Output file 1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN VERBAL PROCESS AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE U S PRES[.]
1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN VERBAL PROCESS AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE U.S PRESIDENT BARRACK OBAMA’S VICTORY SPEECHES (Q TRÌNH PHÁT NGƠN VÀ SỰ THỂ HIỆN CỦA NĨ TRONG CÁC BÀI DIỄN VĂN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARRACK OBAMA) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi, July, 2010 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN VERBAL PROCESS AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE U.S PRESIDENT BARRACK OBAMA’S VICTORY SPEECHES (Q TRÌNH PHÁT NGƠN VÀ SỰ THỂ HIỆN CỦA NÓ TRONG CÁC BÀI DIỄN VĂN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARRACK OBAMA) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor : Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm Hanoi, July, 2010 z NOTATIONAL CONVENTION Tran: transitivity Pre: predicate Fini: Finite Com: complement Cir: circumstance Adj: Adjunct Sub: Subject Pro: process Mate: material z TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Notational convention iv Table of content v CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scopes of the study Method of study Data collection Design of the study CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Functional Grammar Metafunctions 2.1 Ideational metafunction 2.2 Interpersonal metafunction 2.3 Textual metafunction The grammar of Experiental meaning: Transitivity 3.1 Process, Participant and Circumstance 3.2 Process types 10 3.2.1 Material process 12 3.2.2 Mental process 13 3.2.3 Behavioral process 13 3.2.4 Relational process 14 3.2.5 Existential process 14 3.2.6 The circumstance 15 Verbal process in English 16 z 4.1 Structure of a Verbal process 16 4.2 Components of the Verbal process 17 4.2.1 The Process 17 4.2.2 The Sayer 18 4.2.3 The Receiver 19 4.2.4 The Verbiage 19 CHAPTER III: THE STUDY 21 Research questions 21 Research design 21 2.1 Data collection 21 2.2 Declarative clauses in the data 22 Analytical framework 26 3.1 Process 26 3.2 Sayer 26 3.3 Receiver 26 3.4 Verbiage 27 3.5 Target 27 Data analysis 27 4.1 The verb “Say” 28 4.2 The verb “Tell” 29 4.3 The verb “Ask” 30 4.4 The verb “Promise” 31 4.5 The verb “Speak” 31 4.6 The verb “Call” 32 4.7 The verb “Respond” 33 4.8 The verb “Question” 33 4.9 The verb “Wonder” 33 4.10 The verb “Agree, Disagree” 34 4.11 The verb “Offer” 34 4.12 The verb “Answer” 34 4.13 The verb “Declare” 35 z 4.14 Personal pronouns 35 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 37 Major findings 37 Implications 37 Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCE I Appendix II Appendix VII z 10 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Human‘s language has developed through thousands of years From the very first time, although in very difficult living conditions, man tried to ―invent‖ his own language to communicate, to live and survive Besides, man has always wanted to understand more about the nature of language In their book, Thomas Bloor and Meriel Bloor (1995) once mentioned that linguists and grammarians ―have struggled to understand more about how human language is structured and how communication takes place‖ Grammar, among other branches of linguistics, therefore, can be seen as the most beautiful tool to satisfy this desire With the other three grammatical paradigm such as traditional grammar, structural grammar, and transformational generative grammar, functional grammar has had a significant impact on language teaching over the years Systemic functional grammar (SFG) or systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a model of grammar that was developed by Michael Halliday in the 1960s It is part of a broad social semiotic approach to language called systemic linguistics The term "systemic" refers to the view of language as "a network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making meaning"; The term "functional" indicates that the approach is concerned with meaning, as opposed to formal grammar, which focuses on word classes such as nouns and verbs, typically without reference beyond the individual clause Systemic functional grammar is concerned primarily with the choices that the grammar makes available to speakers and writers These choices relate speakers' and writers' intentions to the concrete forms of a language Traditionally the "choices" are viewed in terms of either the content or the structure of the language used In SFG, language is analyzed in three different ways, or strata: phonology, lexico grammar and semantics SFG presents a view of language in terms of both structure (grammar) and words (lexis) The term "lexico grammar" describes this combined approach Trying to incorporate meaning, function, context and grammatical categories, functional grammar has provided the learners of language with an analytic tool of looking at the whole text and the grammatical features which are characteristics of that kind of text Functional grammar has been studied by many functional grammarians like Halliday z 11 (1985, 1994), Bloor (1994), Eggins (1994), Thompson (1996), Morley (1985), etc In Vietnamese, the first functional grammar studies that should be counted as Cao Xuân Hạos (1991) Tiếng Việt: Sơ thảo ng pháp chức năng; Hoàng Văn Vâns (2002), Ng pháp Tiếng Việt Vị từ hành động These studies are the first attempts to bring the diagram which has not yet been highlighted in Vietnamese schools closer to the Vietnamese learners With the same purpose, I choose functional grammar as the area of study for my M.A thesis However, because of the limitation of time and resources, I am not able to cover all aspects of functional grammar What I would like to is to limit myself to a sub-area of functional grammar, the transitivity system, of which the study focuses on one of the processes in the transitivity system of English verbal process My thesis would like to touch upon how verbal process operates and the its applications in spoken text – speeches and how it helps speakers persuade the listeners The study will use Halliday‘s functional grammar as the theoretical framework Aims of the Study Within the framework of an M.A thesis, the study is aimed at: examining some of the most important issues related to verbal process analyzing the use of verbal process in some victory speeches of the U.S President offering some suggestions for learning and teaching Scopes of the Study As stated in 2., the study does not cover all aspects of functional grammar but limits itself to a sub-area of functional grammar In particular, the study focuses on examining verbal process in two victory speeches delivered by U.S President Barrack Obama To narrow the topic down to these two focuses, it is firstly essential to identify the linguistic space in which verbal process in located In this belief, the study examines in depth the functional systemic theory and the primary concepts of systemic theory, such as context, metafunctions, the grammar of experience and its representations in the transitivity system The transitivity system consists of six processes, one of which is, according to functional linguists, verbal process This is the first focus of the study z 12 The second focus of the study is to take a deep look on verbal process in English and explore its usage and efficiency in persuading listeners Method of the Study This study is primarily concerned with analyzing verbal processes in a particular text In order to fulfill this aim, it uses two main methods: (i) the quantitative, which is concerned with the description of verbal process in English, and (ii) the qualitative, which is concerned with the realization of the process in victory speeches Special attention will also be paid to those which are not only formally but also semantically similar Through the analysis, the writer hopes to find anything different in the way the U.S President made speeches and how he could win the election to become the very first colored man to hold the power Data Collection Data for the research will be selected from different sources All the examples for investigation can be both in spoken and written style Data for analyzing verbal processes will be collected in some victory speeches of the new U.S president Barrack Obama Since the study is concerned with the aspect of grammar which confines to clauses and clause complexes, examples of the whole text seem not to be necessary Design of the Study This study is organized around four chapters: The first chapter – The Introduction – presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, scopes of the study, methods of the study, data collection and the research design Chapter two – Theoretical Background- is concerned with the theoretical orientations of the study, systemic-functional theory, the notions of language and context, the metafunctions of the language, the grammar of experience: transitivity, and the different process types in the transitivity system Chapter three – The Study – focuses on the application of this process in a real life text Chapter four – The Conclusion – provides the major findings of the thesis and offers some implications of the study and some suggestions for further study z 13 z ... the speaker makers responsible for the validity of what he is saying + The Theme functions in the structure of the clause as a message A clause has meaning as a message, a quantum of information;... such as traditional grammar, structural grammar, and transformational generative grammar, functional grammar has had a significant impact on language teaching over the years Systemic functional... theoretical framework Aims of the Study Within the framework of an M. A thesis, the study is aimed at: examining some of the most important issues related to verbal process analyzing the use