Ｓｕｇｇｅｓｔｉｏｎｓ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　Ｗｒｉｔｉｎｇ　ｏｆ　Ｓｐｅｅｃｈｅｓ　Ｂｉｄｄｉｎｇ　ｆｏｒ　Ｖｏｔｅｓ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｔｈｅ　Ｐｅｒｓｐｅｃｔｉｖｅ　ｏｆ　Ｆｕｎｃｔｉｏｎａｌ　Ｇｒａｍｍａｒ

2009-06-02ＹＥＲｕｉｊｕａｎ

文科爱好者·教育教学版 2009年1期

ＹＥ　Ｒｕｉｊｕａｎ

【Abstract】This paper carries on a tentative functional discourse analysis ofYang Lans speech bidding for Olympic Games from Interpersonal, Experiential and Textual Metafunctions, which aims to help readers understand and evaluate the speech regarding its suitability. By revealing how choices of linguistic items in discourse production and comprehension help to meet Yang Lans purposes of the speech, the writer hopes to provide some guidance to make better speeches bidding for votes.

The research shows that,(1) In the Interpersonal Metafunction, positive declarative clauses are dominant in Yang Lans speech; items about culture are constantly used to be the Subject;“will” appears at a high rate.(2) In the Experiential Metafunction, Material Processes are adopted most frequently in the speech; Mental Processes are in the second position. (3)In the Textual Metafunction, items about culture dominate the Theme; and a “you——we——you” thematic pattern turns up occasionally in the speech.This study has promising implications for speeches bidding for votes as follows:(1)Positive declarative clauses are recommended to convey information and convince the prospective voters with fact.(2)The focus of the speech should be chosen as the Subject to call the attention of the audience; and the high modal commitment of modal verbal operators can show the addressers firm determination to finish tasks.(3) Material Processes can emphasize the addressers getting true action, instead of just stopping in a “slogan”; while a few Mental Processes are always helpful in moving the prospective voters with emotion.(4) The focus of the speech should be frequently chosen to be the Theme; a“you——we——you” thematic pattern helps to create an intimate dialogic style, which can further persuade the audience to share the same proposal of the addresser.

【KeyWords】 Functional Discourse Analysis; Three Metafunctions; Speeches bidding for votes

[中图分类号]G642[文献标识码]A [文章编号] 1671-1270（2009)1-0006-04

1. Introduction

1.1 Background Information

Functional discourse analysis has developed quickly in China. And recent years have witnessed discourse analysts increasing interest in discourse analysis of speech, which mainly concerns the relationship between the form and meaning. In functional grammar, “choice is meaning” is a widely accepted principle and form is the realization of meaning in discourse analysis (Huang 1998). To fulfill their communicative purposes of their speeches, the addressers try every potential technique and frequently and widely use figures of language to make good speeches (see Li 2004:38). As a result, speech holds its unique features in terms of language use and becomes a special discourse type.

1.2 An Introduction to Yang Lans Speech Bidding for the Olympic Games

According to the rules of IOC, seven years before the year of the Olympic Games in advance, the bidding cities for the Olympic Games are to make bidding speeches to win the votes of IOC in addition to other endless efforts. In general, the speeches are made up of eight parts as the followings: the speech made by the representative of the government, the mayor of the bidding city, the representative of athletes and the speech about culture and so on. In order to bid successfully for the host city for Olympic Game, apart from the great potential of economic growth in China, the remarkable achievements in sport made by China over the previous decades, speeches bidding for the Olympic Games play important roles in winning votes. The primary factor for the above functions of the speeches is that the speeches are like a “window” for the world and the voters of IOC to know about China. What is more, the speeches provide a good opportunity to show the current state of economic, cultural, social and political development in China in a comprehensive way. Of all Beijings speeches bidding for the Olympic Games, Yang Lan, the prolocutor of Beijing Olympic Games, whose speech about Chinese long standing culture and vast territory and abundant resources made a significant impact on winning the votes for the fact that culture is an indispensable part of the Olympic Spirit, which is known to all over the world as “Higher, faster and stronger”. Yang Lans speech shows to the world with a new, vigorous image of an open, modernized, civilized and well-developed metropolis in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics; Beijing is ready to become a truly international city and makes every effort to deliver a "Green Olympics", a "Hi-Tech Olympics", a "People's Olympics" and, to top it all, an unprecedented Olympics that would leave, as an IOC Evaluation Commission report believes, a unique legacy for both China and sport as a whole. Besides that, exactly as Yang Lan herself recalled about her speech on the sixth anniversary of the success of Beijing's bidding for 2008 Olympic game, she said: “even until now, I still believe that the speech is perfect, nothing needs to be improved”. Yang Lans consideration of the wording in the speech and the above discussion make her speech bidding for the Olympic Games become a typical one, maintaining most of the prominent features of speeches as a special discourse type. The above factors make contributions to the reliability and validity of the research result of this paper..

1.3 Aim and Objectives

Following SFG, this paper is trying to carry out a detailed and relatively thorough analysis of Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games from the perspective of three Metafunctions. To be specific, the paper is written to help the reader to understand Yang Lans speech and evaluate it with regard to its suitability with the analysis from Interpersonal, Experiential and Textual Metafunctions. Thus to provide some guidance for readers to make better speeches bidding for votes by revealing how the choices of linguistic items in discourse production and comprehension help Yang Lan to meet her specific purposes of the speech. In short, this paper tries to make comments on the speech about whether it is an effective discourse for its own purpose. It also goes further to explore the problem that in what aspects it succeeds and in what aspects it fails or is less successful, thus to provide guidance for readers about how to make better speeches to achieve their purposes.

2. A General Introduction to Three Metafunctions

Halliday (1970) states that the context of a situation is arranged in three categories: field, tenor and mode. Corresponding to that, Halliday analyzes language into three broad Metafunctions: Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Metafunctions. Each of the three Metafunctions is about a different aspect of the world and concerned with a different mode of meaning of clauses. The Experiential Metafunction refers to the use of language to talk about the speakers or writers experience of world, including the real and imagined world, and is concerned with clauses as representation; the Interpersonal Metafunction allows users of language to indicate, establish or maintain social relationships between people, and is concerned with clauses as exchange; while the Textual Metafunction is about the organization and cohesion of situations, and is concerned with clauses as message. The Three different kinds of structure corresponding to each of the Metafunctions can be showed as Figure1.

Fig.1 Three kinds of structures in the clause

2.1 The Interpersonal Metafunction

According to Halliday (1994:68), it is through the Interpersonal Metafunction that users of language establish, negotiate and assume their position in social relationships. It mainly concerns the Roles of Addressers and Audience, Mood and Modality.

2.1.1 Roles of Addressers and Audience

The most fundamental purposes in any exchange are giving or demanding information and goods and services. According to Halliday(1994:69), in any communicative language, there are four basic speech roles: giving information, demanding information, giving goods and services and demanding goods and services. The usual labels for these functions are Statement, Question, Offer and Command. In which, the function of Statement is closely associated with particular grammatical structure, that is, the declarative clauses; Question is related to interrogative clauses; and Command is associated with imperative clauses. The ordering of Subject and Finite (two elements of the Mood system of the clause) in the clause plays an indispensable role in signaling speech roles in that it can show whether the clause is indicative or imperative. The Subject ^ Finite (here“^” is the symbol for “followed by”) ordering of the clauses differ declarative clauses(Subject ^ Finite) from interrogative clauses (Finite ^ Subject).

2.1.2 Mood

The Interpersonal Metafunction of speech is concerned with interaction between the addresser and the audience. To keep communication going, a component is indispensable for carrying out the Interpersonal Metafunction of the clause as exchange in English. This component is called Mood and is made up of Subject and Finite (see Thompson, 2000:41). To quote Halliday (1994:76), “the Subject supplies the rest of what it takes to form a proposition, namely, something by reference to which the proposition can be affirmed or denied”. The Finite refers to the first functional element of the verbal group. And its function can be carried out by verbal operators, which consist of two main groups: one involves those expressing tense, the other is about those showing modality. If we say the Subject is the entity on which the validity of the clause rests, the Finite offers the possibility for negotiating the three kinds of claims about the validity of the proposition. And the three kinds of claims are known as the tense, the polarity and the modality (c.f. Thompson 2000:45). Among them, the tense is for what time the proposition is valid; the polarity refers to whether the proposition is positive or negative; while the modality shows to what degree the proposition is valid. In summary, Clause 15 in Appendix 1 can be cited as an example to illustrate the above point.

15 Culture events will unfold each year from 2005 to 2008.

In the Mood system, Yang Lan uses the Subject to show the validity of the information she is giving is about “Culture events”, by the Finite, she shows that the validity of her information is valid in the future by using the mark of future tense--will; the information is positively valid for the polarity and the information she is giving is about “culture events” will “unfold” each year from 2005 to 2008.

2.1.3 Modality

Modality refers to the space between “yes” and “no”, showing the speakers judgments of the probabilities or the obligations involved in what she is saying.According to Thompson(2000:57), Modality consists of Modalisation and Modulation. The former relates to the speakers judgment of the validity of the proposition, and covers the scale of in terms of probability (possible-probable-certain) and usuality (sometimes-usually-always). The latter relates to how confident the speaker can be in the eventual success of the exchange, and it includes the degree of obligation (allowed-supposed-required) and the inclination (willing-keen-determined). There are a number of ways to realize modality, such as non-verbal and verbal, through non-deliberate features and deliberate features, Among the above expressive ways ,one of the most common ways for the realization of modality as a function of the Mood is through modal verbal operators. When realized by modal verbal operators, Modality involves degrees and scales about the validity of a proposition, which coins the term “Modal Commitment”. According to Halliday (1994), three basic values of modal commitment are high, median and low on the scale. And different scales of modal commitment lead to different meanings.

2.2 The Experiential Metafunction

The Experiential Metafunction is concerned with any of representing patterns of experience, and is mainly realized by Transitivity.

2.2.1 Transitivity

As the lexicogrammatical realization of the Experiential Metafunction, the Transitivity system is a system for describing the whole clause. It allows an analysis of the meaning of a clause through the study of “choice of Process types and participants roles seen as realizing interactants encoding of their experiential reality: the world of action, relation, participants and circumstances that give texts to their talks (see Eggins 1994:220). And Halliday(1994) points out that the Transitivity system construes the world of experience into a manageable set of Process types. Resorting to a combination of common sense and grammar, Halliday(1994) identifies six general types of Processes: Material, Mental, Relational, Verbal, Behavioral, and Existential Processes.

2.2.2 Types of Processes

As is defined by Halliday (1994:108), Material Processes are “Processes of doing or happening”. They express the notion that some entities do something, which may be done to some other entities and represent something that goes on in the outside world. Two participants in Material Processes are Actor and Goal. The actor is the one who does something while the Goal refers to the one whom the Process is directed at. The above two participants in Material Processes can be seen clearly in Figure 2:

Fig 2 Analysis of Clause 3 from the perspective of the Experiential Metafunction .

Mental Processes are “Process of sensing”. They represent something that goes on in the internal world of the mind instead of the outside world. The participants involved in this Process are the Senser (the one who thinks, feels, perceives), and Phenomenon (what was thought, felt, perceived). Relational Processes could be said to be those of “being”, in other words, Relational Processes signal the existence of the relationship.And Verbal Processes are Processes of saying (c.f.Thompson 2000:97).While the Behavioral Process, which is called “Process of behaving”. It relates to human physiological processes, And the Existential Process shows the mere existence of an entity without predicating anything else of it (see Thompson 2000:98).

2.3 The Textual Metafunction

According to Fairclough(1992:230), it is Hallidays Textual Metafunction that enables a coherent linkage of parts of texts, taking situation as given or presented as new, picking them out as topic or Theme.

2.3.1 Theme

From the perspective of the Textual Metafunction, Theme is the first constituent of the clause. Halliday (1994) states Theme as the “starting point for the message” or “the ground from which the clause is taking off”, which is based on the reason that different choices of the Theme amongst other changes will lead to different meanings. And all the rest of the clause is simply labeled Rheme. Figure3 can illustrate the above point:

Fig.3 Analysis of Clause 4 from the perspective of the Textual Metafunction .

3. The Analysis and Discussion

In order to justify the research result of this dissertation, we will sort out three minor clauses (Clause 1, 30, 31) from the speech (see Appendix) to analyze the data, for the reason that they are used only to express “greetings” and “acknowledgements”.

3.1Analysis from the Perspective of the Interpersonal Metafunction and Discussion

The analysis from the perspective of the Interpersonal Metafunction mainly involves the analysis of Roles of Addressers and Audience, Mood and Modality.

3.1.1 Analysis in Terms of Roles of Addressers and Audience

As we discussed above, The Subject ^ Finite (here "^" is the symbol for "followed by") ordering of the clauses suggests that declarative clauses (Subject ^ Finite) are different from interrogative clauses (Finite ^ Subject). From the analysis of Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games from the Interpersonal Metafunction, particularly the identifying of Subject and Finite, shows that the ordering of Subject and Finite in most clauses of the data is Subject ^ Finite pattern, which signals that most of the clauses in the speech are declarative clauses. By statistics, of 28 major clauses in the data, all together 26 clauses are declarative clauses(Clause 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27 and 28). We can also clearly notice that of the 28 major clauses in the speech, only 2 are imperative clauses (Clause 24, 29).

3.1.2 Analysis under the Heading of Mood

Mood analysis consists of the choices of Subject and the Finite.

3.1.2.1 Analysis in Terms of Subject

Of 28 major clauses in the data, the prominent feature is that items about culture are used as Subjects in a high dominant rate, by statistics; Subjects in 18 Clauses are about "culture or items connected to culture", which can be seen partially as the following Figure 4 and 5:

Fig.4 Analysis of Clause 13 from the perspective of the Interpersonal Metafunction .

Fig. 5 Analysis of Clause 15 from the perspective of the Interpersonal Metafunction .

3.1.2.2 Analysis in Terms of the Finite

The Finite is to lead the listener towards the kind of validity on tense, polarity and modality. In order to justify the analysis of the use of tense in Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games, we should sort out another 2 clauses (Clause 24, 29) in the data for the analysis, for the reason that they are imperative clauses which are not associated with any specific Mood choice. When we come to consider the use of tense in Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games, except for the above 5 odd out clauses. The speech is mainly concerned with Future tense, Simple Present, and Past tense. To be specific, the analysis of Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games from the Interpersonal Metafunction shows that, Future tense is used in 12 clauses of the 26 clauses, Simple Present is used in 11 clauses and 3 clauses are adopting Past tense. With regard to the polarity, all the clauses in Yang Lans speech are positive, that is to say, the validity she claims for all the information she is giving is absolutely and positively valid ( not negative ).

3.1.2.3 Analysis in Terms of Modality

By statistics, 11 clauses (Clause 7, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22) of the data adopt modal verbal operator "will" to realize modality in the Mood system. The following clauses from the data in Appendix 1 will be examples of a clear illustration of the adoption of the modal verbal operator "will":

12. Their gratitude will pour out in open expressions of affection for you and the great Movement that you guide.

13. Within our cultural programs, education and communication will receive the highest priority.

3.1.3 Discussion of the Findings of the Analysis from the Interpersonal Metafunction

Halliday (1994) states that the Interpersonal Metafunction represents “the way listener and speaker interact”. It is through the Interpersonal Metafunction that users of language establish and negotiate their relationship in the society. Examining the data from the Interpersonal Metafunction, in terms of “Roles and addressers and audience”, the analysis reveals that declarative clauses in Yang Lans speech are used successfully in that they are functioned as statements to give more information to the prospective voters; 2 imperative clauses in Yang Lans speech succeed in making persuasion and suggestion and showing sincere invitation to the audience to come and join Beijing 2008 Olympic Games; and in this respect, as the prolocutor of Beijing Olympic Games, if Yang Lan could use a few more imperative clauses, the speech may be more successful. In terms of Subject, on one hand, the high rate of presence of items about culture in Subject makes contributions to attract the prospective voters attention to her cultural focus; on the other hand, since “we” can embody the role to shorten the distance between the addresser and the audience, Yang Lans speech is less successful for her only choice of “we” to be the Subject in one sentence in the speech. In terms of Tense, the most frequent use of Simple Present and Future Tense in her speech illustrates that Chinese focus on solving the practical problem and will be ready to solve the potential problem in the future, meanwhile, the tense used in the speech could be said to be successfully in showing the current and future status of China. With regard to the Polarity, the overwhelming dominant use of “positive” makes great contributions to the success of convincing the prospective voters with fact; In terms of Modality, the constant use of “will”, which represents a high scale of modal commitment, is successful in showing Chinese strong mind, firm determination, and keen desire to host a successful 2008 Olympic Games. Meanwhile, the high modal commitment of the modal verbal operators further confirms that more actions will be definitely taken in the future.

3.2 Analysis from the Perspective of the Experiential Metafunction and Discussion

Analysis of Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games from the perspective of the Experiential Metafunction will focus on types of Processes.

3.2.1 Analysis in Terms of Types of Processes

Analysis of Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games from the perspective of the Experiential Metafunction shows that, out of the 28 major clauses in Yang Lans speech, 16 clauses adopt Material Processes, 5 clauses choose Mental Processes, 4 clauses are Relational Processes, 3 clauses take Verbal Processes (one embedded in sentence 2), and only 1 is the Existential Process.

3.2.2 Discussion of the Findings of the Analysis from the Experiential Metafunction

The study of Transitivity realized through the analysis of the Processes shows that Yang Lans speech can be said to be successful in obtaining her objective. On one hand, Material Processes dominate Yang Lans speech, which are meaningful in convincing the audience that Chinese, especially people in Beijing are getting true action preparing for hosting 2008 Olympic Games instead of just an Olympic Games slogan. On the other hand, the use of Mental Processes is helpful in moving the prospective voters with her emotion to vote for Beijing; while Relational Processes in the speech also make contributions to emphasize Chinese long sports legends.

3.3 Analysis from the Perspective of the Textual Metafunction

Due to the space of this paper, the writer will be only dealing with Theme in the analysis of Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games from the perspective of the Textual Metafunction.

3.3.1 Analysis in Terms of Theme

From the analysis of Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games in the Textual Metafunction, we can see that items about culture dominate the Theme of the clauses in the speech, such as Figure 6.

Fig 6 Analysis of Clause 15 from the perspective of the Textual Metafunction .

In addition to the above Theme, Yang Lan sometimescreates a “you--we (people in Beijing)--you” thematic pattern .For example, in Figure7and 8:

Fig 7 Analysis of Clause 3 from the perspective of the Textual Metafunction .

Fig 8 Analysis of Clause 16 from the perspective of the Textual Metafunction .

3.3.2 Discussion of the Findings of the Analysis from the Textual Metafunction

As is discussed above, “Theme is starting point of a clause, also is the focus of the topic”. From the analysis of Yang Lans speech bidding for the Olympic Games from the perspective of the Textual Metafunction, we can see that items about culture dominate the Theme, which makes sense that culture item is the main topic of the speech and orients the audience to concentrate on her cultural focus, and that is totally in accordance with the purposes of Yang Lans speech about culture. While the existence of “you—we--you” thematic pattern in her speech helps to maintain a close, intimate relationship between the prospective voters and Yang Lan. In this way, the prospective voters are likely to share the proposal with Yang Lan to come and join Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

4. The Main Findings of the Research and the Implications.

To summarize, the research so far shows that, from the perspective of the Interpersonal Metafunction, positive declarative clauses dominate Yang Lans speech; items about culture are frequently chosen to be the Subject; “will”, which represents the high degree of modal commitment, turns up frequently. In the Experiential Metafunction, Material Processes are dominant in the speech; Mental Processes are on the second position. In Textual Metafunction, items about culture turn up mostly in the Theme; and a “you——we——you” thematic pattern appears occasionally in the speech.

This paper can provide some guidance for readers to make better speeches bidding for votes as follows:(1) Positive declarative clauses are recommended to convey information and convince the prospective voters with fact.(2) The focus of the speech should be the Subject; and the high modal commitment of modal verbal operators can show the addressers firm determination to finish the task.(3) Material Processes are vital in showing the addressers getting true action of doing something, instead of just stopping in a “slogan”; while a few Mental Processes are always helpful in moving the prospective voters with emotion.(4) The focus of the speech should be frequently chosen to be the Theme; and a “you——we——you” thematic pattern can help to create an intimate dialogic style, which can further persuade the audience to share the same proposal of the addresser.

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