A functional analysis of martin luther king’s speech “beyond vietnam a time to break silence”

TRẦN THỊ TỐ NGAA FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF MARTIN LUTHER KING‟S SPEECH “BEYOND VIETNAM: A TIME TO BREAK SILENCE” MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH Binh Dinh, 2020... 4 What types of thematic progres

TRẦN THỊ TỐ NGA

A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF MARTIN LUTHER KING‟S SPEECH

“BEYOND VIETNAM: A TIME TO BREAK SILENCE”

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH

Binh Dinh, 2020

TRẦN THỊ TỐ NGA

PHÂN TÍCH BÀI PHÁT BIỂU

“BEYOND VIETNAM: A TIME TO BREAK SILENCE”

CỦA MARTIN LUTHER KING THEO NGỮ PHÁP CHỨC NĂNG

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8 22 02 01

Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Trần Văn Phước

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesiscontains no material published elsewhere or extracted in the whole or partfrom the thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree

First and foremost, I would like to express my thanks to all the lectureswho have the given the foundation for this thesis and all the staff of the Post-graduate Department at Quy Nhon University for their encouragement,kindness and administrative assistance

My deepest gratitude and appreciation goes to my supervisor Trần VănPhước, Assoc Prof Dr for his invaluable guidance

My thanks are also due to I am immensely grateful to my aunt, NhuanTri, for her help and kindness Many, many thanks to all the teachers at TonDuc Thang High School in Duc Co District, Gia Lai Povince for creating thebest conditions to me

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to my coworkersand friends, whose kindness and support to my study were great

I would like to show my sincerce thanks to many people who havegiven me great help during the time I managed to complete this thesis

Last but not least, I feel deeply indebted to my family, especially myparents for always by my side whenever I got troubles

This Thesis entitled: A functional analysis of Martin Luther King‟s speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” is conducted to aim at examing the metafunctions of Martin Luther King‟s speech by analyzing its topic, content and attitudes This work identified the Tenor/Interpersonal

metafunction, Field/Experiential metafunction, Mode/ Textual metafunction andthematic progressions were applied In terms of Interpersonal metafunction, most

of the clauses are declarative, the main role of the speech is to declare the factsthat America‟s government neglecting their poverty program to interfere toVietnam war, which leads to the tragic consequences forward not only lives butresources of both Vietnamese and American In King‟s speech, the Modalitybecomes prominent through a range of modal auxiliary verbs to indicate thenecessity and urgency of a protest against the war From the Experientialmetafunction analysis, it can be concluded that the material processes dominate

in six kinds of processes The central purpose of King is to mainly conveyinformation about the actions of breaking the rules and the cruel actios ofAmerica‟s government in Vietnam Morever, King mentions about the positivechanges of life after conducting a new revolution Regarding to Textualmetafunction, it helps listeners to integrate in the King‟s messages Topicaltheme accounts for the highest percentage and multiple themes play a vital role

to latch a sentence explicitly on to the preceding context Last but not least, is theanalysis of thematic progression, it is found that the speech also tends to employthe constant theme pattern because it is easy for the speaker to develop the topicand for the audience to be accepted Thanks to thematic progression patterns therelated problems of ending Vietnam war are mentioned throughout the speech.Hopefully, the reasearch is helpful to those whose are studying politicallanguages as well as learning how to make a successful speech

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

Language is used as the most effective transportation not only to expressmeanings but also carry out various functions in distinctive contexts andsituations of our lives English has become an international laguage and thesecond laguage of almost nations Systemic Functional Grammar gradually tends

to the popular topics for reseachers and linguistists If Syntax plays a vital role inindicating the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structures ofthe sentences in a particular language, Grammar is the sallient key in recognizingthe sounds of words, the meanings of those words and the different ways ofarranging words together to make meaningful sentences.The linguistic items areinvestigated in various functional aspects synchronously because a linguistic unitmay have not only one function at a particular time

It is a well- known fact that laguage is the main tool that human beingsuse to communicate to each other, to express our attitudes and feelings to theworld around us such as in literatures, social problems, political aspects and so

on According to Habermas (1992) stated, communication is an extremelycomplex and ever- changing phenomenon Communication allows humans notonly to express the shared set of physical, emotional, and psychological needsthat are alive inside us at any given moment, but also give this information toothers for enriching life for others and ourselves (Habermas, 1992)

However, only by using language, what the speaker‟s meaning can not beunderstood thoroughly Hearers have to combine it with its context and functionsfor the apprehending of speaker‟s meaning It is used for the interpretation ofhearer which hear the speaker, or reader which read the text SFG can do thisbecause the way of this model of language explains the connection betweencontext and text for understanding the meaning of a language In functional

linguistics, people can understand how the wording of the text simultaneouslyencode three types of meaning: textual meaning, interpersonal meaning, andideational meaning, which are influenced by their context of situation: mode,tenor, and field (Halliday, 1978, p.123).

From such a fact, to have deep insights into the nature and functions oflanguage analyzed by many methods and approaches, Functional Grammar hasattracted interest of not only many linguistists but also learners A number ofstudies were conducted and based on Functional Grammar The social functionslanguage was emphasized by Halliday, the works of Schegloff, Jefferson andSack are important in the research of conversation, turn-taking and other aspects

of spoken interactions (Schegloff, Jefferson, & Sacks, 1977)

Depending distinctive situations or contexts, language will have differentfunction forms, for example: stories, news, speech, poems, movies or songs Interms of speech, it an an aspect of language which is represented by the use ofsignals produced by meant of human exhalation, phonation, articulation,resonance, communicated by acoustic and auditory means (Milloy, 2013)

The writer has reasons of choosing speech as her object research which

is going to be analyzed First, it is particularly true that language is the salientmethod to communicate in our daily life Especially, language seems to be avery important tool used by political communities to establish groupawareness and cement voters by making them feel that their vote count.Therefore, Van Dijk observed that each speech delivered by a politician is arealization of his intention and has its own function (Van Dijk, 1997)

In addition to the powerful language, the speech also played on theemotional story with a range of semiotic resources including the facialexpression, gestures, intonation and the impressive wait and pause beforespeaking Given that the speech has attracted so much attention and caused a

great sensation, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at it.

Furthermore, the reasons why the writer chooses Martin Luther King‟sspeech are, firstly, this speech is his most famous and influenced speechamong his seventeen speeches In addition, it had influences not only in

America but Vietnam (the hometown of the writer) with title “Beyond

Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” He delivered it to oppose the America‟s

role in Vietnam war King also criticized American opposition to NorthVietnam's land reforms in his speech

Besides, Martin Luther King was a social activist and Baptist ministerwho played a salient role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968 Martin Luther King was well-known ofall time by his famous speeches which have fluency, persuasives and thepower to touch and charm million‟hearts

“And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace.

If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood…”

He is best known for his role in advancement of civil rights usingnonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs In his entirecarrier as activist, he often got some precious awards, such as Nobel PeacePrize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence Last but not least,

he also awarded the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People Martin Luther King had eleven speechesbefore his tragic assassination

[online] Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Vietnam:_A_Time_to_Break_S ilence#Background [Accessed 8 October 2019]

In this thesis, I will follow systemic functional grammar (SFG) to

analyze the speech text I determine to raise a research entitled: A Functional Analysis of Martin Luther King‟s Speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”.

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aims to identify the purposes or functions of Martin LutherKing‟s speech through their topic, content, and the attitudes realized bylinguistic features or lexico-grammatical realizations

1.3 Objectives of the study

To achieve the aims above, the study will focus on objectives as follows:

(1) to identify the tenor of speeches (the attitudes) through the uses ofMood structures and modality to express interpersonal function/meaningrealized by their linguistic features;

(2) to identify the field of speeches (their content) through the uses ofprocesses to express experiential/ideational function/meaning realized by theirlinguistic features;

(3) to identify the mode of speeches (their topics) through the uses of

thematic structures to express textual function/meaning realized by their linguistic features;

(4) to identify the communicative effectiveness of speeches through theuses of thematic- progression patterns

(3) What thematic structures and their lexico-grammatical

realizations are are used to express the mode of Martin Luther

King‟s speech?

(4) What types of thematic progression patterns are used to make Martin

Luther King‟s speech effective?

1.5 Scope of the study

Due to limited knowledge and time allocation, the study narrows thefunctional analysis inspired by M.A.K Halliday (1985, 1994, 2004) which wasrevised by M.A.K Halliday and Christian M.I.M Matthiessen in 2004 (the thirdedition) in some aspects of Field, Mode, Tenor and by Eggins (2004) in thematicprogression patterns developed by basing on Halliday‟s theory on the data of the

speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” of Martin Luther King.

Prosody or phonological aspects are beyond the analysis of the study

1.6 Significance of the study

By investigating the values of Martin Luther King‟s speech “Beyond

Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” First of all, it will make a significant

contribution towards providing readers and learners with a thoroughunderstanding about language used in political speech in the light offunctional grammar Morever, the result of this study is expected to give moreinformation both to teachers and learners about the utilization of politicalspeech It is hoped to help users of English approach the political speeches intheir language from a different viewpoints, reconsider them in the light offunctional grammar and use them better in communication, language teachingand studying in political speeches translation from English

1.7 Organization of the thesis

The study consists of five chapters; each chapter takes responsibility for

a particular function

This chapter indicates the overview of the study consisting of statement

of the problem, research aims and objectives and research questions, the scopeand the structure of the study

Chapter II: Literature review

In this chapter, all the terms as well as the key theoretical concepts offunctional grammar that the study is based on are clearly explicated so that thefollowing parts of the research can be easily followed by readers Morever, itreviews some previous studies of the issue which is investigated

Chapter III: Research methodology

This chapter describes the methods and procedures to carry out thestudy It consists of the research design and procedures for doing this study,selection of speech, the method of collecting data and data analysis

Chapter IV: Findings and discussions

This chapter deals with the results of the study that the researcherinvestigates from the collected data based on the research questions mentionedabove It decribles the frequency, the lexico-grammatical realizations of eachfeature in three metafunctions and thematic progression patterns

Chapter V: Conclusion and Implication

A summary of the study, the major findings, the implications, thelimitations as well as suggestions for further studies are all mentioned in thisfinal chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this research, the writer uses SFG was introduced and developedoriginally by Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday, known as Halliday(1978, 1985, 1994) The writer focuses on Halliday and Matthiessen (2004)‟stheory about three metafunctions which include Interpersonal function andExperiential function and Textual function Beside, the writer also usesSuzanne Enggins (2004) for analyzing the thematic progression patterns

2.1 Review of previous studies related to the research

So far, there have been some studies on English political speeches.Nguyễn Thị Thanh (2011) applied Systemic Functional Grammar inorder to investigate the structure in the speech “I have a dream” by MartinLuther King (T T Nguyen, 2011)

Reza Fahlevi (2015) studied metafunction and context of situationrealized in Martin Luther King‟s speech “I have a dream” The writer usedtheories of Halliday (1985), Gerrot and Wignell (1994), and Enggins (2004) toanalyze metafunction and related it into context of situation realized throughregister variable (Fahlevi, 2015)

Ubong E Josiah and Gift Oghenerho (2015) analyzed the pragmaticcontents and sentence structures of the speech “I have a dream” by using thespeech acts theory, examined how the speaker made effective use of the speech

to advocate for equality and address racism, also identified the socio-economicand political ideology inherent in the speech (Josiah & Oghenerho, 2015)

All those works do more or less to contribute to study politicalspeeches either in their structures, metafunction and context, pragmatics Ingeneral, until now there was no research on using SFG to analyze the speech

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”.

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Definition of Speech and Text

Speech refers to the faculty or power of speaking; oral communication;ability to express one's thoughts and emotions by speech sounds and gesture

Traditionally, a text is understood to be a piece of written or spoken material

in its primary form (as opposed to a paraphrase or summary) A text is any stretch of language that can be understood in context It may be as simple as1-2 words (such as a stop sign) or as complex as a novel Any sequence of sentences that belong together can be considered a text

For Halliday and Hasan (1976, p 1-2), the notion „text‟ is:

“[A term] used in linguistics to refer to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole [….] A

text 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; a unit not of form but of meaning”

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Functional linguists analyze a text, spoken or written, from a functional

point of view A text is “a harmonious collection of meaning appropriate to its

context” (Butt & 2000) To have thoroughly understanding about a text is

often impossible without reference to the context where it begins And contextcan be analyzed from two perspectives: the context of culture and the context

of situation The former refers to the broad sociocultural environment, whichincludes ideology, social conventions and institutions; the latter relates to thespecific situations within the sociocultural environment (Droga & Humphrey,2002)

2.2.2 Systemic Functional Grammar

Functional approach to grammatical analysis has been adopted over three

decades because of being a general theory concerning the grammaticalorganization of natural languages Halliday is well-known by his grammatical

theory and descriptions, outlined in his book entitled: An Introduction to

Functional Grammar, which was first published in 1985 A revised edition

was published in 1994, and then a third, in which he collaborated with

Christian Matthiessen, in 2004

Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), developed by Halliday and hiscolleagues, has had a great impact on language learning and teaching It isdifferent from all the previous models of grammar in that it interpretslanguage as interrelated sets of options for making meaning and seeks toprovide a clear relationship between functions and grammatical systems.Halliday (1994) distinguishes three layers-called metafunctions-of meaning inlanguage: the ideational/ experiential, concerned with the resources toconstrue human experience and realized by the system of transitivity; theinterpersonal, concerned with the resources available to speakers to interactwith one another (and thus make requests, offers, statements and questions)and realized by the system of mood and modality; and the textual; concernedwith the resources to construct text and mainly realized by the system oftheme (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004)

2.2.3 Three Metafunctions

These three aspects reflect the three main functions, or metafunctions,

of language Halliday (1994) describes the three metafunctions as follows:

The ideational/experiential metafunction: It enables people to use language

to represent experience, and is influenced by field.

The interpersonal metafunction: It enables people to use language to enact social relationships, and is influenced by tenor.

The textual metafunction: It enables people to use language to construct logical and coherent texts, and is influenced by mode (Halliday, 1994)

2.2.3.1 Interpersonal meaning of the text.

Interpersonal meaning of the text can be analyzed by interpersonalfunction which is realized by mood an d modality The interpersonalmetafunction is about the social world, especially the relationship betweenspeaker and hearer, and is concerned with clauses as exchanges It also isconcerned with language as a form of interaction between people, in order t o

“show how defensible or binding we find out prop osition or proposal” (Butt ,2000)

The system of mood belongs to the interpersonal metafunction of thelanguage and is the grammatical resource for realizing an interactive move indialogue (Martin, Matthiessen, & Painter, 1997)

According to Halliday (1994, p.68), it is through the interpersonalmetafunction that people establish, negotiate and assume their position insocial relationship, and it is concerned with clauses as exchange Theinterpersonal meaning begins with defining basic speech role: givinginformation, giving goods -and-services and demanding goods -and-services,respectively called statement, questions and commands

The two variables of speech role (giving and demanding), and thevariables of commodity (informati on and goods and services), when takentogether, define the four basic speech functions: giving information,demanding information, giving goods-and-services and demanding goods-and-services The usual labels for these functions are: statement, question, offer, and command Figure 2.1 shows these options, with examples

Figure 2 1: Giving or demanding, goods-&- services or information

These basic functions are closely associated with particular grammaticalstructures: statements are most naturally expressed by declarative clauses,questions by interrogative clauses, commands by imperative clauses, which arethe three main choices in the Mood system of the clause

According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p.72), every free clause

selects for Mood Some, such as John! And Good night!, are minor clauses,

they have no thematic structure, and so will be left out of account The othersare major clauses A free major clause is either indicative or imperative inMood; if indicative, it is either declarative or interrogative; if interrogative, it

is either "yes/no" interrogative or "WH-"interrogative

Example:

Indicative: declarative: Bears eat honey Bears don‟t eat honey Indicative: interrogative: yes/no Does Do bears eat honey? Don‟t bears eat honey? Imperative: interrogative WH‟: What eats honey? What do bear eat?

imperative: Eat! Let‟s eat!

Beside mood, interpersonal meaning is also realized through modality.Modality indicates the speaker‟s judgment of the probabilities or the obligationsinvolved what he or she is saying As Ton Nu My Nhat (2004) defines, modality

is a complex area of English grammar which has to do with different ways in

which a language user can intrude on his/her message, expressing attitudesand judgment of various kind (Ton, 2004).

Polarity is thus a choice between yes and no But these are not the onlypossibilities; there are intermediate degrees, various kinds of indeterminacy

that fall in between, such as „sometimes‟ or „maybe‟ These intermediate

degrees, between the positive and negative poles, are known collectively asModality (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004)

The semantic function of a clause in the exchange of information is aproposition and the semantic function of a clause in the exchange of goods-&-services is a proposal

Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) note that there are two types of

Modality, they are modalization and modulation There are so many ways of

getting yes to no poles Because of that, modality needs to account for thedistinction between propositions and proposals Proposition is the meaning ofthe positive and negative poles in asserting and denying Proposition isaccounted for by modalization, that is the subtype of modality On the otherhand, proposal is concerned with the meaning of the positive and negativepoles in prescribing and proscribing Proposal is accounted for by modulation,the second subtype of modality

Modalization has to do with “proposition” (the function of the clause

in the exchange of information) Propositions can be affirmed and denied

What the Modality system does “is to construe the region of uncertainty that

lies between „yes‟ and „no‟” (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p.147).

Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) also indicate that there are two kinds of

intermediate possibilities: degrees of probability (possibly/probably/certainly) and degrees of usuality (sometimes/usually/ always).

A distinction is made between modality as described above and modulation

(scales of obligation and inclination) Modulation concerns proposals (a clause

functioning in the exchange of “goods and services” rather than information) In

command, the inermediate points to represent degrees of obligation: „allowed to, supposed to, required to‟; in an offer, the represent the degrees of inclination:

„ willing to, anxious to, determined to‟ In a proposal, a distinction is made between the positive do it and the negative don‟t do it Modulated clauses can be offers (shall I go home?), requests to the listener (go home) or suggestions that both the speaker and the hearer do something (let‟s go home).

2.2.3.2 Experiential meaning of the text

The experiential or representational function of language (clause) isrealized by the transitivity system of the language The outer world of realitythat is brought into the inner world of reality in one's consciousness, which isencoded in the transitivity system of language, is interpreted as a what-is-going-on process, which is related to material actions, events, states, andrelations (Halliday, 1978)

The experiential function and the logical function are two sub functions

of the ideational function The experiential function is concerned withthoughts in general while the logical function is concerned with therelationship between these thoughts The ideational function is reflected andrealized through the Transitivity system of language Halliday (1994, p.107)

states that "Transitivity translates the world of experience into a manageable

set of process types" According to (Richardson, 2007) "the essence of

representation is in the relationship of 'who is doing, what to whom".

(Halliday, 1978) says that "Transitivity is the key to understand the ideational

meaning of texts" According to Halliday's theory, there are six process types

in the transitivity system of English: (1) Material; (2) Mental; (3) Relational;(4) Behavioural; (5) Verbal; and (6) Existential

According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) the transitivity system of alanguage construes experience into a small set of domains of meaning whichdiffer according to the process itself and the nature of the participants involved in

it Processes play a central role in Transitivity The process centers on that part ofthe clause that is realized by the verbal group, but it can also be regarded as what

„goings-on‟ are represented in the whole clause It is concerned with differentprocess types which are chosen by the speaker Each process has three basiccomponents: the process verb, the participant(s) and the circumstance(s)

The process which is typically expressed – or realized – by the verbalgroup in the clause, and is the central component of the message from theexperiential perspective indicates the happening or event which the clause is

on about, whether is matter of a happening, doing, thinking, saying, beinghaving or simply existing There are 6 main kinds of process in the transitivitysystem that I focus in the following part

Participants realized by a nominal group represent thing or peopleinvolved in carrying out the process, or thing or people affected by theprocess Each process in Transitivity systems has its key participants that can

be persons, objects, or abstractions; they can be the agent of the action or beaffected by it, benefit from it or receive its effects

The circumstances realized by adverbial groups or prepositionalphrases, reflect “back ground” function in the clause, which consist of theexpressions of time, place, manner, means, cause, condition, concession,accompaniment and role Circumstances are often optional; in some casesthey may be more or less obligatory to be included

Six process types are recognized via mental, material, behavioural,relational, verbal and existential At first, Halliday recognizes the process ofmaterial, mental and relational as the three main process types in the English

transitivity system and then finds the other three processes, which are located

at the borderlines of the first three Below is a table which is adopted fromHalliday and Matthiessen (2004, p 171)

Material process is the process of doing: action and event For example:

kick, run, paint, repair, burn… According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004,

p.179), a "„material‟ clause construes a quantum of change in the flow of events as taking place through some input of energy" He adds "Material

clauses construe figures of „doing-&-happening‟” They express, according

to Halliday (1985, p.103), "the notion that some entity „does‟ something

which may be 'to‟ some other entity".

The basic meaning of material processes is that some entity doessomething or undertakes some actions In this process, there may be one, two,three or four participants

The “doer” of this type of action is called an actor Any material processhas an actor, even though the actor may not actually be mentioned in the clause

A second participant – the goal - is the participant to which the doing is aimed at.Sometimes, the second participant is a beneficiary (the participant benefitingfrom the doing) or a range (the participant specifying the scope of a happening)

Mental process is the process which encodes meanings of thinking or

feeling According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p.197)," mental

clauses are concerned with our experience of the world of our own consciousness" He claims that these processes may represent abstract doings

and happenings Halliday divides mental process verbs into three classes:

cognitive – verbs of thinking, knowing, understanding, affective – verbs of

loving, hating, adoring, liking, fearing, perceptive – verbs of seeing, hearing,

feeling, and desiderative – verbs of wanting, desiring or wishing

All mental processes have two participants One is called senser and theother is phenomenon Senser is the one that feels, thinks, perceives It must be

a conscious being Phenomenon is one that is thought, felt or perceived by thesenser

There are only two participants in mental process: senser andphenomenon Senser plays a role as the subject of the sentence and,

phenomenon as the “experiencer”.

According to Halliday (1994), behavioural process is the process of

physiological and psychological behaviour Halliday and Matthiessen (2004)

describe it semantically as a “half – way house” between mental and material processes Verbs that denote behavioural are: watch, taste, sniff, dream,

breathe, cough, smile, laugh,…etc The majority of behaviourals have only

one participant This participant is called the behaver, which must be a

Verbal process is the process of saying For example: say, tell, warn,

argue, ask, etc Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p.252) states that "Verbalclauses, in news reporting, allow reporter to impute or assign information tosources, including officials, experts and eye witnesses”

A verbal process typically contains three participants: sayer, receiver,and verbiage The sayer, which does not have to be a conscious being, is onethat is responsible for the verbal process The receiver is one to whom theverbal process is directed The verbiage is what is said

Relational process is the process of being and having For example:

be, have, become, etc Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p.210) states that

"Relational clauses serve to characterize and to identify" There are three

subtypes of relational process: „the intensive‟, „the circumstantial‟ and „the

possessive‟ Depending on the mode of clause, attribute or identifying, the

participants in relational are given different names.

In the attribute mode, the participant is referred to as carrier Thequality or the thing showing that the carrier belongs to a class of thing isreferred to as attribute

Table 2.2: The principal categories of relational clause

(Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p 216)

(1) Intensive „x is a‟

(2) Possessive „x has a‟

(3) Circumstantial „x is

at a‟

Existential process is the process of existing For example: There is/

are… indicating that something exists In this type of process, there is generally

a participant, the existent and one or two circumstantial elements In narrative,

for instance, these clauses are used to introduce different participants 'There'

when used in existential clauses enables the addressee to prepare forsomething which represents new information that is about to be introduced

This is why “existential clauses have been interpreted as 'presentative'

constructions‟‟(Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004,p 257) There in such

clauses has no representational function in the transitivity structure of the

clause It is neither a participant nor a circumstance, but it is used to indicatethe feature of existence

To sum up, the table below will show all types of processes:

Table 2.3: A summary of all the types of process and their general category

meaning (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p 260) PROCESS TYPE

2.2.3.3 Textual meaning of the text

There is no more basic role for the clause than that of creating text Every

clause is either constitutive of a text or part of a larger text Focusing on theclause in isolation, as has been the case for the previous two chapters, has itsadvantages since it allows the analyst to focus on the meanings that this unit isable to express The textual metafunction is different, in many respects, from theother two metafunctions in that its meaning spans across clause boundaries and

is fundamental in the creation of text Whereas the experien- tial metafunctionallows the speaker to represent his or her experience and the interper- sonalmetafunction enables interaction, as Halliday (1994) explains, the textualmetafunction breathes relevance into the other two In focusing on textualmeaning, this chapter marks a shift towards text but it does so nevertheless fromthe perspective of the clause and the main element of the clause that expresstextual to as theme, as will be discussed below Therefore, the goal here is toshow how to recognize theme in a variety of different clauses and to understand

to the creation of text Theme is a resource for organizing the interpersonal andideational meanings of each clause in the form of a message According toHalliday (1994), the clause has the character of a message: it has some forms oforganization giving it the status of a communicative event One element in theclause functions as the point of departure for the message (labeled as theme) andthe remainder gives new information about the point of departure (labeled asrheme) The clause as a message is thus a configuration of two thematic statuses,theme + rheme The combination of theme and rheme, which gives the clause itscharacter as a message, is known as thematic structure

The theme-rheme structure is the basic form of the organization of the

clause as message Within this, the theme is what the speaker selects as his point

of departure, the means of development of the clause But in the total make up ofthe theme, components from all three functions (Ideational, Interpersonal andTextual) may contribute (Halliday,1985, p 53) Following is example of theme-

rheme structure in the clauses:

My mother

This saucepan

At the supermarket

Theme

Figure 2 2 Theme- rheme structure in English clause

Theme is realized in English by the first position in a clause Thedefinition of theme given by Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p.38) is that

“theme is the given information serving as the point of departure” of a

message.They also define theme as the element which serves as the point ofdeparture of the message It is that with which the clause is concerned Themealways starts from the beginning of the clause It is what sets the scene for theclause itself and positions it in relation to the unfolding text In the first textthe reader is being led around and invited to notice and appreciate; in thesecond, the reader is held firmly to the topic that is being described Thetheme is functionally occupied by the first element of the transitivity system

of clause The identification of theme is based on order: Theme is the elementwhich comes first in the clause Therefore, the theme is not necessarily anominal group It may be an adverbial group or preposition phrase

In a word, based on the above mentioned definition, the concept of theme is regarded in the thesis as the starting - point for the message and it is what the clause is going to be about In addition, theme can be a nominal group, adverbial group or prepositional group

Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) mention that theme can be classified

in to topical Theme, interpersonal theme, and textual theme

Topical (Ideational) theme can be recognized as the first element in the

clause that expresses some kinds of “representational” meaning More technically, it

is a function from the transitivity structure of the clause: a participant, a

circumstance or process, which is illustrated with examples respectively (thetopical theme is in bold print).

The King looked at the Queen

Lock the door carefully

Every clause must contain one and only one topical theme in a clause.Once we have identified a topical theme in a clause, we can consign all theremaining constituents to the rheme role It is this principle which is allowed

to determine the theme/ rheme boundary

The interpersonal theme includes all elements coming before the

topical Theme that express interpersonal meaning The interpersonal part ofthe theme in English clause, if present, includes one or more of the following:(the Interpersonal theme is in bold print)

- The finite, typically realized by an auxiliary verb:

Should they be doing that?

- The mood adjunct:

Perhaps I must eat something

+ The vocative:

Mr Hatch, please take off your hat!

The above examples show the interpersonal theme in English clauses Thethird clause constituent that can occur in thematic position is the category oftextual elements These elements do not express any interpersonal or experientialmeaning but they do important cohesive work in relating the clause to itscontext The two main types of textual elements which can get to be theme are (i)continuative adjunct and (ii) conjunctive adjuncts A continuative adjunct as

theme is one of the small set of discourse signalers (yes, no, now, well, oh, etc.) It

indicates that the speaker‟s contribution is somehow related to what a previousspeaker has said in an earlier turn A conjunctive adjunct as theme is the element

which serves to link clauses or sentences together It is described as textualtheme when it occurs before the first topical theme in a clause, for example:

Well, I won‟t go there again.

Concerned with the system of topical theme, interpersonal theme, and

textual theme, it is necessary to distinguish simple theme and multiple theme.

Drawing out from this definition, there may be one or more elements which canfunction as theme in the clause The theme always includes one, and only one,experiential element This element is immediately followed by the theme -anything following the first experiential element is part of the theme When theclause has only topical theme without any elements preceded, we say that the

Theme in the clause is simple theme or single theme When there is more than

one element functioning as theme in the clause, we say that the clause consists of

multiple theme Multiple theme includes a topical theme and all other elements

come before it These elements may be textual or interpersonal theme Therefore,

if all possible constituents are present in the clause, a multiple theme consists ofthree components: textual theme (continuative, structural and conjunctive),interpersonal theme (vocative, modal, mood-marking) and topical theme, whichrepresent the three metafunctions - textual, interpersonal and experientialrespectively The examples below:

A white Rabbit with pink eyes

Topical (ideational )theme

The figure 2.3 above adopted from Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) illustrates simple theme and multiple themes.

In addition to the former classification, Theme can also be categorized

into Unmarked and Marked It is based on theme markedness Theme markedness is organized and realized differently from language to language

and functions as one of the distinctive characteristics of text types and as areflection of the culture in which the language is embedded The followingtable shows examples of unmarked and marked themes in clauses:

Table 2 4: Marked and unmarked themes

Clause

Exclamative as the sub category of declarative clause Interrogative clauses

-Unmarked

theme

Marked

theme

Imperative clauses

When the topical theme is conflated with the subject of the clause, it is

unmarked theme The term “unmarked”, according to Eggins simply means

“most typical/usual” while “marked” means “unusual” (Eggins, 1994) When

unmarked choice is made, it gives the theme no special prominence Incontrast, when a marked choice is made, the speaker signals that something inthe context requires a prominent meaning to be made The most unusual form

of marked theme is an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase whichfunctions as adjunct in the clause

Theme markness has to do with the relationship between the mood andthe theme structure of the clause: how the functional roles assign toconstituents in a theme analysis conflate with those in mood structure

Figure 2 4 Unmarked theme in English clauses

Marked choice is made when theme conflates with any otherconstituent from subject in the mood system One common way of creating amarked theme is to move a circumstantial element to thematic position

From the three sides of the house

For a while

Merrily

A bag- pudding

Marked Theme

Figure 2 5 Marked theme in English clauses

The other classification proposed by Halliday (1985, p.44) is marked and

unmarked themes Unmarked theme is realized when one element occupies

two positions of grammatical subject and thematic For example: “she went

back downstairs.” Marked theme is realized when an element other than the

subject occupies the theme position, so a condition is created for the appearance of marked theme For example: “when she opened the door, she

screamed at him like a crazy person.”

2.2.3.4 Thematic progression patterns

Halliday (1994, p 55) indicates that thematic principle lies behind theorganization of paragraphs in written discourse where the topic sentence ofparagraph is nothing other than its theme He also refers how themes andrhemes could be chained in to thematic progression to create coherent text(Halliday, 1994, p.388)

Thematic progression indicates to the way theme link with each otherand with rheme so as to provide continuity in discourse and to organize thetext Danes defines thematic progression as follow:

…the choice and ordering of utterance Themes, their mutual concatenation and hierarchy, as well as their relationship to the hypertheme of superior text units (such as the paragraph, chapter ), to the whole text and the situation Thematic progression might be viewed as the skeleton of the plot ( Dane, 1974, p 114- cited in (T T H Nguyen, 2008)

Paltridge (2000) states that thematic progression refers to the way in which the theme of a clause may pick up or repeat, a meaning from precedingtheme and rheme (Paltridge, 2000)

According to Eggins (1994) (adapted and developed theories of Halliday),

Thematic Progression refers to the exchanging flow of information between

consecutive theme-rheme pairings in a text As mentioned above, the success of

a cohesive text depends heavily on whether the arrangement of given and new

information is effective or not The distribution of information needs to follow

certain patterns of thematic progression Eggins (2004) classifies three main

patterns of thematic development/progression:

First, Eggins (2004, p 323) postulates theme reiteration, which some

linguists label the “continuous or constant theme” This kind of thematic

pattern often appears in short biographical passages and narratives It is alsofrequently found in textbooks and descriptions of factual information Somelinguists label it as the constant theme (Bloor & Bloor, 1995) and (Danes,1974)

As the title suggests, the first theme is repeated in the beginning of thenext clauses This type is occasionally called parallel pattern:

John (TH 1) was born in Russia and was deeply fascinated with the circus at

a very early age (RH1) He (TH 2) loves the antics of the clowns (RH2) He (TH3) receives an apprenticeship in a small circus at the age of six (RH3).

The example abides by the following pattern of thematic progression:

Figure 2 6 The constant pattern of thematic progression

Eggins (2004) refers to a second type of theme as the zig-zag Thematic

development, which Bloor, T & Bloor, M (1995) and Danes (1974) categorize

as the linear theme pattern In this pattern, the rheme of one clause is taken up

as the theme of a subsequent clause He indicates that various texts use thiskind of theme structure (see figure 2.7)

Figure 2 7 The zig-zag pattern of thematic progression.

(adapted from Eggins, 2004, 324)

The Rheme of one clause is taken up as Theme of the subsequent

clause, as example below:

Outside my window (TH 1) is a big garden with many kinds of plants (RH1), and in the middle of the garden (TH 2) is a flower bed (RH 2) The flower bed (TH3) is full of roses and tulips in the spring (RH3) Roses and tulips (TH 4) are my favorite flowers (RH 4).

A third common type of thematic progression is the multiple-Rheme

pattern

Figure 2 8a Multiple rheme pattern of thematic progression

Bloor, T & Bloor, M (1995) proposes a multiple rheme pattern, which

is essentially the same thing as a multiple-rheme pattern This multiple-rhemepattern is common in longer expository texts It occurs when the rheme of a

clause has two or three components, each of which is taken in turn as the theme of a subsequent clause.

The rheme of a clause has more than one component, each of which is taken in turn as theme of the subsequent clauses:

The textual theme (TH 1) is any combination of continuative, structural and conjunctive, in that order (RH 1) A continuative(TH 2) is one of a small set of discourse signalers which signal that a new move is beginning (RH 2).A structural theme (TH 3)is any of the obligatory thematic elements (RH 3)…

The example abides by the following pattern of thematic progression:

Figure 2 9b Multiple rheme pattern of thematic progression

(adapted from Eggins, 2004, p.325)

2.2.4 Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King was born on 15th January 1929 in Atlanta,

Georgia In 1951, he went toBoston University, where hestudied for four years In 1952,

he met Coretta Scott, and as soon

as he saw her, he fell in love.They got married in 1953, andthey had four children In 1954,the Kings left Boston, andMartin became a Minister at a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.Then he started working for the black freedom movement Thousands of

people walked to Washington to hear his famous speech at the LincolnMemorial in 1963 and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 He died on 4thApril 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, from a gunshot wound.Martin LutherKing was a social activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in theAmerican civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in

1968 King sought equality and human rights for African Americans, theeconomically disadvantaged and all victims of injustice through peacefulprotest He was the driving force behind watershed events such as theMontgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on Washington, which helpedbring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act and the VotingRights Act King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and isremembered each year on Martin Luther King, Jr Day, a U.S federal holidaysince 1986 Available at:

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr, [Accessed 10 August, 2020]

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”, also referred as the

Riverside Church speech, is an anti–Vietnam War and pro–social justicespeech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr on April 4, 1967, exactly one yearbefore he was assassinated Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Vietnam:_A_Time_to_Break_Silence

#Background [Accessed 10 August, 2020].

The speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” primarily

indicates Martin Luther King‟s views on the Vietnam War King talks aboutthe beliefs which were held by other religious figures that they should havevoices about the situation at that time King refers to the misunderstandingsthat men are to keep loyal to their government in the face of war forpatriotism‟s sake He suggests that a moral standards needs to be highlighted