A study on features of intensive relational process in english and their vietnamese equivalents

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSA: Adverbial AIRP: Attributive intensive relational process Cs: Subject complement EFL: English as a foreign language FG: Functional grammar IIRP: Identifying intens

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

ĐỖ THỊ THANH THỦY

A STUDY ON FEATURES OF INTENSIVE RELATIONAL PROCESS IN ENGLISH

AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM CỦA QUÁ TRÌNH QUAN HỆ THÂM NHẬP TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NHỮNG TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled A study on features of intensive relational process in English and

requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person's work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2015

Đỗ Thị Thanh Thủy

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Hoàng Tuyết Minh

Date:

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge and express my deep gratitude and sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Assoc.Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh, for her scholarship, patient guidance, encouragement, insightful comments and kind support through the stages of my study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as

Finally, I am deeply indebted to all the support and encouragement that my family has so lovingly offered me to fulfill this academic work

ABSTRACT

This study is intended to investigate the features of intensive relational process in English and their Vietnamese equivalents Based on terms of functional grammar, the features of this process in English are characterized After analysis on these features, their comparison between English and Vietnamese are discussed in the study Based on the syntactic - semantic structures, the similarities and differences on attributive and identifying intensive relational process between English and Vietnamese are found From the result of this study, the implication in teaching and learning English are suggested

The descriptive and comparative method was chosen to carry out the study Nearly 200 examples in English and Vietnamese are used in the study to illustrate and analyze the features of intensive relational process, then make comparison between two languages The data are collected from the books, stories, novels and dictionaries and analyzed by combination of descriptive and comparative methods to clarify the issue of the study

Besides, understanding of this field helps peoples in the process of teaching and learning English The study including comparison between English and Vietnamese contributes to improving English usage for learners

Based on the findings of the study, some discussion and implications are made along with suggestions for further studies

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A: Adverbial AIRP: Attributive intensive relational process

Cs: Subject complement EFL: English as a foreign language FG: Functional grammar

IIRP: Identifying intensive relational process

V: Verb

LIST OF TABLES

2.1 Three subtypes of relational process in English 16 2.2 Syntactic - semantic structure of attributive intensive

2.4 Relational process of intensive identification with Value as

4.14 Example of syntactic - semantic structure without

complement of IIRP in Vietnamese

74

4.15 Syntactic - semantic structure of current participant phased

4.16 Syntactic - semantic structure of resulting participant phased

4.17 Example of Participant realized by superlative adjective as

4.18 Example of Participant realized by definite noun as

Complement of IIRP in Vietnamese

79

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

a Relational process of intensive attribution 21

b Relational process of intensive identification 23

4.1 The features of intensive relational process in English 32 4.1.1 Attributive intensive relational process in English 38

59

4.2.1 Attributive intensive relational process in English and their

4.2.2 Identifying intensive relational process in English and their

4.3 Implication for teaching and learning intensive relational

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Under the light of functional grammar, language is used more effectively in daily life of people People always want to understand the nature of language, and this is also what linguists and grammarians aim at According to Th Bloor and M Bloor (1995), linguists “have struggled to understand more about how human language is structured and

to explain how communication takes place” Functional grammar deals with both spoken and written language and focuses on the functions of language

It can help us to see and understand human language more deeply and comprehensively Besides, the functional grammar helps teacher to increase students’ ability to analyze discourse so that they will be able to use language to achieve successful communication Personally, all aspects

of language should be discovered through functional grammar in order that learners can use the language more flexibly and effectively Relational process, which includes attributive and identifying intensive relational processes, is one of the functional grammar's aspect that is researched by many linguists They are overseas linguists, such as M.A.K Halliday (1994), S Eggins (1994), Th Bloor (1995), G.Thompson (1996), J.R Martin (1997)…and Vietnamese linguists, such as Cao Xuân Hạo (2004), Diệp Quang Ban (2008), Hoàng Văn Vân (2012)…

According to G.Thompson (1996), in the frame of systematic functional theory there is a model including three main types of process: mental process, material process and relational process As well as using language

to interact with people, it is to talk about the world, either the external world, things, events, qualities, etc…, or internal world, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, etc He said that in relational process a relationship is set up based

on the basic experiential terms "process" and "participant", of which the

function of the Predicator is to signal the existence of the relationship But the expression of relational process is not clear in his research

M.A.K Halliday (1994) defines that ideal meaning of sentences is the expression of experience and expression of processes, of which the relational process is determined as the process of existence He was successful in systemizing and classifying the processes in English, but he does not mention the core of the relational process and rarely made comparison between English and other languages

Cao Xuân Hạo (2004), Diệp Quang Ban (2008), Hoàng Văn Vân (2012)…, pay attention on relational sentence and clause in Vietnamese However, in their studies there is not the comparison between Vietnamese and English

Therefore, it is necessary to do research on the topic A study on features of intensive relational process in English and their Vietnamese equivalents It is recognized the analysis on intensive relational process in

English and their Vietnamese equivalents brings the actual application Understanding on this issue helps exact expression and emotive delivery in English practice and there is no denying its essential requirement and important contribution to teaching and learning English This thesis is carried out with the hope that the research result will provide useful systematical knowledge for teachers and learners of English, as well as for those who are keen on the field

1.2 Aims of the study

The thesis is aimed at investigating features of intensive relational process in English from the perspective of functional grammar and their Vietnamese equivalents, giving the implications for teaching and learning about intensive relational process in English for students at high school

1.3 Objectives of the study

In order to gain the aims of the study, the thesis has the following objectives:

- Investigating the features of intensive relational process in English

- Finding out the similarities and differencies on intensive relational process

in terms of syntactics and semantics between English and Vietnamese

- Giving the implications for teaching and learning about intensive relational process in English for students at high school

1.4 Scope of the study

In this study, the features of intensive relational process in English are analyzed with the approach under the light of systematic functional grammar based on M.A.K Halliday's point of view The two types of intensive relational process are specified as attributive and identifying This study describes the core of process, the participants in attributive and identifying intensive relational process in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

1.5 Significance of the study

On the theoretical significance, the study helps to raise learners' awareness

of functional grammar, especially the features of intensive relational process

in English and their Vietnamese equivalents, as well as the important role of this issue in the process of teaching and learning English

On the practical significance, the study is expected to be used as a good reference for learning and teaching language The result of study through analysis and comparison between two languages may be of great benefits for teachers and learners of English, as well as helpful in using the language effectively in life

1.6 Design of the study

This study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction, deals with the rationale to choose the thesis, the aims, the objectives, the scope, the significance and the structure of the thesis

Chapter 2, Literature Review, summarizes the results of the previous studies in Vietnam and overseas and theoretical background of functional grammar, importance and opinions on functional grammar, definition and description of intensive relational process in English

Chapter 3, Methodology, points out the research orientations, describes the methods and materials used in doing the research including data collection and analyzing techniques

Chapter 4, Findings and discussion, gives the presentation, analyses of the

data, discussion of the results and implication

Chapter 5, Conclusion, gives the recapitulation of the study, concluding remarks, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further

studies

References come at the end of the thesis

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is aimed at composing an overview of intensive relational process in the light of functional grammar Through the approach of the overseas and Vietnamese linguists, this part reviews their approaches in order to build the theoretical background for the study on the process, relational process, intensive relational process according to functional grammar

2.1 Review of previous studies

Intensive relational process is studied based on functional grammar This is the issue belonging to functional grammar Intensive relational process is the part which is considered in the relation with functional grammar When intensive relational process is studied, it should be placed in wide comprehension of functional grammar The frame of functional grammar is foundation for analysis on relational process in general and on intensive relational process in particular From functional grammar's overview, the intensive relational process is presented and analyzed Among the many trends of grammar that have contributed to the achievements in discovering the nature of language, there is a very new version of the field – systematic functional grammar, which was developed by celebrities

in linguistics study, such as M.A.K Halliday and R Hassan (1991), Th Bloor (1995), etc Compared with traditional grammar, which focuses on written language and deals with rules of correct usage, functional grammar deals with both spoken and written language It can be said without exaggeration that functional grammar is an effective tool of analysis, which solves the issues left out by traditional grammar Functional grammar is natural grammar with the meaning that all linguistic phenomena can be explained Functional grammar explains all units of language - clause, phrase, … In another words, every component is explained as the functional

component in the relationship with whole system Intensive relational process in the light of functional grammar has so far been studied by many researchers all over the world In fact, this field has been dealt with by many famous linguists in both English and Vietnamese In the world there are many researchers who used to conduct the study on the issue of functional grammar The deepest study in the field is M.A.K Halliday's work which is the base for many other linguists in their developing researches on functional grammar With the appearance of systematic functional grammar,

a grammar model developed by M.A.K Halliday, the study of language is seen from a new perspective For M.A.K Halliday, language is a network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making meaning (M.A.K

Halliday 1994: 15), thus language is systematic The term functional is used

to indicate that the approach is concerned with meaning Therefore, the grammar is “the study of how meanings are built up through the use of words and other linguistic forms such as tone and emphasis” (Th Bloor, 1995: 1) It enables us to see and understand more about language in context, provides us with “a tool for understanding why a text is the way it is” (J.R Martin, 1997: 3) In short, functional approaches to grammar can be differentiated from formal or generative approaches to grammar by their focus on the communicative, as opposed to cognitive, aspect of language According to grammarians, those who study the grammar of language from functional approach like M.A.K Halliday (1994), Th Bloor (1995), G

Thomson (1996), J.R Martin (1997), the term functional refers to an

approach to understanding grammar that focuses on how language works to achieve a variety of different functional and communicative purposes Systematic functional linguists attempt to describe language as exactly as it

is They use not only a model to describe language or varieties of language but also views language as a form of doing rather than a form of knowing The scholars, who conduct the research on the frame of the systematic

functional theory, suggest some models of the types of process S Shore (1992) introduces an experiential model with three main types of process: relational process, mental process and material process to describe Finnish language Besides, J.R Martin (1996) suggests a model with three main types of process: mental process, material process, relational process to describe Tagalog language.

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

According to M.A.K Halliday (1994), the experiential world represents in transitivity system, consisting of types of process: Mental, material, relational, behavioral and verbal Every process has associated with it at least one participant that is the key figure in that process, this is the one through which the process is actualized Participants, together with process and circumstance are the three main elements expressing the experiential world around us and inside us In the relational process, together with its fuctions, intensive, circumstantial and possessive relational processes are identified Particularly, intensive relational process includes attributive and identifying It is found that the identification and classification of intensive relational process often cause some confusion and mistakes for learners of English, so it is necessary to synthetize all the features of these processes systematically from the functional grammar aspect M.A.K Halliday's research approach is detailed and systematically, brings the deep realization

on functional grammar (FG), implications and applications of this field

G Thompson (1996:76-77) describes the theoretical and practical aspects

of functional grammar model in an accessible way and makes clear the reasons why the model is as it is He points out a model with three main types of process: mental process, material process and relational process, and three basic questions that can be asked about any process: What kind of

process is it? How many participants can/must be involved in the process? What roles can/must those participants play? According to his opinion, from the experiential perspective, language comprises a set of resources for referring to entities in the world and the ways in which those entities act on

or relate to each other At the simplest level, language reflects people's view

of world as consisting of goings-on (verbs) involving things (nouns) which

may have attributes (adjectives) and which go on against background details

of place, time, manner, etc (adverbials) If functional labels (i.e labels which indicate the role played by each element of the representation) are used, people can express what they have said about the content of clauses in terms of processes involving participants in certain circumstances It is shown that G Thomson summarizes the three kinds of meanings of using language: to talk about experience of the world, to interact with other people, to organize the messages In his research there is discussion on functional grammar under alternative approach He presents, sums up analysis and classification according to different grammarians and finds out implications and applications of FG

In Vietnamese, FG has been paid considerable attention and studied by many grammarians and researchers on this field, as follows:

Cao Xuân Hạo (1991) presents a study on Vietnamese under the light of functional grammar He points out the features of grammatical system exactly, analyzes Vietnamese sentences, states the structures and meanings

of sentence in Vietnamese language and the trends of current functional grammar It is assessed that his study is successful in investigating the basic syntactic structure and classification of sentence He applies Theme - Rheme relation to analyzing syntactic structure in Vietnamese sentence His approach is applied to teaching and learning Vietnamese language according

to the new orientation, besides traditional syntactic structure: Subject, Predicate, Complement…

Hoàng Văn Vân (2002) completed his study on experiential grammar of Vietnamese based on systematic functional light The most important part

of the study is an analysis on the choice of various processes in the nuclear transitivity and circumstantial one This helps a lot in mapping out the way to study Vietnamese functional grammar He describes and explains the Vietnamese clauses in systematic functional approach He is successful in description of the types of processes in Vietnamese and explanation of the social aspects of Vietnamese in both system and usage

He generalized the theory of systematic function developed by M.A.K

Halliday and other linguists, explained the concept function in the

systematic function model and some concepts suitable for description of grammar It is considered that his research approach is mainly based on functional grammar model of M.A.K Halliday (1994) He points out the model of process's types of S.C Dik (1978: 34), the experiential model of Shore (1992:213), the experiential model and process's types of M.I.M Matthiessen (1995: 203) and the experiential model and process's types of M.A.K Halliday (1994: 108) Then he chooses the suitable model for suggestion on process's types in Vietnamese After test and analysis on some approaches to experiential world in language, based on the experiential model and process's types of M.A.K Halliday, Hoàng Văn Vân suggests the systematic model of process's types in Vietnamese

Diệp Quang Ban (2008) presents the different aspects of Vietnamese grammar, the combination of viewpoints of traditional grammar and functional grammar This is inheritance of the achievements in traditional grammar and the approach to functional grammar It is considered that his study on Vietnamese grammar in the light of functional grammar is based on

the theoretical orientation of systematic functional grammar of M.A.K Halliday, applied in Vietnamese He analyzes the functions of sentence: expression (to express the experience of the world), word exchange (to interact with other people, so called interpersonal relation), and message ( to organize the messages), as well as classifies the types of process in Vietnamese including the main processes: material, mental, relational

Besides, there are also many other postgraduates at Vietnam institutes with valuable studies on different topics in this new trend of grammar In fact, they all have contributed a lot to the study of this field and inspired the writer to choose functional grammar as the theoretical framework for this M.A thesis

There is no research which makes comparison on intensive relational process between English and Vietnamese Up to now M.A.K Halliday's research approach to FG is considered to be the most adequate and clearest

So this study is conducted in the light of functional grammar in English of M.A.K Halliday, then finds out their Vietnamese equivalents also

2.2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.2.1 What is process?

All figures consist of a process unfolding through time and of participants being directly involved in this process in some way, and in addition there may be circumstances of time, space, cause, manner or one of a few other types These circumstances are not directly involved in the process; rather they are attendant on it All such figures are sorted out in the grammar of the clause Thus as well as being a mode of action, of giving and demanding goods and services and information, the clause is also a mode of reflection,

of imposing order on the endless variation and flow of events The grammatical system, by which this is achieved, is that of transitivity The

transitivity system construes the world of experience into a manageable set

of process types Material, mental and relational are the main types of process in English transitivity system The process is typically expressed - or realized - by the verbal group in the clause, and is the central component of the message from the experiential perspective In some cases, the process can be seen as including another constituent apart from the verbal group proper This is clearest with phrasal verbs, where the particle is usually best analyzed as expressing part of the process (G Thompson, 1996:77)

There is a basic difference between inner and outer experience: between

what we experience as going on out there, in the world around us, and what

we experience as going on inside ourselves, in the world of consciousness (including perception, emotion and imagination) The prototypical form of the outer experience is that of actions and events: things happen, and people

or other actors do things, or make them happen The inner experience is harder to sort out; but it is partly a kind of replay of the outer, recording it, reacting to it, reflecting on it, and partly a separate awareness of our states of being The grammar sets up a discontinuity between these two: it distinguishes rather clearly between outer experience, the processes of the external world, and inner experience, the processes of consciousness (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthienssen, 2004:170) There are a number

of experiential domains, such as emotion, that are given such a multifaceted interpretation by the grammar of transitivity Such domains are experientially difficult to come to terms with, and the grammar solves the problem by offering complementary models for construing them The world

of our experience is highly indeterminate; and this is precisely how the grammar construes it in the system of process type

Clause of different process types thus make distinctive contributions to the construal of experience in text The mixture of process types characteristic

of a text belonging to a particular register typically changes in the course of unfolding of the text (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthienssen, 2004:173)

According to analysis of M.A.K Halliday (2004: 175), there are three components set up in the grammar of a clause:

- A process unfolding through time

- The participants involved in the process

- Circumstances associated with the process

These are organized in configurations that provide the models or schemata for construing our experience of what goes on Imagine that we are out in the open air and that there is movement overhead Perceptually the phenomenon is all of a piece; but when we talk about it we analyze it as a

semantic configuration - something which we express as, say, birds are flying in the sky This is not the only possible way of organizing such a fragment of experience; we might have turned it into a meaning structure -

"semanticized" it, so to speak - quite differently We might have said

something like it's winging; after all, we say it's raining, without analyzing

that process into components, although it would be quite possible to do so -

many languages represent the phenomenon of rain as water is falling and there is in fact one dialect of Chinese which represents it as the sky is dropping water In English, there are a few processes, like raining, which are left unanalyzed; but more typically the English language structures each experience as a semantic configuration on the principle illustrated above, consisting of process, participants and circumstantial elements So in this

instance we have a process are flying, a participant birds and a circumstantial element in the sky In this interpretation of what is going on,

there is doing, a doer and a location where the doing takes place (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthienssen, 2004:175)

Circumstantial elements are almost always optional augmentations of the clause rather than obligatory components In contrast, participants are inherent in the process every experiential type of clause has at least one participant and certain types have up to three participants - the only

exception being clauses of certain meteorological processes, such as it's raining , it's snowing, it's hailing The process is the most central element in

the configuration Participants are close to the centre; they are directly involved in the process, bringing about its occurrence or being affected by it

in some way The nature of participants will vary according to the type of process, and we can say that the configuration of process + participants constitutes the experiential centre of the clause Process is typically realized

by verbal group; Participant is typically realized by nominal group and circumstance typically realized by adverbial group or prepositional phrase Circumstantial elements augment this centre in some way - temporally, spatially, causally and so on; but their status in the configuration is more peripheral and unlike participants they are not directly involved in the process (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthienssen, 2004:177) Let's consider the following example for the clause as process, participants and circumstances

(M.A.K Halliday and Christian Matthienssen, 2004)

The process is realized by discontinuous verbal group can… tell The

source of the discontinuity is interpersonal, not experiential Interpersonally,

the clause is yes/no interrogative in mood As far as the experiential

structure of the clause is concerned, it makes no difference whether the verbal group is continuous or discontinuous

The units that realize the process, participant, and circumstance elements of the clause make distinct contributions to the modeling of a quantum of change, The elements that make up the centre of the clause - the process and the participants involved in it - construe complementary facets of change These two facets are transience and permanence Transience is the experience of unfolding through time, it is construed by a verbal group serving as the process Permanence is the experience of lasting through time and being located in (concrete or abstract) space; it is construed by nominal groups serving as participants Change is construed as involving both transience and permanence, and the phenomena of experience are construed either as transient processes or as permanent participants The border between these two is indeterminate; the lexicogrammar of every language will allow considerable discretion in how phenomena are treated in discourse, and lexico-grammars of different languages draw the borderline

in different places

The concepts of process, participant and circumstance are semantic categories which explain in the most general way how phenomena of our experience of the world are construed as linguistic structures We need to recognize participant and circumstance functions which are more specific than these and which, in the case of participant functions, differ according to the type of process being represented (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthienssen, 2004:178) The ideational meta-function is about the natural world in the broadest sense, and is concerned with clauses as representation It expresses speakers’ experience including the elements of the external world and those of consciousness The ideational function reflects the field parameter of register and can be classified into two sub-functions: the experiential and the logical The experiential function is largely concerned with content or ideas The logical function is concerned

with the relationship between ideas Experiential meanings are realized through the system of transitivity

M.A.K Halliday (1994) states that transitivity construes the world of experience into a manageable set of process types In the transitivity system

of English, six process types are recognized: material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal and existential He goes on to analyze the process into three components: the process itself, the participants in the process and circumstances associated with the process When analyzing a clause as

an exchange of interactive event, Halliday realizes the two components in a clause: the Mood and the Residue The Mood is the component carrying the syntactic burden of the exchange and carries the argument forward (M.A.K Halliday, 1994) It consists of two parts: the Subject, which

is a nominal group, and the Finite operator, which is part of a verbal group The Residue, according to M.A.K Halliday, consists of functional elements

of three kinds: Predicator, Complement, and Adjunct

In this study, the analysis on the basic structure of sentence is based on the functional grammar orientation of M.A.K Halliday, of which process, participants and circumstance are semantic categories It is considered that realization of process types according to M.A.K Halliday's approach is quite necessary for analysis of the structure of sentence

2.2.2.2 The relational process

Relational process is a process of being Relational process, as a process of being, is appropriate to explain the complex relationships between some abstract items because it sounds definite Relational process types serve to identify and characterize, and are further subdivided into processes of

"being" (intensive or circumstantial) and "having" (possessive) (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004:218) Attribution specifies the class

the Carrier belongs to, while identification narrows the class down to one

Relational processes usually involve the verb be and are manifested in three

following subtypes: x is a (Intensive) , x is at a (Circumstantial), x has a (Possessive)

Every language accommodates, in its grammar, some systematic construction of relational processes The English system operates with three main types of relation: Intensive, possessive and circumstantial Each of these comes in two distinct modes of being - attributive and identifying These are set out as two simultaneous systems in the system network of transitivity These two systems intersect to define six categories of relational clause These different categories are further elaborated in the grammar of relational clauses

Table 2.1 Three subtypes of relational process in English

Intensive

x is a

Possessive

x has a

Circumstantial

x is at a

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004:239)

the class of events on Friday Similarly, the piano is Emily's can be interpreted as the piano is identified as the one belonging to Emily

In the circumstantial type, the relationship between the two terms is one of time, place, manner, cause, accompaniment, role, matter or angle These are also manifested as circumstantial elements in English clause In the possessive type, the relationship between the two terms is one of ownership;

one entity possesses another In addition to possession in the narrow sense

of owning, the category of possessive clauses also includes possession in a broader, more generalized sense - possession of body parts and other part-whole relations, containment, involvement and the like

Another example for relational process can be analyzed more clearly:

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004)

These clauses use relational processes, which serve to characterize and to

identify These two categories may also be termed attributive, such as Mike characterized as a member of that class of beings called 20 years old, and

difference between the two is that identifying relational clauses may be

reversed We can say My name is Mike or Mike is my name whereas attributive clauses may not We can say I am 20, but cannot say 20 am I

Within these two categories of attributive and identifying, we may also provide more information about Mike through three different types:

1 Intensive:

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004)

In the attributive mode, an entity has some class ascribed or attributed to it

In the identifying mode, some thing has an identity assigned to it What this means is that one entity is being used to identify another

2 Possessive:

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004)

In the possessive type, the relationship between the two terms is one of ownership, one entity possesses another In attributive mode, the possessive relationship again may be construed either as attribute In the identifying mode, the possession takes the form of a relationship between two entities; and again this may be organized in two ways, with the relationship being

expressed either as a feature of the participants or as a feature of the process

3 Circumstantial:

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004)

In the circumstantial type, the relationship between the two terms is one of time, place, manner, cause…In attributive mode, the circumstantial element

is an attribute that is being ascribed to some entity In identifying mode, the circumstance takes the form of a relationship between two entities; one entity is being related to another by a feature of time or place or manner…

Relational processes are construed as static as opposed to material processes which are dynamic Also, whereas material processes construe the world of

outer experience: Mike is watching TV and mental processes construe inner experience : Mike likes Lili Relational processes may construe both outer:

M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004)

To show relational process clearly, the researcher mentions distinguishing of Relational Vs Existential Process through the following examples:

(a) On the wall there is a picture

(b) The picture is on the wall

(M.A.K Halliday, 1985)

Both clauses (a) and (b) use is (be) Actually, they are different They

represent different experience Clause (a) is existential clause, while clause (b) is a relational clause Existential process usually contains a

circumstantial element of time or place In clause (a), on the wall is an

example of circumstantial element of place Existential clause shows the existence of something, while relational clause shows the attribute (in this case, the location) of something In other words, the response to clause (a)

will be is there? This is because, in clause (a) the Subject is there, meanwhile, the response to clause (b) will be Oh, is it? because, the Subject

of clause (b) is the picture In being there able to be construed not only with

things as participants, but also with acts and facts, relational clauses clearly differ from material ones; but they resemble mental ones in this respect However, in a relational clause, these things, acts and facts are not construed

as a phenomenon of consciousness; rather, they are construed as one element in a relationship of being In a relational clause, a thing, act or fact construed as a participant is configured with another relational participant that has to come from the same domain of being

The fundamental properties of relational clauses derive from the nature of a

configuration of being As the term relational suggests, it is not being in the

sense of existence There is a related, but distinct, category of existential clause, which represent that something exists or happens Let's see the following example:

There was a storm

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004)

Textually, the theme is just the feature of existence there, allowing the

addressee to prepare for something that is about to be introduced; and this

something is presented as new information The word there in such clauses

is neither a participant nor a circumstance It has no representational

function in the transitivity structure of the clause; but it serves to indicate the feature of existence, and it is needed interpersonally as a Subject Unlike

participants and circumstances this existential there cannot be queried, theme-predicated or theme-identified; we cannot say Where was? in response to there was a storm We cannot say it was there that was a storm and we cannot say there was where was a storm So existential clauses typically have the verb be; in this respect also they resemble relational

clauses

In relational clauses, there are two parts to the being: something is said to be

something else In other words, a relationship of being is set up between two separate entities This means that in a relational clause in English, there are always two inherent participants - two "be-ers" In contrast, the general classes of material and mental clause have only one inherent participant - the Actor and the Senser, respectively (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004:214) Thus while we can have a material clause with one

participant such as she was working or she was working in the room, we cannot have a relational clause such as she was, with only one participant,

we have to have two: she was in the room Similarly, a mental clause with one participant such as she rejoiced is possible; but the nearest relational equivalent must have two participants - she was happy not she happy

Through consideration of materials, the study of M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen (2004) on functional process is successful and its result

is the base for many other studies In his study, the relational process is analyzed carefully And It is necessary to distinguish between relational and existential process, between relational and material process, relational and mental process Basing on his result, the current study’s researcher attempts

to collect data for analysis in detail All efforts may lead to more reliable study results

2.2.2.3 The intensive relational process

According to M.A.K Halliday (2004: 216), intensive relational process includes attributive relation and identifying relation In the attributive relation, an entity has some class ascribed or attributed to it Structurally, we label this class the Attribute, and the entity to which it is ascribed is the Carrier - the carrier of the attribute (a is an attribute of x) In the identifying relation, something has an identity assigned to it What this means is that one entity is being used to identify another (a is the identify of x)

a Relational process of intensive attribution

In the attributive mode, an entity has some class ascribed or attributed to it Structurally, we label this class the Attribute, and the entity to which it is ascribed is the Carrier - the Carrier" of the attribute This type of clause is a resource for characterizing entities serving as the Carrier; and it is also a central grammatical strategy for assessing by assigning an evaluative Attribute to the Carrier (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004)

Table 2.2 Syntactic - semantic structure of attributive intensive relational process (AIRP) in English

Carrier Process: Relational intensive attribution Attribute

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004) Within clauses of intensive attribution, we can distinguish three simultaneous contrasts: (1) The class denoted by the attribute may be defined by reference to an entity or to a quality; (2) the process of attribution may be neutral or phased; and (3) the domain of attribution may be either material or semiotic

(1) Membership specification: Entity/quality The class is specified either by naming the class itself by reference to the entity that constitutes the class,

e.g She was a teacher, or by naming a criterion for class-membership by

reference to a quality or qualities of the entity that constitutes the class, e.g

realized: entity attributes are realized by nominal groups with thing as head; quality attributes are realized by nominal groups with epithet as head Attribution of the entity kind approaches qualitative attribution when the thing in the nominal group is a very general one such as thing, person or fellow Qualitative attributes are realized by nominal groups with epithet as head The epithet is realized by an adjective (or participial verb form), which

is frequently sub-modified by adverbs of degree such as very, extremely,

The comparatives may be expanded by a standard of comparison introduced

by as, than; for These are either phrases or clauses and are placed after the Head/Thing, in the same position as post-modifying qualifiers, e.g She is younger than she is

(2) Phase of attribution: Neutral/phased Like other processes, processes of attribution unfold through time In the unmarked case, the phase of the unfolding is left unspecified (neutral); alternatively, it is specified in terms

of time, appearance or sense-perception That is, coming into being is construed on the same model as activities as far as time is concerned; but it

is still construed as a configuration of being, with Carrier (My friend) + Process (was becoming) + Attribute (famous)

(3) Domain of attribution: material/semiotic Relational clauses may construe both outer experience and inner experience So both these modes of experience are included within the domains of attribution of an attributive clause In particular, inner experience is generalized to include not only

subjective sensations but also attributes that are construed as objective properties of macro-things and meta-things - properties such as the one

denoted by the adjective true in the sentence it's true the food down there

In attributive relational process, the two participants are the Carrier (the entity which carries the attribute) and some entity is being said to have an attribute It is being assigned to a class

Table.2.3 Participants of AIRP in English

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004:236)

his attributes; but it does not serve to identify him - there are other tall people besides In the study, the analysis on intensive attribution plays an important role in understanding relational process, grammatical structure and semantic features

b Relational process of intensive identification

In the identifying mode, something has an identity assigned to it One entity

is being used to identify another: x is identified by a, or a serves to define the identity of x Structurally we label the x-element, that which is to be identified, as the Identified, and the a-element, that which serves as identity,

as the Identifier (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004: 227)

Table.2.4 Relational process of intensive identification

with Value as Subject in English

Value Process: Relational intensive identification Token

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004: 227)

Table.2.5 Relational process of intensive identification

with Token as Subject in English

Token Process: Relational intensive identification Value

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004: 227)

In the sentence Emma is the prettiest one, Emma is the Value identified by the Token the prettiest one, since Emma is represented by the prettiest one However, in the sentence Emma is the leader, Emma represents the leader and is now the Token, identified by the leader as the Value Because of this structural distinction, we cannot combine the two and say: Emma is the prettiest one and the leader (M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004)

In identifying relational process, its function is to identify one entity in terms of another The participants are therefore labelled the Identified and the Identifier If the one-member class is at the same level of abstraction as its member, then the one-member class becomes a value to which the member is assigned as a token

Table.2.6 Participants of identifying intensive relational process (IIRP)

in English

(M.A.K Halliday and M.I.M Matthiessen, 2004:236)

In this study, the above analysis on intensive identification plays an important role in understanding relational process, grammatical structure and semantic features Unlike intensive attribution, intensive identification does not talk about membership of a class Class membership does not serve

to identify It is necessary to distinguish attributive and identifying in intensive relational process

2.3 Summary

This chapter presents the studies of linguists overseas as well as in Viet Nam

in the field which is investigated by the researcher - Intensive relational process in the light of functional grammar The chapter has also stated the theoretical background of relational process with a definition of process, relational process, intensive relational process and some other specific ideas about attributive and identifying clauses

The points of views from the linguists of this field, orientation of FG in the light of M.A.K Halliday discussed in this chapter establish the important theoretical background for analysis in the following chapters

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is to provide readers a detailed description of how the study was carried out, namely to describe in detail the research methods in which the research questions are presented as well as data collection and data analysis The chapter is to give readers an elaborate description of every step

of the analysis

3.1 Research-governing orientations

3.1.1 Research questions

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the aims of the study are to investigate features

of intensive relational process in English from the systematic functional grammar's perspective, to find out the similarities and differences on intensive relational process between English and Vietnamese, to give the implication for teaching and learning intensive relational process in English.Thus, the study emphasizes to seek the answers to the following research

questions:

1 What are the features of intensive relational process in English?

2 What are similarities and differences on intensive relational process in terms of syntactics and semantics between English and Vietnamese?

3 What is implications for teaching and leaning about intensive relational process in English for students at high school?

3.1.2 Research setting

The study is based on the opinions of functional grammar which is an effective tool of analysis on the issues left out by traditional grammar Functional grammar is natural grammar with the meaning that all linguistic phenomena can be explained Functional grammar explains all units of

language - clause, phrase, ect… In another words, every component is explained as the functional component in the relationship with whole system Anything, which is said or written, is expressed in the using situation The usage of language through thousands of generation forms the linguistic system Language evolves to meet the human demands The study

is planned to be conducted by researcher from the first year of Master

course

3.1.3 Research approach

In order to achieve the set goal, the study will be carried out by the combination of descriptive and the comparative approaches The analysis of intensive relational process in English and Vietnamese equivalents is based

on the features and description of types of the process listed by M.A.K Halliday (1994) in the view of functional grammar Analysis and information are paid attention to reach the conclusion of the research

McMillan and Schumuccher (1978) described research design as "the plan and structure of the investigation used to obtain evidence to answer research questions The design describes the procedures for conducting the study, including when, from whom and under what conditions the data will be obtained" In the other words, research design indicates how the research is set up; what happens to the subjects and what methods of data collection are used

3.1.4 Principles for intended data collection and data analysis

The sources of data is secondary Reliability and validity are two most important criteria to guarantee the quality of the data collection Starting with the data analysis, it is necessary to ask whether actually answer to the questions can be done and it has posed with the research methodology selected If not, the methods selected are inadequate; therefore, the research questions must be convincible enough, the research methods must be

reasonable and the data selected to collect must be adequate The samples themselves must be truly representative The samples of data used in the study are required to be accurate and the collection must be logical, what comes first and what comes later are to be scientifically well-ordered The data source selected to be investigated are derived from English and Vietnamese reliable materials The study strictly follows the research method and research orientation The data collection plays an important part

in finding the result of the research to produce a qualified study, helping Vietnamese learners and teachers of English to gain the best achievement

3.2 Research methods

3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods

In this study, the research methods are chosen to find out the features of attributive and identifying in intensive relational process in English and their Vietnamese equivalents From the understanding on this field, it is useful for teaching and learning this process in English A careful combination of descriptive and comparative method will be employed to carry out this study Also, the descriptive and comparative research method is used to analyze data, to make clear the above mentioned questions Descriptive research is to detail the features of attributive and identifying in intensive relational process in English The researcher attempts to identify and analyze similarities and differences on this process between English and Vieetnamese, then find out their Vietnamese equivalents Using the comparative method to increase understanding on intensive relational process in both English and Vietnamese and create a foundation for teaching, learning this process in English Comparative research method in this study is to analyze the intensive relational process of two different language in very different context So it is helpful in establishing correlations in comparison of two languages During conducting the study,

data are collected from secondary sources, and the goal is to determine similarities and differences that are related to using of these languages The study concentrates on analyzing the similarities and differences on intensive relational between English and Vietnamese in an attempt to better understand this aspect in two languages The comparison leads to new insights and better understanding of the intensive relational process and all involved participants which make a very important role in viewing this process The comparative analysis of intensive relational process in English and Vietnamese is conducted to find out the similarities and differences in terms of syntactic and semantic features

In the study, the researcher also uses descriptive method to explain and analyze the concepts and meaning in the research field Using the descriptive research aims at describing the characteristics of phenomena

being studied It does not answer questions about how/when/why the characteristics occurred, but it addresses the what question, for example,

"What are the features of attributive and identifying in intensive relational process?", then it can be found what implications of the findings are The goal of the research, which needs to reach, is also to describe the data about what is being studied and to gain a better understanding on the topic

Therefore, both descriptive and comparative methods are chosen as the general methodology of the study so that aims and objectives mentioned in chapter 1 are reached Based on examples in English and in Vietnamese collected, analyses and characteristics of the data are also generalized

3.2.2 Data collection techniques

The data are collected basing on the criteria of the recognition of attributive and identifying in intensive relational process in English The examples in English and Vietnamese for the study and the data for investigation are collected from dictionaries, books, novels, stories, internet… Some

examples are also taken from relevant linguistic and grammatical books which are reliable written by grammarians The samples taken from the sources of data are based on the kinds of relational process in the sentences

or examples used in context in English and Vietnamese to study in the thesis Other data serving the research mainly come from works by functional grammarians such as M.A.K Halliday and Christian Matthienssen (1994), G Thomson (1996), Hoang Van Van (2002), Diep Quang Ban (2008) The materials of study are the sources from the books, novels, stories, website, etc After collected, the data will be analyzed with descriptive and comparative methods The investigation of the data follows the principles in the theoretical background which is presented in chapter 2 Since the study is concerned with the aspect of attributive and identifying which confine to clauses, examples of the whole text seem not to be necessary The examples of the study are collected from the materials in English and Vietnamese: Picking out examples which satisfy the criteria mentioned above, presenting, describing and analyzing the examples of English and those of Vietnamese, finding out the similarities and differences between two languages in terms of syntactic and semantic features, then draw out some conclusions, discussing the findings and suggesting some implications for teaching and learning intensive relational process in English

as well as further study of the issue

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques

Data analysis is to extract the very useful information The process of organizing and thinking about data is key to understanding what the data contains So it is important to pay attention when data analysis is presented, and to think critically about the data and the conclusions which are drawn

In the study, the corpus of sentences containing participants in English and their Vietnamese equivalents is described and compared from the view of the functional grammar aspect

The data are analyzed and interpreted contextually The most relevant interpretation of intensive relational process is presented in the particular context The analysis also looks into the contribution of each component in relational process: the element in the core of the process, the participants of the process and attributive and identifying in intensive relational process

3.3 Summary

This chapter includes research orientations with the research approach based

on the view of functional grammar and the research questions, points out the research methods, data collection and analysis, the reliability and validity of the collected data