Studies Of The Formation Mechanism And Textual Functions Of Temporal-subject Clauses In English

Halliday(1985: 322)considers “The fifth day saw them at the summit.”,such kind of sentences as ideational grammatical metaphor,which we define as temporal-subject clauses(TSCs).This dissertation is intended to study the formation mechanism and textual functions of TSCs in English under the framework of systemic functional linguistics(SFL).The research quesetions include:[1] What are transitivity processes and syntactic structures of TSCs?[2] How do languge systems and structures operate in the formation process of TSCs?[3] What is the motivation behind the semantic orientation and constraints of mental verb ‘see' in TSCs?[4] What are textual functions and genre features of TSCs?On the foundation of the elaboration of transitivity system and grammatical metaphor theory in SFL,this disseratation advocates a meaning-structure coordinating pattern between the congruent and metaphorical expression.Based on this pattern,the formation mechanism of TSCs is disclosed: the transformation of transitivity processes,which causes the semantic function and form changes of clause elements.This dissertation is a qualitative research relying on authentic data.Through searching in Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA)and British Nation Corpus(BNC),there are 925 samples sought out.According to the features of syntactic structures,TSCs are classified into SPOCo,nominalised and non-nominalised SPO and SP IO O in form;according to the standards of transitivity processes,TSCs are classified into mental processes and material processes in meaning.TCSs are metaphorical expressions,corresponded generally to the congruent forms.The TSC as a metaphorical expression is derived from the congruent form,which appears in the transitivity system.With the contrast analysis between congruent and metaphorical expressions,the formation mechanism of TSCs can be narrowed down into: 1)the transformation of transitivity processes,2)personification,3)semantic condensation,4)semantic function shift of clause elements,5)form changes of clause elements.The transformation includes material processes ? mental processes,relational processes ? mental processes,existential processes ? mental processes and relational processes ? material processes.Personification endows inanimate entities with animate features.It is just because of personification that the originally inanimate temporal subject bears animate semantic features of sensing and causing.Semantic condensation refers to the compact of meaning through rank shift for complements of TSCs.The shift of semantic function is environment ? participant,process ? participant and environment ? modifier for those elements in clauses.The form changes refer to preposition phrase ? nominal group,verb group ? nominal group and adverbial group ? adjective group for expressions in clauses.Because TSCs are mental or material processes,the perception and causative sense of temporal subject projects and produces the external experience events and entities.The semantic orientation and constraints of mental verbs ‘see' in TSCs is limited to the cognitive development and language acquisition patterns of human beings.The three kernel senses of ‘see',which are viewing,image-forming and understanding,do not totally show themselves up in TSCs.The highest abstract sense of ‘understanding' is not absorbed into TSCs.The textual functions of TSCs are revealed in the following three aspects: 1)the temporal subject as a theme can be a cohesive chain of the text,and also enhance the textual coherence.2)the temporal subject can adjust the information structure,and spotlight the information focus.3)the temporal subject also carries the topic-introducing function owing to its power of projecting and producing the external events and entities.According to the numbers of elements involved into the formation process of TSCs,the metaphoricity of TSCs shows a cline of ‘nominalised SPO type > SPOCo type > SP IO O type > non-nominalised SPO type' from a higher degree to a lower degree,which is of value for genre analysis.Usually,it is more acceptable for TSCs being used in academic writings and news report.The nominalised SPO type and SPOCo type mainly exist in academic writings,and the SP IO O type and non-nominalised SPO type news report,which uncover the genre feature of higher abstractness in academic writings,and the lower abstractness in news report because of the interactive nature under the demanding of audiences.In a word,the formation of TSCs occurs when time as an environmental element transits into a participant role.Explicitly,the transformation features the temporal subject with animate characteristics,but actually,the deep semantic domain is the transitivity system.The cognitive semantic framework is the cognitive foundation of TSCs.The cognitive development and language acquisition pattern of human beings can illustrate the semantic orientation and constraints of mental verbs.It is just because there are many semantic factors involved in forming TSCs that the textual function of TSCs is heavily revealed in coherence and genre analysis in addition to cohesion.The study not only enriches the framework of grammatical metaphor analysis,discloses the significance of structure analysis in clauses,but also exerts a theoretical and practical infulence in English-Chinese contrast analysis and translation research.