A Transitivity Analysis Of The Heroine’s Emotional Process In Sweet Tooth

Ian McEwan is a famous British novelist and writer.The main theme of his latest works has to do with family life,ethics,social politics.Sweet Tooth is a new work that was published in 2012 after his change of style.It seems that the novel is about politics and espionage,but in the deeper text structure,there is the emotional theme of “trust”,“betrayal” and “forgiveness” between the characters.At present,most of the studies on Sweet Tooth focus on the writing skills of the novel,such as the metafiction characteristics and intertextuality,and others deal with the theme of it,most of which are from the perspective of spying.These studies,as it were,only scratch the surface of the text and there is little research done on the themes embedded in the deeper language structure.The transitivity system from the Systemic Functional Grammar has to do with the ideational function of language.It reflects phenomena in the real world,including states and relationships,through the six types of process,and can reveal the hidden theme in the deeper linguistic level.This thesis is the first of its kind to adopt the transitivity system from Systemic Functional Grammar,initiating a study on the relationships of the characters in the novel,to find the deeper theme of the novel.The thesis takes advantage of the transitivity system to probe into the language of Sweet Tooth and to analyze the relationships between the protagonist Serena and four other important ones in her life.They are Serena’s mother,the old professor Tony,her superior Max and her lover Tom.According to the timeline the story,that is,Serena’s life course,transitivity processes are classified and collected in different plots to obtain the features and changes of various processes before and after.Changes in transitivity process can reflect the changes in the relationships between Serena and the other four characters,by which the emotional themes of the novel are excepted to be found.Through the analysis,it is found that the Serena is always in a passive and weak position at the beginning of her interaction with the other four characters.She shows complete trust in and dependence upon her mother,Tony and Max,and for her relationship with Tom,they trust and love each other.It is found that she,with fewer material and verbal processes and some passive mental processes,is being manipulated by the others.This results in firstly misunderstanding between Serena and her mother,and later betrayal on the part of Tony,Max and Tom.Where there are contradictions occur,there are negative relational processes of Serena,showing her hopelessness and helplessness.With the development of the story,Serena’s character grows up.Her increased material process and active mental process reflects her mastering of control power and the mollification of her relationship with the others.Serena’s attitudes towards her mother,Tony,Max and Tom have undergone a progression from the trust to misunderstanding or betrayal,and last to forgiveness,during which Serena gradually masters initiative and independence.Starting from the linguistic level and exploring the emotional development and changes between characters,the thesis finds the theme of “trust” → “betrayal or misunderstanding” → “forgiveness” embodied in the novel.In addition,the way of revealing the theme comes from the relationships of characters,which confirms that transitivity system is of great practical value in analyzing and excavating the relationship between characters.