Transitivity System And The Construction Of Stylistic Features In Novels

The theory of Systematic-Functional Grammar(SFG) put forward by M.A.K.Halliday is regarded as one of the most important and influential linguistic theories in the20th century. Since it was established, it has developed fast and been applied into various fields, among which Functional Stylistics is one of the applications of the SFG theory into the analysis of literature works. Among the three basic functions of language in SFG theory, the transitivity system is the major realization form of the ideational function of language, and has been used in many novel studies since the1970s. However, previous studies mainly focused on the analysis of the theme, characters, genres and symbolic meanings of novels, thus were limited in applying the transitivity system into the analysis of stylistic features.Given the above limitations of previous studies, this study aims at exploring what stylistic features of novels could be found by using the transitivity system. More specifically, this study mainly discusses that whether the narrative style and the language style of the novel could be analyzed through using the transitivity system. In order to achieve these goals, one classic novel by Allan Poe was chosen as the subject text of this study, namely The Fall of the House of Usher. Firstly, the text of the novel was segmented into clauses in accordance with the definition and classification of the transitivity system so as to get the distribution of the transitivity processes of this novel. Then, the study analyzed the sensors of mental process clauses and some selective original clauses of this process with above participant of this novel to find out the narrative style of this novel. Finally, it also analyzed the phenomena of mental process clauses and the some selective original clauses of this processes with above participant in this novel to find out the language style of this novel.The analysis to the transitivity process clauses of this novel illustrated that the novel of The Fall of the House of Usher was mainly composed of mental process clauses. This finding validated the results of the previous studies that Poe emphasized on describing characters’inner world in this novel.The analysis to the sensors and some selective mental process clauses with above participant suggested that the narrative style of this novel possessed three features. Firstly, this novel adopted the first person I as its narrator. Secondly, this narrator I possessed two narrative perspectives. Thirdly, the narrator’s two narrative perspectives possessed a new function to reflect the theme. The first two findings validated the conclusions of the previous studies that Poe often used the first person narrator I in his novel, and the novel of The Fall of the House of Usher was no exception. Besides, the narrator I in the text novel possessed two angles of view. Furthermore, this study also enriched the previous studies for it founded that besides the function of enhancing the aesthetic effect, the narrator’s two narrative perspectives possessed a new function to reflect the theme of this novel. Meanwhile, the discussions about the narrator’s two views also dig out another theme of this novel and enriched the studies on themes and characters of this novel.The analysis to the phenomenon and the selective mental process clauses with this participant revealed that the language style of this novel possessed four characteristics. Firstly, the language of this novel was gloomy, oppressive and full of the smell of death. Secondly, this novel’s language was formal, written and heavy. Thirdly, the language of this novel massively used the phonetic sound effects to enhance the terrible atmosphere. Finally, the language of this novel was full of color images and auditory descriptions which could stimulate readers’sense organs. The first finding validated discoveries from the previous studies that Poe’s language of this novel featured in death symbols and the terror sense. The second finding of this study validated the previous studies’findings that in this novel Poe realized his Unity of the Effect theory through constructing language with a solemn sense and the horrible effect. The third finding of this study validated the previous studies’ conclusions that Poe used many syllables with harsh sound effects to create a desolate feeling and to reflect the death theme. While the last finding enriched and validated the previous conclusions that Poe’s language of this novel was with color images and auditory descriptions. This study mainly presents three enlightenments for the following studies. The first enlightenment is about the application of the transitivity system. The previous studies showed that the transitivity system was mainly applied to analyze the theme, characters, symbolic meanings and genres of novels, while this study expands its application scope and proves that it could also successfully and effectively be applied to analyze the stylistic features of the novel. This may enlighten the following studies to discuss whether the transitivity system could be applied to analyze more elements’features of the novel.The second enlightenment is on the angles to novel analysis. The previous studies showed that the traditional ways to conduct the analysis to novel were mainly from the perspectives of philosophy, aesthetics and sociology, while this study analyzed the novel with the assistance of one linguistics theory. This may enlighten the following studies to analyze literature with the theory of linguistics or other subjects.The third enlightenment of this study is on the aspect of methodology. The traditional methods to novel analysis followed the deductive way while this study adopted the inductive way. Besides, as for the processes of data collection and analysis, this study gets the help from the natural science research approach, conducted a quantitative analysis to the collected data, processed them with the statistics tool of SPSS and arrived at the scientific and convincing results. From the design of the research approach to the concrete operation, this study may enlighten the following studies to adopt the research methods from natural science fields to analyze the novel.