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A study on grammatical metaphor in English business letters

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Nguyễn Huy Kỷ Năm bảo vệ: 2011 Abstract: This study focuses on the investigation of grammatical metaphor in English business letters.. Through a variety of methods, namely qualitative

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Vũ Lệ Huyền

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: TS Nguyễn Huy Kỷ

Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: This study focuses on the investigation of grammatical metaphor in English

business letters The theoretical framework for the analysis is mainly based on the systemic functional linguistic theory by M.A.K Halliday, Christian Matthiessen, and James Martin, who are considered as the representatives of systemic functional linguistics The corpus of the study contains 20 real life English business letters chosen randomly Through a variety of methods, namely qualitative and quantitative, synthetic and analytic, the study investigates the frequency, the proportion and the types of grammatical metaphor used in the corpus The results of the study show that grammatical metaphor appeared considerably frequently in the business letters Then some suggestions for pedagogical implication are also given with the hope of helping ESP students easily approach grammatical metaphor in general and in business letter discourse

in particular It is also hoped that the findings will contribute to a fuller understanding of business letter discourse

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Thư thương mại; Ẩn dụ ngữ pháp; Tu từ

học

Content

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ……….i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………ii

ABSTRACT ……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……… vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES PART A: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1 Rationale ……… 1

2 Objectives of the study ……… 2

3 Scope of the study ……….3

4 Methods of the study ……….3

5 Design of the study ………3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……… 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: OVERVIEW ON

SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR ………5

1.1 Introduction ……….5

1.2 Language and context ………5

1.3 Metafunctions ……….7

1.4 Summary ……… 10

CHAPTER 2: THE NOTION OF GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR …… 11

2.1 Introduction ……… 11

2.2 Definitions of Metaphor ……… 11

2.3 Grammatical metaphor ……….12

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2.4 Grammatical metaphor vs Lexical Metaphor ………13

2.5 Classification of Grammatical Metaphor ………15

2.5.1 Ideational Metaphor ……… 15

2.5.2 Interpersonal Metaphor ……… 18

2.5.2.1 Modality metaphors ……….18

2.5.2.2 Mood metaphors ……… 18

2.6 Summary ……… 19

CHAPTER 3: GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH BUSINESS LETTERS ……….21

3.1 Introduction ……… 21

3.2 Definition of Business Letters ……… 22

3.3 Classification of Business Letters ………22

3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters ……… 23

3.4 1 Characteristics of Business Letters in general ……… 23

3.4.2 Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode 24

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters ……… 26

3.5.1 Data analysis framework ……… …26

3.5.2 Results ……… 33

3.5.2.1 Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor ……….33

3.5.2.2 Types of Grammatical metaphor used ……….33

3.5.3 Discussion ……… 35

3 6 Summary ……….36

PART C: CONCLUSION ………37

1 Recapitulation ……….37

2 Implications ………38

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3 Limitations of the study ……… 38

4 Suggestions for further studies ………39

REFERENCES ……… 40 APPENDIX 1 ……… I APPENDIX 2……… X

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Metaphor is a very important feature in human language and is always a subject of central interest in the study of stylistics But traditional linguistics has long focused only on lexical metaphor whereas systemic functional linguistics has paid much attention on grammatical metaphor

English is considered a key to success in international business Business letters are still widely used in the world as a main channel of business correspondence To achieve desirable results in communicating through business letters, besides taking some remarkable features into account such as: style, language, structure of a business letter, an aspect of the lexicogrammar which involves a higher level of complexity in the process

of production and interpretation of clauses – the use of grammatical metaphor should be paid a great attention, too However, it has not attracted enough research attention A functional analysis of grammatical metaphor in discourse, especially in business letters will

be very helpful to benefit English learners in better understanding and employing target language and thus improving the communicative competence more effectively

2 Objectives of the study

(i) to give a general understanding of grammatical metaphor in the light of functional

linguistics

(ii) to examine some typical characteristics of business letters to show the general features

of this genre

(iii) to give an analysis of the corpus of business letters in terms of grammatical metaphor

in order to see how this notable feature is used

Therefore, the research questions raised here are:

1) What is the frequency of the use of grammatical metaphor in English business letters? 2) What types of grammatical metaphor are used in English business letters?

3 Scope of the study

Grammatical metaphor in the chosen corpus of English business letters

The theoretical framework for the analysis: systemic functional linguistic theory by M.A.K Halliday, Christian Matthiessen, and James Martin

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4 Methods of the study

The study employs the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction This part introduces the rationale, the objectives, the scope and the methods of the study

Part B: Development This part is divided into three chapters

Part C is the conclusion

PART B: DEVELOPMENT THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW ON SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL

GRAMMAR

1.1 Introduction

From this point of view, Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) w a s developed by Michael Halliday and his colleagues This has been a great contribution to linguistic theory Our overview on the SFG will focuse on some of the key points (Language and social context, Context of culture, Context of situation, Metafunctions… ) of this theory in the next part

1.2 Language and context

A full understanding of a text is often impossible without reference to the context in which it occurs And context can be considered from two perspectives: the context of culture and the context of situation

1.3 Metafunctions

With respect to the context of situation, all the situational differences between texts can be explained by three aspects of the context, namely, field, tenor, and mode

1.4 Summary

In this chapter, an overview of systemic functional linguistics has been briefly given It is described as a functional-semantic approach to language which explores how language is used in different contexts, and how it is construed for using as a semiotic system

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CHAPTER 2: THE NOTION OF GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR

2.1 Introduction

As we know metaphor is a very important feature in human language There is no exaggeration when we say that language itself is a metaphor

2.2 Definitions of Metaphor

We start with the definitions of metaphors A lot of defitions has been given

2.3 Grammatical Metaphor

Grammatical metaphor is one of the most interesting theoretical notions developed by Halliday (1985/1994) within systemic-functional Grammar In this research paradigm, language is regarded as a semiotic system which comprises four different strata (context, semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology) related to each other by means of subsequent realizations

2.4 Grammatical metaphor vs Lexical Metaphor

Halliday (1985) suggests that metaphor does not necessarily happen at the lexical level but often at the grammatical level, which is called grammatical metaphor “We are looking at metaphor not „from below‟, as variation in the meaning of a given expression, but rather „from above‟, as variation in the expression of a given meaning” (1994: 342)

2.5 Classification of Grammatical Metaphor

2.5.1 Ideational Grammatical Metaphors

Ideational Grammatical Metaphors are called metaphor of transitivity The grammatical variation between congruent and incongruent forms here applies to transitivity configurations

2.5.2 Interpersonal Grammatical Metaphors

Two types of interpersonal grammatical metaphors can be distinguished as metaphors of mood and of modality

2.5.2.1 Modality metaphors

The grammatical variation which occurs is based on the logico-semantic relationship of projection

2.5.2.2 Mood metaphors

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In order to understand the notion of interpersonal metaphors of mood, it is necessary to consider what the default types of encoding are

2.6 Summary

This chapter has focused mainly on the notion of grammatical metaphor within the

framework of systemic functional grammar To master the notion of grammatical

metaphor, the notion of lexical metaphor, which is traditionally known, has been also discussed As we can see in this chapter, grammatical metaphor can be explained in

relation to lexical metaphor

CHAPTER 3: GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH BUSINESS LETTERS 3.1 Introduction

Due to the profound political and economic changes in the world, the commercial relations

of different nations have noticeably increased and English language is now considered by many nations as an international language

3.2 Definition of Business Letters

According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, a letter is a written message addressed to a person or an organization, usually in an envelope and is sent by post Business refers to the exchange of goods or services for the reason of money or other goods So a business letter is a letter dealing with business, used in the negotiation of trade conditions in national or international business, concerning the quality of specified goods, specifications, quantity, price, shipment, insurance, payment, disagreement, claim, etc The other definition by Jacky Gamble eHow contributor: business letters are formal letters used for business-to-business, business-to-client, or client-to-business correspondence

3.3 Classification of Business English letters

Business is very complicated transaction involving series of different procedures Stewart (1984) classified business letters as follows:

1) Classification according to the content of the letter

2) Classification according to the different functions in the process of a business trade 3) Classification according to the nature of the information given

3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters

3.4 1 Characteristics of Business Letters in general

Scientific Expression must be of great consideration Scientific expression means

something said directly and briefly

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Any business letter must be short The significance of a short letter is that the person

reading the letter must understand the significance of the letter in the minimum possible lines

The tone of the letter is another very important aspect of the letter The letter must sound

polite, courteous and firm

Accuracy is important in a business letter Whatever you communicate in a letter must be

accurate

Association of ideas is also crucial The ideas and facts mentioned in the letter must be

interlinked

Politeness and optimism are the ‘passwords’ in the business world Business letters must

be conducted in a polite tone

3.4.2 Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode

(i) Field

There is no denying the fact that we cam easily recognize a business communication situation We are subconsciously aware of the nature of the social activity and expect the participants to behave in a certain way Thus what people actually do in such situations determines the field of business letters

(ii) Tenor

The tenor of business letters relates to the role relationship between participants in such situations The social roles have already been observed and very well defined Now, for instance, considering the ultimate purpose of the shopkeeper or producer, there is a lot

of persuasion, be it gentle or other, to effect a transaction

(iii) Mode

As this thesis focuses on the written business letters, the transmission channel is through the written communication On the other hand, mode deals with the cohesion and textual structure of the written work

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters

3.5.1 Data analysis framework

The corpus is a collection of 20 authentic real-life English business letters randomly chosen from the eBook titled Instant Business Letters Kit by Shawn Fawcett They are then analyzed in terms of grammatical metaphor in detail

The examples below, taken from the corpus of the present study, will illustrate the

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instances of mapping and realization discussed in chapter II The metaphorical expressions in the examples were taken from the corpus of business letters used in the present study and the congruent expressions were provided by the author of this paper Metaphorical: Your cooperation is appreciated

Congruent: The way you cooperate is appreciated

Halliday & Mathiessen suggested a detailed description of the metaphorical types The classification is based on metaphoric shifts from one elemental class to another Each type

is treated as a phenomenon on its own

3.5.2 Results

Twenty business letters were studied carefully in order to identify grammatical metaphor with reference to Table 1 The author was then able to determine first the frequency of use

of grammatical metaphor, and second, the average number of grammatical metaphor instances in each clause and third, types of grammatical metaphor used

No of business letters: 20

No of business letters with grammatical metaphor: 20

No of instances of grammatical metaphor: 418

No of clauses in these 20 business letters: 346

3.5.2.1 Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor

The frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in the business letters was shown in terms

of, first the percentage of business letters containing grammatical metaphor, and second the ratio (the average number of GM instances) of grammatical metaphor to the number of clauses Table 2 summarizes the results

Percentage of business letters with grammatical

metaphor

100 % (20/20 business letters)

GM ratio

1.21 (418/346 clauses)

Table 2: Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in business letters

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