An Analysis Of Metafunctions Of Language In "Going Home"

M.A.K Halliday's Systemic-Functional Grammar, stemming from Firth's theories in London school, is internationally one of the most influential linguistic theories in the twentieth century. Currently, it has evolved into a powerful theory and it has been well-accepted by the field experts of linguistics.The Systemic-Functional Grammar consists of two components:Systemic Grammar and Functional Grammar. They are indispensable aspects of a complete framework of linguistic theory. The Functional Grammar is a development and supplementary work of the Systemic Grammar. It is designed to elucidate how the language is used in a certain context.According to Halliday, the aim to construct the Systemic-Functional Grammar is for purposes of text analysis. The metafunctional theory is one of the most important theories in the Systemic-Functional Grammar. Language has three metafunctions:interpersonal function, ideational function and textual function. The interpersonal function is mainly realized by mood and modality system. The ideational function is primarily realized by transitivity and voice system. The textual functional is major realized by thematic structure and cohesion. This thesis attempts to analyze Pete Hamill's short novel "Going Home" with Halliday's metafunctional grammar as theoretical framework. The purpose of the present thesis is to find out how the theme is expressed via language and to help readers better understand and appreciate the story. Meanwhile, the thesis will further prove that the functional grammar is a practical theoretical framework for discourse analysis.This thesis firstly presents basic theoretical background of systemic-functional grammar and then introduces the significance and aims of the study as well as the organization of the thesis. In literature review, this thesis introduces in detail three meafucntions of language and their respective means of realization. It also presents writing background knowledge and previous studies of the story "Going Home". After the literature review, the author analyzes the short story from the three metafunctional perspectives.Based on the metafunctional analysis, we make the following major findings:1.Through the analysis of mood system, it is found that this novel narrated in the third person pronoun is characterized by statement. In the whole narration, the exchange between Vingo and the girl plays a significant part. The girl insists on raising lots of questions with interrogative mood, but Vingo just gives responses with some brief declarative clauses. The exploit of imperative mood shows us Vingo feels deeply the emotional pain he brought his wife. Out of love and concern, he wishes her to have a new family with a fresh start. Through the analysis of modality system, it can be discovered that people are curious about Vingo. Vingo shows his understanding and deep affection for his wife as well as his intense desire to go home.2.Through the analysis of transitivity system, we can see Vingo takes the largest amount of process in the discourse and the processes related to him distribute differently in different part. At beginning although he is involved in all processes except the existential one, these processes are in homogenous distribution. Later, his verbal process stands out. There are not so many processes associated with him in the last part. The processes relates to the young people just take large amount in the first and the third part. At the beginning they have many material processes. Later, after they see the yellow ribbon meaning forgiveness, they show their delight with more behavioral processes. For the girl she has the most amount of verbal process, which is distributed in the whole story. Vingo's wife only appears in the middle part of the story. The oak tree appears only in the second and third part, and it has only one existential process and four material ones, which occupy the smallest amount. Through the analysis of voice system, we can see middle voice takes up the greatest proportion. Vingo and the young people are put into the center with different functions. The exploit of passive voice on the one hand emphasizes the significance of the tree. On the other hand it makes the discourse more cohesive.3.In the aspect of thematic structure, we find that the narration is not from the angle of the hero Vingo but from other characters. Marked themes expressing a setting of time indicate the story developed in real chronological order. The flashback turns out to be the turning point of the story developing from plain to climax. In the aspect of cohesion, ellipsis is used frequently in the dialogue between Vingo and the girl. The referential chain about Vingo's wife used in the story indicates for one thing Vingo keeps his wife in his heart. For another his wife is a perfect woman. And repetition serves to emphasize the importance of the tree.The study enables us to understand the theme of the story as well as the personality of characters. It further confirms the feasibility of systemic-functional grammar in the analysis of literary work. Meanwhile, the present study is valuable for practical discourse analysis in language teaching and learning. Such analytical model will speed up learners' acquisition and learning of the target language.