.2 An Overview of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) 2.1.3 Linguistic Metafunctions

2.1.4 The Grammar of Experiential Meaning

2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Up to now, many researchers have been done on the meaning

of the clause as representation:

Eggins' An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics (2004) introduces readers to the major concepts, principles and techniques of the systemic functional approach to language It provides an overview of systemic functional theory and illustrates how readers use these principles or approaches in analyzing the

spoken and written texts

Bloor and Bloor (2004) show an overview of the applications

of functional grammar to the practical importance of linguistic theory and analysis related to different texts such as science, travel, history and literary sources He proposes that “when people use language,

their language acts produce – construct meaning” (2004, p 2)

In the study about Transitivity Analysis of Heroic Mother by Hoa Pham by Thu Hanh Nguyen (2012), transitivity analysis gives more detailed information to assist the reader’s responses to “Heroic Mother” The study of transitivity analysis through processes and the participants provides linguistic indication to support the meaning of the story so readers can understand the main character’s world Heroic mother is the main character suffering from the isolation,

boredom, and insufficient consideration from her family

The study An investigation of the Doctoral Literature Review

of Melynda (2011) focuses on the importance of a well-conducted dissertation literature review and then examine the textbooks used in the early stages of doctoral education and the quality of dissertation

literature reviews from a field of the Literature Review Scoring

The article A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review by Justus (2009) summarizes some pivotal information on how to conduct a high-quality dissertation literature review It includes the purposes of a review, presents taxonomy of literature

reviews, the procedure in writing a quantitative or qualitative literature review The article also provides some common mistakes

and a framework for the self-evaluation of a literature review

A Framework for Using Discourse Analysis for the Review of the Literature in Counseling Research by Anthony and Rebecca (2014) provides a framework for counselor researchers and practitioners for using another qualitative data analysis technique to analyze and interpret literature review sources—a process that we call a Discourse Analysis-Based Research Synthesis (DARS)

2.3 SUMMARY

In summary, this chapter has reviewed the previous researches relating to this study It has also presented the verbal processes and relational processes in light of functional grammar The usage of the verbal and relational processes in the literature review is also examined All these theories serve as a background of the study and

will all be the foundation for analysis in the following chapters

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

- Qualitative information was collected for the identification of

the types of verbal processes and relational processes represented in the literature review

- Quantitative information was collected for the frequency of each types of processes manifested in the literature review

- Selecting the most appropriate and interesting examples to demonstrate the main points of the thesis

- Discussing the frequency of clause in term of two processes types of the experiential function in the literature review

- Discussing the findings, describing, analyzing and pointing out the similarities and differences of the usage of relational and verbal processes in the literature review

The consequences of the analysis are then showed in mainly qualitative manner (in words and nominal scales) Frequency of common core verbs of two kinds of processes is presented in Figures

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW IN VIEW OF VERBAL PROCESSES

This chapter presents the analysis of the verbal transitivity in the literature review from the Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective The consequences show that there is an important variation among the verbal process frequencies and their projecting characteristics in the literature reviews

4.1.1 Literature review in view of verbal processes with suggest

4.1.2 Literature review in view of verbal processes with propose

4.1.3 Literature review in view of verbal processes with show 4.1.4 Literature review in view of verbal processes with assert 4.1.5 Literature review in view of verbal processes with state

4.1.6 Literature review in view of verbal processes with identify claim

4.1.7 Literature review in view of verbal processes indicate 4.1.8 Literature review in view of verbal processes with argue

4.1.9 Literature review in view of verbal processes with define

4.2 LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW IN VIEW OF RELATIONAL ATTRIBUTIVE PROCESSES

4.2.1 Literature review in view of relational attributive processes of Intensive

4.2.2 Literature review in view of relational attributive processes of Circumstance

4.2.3 Literature review in view of relational attribute processes of Possession

4.3 REMARKS ON THE QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESULTS

4.3.1 Discussion of the qualitative analysis

4.3.1.1 Qualitative analysis about linguistic Features of the literature review in view of verbal processes

+ Construction: According to the analysis presented above,

all of the verbal processes are realized in 5 formulas below:

(1) [SAYER + V.P + VERBIAGE + CIRCUMTANCE] (2) [SAYER + V.P + CLAUSE]

(3) [CIRCUMSTANCE + V.P + BY + SAYER + V.P + CLAUSE]

(4) [SAYER + V.P + RECEIVER + A CLAUSE]

(5) [SAYER + V.P + A COMPLEX CLAUSE]

From 5 formulas above, there are some different between them

+ Sayer: In the processes, the Sayers are almost the third

persons and they can be singular or plural, a noun or a noun phrase like “Kenworthy”, “The study”, “These reasons”

+ Receiver: the Receiver appears rarely in the processes + Circumstance: the Circumstance can stands at the top of the

sentence and sometimes appears at the end of the sentence The Circumstance indicates location, matter or angle

+ Projection in verbal clauses: It is worth mentioning that in

the literature review, the writers tend to use verbal processes taking projections more than non-projections Additionally, hypotactic locutions tend to use more frequently than the paratactic ones The

combination of two locutions appears rarely

4.3.1.2 Qualitative analysis about linguistic features of the literature review in view of relational attributive processes

The core verb of Intensive attributive relational process

- The verb BE plays the role of linking between carrier and

attributor Besides, BE conveys meaning of comparing, describing, indicating or emphasizing The verb BE can be in present or past

tense depending on each condition of the time

+ It usually combines with an indefinite noun, or a noun phrase with plural or singular form, an adjective or an adjective phrase, to

infinitive verb Let's see the following example:

E-learning is an increasingly popular area of modern

education

(Kristina, 2010, p.531)

- The verb PLAY can support more information about

mentioned terms Moreover, it can express the importance of issues

It can be accompanied with an indefinite noun or noun phrase Let's see the following example:

Traditional education plays too much attention to instilling

the knowledge into the students

(Yuanyuan, 2015, p.1205)

- The verb SEEM is used to describe the external appearance

of state, express the enhancement, shows the gradual changing of state to the goal state It can combine with adjective, to be or to infinitive Let's see the following example:

In certain words, final syllables seemed to be stressed rather

than the first syllables

(Dabaghi, 2010, p.1782)

- The verb BECOME expresses the inherent nature or a state

of change Besides, it can express the result of changing or improvements It is usually accompanied with an adjective, adjective phrase or comparative adjectives, an indefinite noun phrase Let's consider the following example:

They also found that when teacher autonomy is restricted

teachers become more controlling with their students

(Waldvogel, 2013, p.209)

The participants in Intensive attributive relational process

Intensive Attributive relational process definitely contains two