Interpersonal Meaning In Dubliners

Based on interpersonal meaning in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this dissertation analyzes Dubliners—the collection of short stories by James Joyce, the famous Irish writer. The theories of discourse and point of view together with engagement in appraisal theory by Martin are combined as complements to further perfect the explanation of the literary meanings of the collection. The present study is qualitative and quantitative. From the perspective of FL, it aims to explore the contributions of the four typical items—mood, modality, speech and point of view to interpersonal meaning in Dubliners. This dissertation consists of seven chapters. The detailed structures and major content are as follows:The first chapter briefly introduces the background of the study, indicating that guided by the theory of interpersonal meaning in SFL and the implication of Li Zhanzi's comprehensive model of interpersonal meaning, we can work over Dubliners from the angle of interpersonal meaning in FL. Then, the purpose, method, significance and organization of the study are briefly expounded.The second chapter is literary review. In this part, a brief introduction to Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and interpersonal function is given, after that the literature review of interpersonal meaning and Dubliners at home and abroad is firstly summarized in the field of SFG and beyond. Finally, it is the implications of the literature review and the interim summary of the chapter.The third chapter is about interpersonal meaning of mood. In detail, taking the narrative language and the dialogues in the collection as the target data, we develop this part from mood elements and mood system choice. The analysis of mood elements in the narrative language gives prominence to religious paralysis, political paralysis, emotional paralysis and psychic paralysis, which are also the particular realization of the theme of paralysis throughout the whole collection. The analysis of mood system choice in the dialogues makes great contributions to shaping the characters, which not only reveals the power relationship among the characters and the different personalities, but also highlights the theme of paralysis of the collection. The fourth chapter expounds interpersonal meaning of modality, the data are from Ivy Day in the Committee Room, which is a short story reflecting the social life in Dubliners. Modal verbs, modal adjuncts and modal metaphors are analyzed in the speech of the four major characters—Old Jack, Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Hynes and Mr. Henchy. The analysis shows that modality in the dialogues answers for the plot development and the characters'personality and attitude. Moreover, it further lays stress on the theme of paralysis in politics of the collection.The fifth chapter explores interpersonal meaning of speech. On the basis of interpersonal meaning in FL, combined with the theory of discourse and engagement in appraisal theory, we mainly analyze interpersonal meaning of direct speech (DS), free direct speech (FDS), indirect speech (IS) and free indirect speech (FIS) in Dubliners. Through the analysis, we find the writer adjusts the narrative distances between narrator and writer, reader through different speeches, representing different interpersonal relations between character, writer and reader, thereby realizing the interpersonal function of the text.The sixth chapter is related to interpersonal meaning of point of view. According to the theory of interpersonal meaning in FL, together with the theory of point of view and engagement in appraisal theory, the interpersonal meaning of the first-person narrative, the third-person narrative and shift of point of view in Dubliners is observed. The discussion of point of view proves that the writer adopts different points of view in order to show the different distances between narrator and event or character, the degree of the writer's or the narrator's intervention in narrative, the subjective or objective attitude and assessment towards characters and events, realizing interpersonal meaning of point of view through emphasizing the role relations between addresser and addressee.The seventh chapter summarizes the main research findings as well as points out the advantages and disadvantages of the current study. We can take it as a significant attempt and make more researches on interpersonal meaning of short stories.The study on interpersonal meaning in Dubliners is significant in the following. First, it not only further enriches the research findings of the theory of interpersonal meaning in FL, but also provides reference for the analysis of interpersonal meaning in other short fictions. Second, we can reinterpret this classical short collection from a fresh point of view, demonstrating its strong interpretative power of the literary meanings of short stories. Finally, this analysis of interpersonal implication can offer clues for the teachings of linguistics and literature. The different grammatical and lexical devices realizing interpersonal meaning in the collection can also provide insight to students for better understanding and appreciating the literary text according to language clues and evidences.