Study On A Farewell To Arms From Perspective Of Functional Grammar

Scholars at home and abroad have almost exhausted the study of the novel A Farewell to Arms from the perspective of literature criticism since its publication in1929. However, the study from the perspective of functional grammar remains unattended. This study was a tentative interpretation of A Farewell to Arms adopting Halliday’s three metafunctions in Halliday’s functional grammar and its purpose is to reveal the themes and language characteristics of the novel.Halliday distinguishes three metafunctions of language in the framework of functionalism and identifies distinct linguistic resources that realize them in the clause structure. Ideational function reflects people’s experiences in the actual world. The transitivity system is the main grammatical means to realize ideational function. Interpersonal function is used to express the speaker’s identity, status, attitude, motivations, his inference of things and etc. And it is realized mainly through mood and modality system. Textual function is concerned with the process which enables the addressers or writers to construct their messages in a way which makes them fit smoothly into the unfolding language event. And it is realized through theme-rheme, old and new information and cohesion system. They are related to each other and they are inseparable from each other.Under the guidance of functional grammar, the stylistic analysis of A Farewell to Arms is made through Halliday’s metafunctions, especially from the perspectives of transitivity system, mood and modal systems, and cohesion system.It can be found as follows.First, in the transitivity analysis of chapter one, material, relational and existential processes occupy predominantly which indicate the narrativity of the novel; in the transitivity analysis of the transformation of Henry’s attitude, material, mental and relational processes occupy a large percentage. Material process is in the majority in his transformation of his attitude to the responsibility and these actions are mainly used to reflect the process that Henry executed the new tasks and he ran away when he saw the unfair things. Mental process basically reflects Henry’s attitude to the meaning and the going on of the war. Relational process mainly reflects Henry’s attitude to the new life in Swiss. The transitivity analysis of the novel mirrors the theme that Henry bids farewell to the war.Second, in the interpersonal analysis of the dialogue between the heroes Henry and Catherine, it can be found that in the early time of their association, all the sentences are declarative and interrogative ones. The increase in the imperative sentences indicates that their relationship further developed and in the later period they couldn’t be separated from each other. But tle brut(?) of the v(?) makes them s(?)d fi(?)eh other The other theme of the novel that Henry bids farewell to his love with Catherine is revealed through the analysis of the interpersonal function.Third, through the cohesion analysis of the randomly chosen dialogues, it can be found that reference and ellipsis devices are frequently used in this novel. And this phenomenon indicates the compactness, conciseness and vividness of the novel. And these characteristics accord with Hemingway’s writing style.This thesis is a new tentative approach to appreciate literary works from perspective of systemic functional linguistics. The analysis of A Farewell to Arms in this thesis further proves that systemic-functional grammar is a useful tool of explaining literary works and at the same time it provides a new perspective to appreciate literary works.