grammatical metaphor in english pharmaceutical discourse = ẩn dụ ngữ pháp trong ngôn bản dược tiếng anh

Types of grammatical metaphor in English pharmaceutical discourse .... Which types of grammatical metaphor are used in English pharmaceutical discourse.. What is the ratio of grammatical

VŨ THỊ MẪU

GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR

IN ENGLISH PHARMACEUTICAL DISCOURSE

ẨN DỤ NGỮ PHÁP TRONG NGÔN BẢN DƯỢC TIẾNG ANH

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

HANOI - 2011

VŨ THỊ MẪU

GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR

IN ENGLISH PHARMACEUTICAL DISCOURSE

ẨN DỤ NGỮ PHÁP TRONG NGÔN BẢN DƯỢC TIẾNG ANH

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Ph.D

HANOI - 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS vi

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

1.1 Why English pharmaceutical discourse? 1

1.2 Why systemic functional grammar? 1

1.3 Why grammatical metaphor? 2

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Research questions 3

5 Methods and data of the study 4

6 Format of the study 5

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

1.1 Introduction 6

1.2 Language and social context 6

1.3 Metafunctions 7

1.4 Nominal group 9

1.5 Concluding remarks 10

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH 11

2.1 Introduction 11

2.2 What is grammatical metaphor? 11

2.3 Classification of grammatical metaphor 14

2.3.1 Ideational metaphor 14

2.3.2 Interpersonal metaphor 15

2.3.3 Textual metaphor 17

2.4 Concluding remarks 17

CHAPTER 3: GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH

PHARMACEUTICAL DISCOURSE 18

3.1 Introduction 18

3.2 The authors and the chosen discourses 18

3.3 Linguistic features of English pharmaceutical discourse 19

3.3.1 Lexical features of English pharmaceutical discourse 20

3.3.2 Grammatical features of English pharmaceutical discourse 21

3.4 Nominalization and English pharmaceutical discourse 24

3.5 Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in English pharmaceutical discourse 25

3.6 Types of grammatical metaphor in English pharmaceutical discourse 26

3.6.1 Ideational metaphor 26

3.6.2 Interpersonal metaphor 35

3.6.3 Textual metaphor 37

3.7 Concluding remarks 37

PART 3: CONCLUSION 38

1 Reiteration 38

2 Implications of the study 39

2.1 To teachers 39

2.2 To translators 40

3 Limitations of the study 41

4 Prospects for further studies 42

REFERENCES 43

SOURCES OF DATA 46

APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: THE DISCOURSES FOR ANALYSIS I APPENDIX 2: CLAUSES AND CLAUSE COMPLEXES X APPENDIX 3: IDEATIONAL GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR XXVII APPENDIX 4: GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR OF MOOD XXXVI

APPENDIX 5: NOMINALIZATIONS XXXVII

APPENDIX 6: LEXICAL DENSITY XLVI

APPENDIX 7: TRANSITIVITY PATTERN LV APPENDIX 8: MOOD PATTERN LXIV

APPENDIX 9: THEMATIC PATTERN LXXIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

CFL : College of Foreign Languages

CUP : Cambridge University Press

Dr : Doctor

Ed(s) : Editor(s)

ELT : English Language Teaching

ESP : English for Specific Purpose

EPD(s) : English Pharmaceutical Discourse(s)

SFG : Systemic Functional Grammar

SFL : Systemic Functional Linguistics

Vol : Volume

VNU : Vietnam National University, Hanoi

ULIS : University of Languages and International Studies

USA : The United States of America

[2: 1] : Example number 1, Chapter 2

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1.1: Language as the realization of social context 6

Figure 1.2: Language as tri-stratal system 7

Figure 2.1: Mapping of components 12

Figure 3.1: Distribution of types of logico-semantic relation in EPD 22

Figure 3.2: Distribution of types of process in EPD 23

Figure 3.3: Distribution of types of theme in EPD 23

Figure 3.4: Direction of metaphorization 28

Figure 3.5: Distribution of types of ideational GM in EPD 29

Table 1.1: Process types, their meanings and key participants 8

Table 2.1: Congruent relationship between semantics and lexicogrammar 11

Table 2.2: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation 13

Table 3.1: Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in EPD 25

Table 3.2: Types of grammatical metaphor 27

Table 3.3: Types of ideational metaphors in EPD 28

1 Rationale

1.1 Why English pharmaceutical discourse?

Since language has always mirrored society, the emphasis on pharmacy in the recent decades has given rise to the growth of pharmaceutical literature As English is an international language and the United States of America (USA for short) has got big achievements in pharmacy, most pharmaceutical papers are only available in English In Vietnam, the study of pharmaceutical literature has been playing a greater role However, making sense of English pharmaceutical discourse (hereafter abbreviated EPD) is not an easy task for readers of general English, language students, and even readers of ESP (English for Specific Purpose) as these EPDs require both linguistic and subject knowledge Meanwhile, most of them may not have high level of English and pharmacy competence Obviously, as a kind of scientific and technical writing, EPD is not transparent

to the laymen Therefore, an analysis of EPD sounds important as it draws insights from both pharmaceutical expertise and English language expertise Such insights are likely to

be of potential value in improving reading, writing and translating competence of language students coming new to the discipline

Besides, EPD has been always of my personal interest I have taught English for many pharmacist students and helped my pharmacist-student sister deal with EPD; it is apparent

to me that this kind of discourse is extremely complicated and need studying

Although previous research has studied scientific discourse (Đỗ Tuấn Minh, 2001, Briones

et al, 2003, and etc.), different branches, namely, biology, literature, pharmacy, etc perform distinct functions, have a distinct set of users, pursue different pace of development and, therefore, may present dissimilar characteristics Nguyễn Thị Vân Hạnh (2008) says that medico-pharmaceutical English differs much from others in terms of lexical features Also, my own EPD study has found evidence for the claim of complexity

in this particular genre Hence, study on language used in EPD is undeniably of necessity

1.2 Why systemic functional grammar?

Different from formalism which views language as a set of rules and concentrates on language forms and structures, systemic functional grammar (SFG afterward) considers language as limitless resources used to carry out, to a limitless level, a mode of an action

SF linguistics (SFL from now on) is particularly concerned with describing the relationship between language and social context and its primary aim is to understand how the grammar serves as a resource for making and exchanging meanings A SFG provides language teachers with tools for understanding why a discourse is the way it is; thus, good SFG can help language teachers be more effective teachers

In addition, some studies have already investigated medico-pharmaceutical language (Nguyễn Thị Ánh Hồng, 2005, Nguyễn Thị Vân Hạnh, 2008 and Lưu Trọng Tuấn, 2008); however, these papers are simply based on the structural approach (Hồng studies its terminologies and translation, Hạnh pays attention to its lexical and morphological characteristics and Tuấn investigates its syntactic features) and not enough research has been carried out to investigate lexicogrammatical features of EPD None of the papers found uses SFL to analyze PD Thus, an analysis of PD which uses SFG as framework is important since it fills the gap in pharmaceutical literature This thesis focuses on both the wording and the meaning of EPD within SF framework and specifically on one interesting and powerful feature, GM

1.3 Why grammatical metaphor?

There is a great number of factors that help make PD what it is; and due to the limitation of time and effort as well as within the scope of an M.A minor thesis, I was forced to investigate one of these aspects only Although grammatical metaphor (GM for short) is one of the most interesting and important concept within SFL and is considered vitally important in creating scientific discourse (Halliday, 1994, Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999 &

2004, and Đỗ Tuấn Minh, 2001), it has not attracted enough attention paid by Vietnamese researchers GM, a lexicogrammatical phenomenon which first involves the transcategorization of various elements in a clause, and second is a mapping of the semantic and lexicogrammatical components in a way which deviates from the usual one (Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999), appears considerably frequently in the EPD constructed by pharmaceutical specialists and the use of GM in EPD contributes to its complexity and ambiguity Thus, it may cause difficulties for readers in understanding what is really meant

or referred to As a result, GM should be taken into account in EPD

With all the above mentioned, I was inspired into the study of GM used in EPD in the light

of SFG The EPDs taken into consideration are from specialized pharmaceutical books published in the USA by worldwide famous publishers Hopefully, this thesis will provide

an insight into the nature and the role of GM in EPD, contribute to a fuller understanding of EPD, help readers to realize its importance in comprehending and manipulating EPD and translators of this specialized language can, to some extent, benefit

2 Aims of the study

The ultimate aim of the study is to make an inquiry into the nature of GM and to examine its use in EPD To achieve this aim, the paper will examine how semantics and lexicogrammar are related since their relationship provides environment for the occurrence

of GM The study also takes the use of GM, including its frequency and types, in EPD into consideration and attempts to answer the question of how writers of this genre fully exploit the potential of a natural process of linguistic change to meet their scientific goals It is hoped that the investigation into GM in EPD will provide an insight into EPD

3 Research questions

The study aims to give answer to the following research questions:

1 What is the nature of grammatical metaphor?

2 What are linguistic features of English pharmaceutical discourse?

3 Which types of grammatical metaphor are used in English pharmaceutical discourse?

4 What is the ratio of grammatical metaphor (number of grammatical metaphor instances per clause) in English pharmaceutical discourse?

4 Scope of the study

In this study, I do not have an ambition to cover all aspects of SFG Only issues related to

GM such as framework, elements and features are taken into consideration Types of PD may be lessons in textbook, newspaper articles, magazine articles, reports, journals, presentations, speeches, etc However, this study does not explore all kinds of PD Only

one type is chosen, that is, discourse in English specialized advanced books for

pharmacists and pharmacist students Specifically, these discourses are centered mainly on pharmacology, a branch of pharmacy studies Other kinds will not be studied in this

investigation Besides, PD may range from spoken type to written one Since GM happens more often in written discourse (Halliday, 1994, Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999 & 2004,

and Đỗ Tuấn Minh, 2001), the analysis focuses on the written discourse It is predicted that

this kind of discourse exploits many instances of GM Also, this paper does not attempt to

investigate Vietnamese PD concurrently, so only English discourses are analyzed In

addition, even the researcher is well aware of the fact that PD is not solely communicated through verbal language, the analysis solely focuses on the verbal record of the discourses Therefore, the graphs, tables, figures, diagrams, imagines, photographs, and etc included

in those discourses are ignored All the titles and headings in those discourses are also not

analyzed The writer desires to focus on the nature of GM, its occurrence and types in written EPD Special emphasis is put into analyzing ideational GM, which plays the key

role in construing meaning in the discourse An attempt is also made to explain how GM is deployed in EPD with special concern about nominalization, which is „the single most powerful resource for creating [GM]‟ (Halliday, 1994: 352)

Since there is not enough space for a minor M.A thesis to investigate the whole three

pharmaceutical books of more than a thousand pages, seven written EPDs of eight pages

(in its authentic papers) seem to be more feasible Those papers are written by American professional pharmaceutical specialists The English language used in these documents is authentic and is named in the Sources of Data This study is confined to an analysis at

clause level of 132 clauses concerned and rank-shifted clauses within these 132 clauses are

excluded in the analysis of linguistic features and GM It is also hoped that the limitations

of this work would be good starting points for further studies on this issue

5 Methods and data of the study

As the study sets its main aim of investigating the nature, functions and use of GM in EPD,

the methods used are mainly descriptive, explanatory, statistical, analytical and

corpus-based The study begins with a phenomenon and seeks to describe, explain and analyze it

The descriptive method is used to describe theories related to GM and to build up a framework for the study The theoretical background relies on the published research of various authors on social context, strata, metafunctions, nominal group, and GM We base ourselves on the GM theory and framework proposed by some most influential systemicists: Halliday, Matthiessen, Martin, Thompson, and etc Explanation is also added

to clarify the points Then, instances of linguistic patterns concerned and GM are listed, numbered and analyzed using SFG and GM framework Basing on the analysis, necessary comments and suggestions are given Also, the research studies GM in EPD based on a corpus, „a large amount of written and sometimes spoken material collected to show the state of a language‟ (Cambridge Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, 2nd Edition), from some pharmaceutical books The discourses provide the researcher genuine examples of language in use to analyze the EPD characteristics, GM features as well as explain why the patterns exist It is hoped that seven discourses with 132 clauses would be a sufficient corpus for this minor thesis

The seven discourses are collected from the three books, namely, Pharmacology and the

nursing process, Levine’s pharmacology: Drug actions and reactions, Basic and clinical pharmacology, and Goodman and Gilman’s: The pharmacological basis of therapeutics

These books are considered typical pharmaceutical books and recommended by teachers at Hanoi University of Pharmacy The discourses are selected based on criteria of authenticity, relevance, style, topic variation and up-to-date documents These extracts are all considered authentic in the sense that they are used to study subject matters by pharmacist students and experts and have not been at all edited by the author of this thesis for the sake of GM analysis Regarding relevance, all the seven discourses show a great number of GM instances In terms of formality, the corpus is written in an academic style

by native users of English They are also of different pharmaceutical subjects and have been published recently by world famous publishers

6 Format of the study

The paper is divided into three main parts The Introduction presents the background for

the research, including the rationale, the aims, scope, research questions, study methods,

data collection and organization The Development is subdivided into three chapters First,

Chapter 1 provides an overview of SF theory Next, Chapter 2 gives an insight to GM as

framework for the study Last, Chapter 3 studies linguistic features of EPD and explores

and discusses the use of GM in selected EPD as well as explains how GM is exploited in

creating EPD The Conclusion sums up the issues addressed in the study and provides

implications for teaching and translating EPD, limitations of the present study and suggestions for further research

1.2 Language and social context

„[SFL] is oriented to the description of language as a resource for meaning rather than as a system of rules‟ (Halliday & Martin, 1993: 22) and it only makes sense when placed in context SFG treats language and social context as complementary levels of semiotics, related by the concept of realization (Halliday & Martin, 1993: 23) The relationship between language and social context is represented in Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1: Language as the realization of social context

(Source: Halliday & Martin, 1993: 25)

A language consists of a set of systems; each offers the speaker/writer choice of ways of expressing meaning There are three strata: semantics, lexicogrammar and phonology (Halliday, 1977, cited in Cloran, Butt & Williams, 1996: 73) The heart of language is lexicogrammar (system of wording) In the linguistic universe, this stratum is located between semantics (system of meaning) and phonology (system of sounding) The tri-stratal system of language is illustrated in Figure 1.2

Social Context

Language

content

expression

Figure 1.2: Language as tri-stratal system

(Source: Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999: 5)

Also, context is divided into genre (context of culture) and register (context of situation)

Genre is defined „as the general framework that gives purpose to interactions of particular

types, adaptable to the many specific contexts of situation that they get used in‟ (Eggins,

1994: 32) Halliday and Hasan (1976: 41) see register as a language variety according to

use: register constrains the meanings that are likely to be made in situational contexts in

society Register is characterized by three parameters: field, tenor and mode

1.3 Metafunctions

The semantic stratum is organized into three metafunctional components: ideational,

interpersonal and textual They are interwoven with each other so that we can achieve all

three social functions simultaneously They are also of equal status

Firstly, the ideational metafunction, which includes two subdivisions experiential and

logical, reflects the field parameter The experiential refers to „propositional content

encoded as processes, events, participants, and the accompanying circumstances, etc.‟

(Teich, 1999: 15) Experiential function is realized by TRANSITIVITY system with six

process types: material, mental, relational, verbal, existential and behavioral process

The process types are summarized as follows:

Process type Category of meaning Participants

Table 1.1: Process types, their meanings and key participants

(Source: Halliday, 1994: 143)

The logical refers to „some general organizing relations expressed‟, for instance, paratactic versus hypotactic organization The following example is an illustration for the experiential and logical analysis of a clause:

[1: 1]

Experiential Sensor Process: Mental Phenomenon Sayer Process: Verbal

Secondly, the interpersonal metafunction is reflected by tenor Language is used to

enable us to participate in communicative acts with other people, to take on roles and to express and understand feelings, attitude and judgments (Bloor & Bloor, 1995: 9) One of its major grammatical systems is MOOD – the grammaticalization of speech function Mood expresses the choice of roles that the speaker may adopt for himself and assign to his hearer in the speech situation From this perspective, a clause consists of two components:

Mood and Residue Below is an analysis of a clause in terms of interpersonal function:

Subject Finite Predicator Complement Adjunct

Lastly, the textual metafunction enables the speaker or writer to construct texts It is

related to establishing coherence and cohesion in discourses It is realized by the system of

THEME Theme is the starting point of the utterance or „point of departure‟ and the rest of the clause is referred to as Rheme The Theme position lets the reader or listener know what the clause is going to be about We need to distinguish topical, textual and

interpersonal theme which relates to three metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and

textual Here is an example showing the analysis of textual function:

Textual Theme Interpersonal Theme Topical Theme Rheme

In brief, all three metafunctions are systemically and structurally simultaneous in general Bloor & Bloor (1995) explained that this is because the ideational function is realized by certain aspects of the grammar, the interpersonal function is also realized by other aspects and yet others realize the textual function In particular, Mood (interpersonal), Transitivity (ideational) and Theme (textual) operate simultaneously as three simultaneous layers within the structure of the clause (see Example [1: 4])

Location

Actor Process:

Material

Circumstance: Accompaniment

1.4 Nominal group

The nominal group is a powerful resource for making meaning It can be expanded to a more or less indefinite extent A nominal group expands lexically by the device known as modification In the view of Halliday (1994: 181-190) and Halliday & Matthiessen (2004:

329-335), the experiential structure of the nominal group consists of Deictic, Numerative, Epithet, Classifier and Thing If all these elements co-occur in the nominal group, they

follow this order respectively Nouns and pronouns can realize the function of Thing, which „can be material inanimate thing, an animal, a person, a substance or even an abstract concept‟ (Bloor & Bloor, 1995: 139) The function of Deictic can be realized by demonstrative pronouns, articles and possessive nouns or pronouns Numerative can be

realized by numerals Adjectives can realize the function of Epithet, which provides the quality of the Thing Classifier, which can be realized by adjectives or nouns, restricts the meaning of Thing to a subclass However, there is a category within the nominal group

which follows the Thing, the Qualifier Its function is to characterize the Thing Halliday

& Matthiessen (2004: 329) provides a typical English nominal group as follows:

[1: 5]

Deictic Numerative Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier

Attitude Quality determiner numeral adjective adjective adjective noun prepositional phrase

preposition noun

The semantic principle of this lexical expansion, and its significance for discourse, is that it locates the participating entity along certain parameters ranging from the most instantial (Deictic) to the most systemic (Classifier)

1.5 Concluding remarks

In conclusion, the chapter has discussed theoretical background in which SFG is briefly summarized The chapter confirms that language has to be put in context and context is realized by the content level of language (semantics and lexicogrammar) and the content is given form in the expression level (phonology and graphology) In SFL the semantic level

is described basing on three lines of meaning: ideational, interpersonal and textual and

each meaning is related to a specific context or register variable (field, tenor and mode) which, in turn, is realized through one or more of the lexicogrammatical systems (transitivity, mood and theme) Although SFL deals with the functional issues of language,

it must still relate the function to structure As nominal group is considered central to make meaning in English, an attempt has been made to examine the structure of the nominal group It is found that the nominal group has, in its grammar, the potential for organizing a large quantity of lexical material into functional configurations Before carrying out a survey of GM in our chosen discourses, the next chapter will give an insight into the theoretical framework for analyzing GM in English

CHAPTER 2

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH

2.1 Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to figure out a theoretical framework for analyzing GM in EPD

by examining the concept of GM and its types in SFL Research by Halliday & Martin (1993), Halliday (1985 & 1994), Thompson (1996), Martin & Veel (1998), Halliday & Matthiessen (1999 & 2004), and Martin & Rose (2007) will be particularly referred to as to build framework for the analysis We will start by providing the definition of GM Then, different views on the classification of GM are also given

2.2 What is grammatical metaphor?

GM is one of the most interesting theoretical notions developed by Halliday within SFG

Halliday divides different grammatical forms with the same meaning into congruent and metaphorical variant and GM is the metaphorical expression of a meaning Table 2.1

below shows natural relation between semantics and lexicogrammar: people, places and things are realized nominally, actions are realized verbally, logical relations of time and consequence are realized conjunctively and so on

Sequence (of figures) realized by clause complex

Element (of figure)

Table 2.1: Congruent relationship between semantics and lexicogrammar

(Source: Martin & Veel, 1998: 189-190)

According to Halliday & Matthiessen (1999), there exist different components which can map onto each other in one way or another, as shown in Figure 2.1

Figure 2.1: Mapping of components

(Source: Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999, cited in Victor Ho, 2009: 3)

The solid lines indicate the usual mapping between the components in the two strata (unmarked form) and the dotted lines indicate the unusual mapping between the components (marked version) In other words, when a sequence is mapped onto, and thus realized as, a clause complex, a figure mapped onto and realized as a clause, an element mapped onto and realized as a participant, the resulting clause complex, clause or participant is congruent However, when a sequence is mapped onto and realized as a clause or even an element, a figure is mapped onto and realized as a participant, and an element is mapped onto a participant other than the usual one, the resulting clause or participant is metaphorical Consider the following example:

[2: 1] (i) The driver’s overrapid downhill driving of the bus caused brake failure

(ii) The driver was driving the bus too fast down the hill So, the brake failed.

Sequence (i)

Figure 1 Figure 2

The driver’s overrapid downhill driving of the bus caused brake failure

Nominal group 1: the driver’s overrapid downhill driving of the bus

Deictic Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier

Clause 1: the driver was driving the bus too fast down the hill

Participant: Actor Process: Material

In Example [2: 1], a sequence with two figures (congruently related by a relator „so‟) in (ii)

is realized by only a figure, in which the two figures become two nominal groups and are

connected by a verb „caused‟ as in (i) In this example seven instances of GM (words in

bold) showing by the arrows are involved (we will discuss more in the next chapter)

Congruent and metaphorical versions are said to be agnate but they are different ways of expressing the „same‟ meaning And we should bear in mind that: (1) (in)congruence is

always a matter of degree (more or less congruent or metaphorical), (2) expression and meaning cannot be separated since the expression is the meaning; and the choice of a more

metaphorical wording construes a different meaning from the choice of a more congruent

wording, and (3) more metaphorical wordings are inherently neither better nor worse than

more congruent ones: they are simply doing different jobs (Halliday, 1994: 342)

Now the question arises is that whether lexical metaphor (metaphor in traditional approach,

LM for short) and GM are one and the same phenomenon or two different phenomena The

answer is that they are not two different phenomena; they are both aspects of the same

general metaphorical strategy by which we expand our semantic resources for construing experience, but seen from different perspectives (Halliday, 1994: 341) That is to say, LM

is looked at „from below‟ as variation in the meaning of a given expression (Halliday,

1994: 342) For example, the LM ‘flood’ means either, literally, an inundation of water or,

metaphorically, an intense emotion as in ‘She felt a flood of relief’ In contrast, GM is

looked at „from above‟, examining variation in the expression of a given meaning (Halliday, 1994: 342) For instance, we have two ways to express intense emotion, either,

literally, as ‘She felt very relieved’, or, metaphorically, as ‘She felt a flood of relief’

Here is the summary of differences between LM and GM:

Traditional view: ‘from below’ New view: ‘from above’

Focus on lexical metaphor Focus on grammatical metaphor

Metaphor as variation in the meaning of a

given expression

Metaphor as variation in the expression of a given

meaning

Comparison of the meanings of one lexeme

(in different collocational contexts)

Comparisons of various grammatical

configurations as expressions of the same meaning Literal versus metaphorical (transferred)

meanings of a given lexeme

Degrees of (in)congruency: congruent and less

congruent expressions of a given meaning (Realization inherently plays a role in lexical

metaphor, but the concept is not used in the

traditional view on metaphor)

The feature of congruency applies to realizations

of the same meaning

Table 2.2: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation

(Source: Taverniers, 2002: 398 and Simon-Vandenbergen, Taverniers & Ravelli, 2003: 8)

From the table we can see that GM differs from LM in the sense that what is varied is not the lexis but the grammar In many instances, not unexpectedly, LM and GM go together

In ‘She felt a flood of relief’ there is not only the LM of ‘flood’ but also the GM of „a flood

of relief’ where intensity is represented as a Thing and the emotion as its Qualifier,

contrasting with „very relieved’, which intensity brought in as Submodifier ‘very’ to the Epithet ‘relieved’

Also, „lexical selection is just one aspect of lexicogrammatical selection, or „wording‟; and that metaphorical variation is lexicogrammatical rather than simply lexical Many metaphors can be located in lexical expressions but even with these, there is often grammatical variation accompanying them‟ and „there is also such a thing as [GM], where the variation is essentially in the grammatical forms although often entailing some lexical variation as well‟(Halliday, 1994: 341)

2.3 Classification of grammatical metaphor

Halliday (1994) divides GM into ideational and interpersonal one Martin in Halliday & Martin (1993) and Martin & Rose (2007) adds textual GM and analyzes ideational GM into logical and experiential GM Thompson (1996) also refers to textual GM However, an instance of GM may be involved in more than one metafunction (Hoàng Văn Vân, ibid, cited in Đỗ Tuấn Minh, 2001) This means that a congruent realization in the interpersonal metafunction may have its metaphorical realization in the experiential metafunction For

example, in „She should go to the meeting’ and „Her obligation is to go to the meeting’,

‘should’ is a congruent realization in the interpersonal metafunction and ‘obligation’ is a

metaphorical realization in the experiential metafunction In the following sections, GM will be divided into three types: ideational, interpersonal and textual

2.3.1 Ideational metaphor

Ideational GM is subdivided into logical and experiential one, in which the former is considered GM of transitivity and the latter of conjunction

Regarding logical GM, Martin & Rose (2007: 140) states that it „is used to reconstrue

logical relations between figures as if they were relations between elements within

figures‟ For example:

[2: 2] Such a hearing is likely to lead to a miscarriage of justice

Participant: Actor Process: Material Circumstance: Location

In Example [2: 2], conjunction ‘if…then’ (if such a hearing happens, then justice will be miscarried) is be realized as a process ‘is likely to lead’ Logical GM along with

experiential GM helps to package activity sequences as manageable chunks of information

The logical GM ‘is likely to lead’ enables the sequence of cause ‘such a hearing’ and effect ‘a miscarriage of justice’ to be packaged as chunks of information within a single

message

In experiential GM, elements of figures are reconstrued as if they were other kinds of

elements, such as process turns into thing and quality becomes thing For example:

an attributive meaning as in Example [2: 5]

[2: 4] These ideas have been subject to widespread criticism (Many people have criticized

these ideas)

[2: 5] This ambivalence towards literacy seems to be a strong element in contemporary

culture (People are ambivalent towards literacy…)

Thompson (1996: 167) argues that „this type of [GM] plays a key role because it involves a realignment of all the other elements of the message‟

2.3.2 Interpersonal metaphor

There exist two subtypes of interpersonal GM: GM of modality and GM of mood

As far as the former is concerned, the function of modality is expressed not only by modal verbs, but by nouns, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases and its corresponding

structures as well Interpersonal GM of modality has its characteristic of subjective and

objective Thompson (1996) claims that the non-negotiability associated with

nominalization can clearly be a powerful weapon in cases where the speaker or writer wishes, for whatever reason, to avoid negotiation, with its possible outcome of rejection In persuasive text, one common technique is to objectify opinion by nominalizing it, so as to make it more difficult for the reader or hearer to disagree with it For example:

[2: 6] But the possibility always existed of giving it a second runway

A more congruent form of that sentence can be: „People could always have given it a

second runway’ In the metaphorical realization, the modal verb „could‟ is nominalized

into „possibility‟ The author here tends to avoid subjective argument and makes it as a thing that always exists Let us see more examples of GM of modality:

[2: 7] I doubt if I could help anyway

Senser Process: Mental Actor Pro: Material

Actor Process: Material

Carrier Process: Relational Attribute Actor Process: Material

Actor Process: Material

The other type of interpersonal GM is GM of mood According to Halliday (1994: 363),

mood expresses the speech functions of statement, question, offer and command Statements are encoded by the declarative, questions by the interrogative, and commands

by the imperative clauses In GM of mood, one speech function can be realized by various moods and one mood can realize various speech functions Consider Example [2: 9]:

[2: 9] Speech function

Mood

Declarative I have never let

you down

I wonder where you have been

You should tell

have never let you down!

Tell me where you have been!

Tell me the truth!

According to Halliday, the various expressions in bold type above are GMs of mood

[2: 10] (i) I asked them round for drinks

(ii) What/All I did was ask them round for drinks

[2: 11] (i) I worry about the poor quality of their work

(ii) What worries me is the poor quality of their work

The Examples [2: 10] and [2: 11] above, sentences (ii) illustrate the expression of textual

GM regarding thematic equative Now we will look at what is textual GM in terms of predicated theme

[2: 12] (i) It was just drinks I asked them round for

(ii) It is the poor quality of their work (that) I’m worried about

Martin gives the reason for adding textual GM in types of GM, which is „[GM] affects both the ideational and textual structure of the clause since it is a tool for organizing text‟

(Martin in Halliday & Martin, 1993: 241)

2.4 Concluding remarks

In short, we have provided an investigation into GM in English with the emphasis on its nature and classification First, meaning can be construed in congruent and metaphorical representations andGM is the later variant, a substitution of one grammatical class, or one

grammatical structure, by another LM and GM are just one and the same phenomenon but

seen from different perspectives.Last, GM can be classified into ideational, interpersonal

and textual metaphor corresponding to three metafunctions and the first type is essential

for the development of arguments in written discourse In the following chapters we will explore how GM as a linguistic resource works in EPD Before analyzing GM in selected PDs, a general description of pharmaceutical English and some background on the authors and the PDs will be provided to set the background for the analysis

to bring in some backgrounds on the authors and contexts of the EPD, which are

considered important and even necessary to study these specialized discourses

3.2 The authors and the chosen discourses

The authors are all specialists in medicine and pharmacy, natives of English, live and work

in the USA First, the two authors of Goodman & Gilman’s: The Pharmacological Basis of

Therapeutics are Laurence L Brunton and Keith L Parker They are both American

recipients of Ph.D degrees in pharmacology and medicine Brunton is now a professor at University of California San Diego, School of Medicine and Parker is a professor at University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center Second, Linda Lane Lilley, Scott

Harrington and Julie Snyder are writers of Pharmacology and the Nursing Process Lilley

received her Ph.D diploma in nursing and is currently an associate professor at Old Dominion University, School of Nursing Harrington is a doctor of pharmacy and the director of Pharmacy for Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Arizona Snyder is a

Master of Science in Nursing at Old Dominion University Third, Levine’s Pharmacology:

Drug Actions and Reactions is written by Rochelle D Schwartz-Bloom and Carol Walsh

They are both American recipients of Ph.D degrees in pharmacology While

Schwartz-Bloom is a director of department of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University, Medical Center, Walsh is a professor at Boston University, School of Medicine

Regarding the chosen EPDs, Discourse 1 is from Lilley, page 37-38, Chapter 3 Life Span

Considerations, Part 1 Pharmacology Basics It is about considerations when using drugs

and treating illnesses during breast-feeding in order to ensure best health for the child (children) being breast-fed Discourse 3 is on page 237 (Lilley), Chapter 15

Psychotherapeutic Agents, Part 2 Drugs Affecting the Central Nervous System It provides

general picture of mental illness Discourse 2 is from Lilley, page 724, Chapter 42

Antiseptic and Disinfectant, Part 7 Anti-infective and Anti-inflammatory Agents It gives

fundamentals on assessment of antiseptic and guides doctors and nurses how to make use

of antiseptic and avoid its counter-products Then, Discourse 4 is extracted from Walsh,

page 272, Chapter 10 General Principles of the Quantitative Aspects of Drug Action It

confirms that drugs have different effects on people from different sexes, especially on

pregnant women Discourse 6 is still from Walsh, page 116, Chapter 6 How Drugs Reach

their Site of Action It discusses main issues on binding of drugs to human body Discourse

5 is from Brunton, page 128, Chapter 5 The Science of Drug Therapy, Section I General

Principles It is about general requirements on monitoring therapeutic drugs Last,

Discourse 7 is again from Brunton, page 119, Chapter 5, Part I It is the introduction to individualize therapy All in all, the seven discourses are used for extending, transmitting and exploring knowledge in pharmacy (FIELD), are addressed to specialists and pharmacist students (TENOR), and uses graphic channel and are written academically (MODE) This kind of discourse is marked by frequent deployment of GM

3.3 Linguistic features of pharmaceutical discourse

Halliday (1989, cited in Halliday & Martin, 1993: 71) suggests seven properties of

scientific English: interlocking definitions, technical taxonomies, special expressions,

lexical density, syntactic ambiguity, GM and semantic discontinuity Similarly, Đỗ Tuấn

Minh (2001) focuses on five features, namely, interlocking definitions, technical

taxonomies, lexical density, syntactic ambiguity and GM EPD is also a kind of scientific

and technical one, but its language is not at all identical to other branches of science The English language of pharmacy is scientific English with special pharmaceutical probabilities attached: a form of English in which certain words, and more significantly

certain and grammatical constructions stand out as more highly favored, while others correspondingly recede and become less highly favored, than in other varieties of the language This is not to imply that there is one uniform version of EPD; however, EPD can

be recognized by certain syndromes and patterns that distinguish it from other scientific and technical branches Our study of pharmaceutical language tries to figures out some specific lexical and grammatical characteristics of selected EPDs

3.3.1 Lexical features of pharmaceutical discourse

The researchers have found out three prominent lexical characteristics of EPD, namely,

pharmaceutical taxonomies, pharmaceutical terminology and high lexical density

In the first place, language of pharmacy aims at constructing pharmaceutical knowledge in

which pharmaceutical taxonomies are considered to play a key and central role to

differentiate PD from others Unlike commonsense knowledge, which can tolerate - indeed, depends on compromises, contradictions and indeterminacies of all kinds, pharmaceutical knowledge needs to be organized around systems of pharmaceutical concepts arranged in strict hierarchies of kinds and parts Let us look at the example: [3: 1] There is often a lot of overlap among the symptoms of the many different psychiatric

disorders, which can make it difficult to accurately diagnose a disorder Complicating

this issue further is the inherent subjectivity with which different patients experience their symptoms Often a patient will have ongoing symptoms that meet several criteria

for more than one, or even several, mental disorders Such patients may be said to have

a spectrum disorder For example, research shows that over half of chronically depressed adults also have a comorbid personality disorder and one third have a comorbid anxiety disorder and/or a substance abuse disorder Mentally ill people may also be more susceptible to various physical health problems than the general population For example, obesity is significantly more common in patients with mental disorders (Discourse 3)

In Example [3: 1], „mental disorder‟ and „physical health problem‟ are kinds of „health

problem‟ or „illness‟; „chronical depression‟, „personality disorder‟ and „anxiety disorder‟

are subtypes of „mental disorder‟, and „obesity‟ is a sort of „physical health problem‟

Secondly, the use of pharmaceutical terminology which also causes a great difficulty for

non-specific readers is inevitable in all EPDs Pharmaceutical terms are notions with massive information and readers need background and pharmacy knowledge to

comprehend them Various pharmaceutical terms such as „placebo‟, „digoxin‟, „toxicity‟,

„efficacy‟, „intensity‟, „therapy‟, „solubility‟, „medication‟, „excretion‟, „antiseptic‟,

„allergy‟, „reaction‟, „antibacterial‟, „infection‟, „tissue‟, and etc can be found in the

Đỗ Tuấn Minh, 2001) that in a scientific text the lexical density ranges from 60% to 65% Also, most of the lexemes fall into nominal group, which is crucial for making meaning

To illustrate this characteristic of EPD, we will look at the following extracts (Discourse 2)

in which the lexical items are in bold type

[3: 2] Culture and sensitivity reports will identify appropriate antibacterial therapy

[3: 3] Patient demonstrates proper technique for applying topical antiseptic with applicator,

tongue blade, gloved hand, and proper handwashing technique

In Example [3: 2] the lexical density is 8/9 and that of [3: 3] is 15/18 When the lexical density goes up to this extent, the passage becomes difficult to read Of course, the

difficulty also depends on particular lexical items; but lexical density is itself problematic

3.3.2 Grammatical features of pharmaceutical discourse

Seven grammatical features of EPD have been identified: (i) clause complexes, (ii) middle and passive voice, (iii) declarative mood, (iv) material and relational process, (v) topical

theme, (vi) syntactic ambiguity, and (vii) GM

Firstly, the fact that 132 clauses (excluding rank-shifted clauses within these 132 clauses)

in the seven discourses make up 79 clause complexes means the number of clauses per

clause complex is 1.67 The discourses are involved in many hypotactic and paratactic relations in which expansion outweights projection; within expansion, elaboration is used most frequently (51% or 27/53), followed by enhancement (34% or 18/53), and extension ranks third with the percentage of only 13%, 7/53 (See Figure 3.1 below) Idea projections accounting for only 2% (1/53) seem to be least preferable in these EPDs (Look at Appendix 2 for detailed information)

Figure 3.1: Distribution of types of logico-semantic relation in EPD

These statistics seem to suggest that authors of EPD tend to explain, describe and justify their experiments or study projects rather than to quote or restate ideas of others The authors appear to understand the complexity and difficulty of EPD, so they try to make them clearer and more understandable to the readers An example of logico-semantic relation in EPDs concerned is:

[3: 4] ||| Drugs given to the mother at parturition may also have long-lasting effects in the

newborn; || the latter not only may lack the mechanisms necessary for terminating the action of many drugs, || but also loses those of the mother || as soon as contact with the maternal circulation is severed ||| (Discourse 4)

The clause complex in Example [3: 4] is made up by four clauses, in which they relate to each other by both parataxis and hypotaxis Consequently, the discourse seems to be more academic and difficult for the laymen to comprehend

Secondly, many clauses under investigation are non-agentive ones Middle and passive

clauses are used to present the physical environment as if it were external to human

existence and independent, and our representations of the phenomena in English as if they were iconic with the physical environment and not mediated through semiotic processes The use of middle and passive voice in EPD thus complements the use of GM, where non-human agency can be generated Through GM events are construed as causing other

events In the middle and passive voice clauses events just happen In both cases human

agency is absent and the human process of construing logical links between events is kept outside the discourse (Veel, cited in Martin & Veel, 1998: 119)

Following is an example for illustration (verbs in middle and passive voice are bold):

[3: 5] (i) Obviously, the rate of movement of a drug across biologic barriers is determined by

its own physicochemical properties only when it exists as an independent entity

Thirdly, the declarative mood is fully mobilized to assert the information given None of

the clauses under investigation is imperative or interrogative All 123 clauses with finite verbs among 132 clauses studied are declarations (See Appendix 8 for more details)

Fourthly, material process is most frequently used in the EPD, with a rate being 52% (69/132); and relational process is also used at a fairly high rate (39% or 52/132) (Look at

Figure 3.2 and Appendix 7) These statistics indicate that the authors try to mention actions done by the doctors, pharmacists, nurses, patients and related entities and moves taken by agents and drugs as well as to identify or define things such as drug level, effects of drugs, and etc

Figure 3.2: Distribution of types of process in EPD Fifthly, 118 themes are topical ones (only 4 of them are marked), 27 textual themes and

only one interpersonal theme can be found in the EPDs (Refer to Appendix 9 for detailed analysis of thematic pattern)

Figure 3.3: Distribution of types of theme in EPD

The reason underlying is that the authors try to make chain of arguments in their writings; and they do not intend to create personal relationships with the receivers like in advertisements, political speeches and so on The textual themes (conjunctions) are used to connect the ideas

Sixthly, some sentences in EPD cause ambiguity for the readers An example is „Optimal

treatment decisions are based on an understanding of the characteristics of the individual

patient that will determine the response to the drug’ (Discourse 7) It seems quite easy to

understand at first sight It has a simple structure: a nominal group, functioning as subject, followed by a verbal group and then another nominal group However, we the non-

specialist readers may wonder who makes ‘treatment decisions’, the doctor or the patient, and who ‘understands the characteristics of the patient’, the doctor or the patient himself

The ambiguity is here caused by the nominalizations: doctor decides the way to treat his

patient or the patient decides the way he is treated become ‘treatment decisions’ and doctor

understands the characteristics of his patient or the patient understands his characteristics

turn into ‘understanding of the characteristics of the individual patient’ A great deal of

semantic information is lost when clausal expressions are replaced by nominal ones

Finally, the high lexical density and the ambiguity discussed in the last two sections are

both by-products of GM, a substitution of one grammatical class, or one grammatical

structure, by another GM plays an essential role in creating EPD It is exploited to construct pharmaceutical taxonomies, construe a line of reasoned argument and to draw conclusion from observation and experiment GM involves mainly nominalizing process The following section will focus on the role of nominalization in EPD

3.4 Nominalization and English pharmaceutical discourse

Chafe & Danielewicz (1987) states that nominalizations occur most frequently in academic papers, 92 occurrences per 1,000 words, as compared to 27 per 1,000 in conversations, 56 per 1,000 in lectures, and 55 per 1,000 in letters Interestingly, in these seven discourses there are 274 instances of nominalizations (See Appendix 5) That means 156 occurrences per 1,000 words (274/1751) This extremely high incidence may be explained as the result

of conceptual complexity of EPD The tone of the pharmaceutical writing sounds more abstract and also more formal And one powerful means of producing a lexically dense style is by using nominalization to build long nominal groups Since EPD is a highly nominalized register, so EPD is really difficult to understand, especially for those who do not have the required knowledge of the subject matter

There are several functional reasons why the language of pharmacy demands a very high

degree of nominalization Firstly, it increases the objectivity for the EPD since it produces

a greater concentration of the experiential meaning and a smaller incidence of interpersonal elements (personal pronouns, modal verbs and etc.) Secondly, it creates thematic progression without tedious repetitions, that is, the rheme of a clause functions as the theme of the following because the grammar „packages‟ the previous information by

turning processes into nominal entities As a result, chains of reasoning are structured

Thirdly, it synthesizes the message in EPD GMs mean language „distillation‟

Pharmaceutical terms, like ‘mental disorder’, ‘antibacterial therapy’ are both less

voluminous products of, and different in kind to, the meanings or materials from which they derive Many nominalized items have been turning into norms naturally as a process

of development in English As an effect, pharmaceutical taxonomies and terminologies

are created This is considered the technicalizing role of nominalizing process

So far this thesis has concerned properties of EPD and possible reasons why these features are found It is hoped that English language learners as well as pharmacist students can communicate well in EPD and comprehend better this kind of discourse

Below we include the analysis of GM in the EPD as a particular feature of pharmaceutical academic writing and its relationship to the scientific context

3.5 Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in English pharmaceutical discourse

The numbers of clauses, clauses with GM and instances of GM are shown below:

Number of clauses Number of clauses with GM Number of instances of GM

It was shown that GM was used frequently in PDs All EPDs under investigation contain GMs and a large percentage of the clauses contain GMs (95.45%) Moreover, when the GMC ratio is taken into consideration, it is extremely large as well, 4.14 (in Victor Ho

2009, GMC ration in request e-mail discourse is only 0.19) These figures suggest that the authors show a strong tendency to use GM in constructing their discourse They seem to be fully aware of the power of GM – it could make the message concise and abstract In the next part, each type of GM will be studied and analyzed in the EPDs

3.6 Types of grammatical metaphor in English pharmaceutical discourse

3.6.1 Ideational metaphor

We here adapt the table of class shift by Matthiessen in Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 247) We use it as a guideline to examine ideational GMs in EPD because the class shift that Matthiessen presents should be considered relating to ideational GMs written by Halliday (1985, 1994), Halliday & Martin (1993), Thompson (1996), Halliday & Matthiessen (2004) and experiential and logical GM introduced by Martin & Rose (2007) Although in this table, to some extent, we can see interpersonal GMs such as in 2.iii, 5.iii,

we cannot use this table as a representative guideline for investing interpersonal GMs, we will discuss them as a separate part based on the theoretical framework discussed in

Chapter 2 The following table is shows 13 types of GM in scientific discourse modified

from Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 247)

1 quality

thing

adjective - noun unstable - instability

quick(ly) - speed 2.i

process

event of process verb - noun transform

-transformation 2.ii aspect of phase

of process

tense/phase verb (adverb) - noun

will/going to - prospect try to - attempt

process

modality verb (adverb) - noun

can/could - possibility, potential

3 circumstance [minor process] preposition - noun with - accompaniment

4 relator conjunction - noun so - cause, proof

if - condition 5.i

process

event of process

begin - initial

5.iii modality of

process

modality of verb (adverb) - adjective

[always] will - constant

prepositional phrase - noun modifier

[cracks] on the surface

- surface [cracks]

adjective before - previous

8 circumstance [minor process]

started [to survey] - started [a survey]

(of thing) noun - [various]

engine [fails] - engine [failure]; glass [fractures] – [the fracture] of glass; cabinet [decided] - government‟s

[decision]

Table 3.2: Types of grammatical metaphor

(Adapted from Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999: 247)

The table could be summarized as the Figure 3.4 below, which also shows that not all possible metaphoric moves actually occur and that it is possible to order the semantic functions from left to right That means all possible moves to the right can occur but no move can take place to the left

The ordering is: Relator circumstance process quality Thing What this means is that (i) any semantic element can be construed as if it was a Thing, which is grammaticized as a noun; (ii) a relator/ circumstance/process can be construed as

if it was a quality, which is grammaticized as an adjective; (iii) a relator/ circumstance can

be construed as if it was a process, which is grammaticized as a verb; (iv) a relator can be

construed as if it was a (minor process within a) circumstance, which is grammaticized as a preposition in a prepositional phrase but not the other way round: Thing can not be construed as if it was a process, and so on

Relator Circumstance Process Quality Thing

Figure 3.4: Direction of metaphorization

(Source: Martin & Veel, 1998: 211 and Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999: 264)

Figure 3.4 shows that the overall trend of GM is shifting toward „thing‟ or „thinginess‟; thus, nominalization is central in making GM

After analyzing the EPDs based on the table of GM types above, we have found that there are major and minor types that the authors used in their discourses (See Appendix 3 for details of all types of ideational GM which found in the discourse) The summary of frequency and percentage rate of types of ideational GMs used in the discourse is shown in Table 3.3 and diagrammatized in Figure 3.5:

Types of Ideational Metaphor Number of instances Percentage (%)

Figure 3.5: Distribution of types of ideational GM in EPD

As can be seen from Table 3.3 and Figure 3.5, all 13 types appear in EPD; however, Type

2 (process  thing), 13 (thing  modifier of thing), 1 (quality  thing), 6 (circumstance

 quality), 12 (0  process) and 5 (process  quality) in turn appears with highest frequency and they are regarded as the major types in the EPD, which vitally contribute to the developing of structure and style of this kind of discourse

That the three types of GM used most frequently are Type 2, Type 13 and Type 1 which

account for 71.23% suggests that the authors tend to condense the information which would otherwise be expressed congruently with a clause (or even clause complex) into a nominal group The frequent use of these types is a phenomenon in line with the general situation in which these types of GM is the most pervasive (Halliday& Matthiessen, 1999) The use of GM, most often nominalized item, functions to summarize what has gone before and make the discourses kinds of strings Besides, as a consequence of nominalizing

is the loss of interpersonal elements (Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999), the authors could

make their writings sound less imposing and more objective

The following extracts show how each of these types of GM was used in the EPD In each extract, the GM is accompanied by one possible congruent variant and followed by discussion, interpretation and comments The arrows show the directions of metaphorization It is noticeable that although each of these extract may consist of more

than one GM, the analysis focuses on only one type mentioned Other types will not be analyzed and discussed in this part but are shown in Appendix 3 We also have to admit that many instances of GM indicated in Appendix 3 and in the following extracts may belong to more than one category among 13 types suggested in Table 3.2 above, but for the reason of concentration and clearance the author of the research has taken them into careful consideration and put it into one most reasonable type only

TYPE 2 (verb  noun; process  thing)

EXTRACT 1 (Clause No 21, Discourse 2)

Metaphorical: the treatment of skin injury or infection

Congruent: doctor treats skin which is injured or infectious

EXTRACT 2 (Clause No 1, Discourse 6)

Metaphorical: assumptions made in developing the distribution of drugs

Congruent: to develop doctor/pharmacist assumed drugs distributes

In these two extracts, all the verbs ‘treats’, ‘assumed’, and ‘distributes’ playing roles of processes are turned into nouns ‘treatment’, ‘assumptions’, and ‘distribution’ functioning

as Things As a result, the transitivity of the clauses changes respectively (see table below for illustration)

Participant: Goal Process: Material Process: Material Participant: Goal

Process: Material Participant: Actor Process: Mental Participant: Actor Process:

TYPE 13 (noun  various; thing  modifier of thing)

EXTRACT 3 (Clause No 7, Discourse 4)

Metaphorical: in pregnant women the use of all drugs

Congruent: pregnant women use drugs

EXTRACT 4 (Clause No 3, Discourse 7)

Metaphorical: therapeutic effectiveness

Congruent: the therapy is effective

In Extract 3 the noun ‘drugs’ is reconstrued into a prepositional phrase ‘of all drugs’ functioning as Qualifier of the noun ‘use’; and in Extract 4 the noun ‘therapy’ is realized as

an adjective ‘therapeutic’ acting as Epithet in the nominal group

TYPE 1 (adjective  noun; quality  thing)

EXTRACT 5 (Clause No 2, Discourse 2)

Metaphorical: condition of the skin, size of area

Congruent: the skin is acned, eczematous, psoriatic, etc., the area is small/big

EXTRACT 6 (Clause No 1, Discourse 3)

Metaphorical: Most people experience emotions such as anxiety, depression, and grief

Congruent: Most people have once felt anxious, depressed, and grief-stricken

All the adjectives ‘acned’, ‘eczematous’, ‘psoriatic’, ‘small/big’, ‘anxious’, ‘depressed’, and ‘grief-stricken’ functioning as Attributes are turned into nouns ‘condition’, ‘size’,

‘anxiety’, ‘depression’ and ‘grief’ acting as Things in GMs Type 1 This makes the clause

much shorter, more general and abstract (See the following tables for more evidence)

From the findings and examples as in the extracts above, we can interpret that the priority

to use nominalizations in the EPDs is the important reason for making the language

objective, comprehensive and abstract Firstly, by „nouning‟ a process, the authors can

reflect a fact, or express a meaning which can be treated as existing Secondly, it helps them to develop their argument step by step, using complex passages „packaged‟ in

nominal form as theme Some other examples of nominalization existing in EPD will be analyzed to highlight these functions

[3: 7] Simply on the basis of weight, women may require smaller doses of drugs than men to

manifest the same magnitude of response For drugs with a narrow margin of safety, these differences may necessitate a dosage of reduction for women There also may be gender differences in response to drugs because of the unequal ratios of lean body

mass for fat mass (Discourse 4)

The writers use nominalizations ‘weight’, ‘magnitude’, ‘safety’, ‘differences’, ‘reduction’ and ‘response’ to create ideational GMs The congruent form of „weight‟ may be „women

are less heavy than men‟ and that of „drugs with a narrow margin of safety‟ can be „drugs are little safe‟ In this congruent form, two adjectives „heavy‟ and „safe‟ play the role of

attributes or qualities, but in the metaphorical form, „heavy‟ becomes „weight‟ and „safe‟ is turned into „safety‟ which play the role of carriers By transferring like this, the authors

seem to to refer to facts which still exist Another example is that:

[3: 8] Patient remains free of adverse reactions to the agent when used for the treatment of

skin injury or infection (Discourse 2)

Thanks to using GMs realized as nominalization, the authors could express some meanings

in only one clause complex instead of three clause simplexes A more congruent form of

this metaphorical mode of expression may be „Patient’s skin is injured or infectious

Doctor uses the agent to treat his/her injured or infectious skin The patient does not react adversely to the agent’ It means that nominalization helps to make PD writing more objective (owing to non-agent form) without choosing many words; and the EPDs sound

more compact, academic and highly tight Therefore, the combination of some simple

clauses to make a clause or a noun phrase is a good method to reduce the number of

clauses without losing its experiential meaning in creating EPD

Another significant remark should be put here is that GM brings about a loss in

experiential meaning, leaving the interpretation of the metaphorical element and thus the

whole messages open to a number of possibilities (Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999) The interpretation of the information expressed in metaphorical form (nominalized verbal process, Type 2, in particular) by the readers in a way as desired by the authors would involve a more complex mechanism than the one expressed in the congruent form, and could result in a different meaning from the one the authors intended Therefore, the use of

GM in a large proportion of the clauses studied seems to suggest that EPD is quite

complicated and more cognitively demanding

Along with Type 2, 13 and 1, Type 6, 12 and 5 also play an important role in the

distribution of GM in EPD Here are some instances of these types found in EPDs:

TYPE 6 (preposition/adverb  adjective; circumstance  quality)

EXTRACT 7 (Clause No 2, Discourse 1)

Metaphorical: A wide variety of drugs

Congruent: Drugs vary widely

EXTRACT 8 (Clause No 3, Discourse 2)

Metaphorical: they have a significant influence on the action of the medication

Congruent: they affect the action of the medication significantly

The adverbs ‘widely’ and ‘significantly’ functioning as circumstances (manner) turn into adjectives ‘wide’ and ‘significant’ acting as Epithets in the nominal groups This strategy

makes the clause much shorter and the information is packed See tables below for more

details

Participant: Actor Process: material Circumstance: Manner

Participant (actor) Process: Material Participant: Goal Circumstance: Manner

TYPE 12 (0  verb; 0  process)

EXTRACT 9 (Clause No 11, Discourse 4)

Metaphorical: Drugs may also have long-lasting effects in the newborn

Congruent: Drugs may also affect the newborn for a long time

Three arrows above show GMs of previous types discussed Our focus here is the use of

the verb „have‟ which is not included in the congruent form This is an example of „0‟ is

realized as a process Once more, it is due to the nominalization, the verb ‘affect’ is nominalized into the noun ‘effect’, so the verb ‘have’ is added

TYPE 5 (verb  adjective; process  quality)

EXTRACT 10 (Clause No 13, Discourse 1)

Metaphorical: whether a breast-feeding mother

Congruent: whether a mother who is breast-feeding

EXTRACT 11 (Clause No 16, Discourse 3)

Metaphorical: various physical health problems

Congruent: physical health problems vary

Here both verbal groups are ‘is breast-feeding’ and ‘vary’ functioning as material processes become adjectives ‘breast-feeding’ and ‘various’ functioning as Epithets

indicating qualities in the nominal groups See tables below for clearer analysis

As a result, the transfer of the function of lexical words leads to the transfer of the expression of a given meaning In examples containing GM Type 6, 12 and 5 analyzed above, we see that the clauses in metaphorical forms look much shorter than those in congruent forms

Besides, other types of GM still exist in the pharmaceutical writing with a relatively low rate such as Type 3 and Type 7 Two examples followed are demonstrations for these minor types (see Extract 12 and 13 below)

TYPE 3 (preposition  noun, circumstance  thing)

EXTRACT 12 (Clause No 2, Discourse 2)

Metaphorical: length of exposure to the skin

Congruent: (an antiseptic) exposes the skin for a long/short time

In this extract the prepositional phrase ‘for a long/short time’ is reconstrued as a noun

‘length’ The following tables attempt to make clear about the changes due to using GM