A Study Of The Realization Of The Metafunctions Of Language In The Vampire Diaries

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is put forward by M. A. K. Halliday. It isa theory of language that emphasizes the function of language. Recently, it has beenaccepted by the field experts of linguistics. One of the most important theories inSystemic Functional Linguistics is the metafunctional theory. The metafunctionaltheory contains interpersonal function, ideational function and textual function.Halliday’s metafunctions are used in this thesis to making a detailed analysis. Thestudy of language is always confined to fiction, journalism, advertising, speech anddrama, but the language of TV series is rarely studied. Moreover, the study of TVprograms is often done from the perspectives of cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistics,pragmatics and stylistics, thus this thesis studies the language of TV series from theperspective of functional linguistics. Its method is descriptive explanation. Itspurposes are to explain how the metafunctions are embodied in the Vampire Diariesand what are the roles of the metafunctions in understanding of this TV series.Meanwhile this thesis testifies that Systemic Functional Linguistics (SGL) is a highlyeffective and strong scientific framework for the analysis of language.This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction of thisthesis. It contains the background of the study, the significance of the study as well asthe organization of the whole thesis. Chapter Two is the literature review. Here, theauthor makes an introduction of SFL and a detailed description of language functions.Last, it is the statement of The Vampire Diaries. Chapter Three is Theoretical Framework and Research Methodology. The author makes a detailed introduction ofmetafunctions, and shows the research questions and data collection. Chapter Four isthe most important part of the whole thesis. The analytical tools are ideationalfunction, interpersonal function and textual function. They are used to analyze thedata in detail. The detailed aspects are involved such as transitivity system, voicesystem, mood system, modality system, thematic structure, information structure andcohesion system. Chapter Five covers the major findings, implications of the study,limitations of the study and suggestions for future researches.