A Functional Stylistic Study On

Functional stylistics, as the most vital and vigorous representative in stylistic research, appeared in 1970's and now is getting more and more stylists' attentions. Based on the "relevant principle", that is, choosing the language structure which is able to convey and strengthen the themes and aesthetic effects of works, the thesis, with the application of the theories and approaches of functional grammar and mainly from the perspectives of the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual function, makes a stylistic analysis on the autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, the most influential Irish writer in the 20th century, illustrating how he conveys and strengthens the themes and aesthetic effects through his choice of language structure in the novel and exemplifying the merits of functional stylistics.The thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter one is an introduction to stylistics, mainly functional stylistics, the author James Joyce and his A Portrait. This chapter points out that the substance of the thesis is to discuss the relationship between style and themes / aesthetic effects with the theories and approaches of functional grammar.Chapter two, from the perspective of ideational function, that is, transitivity system, analyzes the conflicting relationship in A Portrait. In this part transitivity is introduced and applied to the analysis of the language structure in the novel in order to convey the process of how the protagonist recognizes the nature of his father and religion and eventually escapes from their authorities and confinement. The analysis shows transitivity's power and effectiveness in the illustration of the conflicting relationships, such as the confliction between Stephen and his father, and the confliction between Stephen and religion.Chapter three, from the perspective of interpersonal function, analyzes the personal characteristic of the main figures in the novel. According to the linguistic units that realize interpersonal comment both in the literary narration and dialogue, this part analyzes the personal characteristic of Stephen's father, the priests and Stephen etc. and the narrator's attitude towards them.Chapter four, from the perspective of textual function, conveys how A Portrait is organized as a whole. In this part five types of cohesion: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion are introduced and applied to the analysis of how the novel is made coherent.Chapter five is the conclusion.The main purpose of the thesis is to discuss the relationship between style and themes / aesthetic effects through the stylistic analysis on A Portrait with functional grammar, enabling the readers, from the brand-new perspective of "function", to better understand the novel and appreciate the attractions of James Joyce's works.