| Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out is one of the gifted works of Mo Yan. The researches focused on this work are mainly done from the perspectives of Buddha nature, human nature, the narrative pattern,character features, archetypal character, etc, but there are just a few researches done from the linguistic perspectives. This research uses experiential function as the theoretical framework, selects ten paragraphs related to the figure of Lan Lian as the research data, and applies the statistical, analytical and induced research methods to analyze the transitivity systems of L&D both in Chinese and English versions. It aims to explore the language features of L&D within the experiential function framework.This research is expected to answer three questions:(1) What are the features of both Chinese and English versions of L&D in transitivity systems?(2) What are the differences between the two versions in transtivity systems?(3) What are the causes for these differences?The results show that(1) both in Chinese and English versions of L&D, the top three process types are material process, mental process and relational process, the behavior process ranks in the middle, the least numbers of process types are verbal process and existential process;(2) twenty-four clauses are different from each other in transitivity and the differences can be divided into six types: different process type,elements addition in English clauses, elements omission in English clauses, transformation between process and circumstantial elements, transformation between participants and circumstantial elements,transformation between circumstantial elements;(3) the main causes for these differences in transitivity are the different grammatical features, language organizational rules and different syntactic structures between Chinese and English.This research is made up of five chapters. Chapter One is the introduction part in which the research motivation, research objectives, research significance and the construction of this thesis are clearly introduced. Chapter Two is of the literature review part. In this part, a detailed introduction of experiential function theory is made and the research situation about EF at home and abroad is stated. In addition, the researches on L&D are also reviewed. The third chapter is the research design. It mainly states the research questions, research methods, data collection and research procedures. Chapter Four is the part for data analysis and discussions. It is the core section of this thesis. Firstly, the transitivity analyses are made bothin Chinese and English versions of L&D. Next comes the contrastive analysis in transitivity systems between the two versions and the differences are sorted out. Finally, the causes for these differences, in particular, are illustrated. Chapter Five draws the conclusion. It presents the main findings and implications of this research, furthermore, it points out the limitations of this research and the suggestions for the future studies are also lined in this chapter.This research is a tentative practice to analyze Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out from the perspective of experiential function theory. It confirms the practicability and operability of the application of experiential function to discourse analysis. Meanwhile, it is definitely helpful to Chinese-English mutual translation and the English writings of Chinese students. This research is also expected to provide some practical references to the future study on discourse analysis from the perspective of experiential function. |
