功能语法论文

1、 贵州师范大学研究生作业（论文）专用封面作业（论文）题目An Analysis of Transitivity System in The Selfish Giant 课程名称： 功能语言学 任课教师姓名： 梁梅 研究生姓名： 郑 亚 伟 学 号： 4201110500274 年 级： 2011 专 业： 外语语言学及应用语言学 学院（部、所）： 外国语学院 任课教师评分： 评阅意见：任课教师签名：2013年 07 月 12 日 An Analysis of Transitivity System in The Selfish Giant 摘要：概念功能是系统功能语法的一个重要组成部分，是三个

2、元语言功能之一。它用语言来谈论生活中的体验，概念功能的实现方式主要是及物性、语态和归一性。本文只对自私的巨人中的及物性做以分析。自私的巨人是奥斯卡王尔德一部重要的短篇童话故事，故事描写了一群孩子在巨人的花园里快乐的玩耍，直到自私的巨人回来将孩子们赶出了花园。从此孩子失去了快乐的乐园，巨人的花园再也没有了春天。直到有一天一群孩子翻过了围墙，迎来了花园的春天，终于让巨人意识到了自己的花园没有春天的原因，醒悟之后的他喜欢孩子到他的花园里来玩，并最后得到了上帝的宽恕进入了天堂。本文通过对自私的巨人中的及物性系统的三个主要要素，既过程，参与者及环境的分析阐释了及物性系统对于语篇分析的重要意义。关键词：概

3、念功能；及物性；自私的巨人；过程；参与者；环境Abstract: Ideational function which is a major element of systematical-functional linguistics is one of three metafunctions. It refers to using language to talk about the experience of the world, including the worlds in peoples minds, to describe events and states and the enti

4、ties involves in people. It is realized mainly by three ways, that is transitivity, voice and polarity. This paper mainly analyzed the transitivity system in The Selfish Giant. The Selfish Giant is one of the most important fairy tales written by Oscar Wilde. It tells that a group of children were u

5、sed to playing in giants garden happily and merrily until the giant came back and driven them out. Form then on, the giants garden was never visited by spring. Until children scramble over the wall one day and followed by spring did the giant understand that only children can bring spring. Then he w

6、elcomed children to his garden and was permitted to enter into paradise at last. This paper study three elements in transitivity system, namely processes, participants and circumstances in The Selfish Giant. This paper also elaborate the significance of transitivity system in analyzing discourses. K

7、ey Words: Ideational Function; Transitivity System; The Selfish Giant; processes; participants; circumstances.1 Theoretical background1.1 An Introduction of Hallidays Systematical-Functional LinguisticsThe Systematical-Functional Grammar(SFG) proposed by M.A.K. Halliday consists of Systemic Grammar

8、and Functional Grammar. It is an effective theoretical framework to analyze texts and discourses. In Systematical-Functional Linguistics, language is regarded as the production fo social activities and it always performs various functions. The Systematical-Functional Linguistics are used to explaini

9、ng the internal relations in language, it views language as “system network” or “meaning potentials”. Writers and speakers can choose the most appropriate language forms in order to express fully what they want to convey. In other words, these choices are assumed to be meaningful and relate the spea

10、kers intentions to the concrete forms of the language. Systematical-Functional Linguistics is based on two facts:(1) language users actually make choices in a system and try to realize different semantic functions in social interaction; (2) language is inseparable from social activities of the human

11、.1.2 Three metafunctions of LanguageIn SFG, three kinds of metafunctions of language are defined; ideational, interpersonal and textual functions. First of all, language serves for the expression of content, that is, of the speakers experience of the real world, including the inner world of his own

12、consciousness and the outer world. Halliday calls this ideational function(Halliday, 1971:58). Secondly, language serves to establish and maintain social relations. The speaker uses language as the means of his own intrusion into the speech event: the expression of his comments, his attitudes, and e

13、valuations, and also of the relationship that he sets up between himself and the listener-in particular, the communication role he adopts, of informing, questioning, persuading, and the like. This function of language is called interpersonal function. Finally, language has to provide for making link

14、s with itself and with features of the situation in which it is used. This is called the textual function, which is concerned with the creation of text, and enables the listener or reader to distinguish a text from a random set of sentences. In this paper, only ideational function will be analyzed i

15、n this paper.Ideational Function refers to that “we use language to talk about our experience of the world, including the worlds in ur own minds, to describe events and states and the entities involves in them”(Thompson:1996:28). That is to say, it conveys a message about ones experience of the phen

16、omena of the real world and his experience of the internal world of his own consciousness, his reactions, perceptions, cognitions and his linguistic acts of speaking and understanding. The experience consists of happening, doing, sensing, meaning, being and becoming. All these can be categorized in

17、the grammar of discourse, expressed through language.Systemic Functional Grammar is “or purpose of text analysis” (Halliday,1985/1994:x), and the notion of “choice” is as important in Hallidays theory as in stylistic studies. Halliday regards language as networks of interlocking options, or as a sys

18、tem of meanings, and the meanings as choices made in the system; and style is viewed as conscious or unconscious choices made by writers or speakers in the language. The literary stylists using the functional grammar, led by Halliday, attempt to connect linguistic features of literature date with th

19、e functions of language in a wider, social context; they tend to regard detailed linguistic examination as a powerful tool for explaining the meaning of the texts. Halliday is not only concerned with theoretical explorations, but also with the use of his principles in the analysis of literature. He

20、analyzed Yeatss “Leda and the Swan”(1964). After that, his analysis of William Goldings novel The Inheritors is a classical work of applying SFG. By transitivity analysis, Halliday finds the difference between the native and the invaders activity, perception of the world are revealed by distinct cho

21、ices from the transitivity system. Since then on, transitivity analysis has shed new light on understanding the text better and deeper. It enables listeners and readers to have a better understanding of the contents, the inner thoughts of the characters and outer surrounding around the characters. 2

22、 Realization of Ideational Function:Transitivity Ideational Function is realized mainly by transitivity, voice and polarity, and In this paper only transitivity system will be discussed and used to analyzed the text The Selfish Giant. Transitivity system consists of three main components: processes,

23、 participants and circumstances.In traditional grammar, the term transitivity is defined as a way to distinguish between verbs according to whether they have an object of not. However, in Hallidays framework, it is a fundamental and powerful semantic concept, it refers to a system for describing the

24、 whole clause, rather than just the verb and its object. It is a linguistic expression of various processes, and of the participants associated with them. 2.1 Six different Processes of Transitivity. Transitivity system includes six different processes: material process, mental process, relational p

25、rocess, behavioral process, verbal process and existential process. In transitivity system, different processes worked together with participants and circumstantial elements to realize the ideational functions of language. 2.1.1 Material ProcessThe material process is the process of doing something.

26、 It represents the notion that some entity “does” something. So what we can know or what we can probe is : what did someone or something does to whom or what. There are two inherent participants in material process: one is the”actor” which refers to someone or something that carry out the action. Th

27、e other participant is called the “goal”, at which the actions is directed. The following are some examples to show the structure of the material process from the text The Selfish Giant.ActorProcess: materialGoalThe birds sat onthe treeshe sawthe childrenAccording to Halliday, there are mainly two s

28、ubdivisions fo material process. One kind is animate or intentional, the other kind is inanimate or involuntary. The following are some examples.ActorProcess: materialGoalHe Built(intentional)a high wallThe car Accelerated( involuntary)2.1.2 Mental ProcessMental processes are processes of “sensing”.

29、 It is the process describes what happens in the internal world of the mind that refers to such processes as thinking, imaging, wanting, liking, seeing, etc. Mental processes can be divided into three subdivisions: affection process(of liking, hating), cognition process (of deciding, understanding,

30、knowing, etc.) and perception processes ( of seeing, hearing, etc.). In mental processes there will always a human-like participant that can feel, think or perceive. That is to say, the participant should be endowed with consciousness. This human-like participant is called Senser. The other particip

31、ant is the Phenomenon, which is the thing that is sensed, felt, thought or seen. This kind processes are usually two-way processes, which is different from material process, that is to say, either the Senser or the Phenomenon acts as the subject, the clause can keep the active voice. The following a

32、re some examples from the text The Selfish Giant.ActorProcess: mentalGoalCircumstanceThe Giant lovedhim the bestany one can understandthatI hopethere will be a change in the weatherI believethe Spring has come at lasthe heardsome lovely music2.1.3 Relational ProcessesRelational processes are process

33、es of “being”. Relational processes identify the relationship between concepts or entities. They can be classified into two modes: Attributive and Identifying. If one concept or entity is ascribed one or more attributes, the clause involves an Attributive relational process. The two participants of

34、this type process are Carrier and Attribute. The following are some examples from the text The Selfish Giant. CarrierProcess: relational(attributive)AttributeIt was a large lovely gardenhis conversation waslimitedthe roadand (the road)waswas full ofvery dustyhard stones Attributive Relational Proces

35、sIdentifiedProcess: relational(identifying)IdentifierThe only people were the Snow and the Frostit must be the Kings musiciansHewasa very selfish Giantmy garden shall bethe childrens playgroundItwasreally only a little linnet the childrenare the most beautiful flowers of all Identifying Relational P

36、rocess2.1.4 Verbal ProcessVerbal processes are processes of verbal action: saying and all its synonyms such as speak, phrase, say, tell, talk, praise, boast, describe so on. A verbal process typically contains three participants:Sayer, Receiver, and Verbiage. The Sayer is the one responsible for the

37、 process. The Reviver is the one to whom the verbiage is addressed. The Verbiage is the function that corresponds to what is said. Compared with mental process, Sayer can be anything being the source of an exchange of signal rather than a conscious participant. Here are some examples from the text T

38、he Selfish Giant. SayerProcess: verbalVerbiage(the children)talk about talk aboutthe beautiful garden insidethe children said that they did not know where he livedVerbiageSayerProcess: verbal“Spring has forgotten this garden,”TheycriedVerbiageProcess: verbalSayer“We dont know,” answered the children

39、2.1.5 Behavioral ProcessThe behavioral processes are processes of physiological and psychological behaviour, like breathing, dreaming, smiling and coughing. The basic framework is made up of Behaver and Process. Grammatically they fall between material and mental processes. There are few distinctive

40、 grammatical features, and are largely identified on semantic grounds. They relate to specifically human physiological processes. Such as “breath, star, laugh, cry, gasp, grimace, sigh, frown, snarl, whine, cough, yawn”etc. Here are some examples from the text The Selfish Giant. BehaverProcess(behav

41、ioral)Circumstance(he was )cryingbitterly(the flowers were)laughingthe child smiled on the Giantsmiled on the Giant2.1.6 Existential ProcessThe existential process is the process expressing something exists or happens, typically introduced by “there” followed by the verb “be”, the verb “be” can be r

42、eplaced by its synonyms such as “exist, arise, occur, remain, follow, stand, hang” etc. And a normal group as Existent. There only one participant in such clauses: the Existent. The existent can be a phenomenon of any kind or an event. There may be other detailed information about the existent, but

43、most of which are occurred in the circumstances. Existential processes has no functional label in transitivity analysis, as it is not encoding any representational meaning. Existential processes can also help to minimize agency, since they just encode meaning about state of being, not suggesting any

44、 degree of agency. Some examples form The Selfish Giant are shown on the following table. Process Existentthere were no childrentherewere twelve peach-treesCircumstanceProcessExistentunderneath it stood the little boyhung down from themsilver fruitIn the farthest corner of the garden was a treeall o

45、ver the countrythere were little blossoms and little birdsCircumstanceProcessExistentHere and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers2.2 The Study of CircumstanceCircumstance, one of the three major constituents of processes, expresses location, extent, manner, cause, accompaniment, matter and

46、role of the particular processes and participants. According to Halliday(1994), there are nine types of circumstances in English. They are Extent(expresses spatial distance), Location(expresses space or time), Manner, Cause (expresses reason, purpose and behalf), Contingency(expresses condition, con

47、cession and default), Accompaniment (expresses comitation, and addition), Role (expresses guise and product), Matter (expresses what is described, referred to in a verbal process), Angle (expresses who the Sayer is in a verbal process). 3 Oscar Wilde and The Selfish GiantThe Selfish Giant is a fairy

48、 tale written by the famous Irish novelist Oscar Wilde whose works have attracted much attention around the world. As a master of aestheticism in the late nineteenth century, Oscar Wide advocated “art for arts sake”. The Selfish Giant is a short fairy story form Wildes first collection of fairy tale

49、s The Happy Prince and Other Tales, which was published in May, 1888. The story is about the processes of a giant changing from a selfish person to a generous one. The giant has a lovely garden. When he was away form home, the children loved to play in his garden after school every day. But when the

50、 giant came bake seven years later, he driven children away and set up a high wall to stop children form coming in, because he want to enjoy his own garden himself. From then on, the garden was full of snow, forest, hail and cold northern wind. The giant longed for spring, but spring never came. One

51、 day, he heart some lovely music, he looked out and found some children were playing in the garden on the tree. His garden was full of birds and spring. Then the giant understood that it was his selfishness that deterred the coming of spring, he also understood that it is the children who bring the

52、spring to his garden. So he invited the children in and helped one of them. The boy who he helped was the Jesus, Jesus forgiven his selfishness and led him found his kindness, led him into paradise at last. 4 Transitivity Analysis of Three Paragraphs of The Selfish GiantIn this part, three paragraph

53、s from The Selfish Giant are analyzed including paragraph four, paragraph nine, and paragraph seventeen. From the figures shown in the table by the study, the readers will get a clear overview of the distributions of material process, mental process, relational process, verbal process, behavioral pr

54、ocess and existential process in these three paragraphs. Also the distributions of the frequently of participants as well as the circumstance elements occurred are also displayed in the table . All these three parts are worked together to give a detailed description of the main features shown by the

55、 statistics in order to help the readers understand the text better. Detailed procedures can be divided into four steps. Firstly, each sentence in each paragraph is analyzed, and the type of the process used in each sentence is distinguished. Secondly, after the analysis of different types of processes of all the sentences, the number of each process type will be counted. After that, the percentage of each type of process is calculated, the similar procedure is applied to participant and circumstance element. The final procedure is to analyze the date colle