A Meta-functional Analysis Of Grammatical Metaphor In Trump's Addresses

Grammatical metaphor is a widespread linguistic phenomenon in English discourse,first put forward by distinguished linguist M.A.K.Halliday in the first edition of An Introduction to Functional Grammar in 1985.Since grammatical metaphor is different from lexical metaphor,many linguists abroad and at home show great interest in it.Most of them apply the theory to written discourse analysis.However,there are few studies on grammatical metaphor in spoken discourse.This thesis is a tentative endeavor to analyze the functions of grammatical metaphor in Trump's addresses based on the theoretical framework which is composed of grammatical metaphor theory and the theory of meta-functions that both belong to systemic functional grammar.This thesis analyzes the functions of grammatical metaphor in Trump's addresses based on grammatical metaphor theory and the theory of meta-functions within systemic functional grammar.In this paper,classification of GM is based on Hallidayan reclassification of GM in 1996,in which ideational grammatical metaphor is categorized into 13 types,and interpersonal grammatical metaphor is classified into two types:metaphor of modality and metaphor of mood.The theory of meta-functions indicates that there are three meta-functions in language:ideational meta-function,interpersonal meta-function and textual meta-function,which is a part of the theoretical framework used to analyze the functions of grammatical metaphor in Trump's addresses.The research corpus is composed of 30 transcripts selected from the Radio Weekly address delivered by American newly-elected President Donald Trump in 2017.The research questions of the study are as follows:1)what are the most frequently used types of ideational GM and interpersonal GM respectively?2)what are the functions of the most frequently used ideational GM?3)what are the functions of' the most frequently used interpersonal GM?Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are adopted to figure out the research questions.Through quantitative analysis,the occurrence frequency of each type of grammatical metaphor is worked out,according to the statistic data,the first research question is settled.Through qualitative analysis and based on the theory of meta-functions,the functions of the preferred types of grammatical metaphor in Trump's addresses are discussed.The major findings of the research are as follows:1)nominalization is the most frequently used type of ideational grammatical metaphor,and it accounts for 65.5%of the total of grammatical metaphor,which is much higher than adjectivization,verbalization and adverbialization.Nominalization is mainly used to transfer attribute that should be congruently expressed by an adjective or process that should be expressed by a verb into a noun or a noun phrase.Metaphor of modality is the preferred type of interpersonal GM,which is mainly used to express the speaker's evaluation of a proposition;2)Main functions of nominalization in Trump's addresses are as follows:the ideational meta-function is mainly to reconstrue human experience:semantic element such as process,attribute or environment is expressed by a noun or a noun phrase,which tends to condense more information into one clause,thus increasing the density of words and enhancing the formality of language.Interpersonal meta-function mainly refers to achieving non-negotiability:nominalization emphasizes objectivity of an attribute and the outcome of a process,which makes what the speaker says more objective and correct,and the audience cannot negotiate with the speaker;textual meta-function is mainly reflected in cohesive function,which refers to the semantic element in former sentence can be expressed by a noun or a noun phrase and occur in the following text,thus the connection between the two sentences can be set up by nominalization;3)the functions of metaphor of modality are mainly within the scope of interpersonal meta-function.Explicitly subjective metaphor of modality has the functions of encouraging people and showing uncertainty.Expressions such as "I believe" and "I want" express the speaker's determination to achieve his goals,and strong emotion can influence and inspire the masses.Expressions like "I think" and "I am confident"dress up the will of government as individual will,highlighting private viewpoint,to avoid the unnecessary responsibility of government if it fails to come true.This research has both theoretical significance and application value.Theoretically,the research proves the necessity and significance of the existence of grammatical metaphor theory and to some extent enriches the research of grammatical metaphor in spoken discourse.The application value of this study is that it is beneficial for EFL learners in deepening their understanding of grammatical metaphor and political address.In tenns of foreign language teaching,especially for reading comprehension teaching it provides some inspirations.