Analysis of verbal presentation of the series of picture books twiggle story

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY PHAN HOANG DIEM TRUC ANALYSIS OF VERBAL PRESENTATION OF THE SERIES OF PICTURE BOOKS: “TWIGGLE STORY” MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE Supervised by Nguyen Vu Phuong, PhD BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2021 0 BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY PHAN HOANG DIEM TRUC ANALYSIS OF VERBAL PRESENTATION OF THE SERIES OF PICTURE BOOKS: “TWIGGLE STORY” MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE Supervised by Nguyen Vu Phuong, PhD BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2021 0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to send thanks to all the lectures in Foreign Languages Department at Thu Dau Mot university for helping me to enrich my knowledge, offering me precious lessons, positive encouragement, and enthusiastic supports Especially, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my appreciation to my supervisor -Dr Nguyen Vu Phuong, who always teaches, supports, and assists me to complete this study Furthermore, I am also sincerely grateful to my classmates for the happiness and difficulties we shared throughout the course These would become unforgettable memories in my life Last but not least, I would like to extremely express my gratitude to all of the members of my family for supporting me to overcome all challenges in my life, including this postgraduate journey I 0 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that I write this thesis entitled “Analysis of verbal presentation of the series of the picture books: “Twiggle story.” Apart from the act of consulting references which is considered as the information of reliable studies, this thesis is not plagiarism or made by other researchers Anything related to other’s work is written in the quotation, the source of which is listed in the references This thesis has not been submitted for the award of the degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution, organization, or publisher If this pronouncement proves incorrect, I am willing to accept any academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancelation of my academic degree Signature Phan Hoang Diem Truc II 0 ABSTRACT The thesis investigated the verbal presentation of the picture books: “Twiggle Story” by the four authors, Domitrovich, Greenberg, Kusché, and Cortes (2004) Even though most picture books combine both verbal and visual modes of expression, the main aim of this study is to analyze the verbal mode of the series of the picture book “Twiggle Story” by describing different functions of the three language metafunctions Through the Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) theory, the study researched how the authors of the selected picture books implement the ideational functions of language as regards subordination, coordination, and modification The study also explored the use of interpersonal functions of language in line with mood, modality, and person In addition, it examined the theme and the rheme of the textual functions and how coherence is built by making use of the textual function of language in the selected picture books The study used a qualitative content analysis research design to achieve the research purpose The study found that ideational metafunction aims to give extra information and create interconnection in the two picture books With the interpersonal metafunction, the four authors reveal the characters’ points of view in the stories The textual metafunctions are used to create logic and build coherence in the picture books Based on the findings of the study, it is obvious that text analysis relied upon the three language metafunctions, and a text without the components of language metafunctions can be limited in meanings, so it is suggested that using different elements of these metafunctions in exploring verbal presentation should be extensively examined Key words: Systemic Functional Linguistic, Metafunctions of language, ideational functions, interpersonal functions, textual functions, picture books III 0 TABLES OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY II ABSTRACT III LIST OF FIGURES VII LIST OF TABLES VIII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1.2 THE RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1.4 PURPOSES OF THE STUDY .4 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 DEFINITION OF PICTURE BOOKS 2.2 PICTURE BOOKS AND CHILDREN 2.3 LANGUAGE FUNCTION 11 2.4 DISCOURSE-SEMANTIC MODEL OF SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS 12 2.5 IDEATIONAL METAFUNCTION 13 2.5.1 Logical function 14 2.5.1.1 Modification 14 2.5.1.2 Coordination 17 2.5.1.3 Subordination 20 IV 0 2.5.2 Experiential function 22 2.6 INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION 24 2.6.1 Mood 25 2.6.2 Modality 27 2.6.3 Person 29 2.7 TEXTUAL METAFUNCTION 30 2.7.1 Theme and Rheme 31 2.7.2 Coherence 34 2.7.3 Cohesion 35 2.8 HALLIDAY’S S YSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS 36 2.9 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY 37 2.9.1 Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) theory 37 2.9.2 Principal elements of SFL 38 2.10 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES 44 2.11 SUMMARY 47 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 48 3.1 R ESEARCH DESIGN – Q UALITATIVE 48 3.2 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT 51 3.2.1 Data selection and the author 52 3.2.2 Summary of the selected stories 53 3.3 D ATA ANALYSIS 55 3.4 SUMMARY 57 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS 58 4.1 INTRODUCTION 58 4.2 D ATA ANALYSIS 58 4.2.1 Implementation of logical functions in line with modification, coordination and subordination 59 4.2.1.1 Modification .59 V 0 Adjective modifiers 59 4.2.1.2 Coordination 67 4.2.1.3 Subordination 76 4.2.2 Implementation of interpersonal functions in line with mood, modality and person 81 4.2.2.1 Mood 81 4.2.2.2 Modality 86 4.2.2.3 Person 88 4.2.3 The use of theme and rheme to build coherence 92 4.2.4 The use of cohesion to be coherence 99 4.2.5 The use of other features to build coherence and perform the textual function 104 4.3 C HAPTER FINDINGS 109 4.3.1 Author’s implementation of the ideational functions of language in with modification, coordination, and subordination 109 4.3.2 The use of the interpersonal function of language in line with mood, modality and person 112 4.3.3 How the textual metafunction is used to build coherence in the selected picture books 113 4.4 C HAPTER SUMMARY 115 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 117 5.1 CONCLUSION 117 5.2 PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 119 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 122 5.4 RECOMMENDATION FOR FURTHER STUDY 123 REFERENCES 124 APPENDICES 133 VI 0 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 The levels of discourse-semantics 13 Figure 2.2 The functional model of language 40 Figure 2.3 The (sub)systems of Context of situation, Discourse Semantics and Lexicogrammar 41 Figure 2.4 The semiotic framework 42 Figure 4.1 The parallel progression pattern of the seven extracts 95 Figure 4.2 Extract 8, the zig-zag progression pattern 96 Figure 4.3 Extract 9-12, the parallel and zig-zag progression pattern 98 VII 0 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Subordinate conjunction 22 Table 2.2 Theme and Rheme 32 Table 5.1 The similarity and difference of word orders in English and Vietnamese SVC structures in the series of picture books “Twiggle Story” 121 VIII 0 content meaning of the stories 4.2.2 Implementation of interpersonal functions in line with mood, modality and person This section concentrates on the use of mood, modality, and person which are basic components of the interpersonal metafunction 4.2.2.1 Mood In this section, the researcher intended to explore the three structural mood types, including declarative, interrogative, and imperative mood which are used in the selected picture books Declarative mood There are a total of 34 sentence examples from the two picture books that illustrate how the authors use declarative mood in these stories Nevertheless, the study revealed 20 typical excerpts below as an illustration of using declarative mood in the two picture books Twiggle lived with his mother and father He did not have any brothers or sisters (MF, p.4) Twiggle’s parents played games with him and talked to him, but they were busy turtles Twiggle’s parents did not always have time to spend with their little turtle Sometimes Twiggle felt sad and lonely (MF, p.6) Twiggle’s grandmother took care of him while Twiggle’s parents were at work Twiggle loved his grandmother, but he wished he had brothers and sisters to play with (MF, p.8) 81 0 One morning, Twiggle felt especially sad and lonely His head drooped as he looked outside Twiggle’s grandmother asked him what was wrong (MF, p.10) Twiggle thought about what his grandmother had said Twiggle decided to go outside and find out for himself (MF, p.14) The excerpts from to are used in declarative mood and in excerpt 1, the authors give factual information about Twiggle’s family members In excerpt 2, the authors inform the readers that Twiggle’s parents always busy themselves with their work, so Twiggle becomes a lonely turtle in his family Excerpt assists the readers know about Twiggle’s sentiment and his desire in terms of having someone to play with him In excerpt 4, the authors utilize declarative mood to express Twiggle’s depression and his grandmother’s worry for him, whereas excerpt shows Twiggle’s decision of finding friends according to his grandmother’s advice Twiggle had not gone far when he saw a brown hedgehog with prickly fur and a long snout (MF, p.16) Twiggle and Henrietta had a great time playing tag for a while (MF,p.20) Then Henrietta’s mother called inside to eat lunch (MF, p.22) Henrietta Pretty soon, Twiggle came to the edge of the pond He saw a small yellow duck splashing in the water (MF, p.24) 10 Twiggle helped Daphne gather the twigs The two friends talked to each other while they worked (MF, p.28) With the declarative mood in excerpt 6, the four authors express the meeting between Twiggle and Henrietta (the brown hedgehog) In excerpt 7, the four authors utilize the declarative mood to illustrate the joyfulness of the play between Twiggle and Henrietta The declarative mood in excerpt aims at expressing the invitation of Henrietta’s mother for lunch In excerpt 9, the authors display the encounter of the little turtle and the yellow Duke (Daphne) by using the declarative mood The authors use the declarative mood in excerpt 10 to express Twiggle’s help and the joyful time of the two friends 82 0 11 Twiggle the turtle likes going to school At school, he saw his friends Henrietta the hedgehog, Daphne the duck and Duke the dog (LT, p.4) 12 Twiggle liked his teacher, Miss Cathy He liked Circle Time and having cheese crackers for snack (LT, p.6) 13 Twiggle’s favourite place to play was the block area Most days, Twiggle and his friends had fun playing together (LT, p.8) 14 All of a sudden, there was a loud crash The super tower came tumbling down The blocks fell all over the floor (LT, p.14) 15 Twiggle felt very, very angry inside His heart was beating very fast He felt like he was going to blow up (LT, p.16) With the declarative mood in excerpt 11, the authors inform the readers that going to school and meeting Twiggle’s friends are Twiggle’s interests Additionally, excerpt 12 and excerpt 13 give information about Twiggle’s favorite teacher, his favorite time to listen to a story, his favorite kind of snack as well as his favorite area to play with his friends In excerpt 14, the authors show that Twiggle and his friends intend to build a super tower in the block area and the accidental tumble of the super tower The authors use declarative mood in excerpts 15 to describe the beating of Twiggle’s heart and express his anger 16 Twiggle was so mad that he pushed Henrietta on the top of the blocks Henrietta felt scared The blocks hurt her when she fell on them Her feelings were hurt, too (LT, p.18) 17 For the rest of the day, Twiggle’s friend stayed away from him On the way home from school, no one wanted to sit next to Twiggle on the bus Twiggle felt lonely without his friends (LT, p.20) 18 The next day at school, Twiggle played by himself He felt very sad about what he had done to Henrietta (LT, p.24) 0 19 Next, he took a long, deep breath Twiggle could feel that he was starting to calm down Then he calms out of his shell (LT, p.38) 83 20 Miss Cathy gave Twiggle a compliment Henrietta said she was sorry to Twiggle 0 for tearing his picture Twiggle said he was sorry for pushing Henrietta down in the blocks Twiggle and Henrietta were friends again (LT, p.40) The declarative mood which is used in excerpt 16 impresses the readers by mentioning Twiggle’s bad behavior as he pushes Henrietta on the block and Henrietta’s injured feelings In excerpt 17, the authors inform the readers that Twiggle is isolated by his friends and he becomes a lonely turtle The four authors utilize the declarative mood in excerpt 18 to reveal Twiggle’s regret that he pushes and yells at Henrietta In excerpt 19, by using the declarative mood, the authors also show that Twiggle can control his irritation according to Wise Ole Turtle’s advice With the declarative mood in excerpt 20, the authors apprise Miss Cathy’s compliment to Twiggle and the apologies of Henrietta and Twiggle for pushing the hedgehog and tearing the little turtle’s paper Interrogative mood The below sentences present the use of interrogative mood in the series of the picture books “Twiggle Story.” Nevertheless, the total number of example sentences of interrogative mood is sentences which are only found in the “Twiggle Makes Friends” story Based on the results of the study, there is no use of interrogative mood in the “Twiggle Learns To Do Turtle” picture book 21 I wonder what a friend is? he thought (MF, p.14) 22 “Who are you?” (MF, p.16) 23 “Will you be my friend?” asked Henrietta (MF, p.18) 24 “I’m Twiggle Who are you?” (MF, p.24) 25 “Do you want to be my friend and play with me?” asked Twiggle (MF, p.24) 26 “Friends also help each other Would you like to help me gather twigs?” (MF, p.28) 27 “Will you be my friend?” asked Twiggle (MF, p.32) 28 “What did you learn about having friends?” (MF, p.38) 29 “Do you know what the best part is?” asked Twiggle (MF, p.42) 84 0 In sentences 21, 22, and 24, the four authors use the WH-interrogative mood to reveal the uncertainties Through sentence 21, the authors show that Twiggle has an uncertain perception of friendship Sentences 22 and 24 inform the readers about uncertain people that the characters in the stories want to know each other Sentence 28 is also utilized the WH-interrogative mood to expose the curiosity of Twiggle’s grandmother in terms of what Twiggle has learned about friendship Sentences 23, 25, 26, 27, and 29 are classified as yes/no interrogative mood, and with the interrogative mood in sentences 23, 25, and 27, the authors tell the readers that Henrietta wishes to make friends with Twiggle and Twiggle wants to become friends with Daphne and Duke Sentence 26 assists the readers have a perception that Daphne requests the little turtle to support him in gathering the twigs In sentence 29, the authors use interrogative mood to show the from making friends with his new friends lessons of friendship that Twiggle learns Imperative mood The imperative mood in the two picture books is also presented in the following sentences 30 “Tell me about it,” said his grandmother (MF, p 42) 31 “If you feel mad, sad or upset in any way, you can go inside your shell to calm down I call this ‘doing turtle’ Watch me.” (LT, p 28) 32 “Go inside your shell like this,” said Wise Old Turtle “When you are inside your shell, three things.” (LT, p 28) 33 “First, tell yourself stop.” (LT, p.28) 34 “Next, take one long, deep breath.” (LT, p.30) 35 “Then, say what the problem is and how you feel.” (LT, p.32) In sentence 30, the four authors use imperative mood to inform the readers about his grandmother’s request about telling her the lesson of friendship that Twiggle learns from his friends By using imperative mood from sentences 31 to 35, the authors give the information to the reader about specific instructions that Wise Old Turtle advises Twiggle Sentence 31 shows that Wise Old Turtle requests Twiggle to look at him and 85 0 following him With the imperative mood in sentences 32, 33, 34, and 35, the authors aim at displaying the steps of reducing the madness as well as unhappiness that Wise Old Turtle recommends Twiggle to follow Overall, the declarative mood is employed comprehensively in the two picture books; whereas, the use of interrogative and imperative mood is less than the use of declarative mood 4.2.2.2 Modality In this section, the researcher investigated the use of modality function in the series of the set of picture books “Twiggle Story.” In the two picture books, Domitrovich, Greenberg, Kusché, and Cortes (2004) just apply four types of modal verbs, including ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘can’, and ‘could’ The followings are examples with the use of the modal verb ‘will’ That’s great I love to play, so I will be your friend.” (MF, p.18) “I will be your friend, but I’m too busy to play right now I’m supposed to be gathering these big twigs for our family nest, but it is hard for me to carry them.” (MF, p.26) “I will be your friend,” said Duke (MF, p.34) “Something else that friends is share I will share my snack with you.” (MF, p.36) “He will help you learn how to calm down when you are upset.” (LT, p.20) “This will help you calm down and stay in control,” Wise Old Turtle explained (LT, p 32) 0 By using the modal verb ‘will’ from sentences to 6, the authors show a high level of commitment and inform the readers about the character’s intention in the two stories From sentences to 3, the four authors notify the readers that Twiggle, Daphne, and Duke intend to become friends with each other With the modal verb ‘will’ in sentence 4, the authors of the two stories indicate Duke’s intention about sharing the snack with Twiggle The modal verb ‘will’ in sentence tells the readers that according to the plan, Wise Old Turtle is the person helping Twiggle to control his anger or sadness 86 0 In sentence 6, the authors expose Wise Old Turtle’s intention about assisting Twiggle and he expects that his solution is helpful for Twiggle to reduce stress or anger There are only two sentence examples of using the modal verb ‘would’ in both picture books “Then you would not feel sad and lonely anymore.” (MF, p.12) But sometimes, if Twiggle felt sad or mad, he would say or mean things (LT, p.10) The modal verbs ‘would’ in both sentences and aim to indicate the possibility of the characters in the stories In sentence 7, the authors utilize the modal verb ‘would’ to imply the possibility that Twiggle has an opportunity to make friends and become happier if he follows his grandmother’s advice In sentence 8, the authors use ‘would’ to express the possibility of Twiggle’s bad attitude as he gets depressed or upset “I bet if you went outside and looked hard enough, you could find a friend Then you could find a friend.” (MF, p.12) 10 “Twiggle decided to walk down the path a little farther to see if he could find any more friends to play with.” (MF, p 22) 11 Duke broke the snack into two pieces so that Twiggle could eat it with him (MF, p.34) 12 Next he took a long, deep breath Twiggle could feel that he was starting to calm down Then he came out of his shell (LT, p 38) In both sentences and 10, the authors in the two stories use the modal verb ‘could’ to tell the readers about the possibility of finding friends for Twiggle The modal verb ‘could’ in sentence 11 is utilized to express Duke’s wish that the little dog wants Twiggle to have a snack with him In sentence 12, the authors indicate the possibility of Twiggle’s controlling his anger or sadness 13 “We can play together or I can help you That is what friends do.” (MF, p.32) 14 “ If you feel mad, sad or upset in any way, you can go inside your shell to calm down I call this ‘doing Turtle.’ Watch me.” (LT, p.28) With the use of the modal verb ‘can’ in sentence 13, the authors present the possibility of true friendship that a friend is able to for the other one In sentence 14, 87 0 the authors expose Twiggle’s ability to turtle and how he keeps calm as he is inside his shell by using the modal verb ‘can.’ Generally, the modality function of the interpersonal metafunction just occupies a small amount in the selected picture books and it is mainly used show the possibility or ability of actions 4.2.2.3 Person This section shows how the authors use interpersonal functions of language in line with person from the two stories Based on the data analysis, there are two characteristics 0 of using personal pronouns in the selected picture books Firstly, the four authors use only one type of personal pronoun in an excerpt The other feature is that there are different personal pronouns in one excerpt There are 43 sentence examples of using personal pronouns; however, the researcher attempted to examine some typical sentences of interpersonal functions in line with person The following excerpts are examples of utilizing the first-person pronoun (I), the second person pronoun (you), and the third person pronouns (he and she) in the “Twiggle Makes Friends” and “Twiggle Learns To Do Turtle” stories In a pond in the middle of a park, there lived a little green turtle named Twiggle Twiggle lived with his mother and father He did not have any brothers or sisters (MF, p.4) Twiggle’s grandmother took care of him while Twiggle’s parents were at work Twiggle loves his grandmother, but he wished he had brothers or sisters to play with (MF, p.8) It was time for Twiggle to go home On the way back to his side of the pond, Twiggle met a dog named Duke, who was also walking home (MF, p.32) Twiggle the turtle likes going to school At school, he saw his friends Henrietta the hedgehog, Daphne the duck, Duke the dog (LT, p.4) One day, Twiggle and his friends built a super tower in the block area Henrietta decided the super tower needed one more block She stood on tiptoe to reach the top of the tower (LT, p.12) 88 0 The next day at school, Henrietta still felt mad at Twiggle for pushing her down in the block area She grabbed a picture that Twiggle was drawing and ripped it in half (LT, p.34) Twiggle started feeling very mad inside his body He wanted to hit Henrietta Then he remembered what Wise Old Turtle taught him He could Turtle! Twiggle pulled his arms, legs, and head into his shell and said “Stop!” (LT, p.36) From excerpt to excerpt 7, the authors utilize third-person pronouns (he, she) in the series of the picture books “Twiggle Story” to assist the readers to know that the role of the four authors is the narrators Additionally, the authors’ intention of using the third person is to make themselves separable from the parts of the stories and highlight the main characters in the two stories With the third pronoun (he) from the above excerpts, the character is identified as the little turtle named Twiggle and in excerpts and 6, the third pronoun ‘she’ is used to imply the brown hedgehog (Henrietta) “I’m sad and lonely,” said Twiggle “I don’t have any brothers or sisters to play with.” (MF, p.10) “Well, I learned that friends lots of different things Friends play together 0 Friends help each other And friends share.” (MF, p.40) 10 “Then, say what the problem is and how you feel.” “This will help you calm down and stay in control,” Wise Old Turtle explained (LT, p.32) As indicated in excerpts and 9, the four authors of the picture books use the first pronoun ‘I’ in the reported speech to refer to the main character in the stories (Twiggle) They use the first-person pronoun ‘I’ to assist the readers to identify the characters in the stories as the narrators Applying the first personal pronoun ‘I’ in excerpts and makes the readers have to relate themselves to the stories and see them as their own stories when they read and this is made possible by the use of the first-person pronoun By using the second person pronoun ‘you’ in excerpts 10, the authors of the stories indicate that the character who is mentioned in excerpt 10 is the little turtle (Twiggle) 89 0 ... thesis entitled ? ?Analysis of verbal presentation of the series of the picture books: ? ?Twiggle story. ” Apart from the act of consulting references which is considered as the information of reliable... discusses the background of the study, the rationale of the study, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, research questions, significance of the study, the scope of the study,... with the verbal presentation to make the meaning of the story vibrant There are many studies on the multimodality of picture books, the relationship between verbal and visual models of picture books,