Systemic-Functional Grammar

Systemic- working(a) Grammar tidings is a special approach to report or acknowledge the latest and important facts. Its occasion is to influence the Mass Public Opinion. The definition of the password demonstrates that intelligence activity is the fact, different from the fabrication of literature. Besides the general characteristics of give-and-take, broadcasting news has its own distinct features. This paper analyzes the English broadcasting news from the filling of the cultivate types and the transitivity of the cla utilize by using the transitivity theory for the purpose of discovering the distribution law of the regale types of the English broadcasting news text and its genre characteristicsIntroductionIn the 1960s, Halliday, the Professor of linguistics, developed a musical arrangementatic and comprehensive theory of style, called Systemic- in operation(p) Grammar (SFG), and published his book An Introduction to Functional Grammar in 1985 and 1994. Many scholars also published a number of books and papers on systemic grammar. The look into of Systemic Functional Grammar began in 1970s and became popular in the late 1980s.In Halli age book An Introduction to Functional Grammar, he says the theory on which this vocal description is based, systemic theory follows in the European operating(a) tradition. It is largely based on Firths system-structure theory, but derives more abstract principles from Hjelmslev and owes many ideas to Prague School. The organizing concept is that of the system, which is apply essentially in Firths sense of a functional Paradigm but developed into the formal construct of a system network. (Halliday, 200052)SFG has two components systemic grammar and functional grammar. In Hu Zhuanglins book Linguistics. A course Book, he holds that Systemic grammar aims to explain the internal relations in address as a system network, or meaning potential. And this network consists of subsystem from which language users make choice s. Functional grammar aims to reveal that language is a means of social interaction, based on the patch that language system and the forms that make it up argon inescapably determined by the uses or functions which they serve. (Hu Zhuanglin 2001409)In a functional grammar, on the new(prenominal) hand, the direction is reversed. A language is interpreted as a System of meanings can be realized. Halliday(1985) Functional Grammar aims to reveal that language is a mean of social interaction, based on the position that language system and the forms that make it up be inescapably determined by the uses or functions which they serve. Hu Zhuanglin(2001) The functions of language are the most important things in Functional Grammar.As the tool of human bes conference, language possesses many different kinds of functions. Halliday divided the functions of language into deuce-ace types. They are ideational metafunction, interpersonal metafunction, and textual metafunction. In this paper, the dialect is on ideational metafunction.The ideational metafunction is to organize the speaker or writers experience of the real or imaginary world. It includes existential function and logical function. The meaning of experiential function is that language expresses peoples experiences in external world (things, events qualities, etc) and internal world (thoughts, beliefs, feelings, etc). What logical function refers to is that language expresses the logical relationship between two or more than two meaning units.Experiential function is chiefly embodied by transitivity and voice. Parallel with its evolution in the function of mood, expressing the active, interpersonal prospect of meaning, the clause evolved simultaneously in another grammatical function expressing the reflective, experiential aspect of meaning. This later is the system of transitivity. Transitivity specifies the different types of change that are know in the language, and the structures by which they are ex pressed. (Halliday,1985) Transitivity is a semantic system. Its purpose is to divide something around people into several processes involving participants and circumstantial elements. Halliday essences that transitivity includes cardinal processes (a) real(a) process. (b) Mental process. (c) comparative process. (d) Behavioral process. (e) literal process. (f) Existential process.(a) Material r knocked out(p)ine process of doingMaterial process is a process of doing. The process commonly consists of verb, actor (logical subject) and goal (noun or pronoun). Material runes express the notion that some entity does something- which whitethorn be done to some other entity (Halliday, 1985) For example,A fungusdestroyedthe deep brown plant leavesActorProcessGoal(b) Mental Process process of thinkingMental process is a process of thinking involving perception (see, look), chemical reaction (like, fear) and cognition (knowing, believing, and understanding) and so on. Mental process has two participants sensor and phenomenon. Sensor refers to the person who perceives and phenomenon is the something that is perceived by the sensor. Phenomenon includes concrete person or objects, abstract things, happened events and so on. For example,Hesawthe whole room.SensorProcessPhenomenon(c) Relational Process process of creation Relational process is a process of being. Actually, relational process is a very complex type of process, which covers the many different shipway that being is expressed (Eggins 1994). However, in this analysis, we only refer two simple types, they are attributive process and identifying process. In the attributive process, the participants are attribute and carrier. For example,Her facewasa bloated spotty mask.CarrierProcessAttributeIn the identifying process, the participants are identify and identifier.This carishers.IdentifiedProcessIdentifier(d) Behavioral Process process of behavingBehavioral process is a process of behaving, such as breath e, dream, smile, laugh, cry, and cough. The basic components of the process are be hastenr and process. This point is similar to the psychic process, but different from the tangible process. Bloor and Bloor (1995) described behavioral process as the grey area between Material and Mental processes.Shecriedloudly.Be rentrProcessCircumstantial(e) Verbal Process process of sayingVerbal process is a process of saying. Saying has to be interpreted in a sooner broad sense it covers any kind of symbolic exchange of meaning. The verbal words are tell, say, talk, describe, boast, praise. The verbalization itself is called the verbiage.The informantstoldthe policeeverythingSayerProcessReceiverVerbiage(f) Existential Process process of existingExistential process is a process of existing. In every existential process, it must have an Existent. There has no representational function.There areten of usin the party.ProcessExistentCircumstanceGenerally speaking, most of the processes representing descriptive meaning are the relational, existential process and the mental processes. However, most of the processes representing narrative meaning are material processes.Voice is the ways in which a language expresses the relationship between a verb and the noun phrases which are associated with it. Two article of faiths can differ in voice and yet have the same basic meaning. However, there may be a change in emphasis and one type of sentence may be more appropriate. (Jack C.Richards, John Platt and Heidi Platt, 2000) It is represented commonly by active voice and passive voice. In order to make the structure of the text reasonable and the context consistent, speakers or writers need to do an appropriate choice to the voice.Approach to Analyze the TextAccording to Huang Guowen, SFG is more suitable for analyzing a text. The reasons for it lie below. First, SFG is a text grammar, which means this kind of grammar can describe how the use of language. In this way, the meaning of th e text can be understood clearly. Second, in SFG, functions of language are divided into three metafunction. The description of the systemic network of the three metafunction is quite clear. Thus, the application of the framework of SFG to analyze a text can avoid evaluating at will.Choice of TextThe text chosen for analysis is from BBC beam news on its website on Thursday, 2 July, 2009. This news report can be heard in the air and its transcription is on BBC website after the reporter made an interview with Alain Bouillard, of Frances BEA chance investigating agency. This news is written in English originally, so when I picked it up, I made no translation. Whats more, this piece of news is completely authentic in that it is not edited or used for the purpose of language teaching.Context of SituationDefinition of context It is immediate surround of language activity, which is time, give, talking content, the relation among people related to transfer communicational meanings. Hal liday and Hasan (1985) divided context of situation into three parts field, tenor and mode.(a) Field refers to what is being talked about, what is it that the participants are engaged in, in which the language s as some essential components. This chosen news report is talking about the result of investigation of the France air crash. Most of the contents are from an officer, in this way, the media wants to give the public an authoritative explanation of the investigation process.(b) Tenor refers to the people involved in the communication and the relationship between them. What kinds of role relationships obtain among the participants, including permanent and temporary relationships of one kind or another, both the types of speech role that they are taking on in the dialogue and the whole cluster of socially significant relationships in which they refer to. Here the participants are the news writers or editors and the listeners of the radio or visitors or readers of the websites.(c) Mode refers to how the language is functioning in the interaction, e.g. whether it is written or spoken. As for the chosen news report, its briny purpose is to read to the listeners. Therefore, the language usage is rather simple and oral, which is to reduce the burden of listeners.Text port France jet skint on impactBrazilian military personnel retrieve part of the Air France flat solid from the Atlantic Ocean (08 June 2009)Search teams recovered 51 bodies from the crash areaFrench investigators trying to take note out why an Air France plane crashed in the Atlantic say they believe it broke up on contact with water, not in the air.They also found that the planes speed sensors had been a grammatical constituent but not the cause of the crash.All 228 people on the plane were killed when it plunged into the ocean en send off from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 1 June.Teams looking for the planes safety valve data recorders will continue operations for another 10 days.Alain Bouillar d, of Frances BEA mishap investigation agency, said the crash had been an extremely catchy one to understand. surrounded by the come of the water and 35,000ft 10,700m, we dont know what happened, Mr Bouillard said.In the absence of the flight recorders, it is extremely difficult to draw conclusions.Table 2Type of TransitivityMaterialMentalRelationalVerbalBehavioralExistentialTotal301300Percentage43%014%43%00In the news above, the most processes are verbal and material process, and with only one relational process and zero existential, behavior and mental process. Generally speaking, a certain text usually contains many different kinds of transitivity process, especially material process. Hu Zhuanglin contents that people living in a material world, doormake is the primary and basis, only with this can human beings hold other physiological feature to proceed other process. In this piece of news, material process takes up 43%, which is quite high in total. According to Halliday, Wh at experiential function is that language expresses peoples experiences in external world (things, events qualities, etc) and internal world (thoughts, beliefs, feelings, etc). News is the record of the fact, is the response to the fact. News without fact is not news, news without fact or rectitude cannot be good news. The theory of the news writing is objectively reporting and speaking with the fact. In this news, material process takes up such a high proportion, which is just right to obey the rules that news is ascribable to truth or fact. However, one certain process occurs more frequently is one of the ingredients to form the feature of a text. Halliday classes the Process Material, Mental and Relational as major process and the others as minor. The verbal process that originally belongs to the less important process in this news takes up 43%, which is the highest of all. Verbal process is a process of saying the saying is to exchange information. Broadcasting news as a too l of media has a responsibility to transmit information to the public. It is not difficult to find out that the transitivity process of this piece of news lays particular stress on verbal process.According to other statistics I find out in another 10 pieces of BBC news show that verbal process occurs quite high in broadcasting texts. In the total 172 sentences, there are 56 verbal process, occupying 32%, only a little lower than material process. In some certain broadcasting news (such as above), verbal process equals even overruns material process. To some extent, the distribution of transitivity of discourse has a regular discipline. Whats more, the discipline has something to do with the genre of the discourse.Now we will have a further study of the news above. There are seven sentences in the news, and they are divided into separated process, each sentence and its belonging process is in the tables below. Verbal ProcessFrench investigators trying to find out why an Air France pl ane crashed in the Atlanticsaythey believe it broke up on contact with water, not in the airSayerProcessVerbiageMaterial processTheyalso foundthat the planes speed sensors had been a factor but not the cause of the crash.ActorProcessGoalMaterial ProcessAll 228 people on the planewere killedwhen it plunged into the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 1 JuneGoalProcessCircumstance (Material Process)Teams looking for the planes flight data recorderswill continueOperationsfor another 10 daysActorProcessGoalCircumstance (Verbal Process)Alain Bouillard, of Frances BEA accident investigation agencysaidthe crash had been an extremely difficult one to understand.SayerProcessReported (Verbal Process)Between the surface of the water and 35,000ft 10,700m, we dont know what happenedMr. BouillardSaidReportedSayerProcess (Relational Process)In the absence of the flight recordersitIsextremely difficult to draw conclusionsCircumstanceIdentifiedProcessIdentifierIn the news above, there are four sentences involved in verbal process. The first one as a headline lays essential place in the whole passage. Headline is a conclusion and extract of the main event. In a news report, choosing the words from an authority that responsible for the investigation of the accident is absolutely the best choice. In fact, so did the writer do. consequently, to report the process of the investigation, the writer chose to use material process in that Material Process is to recount the real world. In the second and the forth Material Process sentences, the French investigators (referred to They and the team in the news) are main participants. They found, they continue operations, the using the investigators to be the main participants in the continuous two material process , on one hand can make sure of the continuity of the news report, on the other hand, this news report is mainly to report the situations and opinions from investigators. In this way, put the words from the investigat ors in an essential place can illustrate the most important content of the news in front of the listeners, which is the main responsibility of a successful news report. In the second material process, the writer chose the passive voice to show the victims of this accident. In this material process, these 228 people on the plane had no hope to be survived. When listening to here, we have realized something about the result of the rescue activity. Then the Material Process is finished, and led to Verbal Process. In the following 2 Verbal Materials, the contents of the speech are all from Mr. Bouillard, who is from Frances BEA accident investigation agency. By his words, the writer told the readers that the reason for the airplane accident was still unsolved and it could be a difficult task to find out clearly. The writer chose to quote the words from the investigation agency is to make sure the reliability and the depth of the news report. Whats more, it also can tell readers the res ource of the news report, which is from the authority.Mr Bouillard, he is an officer from BEA accident investigation agency, is the direct participant of the whole survey, in that way, he could hold one-hand results of the whole search. In most cases, when an accident happens or a research being preceded, a news reporter may not be involved directly or witness at spot. Most of the report resources are due to interview afterwards. If we can contact the direct participants or the direct researchers in a research such as in this case, it will make a more vivid atmosphere for listeners or readers, and adding the reliability as well. News reports usually get the aid from the participants, the witness of the event or the people from governing to give a hint or proclaim the resource of the news. Nevertheless, we could also see that in a news report there exists report from a reporter, which in another way explains the reason why there are more verbal processes in a news report.We can have a further look of the verbal material 1,5,7. In these three verbal material, the writer chose say, said, said, all of which are variations from say. They are very simple and oral. This is because in a broadcasting news report, the main method is to make audience listen. Broadcasting should transmit the most information in a limited period of time, so that the words chosen from broadcasting news report should be simple and near to daily life, avoiding adding burden to listeners. In fact, in this broadcasting news report, the sentence structure used are quite simple, the words chosen are rather succinct, and without many complex clauses. When it comes to the tenses used in this news report, we can find out there are not any complex tenses, just simple past and simple in turn.In the whole news report, the material process states the main fact, and the verbal process proclaims the resource of the news, and to move forward to supply and illustrate the main event. In this news report, th e material process and the verbal process occur in turn, and hold different duties each other. The structure of this news report makes it active and filled with variations. The words from the authority from different ways can explain the reason why they still cannot find out the reason for the airplane accident immediately. In a word, it is a successful news report to tell audience the process of the investigation of the air crush.ConclusionIn this paper, Hallidays transitivity theory and the types of transitivity have been used to analyze a piece of news report from BBC. It is found that there is a distribution law of the process types in the English broadcasting news text Verbal Process is one of the features that form the news text. It is also illustrated that broadcasting news has its own characteristics such as the tendency to be oral, most of sentences are short, the well-nigh narration that can be easy to read aloud, etc. This analysis proves that the application of functiona l grammar in discourse analysis is practical and operable. By the transitivity theory to analysis a discourse, it can help to seize the essence and features of a text. In addition, it can also promote to understand the connotation of a discourse.BibliographyBloor. T and M. Bloor. 1995. The Functional Analysis of English A Hallidayan Approach. London ArnoldEggins, S. 1994. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London Pinter PublishersHalliday, M.A.K. and R. Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London Longman.Halliday M.A.K. 1985. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London Edward Arnold.Halliday,M.K.A. 2000 An Introduction to Functional Grammar, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.Hu Zhuanglin 2001 Linguistics, A course Book capital of Red China Beijing UniversityHuang Guowen 2002 Discourse and Language Functions Beijing FLTRPThompson, G. 1996. Introducing Functional Grammar. London Arnold