The Genre Analysis Of Yong Zhou Ba Ji From The Perspective Of Systemic Functional Grammar

Liu Zongyuan is a great literature master of the Tang Dynasty. His literary creation formsare characterized with diversity, such as poems, essays, among which the landscape travel notesare considered to be the most creative. As a representative of Liu’s landscape travel notes, YongZhou Ba Ji attracts a large number of scholars’ attention to make analysis on it from variousperspectives. However, few studies are concerned with Yong Zhou Ba Ji’s generic analysis. Toenrich the linguistic studies on Yong Zhou Ba Ji, this thesis attempts to conduct an analysis atboth macro level and micro level, namely, generic structure and lexico-grammar, within theframework of Systemic Functional Grammar.There are five chapters involved in this research. The first chapter is an introduction to theresearch background, the significance and the objectives. Besides, the data and the methodology,and the organization of this research are also presented. The second chapter is about the literaturereview, in which the relevant studies about genre both at home and abroad and Liu Zongyuan’slandscape travel notes are reviewed. The third chapter is concerned with the theoreticalframework, mainly focusing on the generic theory of Hasan, the three meta-functions inHalliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar, and Labov’s theory of Narrative Genre. The forthchapter carries out the practical analysis of Yong Zhou Ba Ji from the perspective of genericstructural potential and three meta-functions. The fifth part is the conclusion.Based on the analysis, the tentative findings of this study can be summarized as follows:(1)the generic structure of Yong Zhou Ba Ji is (Abstract) Orientation Complication Resolution (Evaluation)(Coda), in which Abstract, Evaluation and Coda are the optional stages, whileOrientation, Complication and Resolution are obligatory stages.(2) by the analysis of threemeta-functions, the lexico-grammatical features of Yong Zhou Ba Ji are as follows: firstly, as faras the transitivity system in the ideational meta-function is concerned, material process is theprimary process employed in the Orientation and Resolution stage, while, relational processpredominates in Complication stage; secondly, when it comes to the interpersonal meta-function,modal verbal operators, modal adverbials and modal particles are mainly employed; thirdly, as for the thematic system in textual meta-function, animate ideational theme occurs morefrequently in Orientation stage, while inanimate ideational theme is highly abundant inComplication stage.