| The systemic-functional grammar advanced by M.A.K. Halliday on the basis of previous researches, and continually enriched and perfected by him as well as other scholars home and abroad, is an effective theoretical basis for discourse analysis. It aims at contributing to the understanding of the text and the evaluation of the text, from the very beginning. According to this school, language, no matter which cultural background it is in, has three metafunctions, i.e. ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function, which are interrelated with each other. They form the three strands of meaning that any text in context is supposed to express. Of them, the textual function encompasses thematic system, information system and cohesion system, etc. These systems, as we can expect, manifest themselves differently in English, Chinese and the Dong at some specific points. Some scholars, bearing in mind the distinctive attributes of Chinese, have made extensive and flexible application of the functional grammar to Chinese discourse research, and the past years have seen a fruitful harvest on their part. As is already known, the Dong language is influenced rather deeply by Chinese and as a result is more similar to Chinese than to English in terms of syntax and typology. Therefore, while conducting the Dong language discourse research, especially when constructing its theoretical framework is considered, it is reasonable and necessary to refer to these functional researches on Chinese besides taking the theories proposed by Western linguists as the basis.In this thesis, attention is focused on the analysis of the textual function of the Dong pipa song of Shangzhong, with some consideration given to its ideational function and interpersonal function. To be exact, the present study is intended to examine the following aspects of the first-hand data: topic chain, thematic progression, information structure, cohesion devices, transitivity and Mood, and see what discourse features the Dong pipa song possesses. By its social function, the Dong pipa song of Shangzhong can be classified into several kinds. Due to limited space, only twenty pieces of four kinds are selected. The Dong pipa song, like those popular songs of other nationalities, is of good entertainment value. At the same time, as a distinctive genre, it has the communicative function equivalent to that of talking, being able to be used to express almost any kind of feelings (the local people"do"certain things with songs). It is a unique type of discourse loaded with ethnical features.Through an empirical study on the twenty texts of the Dong pipa song, we are able to point out some discourse features or texture of this type of discourse that are not usually known by common people. For instance, most of the sentential (as well as textual) topics in the songs are realized by personal pronouns; thematic progression is characterized mainly by constant Theme progression and linear progression; distribution of given and new information is mostly in the unmarked pattern but with Love song being slightly exceptional; the distributive density of personal pronouns and mental processes is closely linked to the degree of privacy of the emotion the song expresses; waist-end rhyme and end rhyme are dominantly used in this type of discourse as an important cohesive device, and so on. This shows in the mean time that functional grammar is still effective in the analysis of such distinctive discourse as the Dong song.Research done from linguistic perspective on texts of the Dong song has not been available so far. The present study, conducted on the basis of textual functional theories, is the first try in this field, and reveals to our readers a good many discourse features of this kind of folk song. This is not insignificant to the research on languages of ethnic groups as well as the enterprise of salvage and protection of nonmaterial cultural heritage still alive nowadays in the areas inhabited by the minority nationalities.
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