Phân tích hệ thống chuyển tác, thức và cấu trúc đề - thuyết của văn bản “A grandmother with muscles” dựa vào lý thuyết ngữ pháp chức năng hệ thống của Mark Haliday
226(03): 93 - 99
TNU Journal of Science and Technology
A CLOSE INSIGHT INTO SYSTEMIC MARK HALLIDAY‟S FUNCTIONAL
GRAMMAR AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT “A GRANDMOTHER
WITH MUSCLES” IN TERMS OF TRANSITIVITY, MOOD AND THEME-
RHEME PATTERN
*
Nguyen Thi Hong Ha1 , Duong Thi Thao2
1TNU - School of Foreign Languages
2TNU - University of Sciences
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
When people speak or write, they produce texts. To a grammarian, text
is a rich, many-faceted phenomenon that means in many different ways.
Systemic functional grammar (SFG) is a text grammar, which means
this kind of grammar can describe the use of language. In this way, the
meaning of the text can be understood clearly. The application of the
framework of SFG to analyze a text can avoid evaluating at will. The
article shows an analysis of a text “A grandmother with muscles”
based on systemic Mark Haliday‟s functional grammar in terms of
transitivity, mood and theme-rheme pattern. The findings show that the
text is narrative which can be featured by the following characteristics:
material and relational processes, simple past and simple present
(transitivity), personal subjects, declaratives, no modal elements (mood)
and ideational component, unmarked themes (theme-rheme).
Received:
Revised:
16/3/2021
31/3/2021
31/3/2021
Published:
KEYWORDS
Systemic functional grammar
Text analysis
Transitivity
Mood
Theme-rheme
PHÂN TÍCH HỆ THỐNG CHUYỂN TÁC, THỨC VÀ CẤU TRÚC ĐỀ - THUYẾT CỦA
VĂN BẢN “A GRANDMOTHER WITH MUSCLES” DỰA VÀO LÝ THUYẾT NGỮ
PHÁP CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG CỦA MARK HALIDAY
Nguyễn Thị Hồng Hà1*, Dương Thị Thảo2
1Trường Ngoại ngữ - ĐH Thái Nguyên
2Trường Đại học Khoa học - ĐH Thái Nguyên
THÔNG TIN BÀI BÁO
Ngày nhận bài: 16/3/2021
Ngày hoàn thiện: 31/3/2021
Ngày đăng: 31/3/2021
TÓM TẮT
Khi mọi người nói hoặc viết, họ tạo ra văn bản. Đối với một nhà ngữ
pháp, văn bản là một hiện tượng phong phú, nhiều mặt, có nghĩa theo
nhiều cách khác nhau. Ngữ pháp chức năng hệ thống (SFG) là một loại
ngữ pháp có thể mô tả việc sử dụng ngôn ngữ để hiểu ý nghĩa của văn
bản. Việc áp dụng khung phân tích của SFG để phân tích một văn bản
có thể tránh được việc đánh giá một cách chủ quan. Bài báo phân tích
văn bản “A grandmother with muscles” dựa trên quan điểm ngữ pháp
chức năng hệ thống của Mark Haliday về chuyển tác (transitivity), thức
(mood) và cấu trúc đề - thuyết (theme-rheme). Kết quả nghiên cứu cho
thấy văn bản có những đặc trưng của thể loại trần thuật, mang các đặc
điểm sau: tồn tại chủ yếu quá trình vật chất (material process) và quan
hệ (relational process), sử dụng quá khứ đơn và hiện tại đơn, đa phần
là chủ thể cá nhân và thức chỉ định (declarative), ít động từ tình thái và
hầu hết chủ đề thuộc thành tố tư tưởng (ideational component), chủ đề
không được đánh dấu (unmarked theme).
TỪ KHÓA
Ngữ pháp chức năng hệ thống
Phân tích văn bản
Hệ thống chuyển tác
Thức
Cấu trúc Đề-Thuyết
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TNU Journal of Science and Technology
1. Introduction
Thompson [1] presented the functions of language. We use language to talk about our
experience of the world, to describe events and states and the entities involved in them. We also
use language to interact with other people, to establish and maintain relations with them, to
influence their behaviour, to express our own viewpoint on things in the world, and to elicit or
change theirs. Finally, in using language, we organize our messages in ways that indicate how
they act in with the other messages around them and with the wider context in which we are
talking or writing.
Systemic functional grammar (SFG) or systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a model of
the view of language as “a network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making
without reference beyond the individual clause.
Systemic functional theory views language as a resource people use to accomplish their
purposes by expressing meaning in context. Particular aspects of a given context define the
meanings likely to be expressed and the language likely to be used to express those meanings. All
of them are used to describe the linguistic variation in a given text, more widely known as
register [2].
According to Thompson [1], if we now turn, more briefly, to genre, this can be seen in very
simple terms as register plus communicative purpose: that is, it includes the more general idea of
what the interactants are doing through language, and how they organize the language event,
typically in recognizable stages, in order to achieve that purpose. Similarly, a genre deploys the
resources of a register (or more than one register) in particular patterns to achieve certain
communicative goals.
There have been a number of studies carried out to analyze texts in different areas such as
literature, politic texts, law texts, and business texts…and their implications in various fields.
They all have revealed insights on distinctive features of particular types of texts. G. Ning [3] had
an article describing systemic functional grammar and its pedagogical implications. U. Ammara
et al. [4] analysed the experiential meanings encoded in the language of the novel and explored
narrative style of fiction written in stream of consciousness through transitivity analysis. H.
AlHamdany [5] conducted a comparative study examining the place of systemic functional
grammar in the ESL context; described the kind of grammar that is used by teachers to design
teaching activities in ESL classes; and discusses the implications for English grammar teaching
with regards to the investigator‟s own experiences. T. M. Nguyen [6], in her study, explored the
grammar and meaning of an American short story to show their correlations. T. L. Nguyen [7]
analyzed clause expansion in “Two Thanksgiving day gentlemen” based on systemic functional
grammar and made suggestions for teaching writing. To contribute more insights into text
analysis in SFG, the writers present an analysis of the text “A grandmother with muscles” based
on systemic Mark Halliday‟s functional grammar in terms of transitivity, mood and theme-rheme
pattern with the hope that it can be of significance to literary writing.
2. Methods and Materials
The text is analysed in the aspects as below.
2.1. Metafunctions
Systemic Functional Grammar divides the social purpose of language into three semantic
prongs which the grammar interweaves. Language is seen as a representation of reality
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(ideational metafunction), transmitted for a specific purpose (interpersonal metafunction), and
structured as a message (textual metafunction).
2.1.1. Ideational Metafunction
According to Halliday [2], the ideational metafunction is concerned with how we present
reality in language. It is divided into two: experiential and logical metafunctions. The experiential
metafunction organizes our experience and understanding of the world. It is the potential of the
language to construe figures with elements and its potential to differentiate these elements into
processes, the participants in these processes, and the circumstances in which the processes
occur. The logical metafunction works above the experiential. It specializes our reasoning on the
basis of our experience.
The experiential aspect of meaning is expressed through the system of TRANSITIVITY. The
TRANSITIVITY system is the principal system for the ideational metafunction in the clause
network. For Halliday [2], this system construes the world of experience into a manageable set of
processes. In the transitivity system of English, there are 6 process types. They are material,
mental, verbal, behavioral, relational, and existential process.
2.1.1.1. Material process
According to Geoff Thompson [1], one of the most salient types of processes is the one
involving physical actions: playing, cooking, and planting, and so on. It is called material process.
Graham Lock [8] calls this process Action process or Material process - the process of „doing‟. The
„doer‟ of this type of action is called the Actor. In many cases, the action may be represented as
affecting or „being done to‟ a second participant; this participant is called the Goal, since the action
is, in a sense, directed at this participant. In some material processes there exists a third participant.
This participant is called the Beneficiary. The Beneficiary is either Recipient or Client. The
Recipient is one that goods are given to; the Client is one that services are done for. The following
examples illustrate the existence of the three participants in the clauses:
She
sent
John
her best wishes.
Actor
Process: material
Beneficiary: Recipient
Goal
2.1.1.2. Mental process
“This is the process of sensing such as thinking, loving, wanting, hoping. It consists of four main
subtypes: cognitive (thinking, knowing, realizing), perceptive (hearing, sensing, feeling), affective
(loving, hating, adoring) and desiderative (wanting, desiring, wishing)” [9]. In a mental process,
there are usually two participants referred to as Senser and Phenomenon. The Senser is the
conscious being that is feeling, thinking or seeing. The Phenomenon is that which is „sensed‟ – felt,
thought or seen). The following sentences are the instances.
The boy
We
Actor
loved
could hear
Process: mental (affection)
the girl.
it coming.
Phenomenon
2.1.1.3. Relational process
This is the process of being, having and being at. It comes under three main types: intensive (x
is a), circumstantial (x is at a) and possessive (x has a). Each of these comes in two distinct
modes: attributive (a is an attributive of x) and identifying (a is the identity of x). When a
relational process is in the attributive mode, it has one participant referred to as Carrier and the
quality or the thing showing that the Carrier belongs to a class of things, which is usually
realized by an adjective or an indefinite nominal group.
E.g. Sarah
is
wise.
Carrier
Process: relational
Attribute
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In contrast, when a relational clause is in the identifying mode, it has two equating participants,
one identifying the other. They are referred to as Identified/ Identifier and Token/ Value.
E.g.
Tom
is
the leader.
Identified/ Token
Process: relational
Identifier/ Value
2.1.1.4. Behavioural process
This is the process of (typically human) physiological and psychological behaviour like
breathing, coughing, laughing, dreaming and staring. The participant who is „behaving‟, labeled
Behaver, is typically a conscious being, not a lifeless thing.
E.g.
She
breathed
deeply.
Actor
Process: behavioural
Circumstance
2.1.1.5. Verbal process
Verbal process is the process of saying and is expressed by verbs such as say, tell, ask, speak,
talk. Unlike behavioural and mental process, a verbal process does not require a conscious
participant and it can contain one participant referred to as Sayer, two participants referred to
respectively, depending on particular subtype of verbal process, as Sayer and Target, and Sayer
and Verbiage, and even three participants referred to respectively as Sayer, Target, and Recipient.
Sayer is one that puts out a signal, Target is one that the verbalization is directed to, Recipient if
one that benefits from the verbal process, and Verbiage is the name of the verbalization itself.
E.g. 1)
He
said
Process: verbal
told
Process: verbal
loudly.
Circumstance
me
Sayer
They
Sayer
2)
so.
Target
Circumstance
2.1.1.6. Existential process
This is the process of existing, indicating that something or some natural force exists. In this type
of process, there is generally a participant, the Existent and one or two circumstantial elements.
E.g.
On the wall
there
hangs
a picture.
Circumstance
Process: existential
Existent
2.1.2. Interpersonal Metafunction
One of the main purposes of communication is to interact with other people: to establish and
maintain appropriate social links with them. Speakers and writers of language have to structure
clauses in order to interact with one another. This is the interpersonal metafunction of language.
It is concerned with Clause as Exchange. Halliday [2] quotes a table by Thompson [1] to
characterize the primary speech roles which can be represented in table 1.
Table 1. The primary speech roles [1]
Commodity exchange
Role in exchange
(a) goods-&-services
(b) information
„offer‟
(i) giving
„statement‟
He‟s giving her the teapot
„question‟
Would you like this teapot?
(ii) demanding
„command‟
Give me that teapot!
What is he giving her?
As an exchange or interactive event, a clause consists of two components: the Mood and the
Residue. Mood plays a vital role in carrying out the interpersonal function of the clause as
exchange in English. In English, the Mood consists of two elements: Subject and Finite.
The Subject is the nominal component of the Mood.
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The Finite is the verbal element in the Mood which has the function of making the
proposition finite. Subject and Mood are closely linked together.
The remainder of the clause is the Residue. It consists of functional elements of three kinds:
Predicator: present in all major clauses; realized by a verbal group and temporal or modal
operator.
Complement: potential of being Subject; realized by a nominal group.
Adjunct: not potential of being subject; realized by an adverbial group or a prepositional
phrase.
following clauses are analyzed in terms of interpersonal meaning.
Sister Susie
Subject
„s
Finite
sewing
Predicator
shirts
Complement
Residue
for soldiers.
Adjunct
Mood
2.1.3. Textual Metafunction
The textual metafunction relates to mode; the internal organization and communicative nature
of a text. It is concerned with creating relevance between parts of what is being said and between
the text and the context. Lexicogrammatically, it is expressed through the systems of theme and
information focus. Relevant to the realization of the system of theme are two elements: Theme
and Rheme.
According to Halliday [2], the Theme is the element which „serves as the point of departure of
the message‟. The Theme may be realized by a nominal group, a prepositional phrase, an
adverbial group or even a clause in the case of predicated theme. The Theme may be single or
multiple, marked or unmarked. For Halliday [2], “Any group complex or phrase complex
constitutes a single element within the clause,…, and therefore constitutes a simple theme”.
Whereas, multiple theme has a further internal structure of its own. When, in a declarative clause,
a theme is “something that other than the Subject” [2], it is referred to as marked theme. The most
usual form of marked theme is an adverbial group functioning as Adjunct. Unmarked theme is
referred to as “the mapping of Theme on to Subject of a declarative clause” Halliday [1].
In this part, some fundamental and theoretical concepts have been briefly presented which
includes systemic functional grammar, and the three metafunctions of clauses. These
fundamentals of background knowledge will be of great help to analyze the geographical text “A
grandmother with muscles” based on systemic functional grammar in the following part.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. The text “A grandmother with muscles”
In Brooklyn, New York, a little girl was playing with some boys. They were riding bicycles
and playing ball.
“Diana!” the girl‟s father called. “Play with the girls! You‟re a girl, not a boy!”
Diana‟s father sounded a little angry. But Diana knew that her father was proud of her. He
was proud that Diana was strong. He was proud that she was good at sports.
Diana grew up. She stopped playing ball and riding bicycles with the boys. She got married,
moved to California, and had two sons. The years went by.
One day, when Diana was 48 years old, she went to a gym. She exercised and lifted weights.
She really enjoyed it, so she went back a few days later. She started going to the gym three days a
week; then she began going every day. She got stronger and stronger, and her muscles got bigger
and bigger. Diana became a bodybuilder. Today Diana Vasquez is a champion bodybuilder. She
has over 24 awards for bodybuilding.
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Diana is proud of her awards, but she doesn‟t exercise and lift weights only to win awards.
Diana‟s father said, “Good heath is very important. If you don‟t have good health, you have
nothing.” Diana thinks that her father was right. She says, “Bodybuilding keeps me healthy. I feel
better today than I did 20 years ago.”
Diana says. “Good food is very important. If you don‟t have good for health, too. Diet is 50
percent of body building. I don‟t eat a lot of sweets. I eat a lot of fruit, vegetables, yogurt, and
rice. I also get plenty of sleep and fresh air.”
Bodybuilding and eating good food keep Diana healthy and young-looking. Look at the
picture of Diana. How does she look? Does she look 30…35… maybe 40 years old?
Diana Vasquez is a grandmother. She is 51 years old.
3.2. Context of the chosen text
The text is taken from a book called True Stories in the News (2nd Edition) – A Beginner
Reader published by Addison Wesley Longman. The title of the book reveals the genre of the
text. It is a kind of news.
3.3. Transitivity, Mood and Theme-Rheme Pattern
The text has been analyzed in terms of transitivity, mood and theme-rheme pattern. The
analysis of some typical sentences are presented as follows.
(1) In Brooklyn, New York, a little girl was playing with some boys.
In Brooklyn, New York, a little girl
was playing
with some boys.
Tran.
Circumstance (Circ) -
location
Actor
(Ac)
Process (Pro) - mat (material) Circ - accompaniment
Adjunct
Subject (S)
Finite (F) Predication (Pr)
Adjunct
M.
RESIDUE
MOOD
RESIDUE
The.
Theme (marked)
Rheme
were riding
(2) They were riding bicycles.
They
bicycles
Tran.
Ac
S
Pro (mat.)
Goal (Go)
F
Pr
M.
The.
MOOD
Theme (unmarked)
RESIDUE
Rheme
…
(40) She says,
She
Senser
S
says
Tran.
Pro - verbal (ver)
F
Pr
M.
The.
MOOD
Theme (unmarked)
RESIDUE
Rheme
(41) Bodybuilding keeps me healthy.
Bodybuilding
keeps
Pro (mat)
me
Goal
Compl
RESIDUE
Rheme
healthy
Attribute
Compl
Tran.
Actor
S
F
Pr
M.
The.
MOOD
Theme (unmarked)
This is a narrative about a middle-aged woman who is rather athletic. The “What is going
on?” of the text is presented rather vividly. From the point of view of transitivity, of the 45
clauses 19 are material processes and 18 are relational ones which show the processes of
description concerning the abstract relations. These processes help readers understand the
Diana‟s situation and what she does to become a woman with muscles.
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In terms of finite verb, subject and tense choice, SFL helps us express these speech functions
in the text - persuading and motivating, through a set of Mood clause systems. Most of the
processes are in the simple past and simple present. They are used in the narrative style to
describe what Diana did twenty years ago and what she does now.
The mood patterns of the text show the “Who is taking part?”. The analysis shows that all
the subjects in the clauses are personal. Nearly all of them are Diana. The finite elements in the
clauses are combined with the past simple and present simple. Declaratives are employed in this
text, which features narrative by dealing with information exchange. No modal element is used in
the text.
The analysis also shows the theme-rheme pattern of the text. Most of the themes in the text
belong to the plane of ideational component. Of the 41 clauses and clause complexes that theme
exists, 38 have unmarked theme and 3 have marked theme. This reflects a simple style of prose,
which is suitable for the beginning level of the reading and the intended audience (children). The
text also creates a positive image of an interesting and unique character for the purpose of
transferring a good message - inspiring the target young readers to do sports to keep fit.
4. Conclusion
Language is a social phenomenon, and we continuously need to interpret what is in the
process of communication. According to U. Ammara et al. [4], in the Ideational function of
language, transitivity analysis is quite advantageous to understand the experiential meanings of
the text in a coherent way. Transitivity is considered as a useful system to explore the ways in
which language construct ideologies, themes and meanings. It is an essential system of
construing the human experience of the inner and outer world encoded in language. The analysis
of a story in the news focuses on interpreting a written text of literature. In this article, I hope to
present a text analysis on transitivity, mood and theme-rheme pattern in the light of systemic
functional grammar to show the genre‟s distinctive features. Finally, the article suggests more
ideas for other writers to examine various genres of literature to investigate the discourse and
style with the corpus-based methodologies.
REFERENCES
[1] G. Thompson, Introducing functional grammar, 3rd ed. Routledge, 1996.
[2] M. K. A. Halliday, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd ed. London: Edward Arnold, 1994.
[3] G. Ning, “Systemic functional grammar and its pedagogical implications,” Sino-US English Teaching,
ISSN1539-8072, USA, vol. 5, no. 10 (Serial no. 58), Oct. 2008. [Online]. Available:
[Accessed Mar. 13, 2021].
[4] U. Ammara, R. Y. Anjum, and M. Javed, “A Corpus-Based Halliday‟s Transitivity Analysis of „To the
Lighthouse‟,” Linguistics and Literature Review, vol.5, no.2, pp. 139-162, 2019.
[5] H. AlHamdany, “The usefulness of systemic functional grammar and its impact on students‟
communicative skills in esl context,” European Scientific Journal, ISSN: 1857 – 7881, May edition,
vol. 8, no.11, pp. 176-194, 2013.
[6] T. M. Nguyen, “The meaning and structure of an american short story: a systemic functional analysis,”
M. A. thesis, ULIS-VNU, 2010.
[7] T. L. Nguyen, “An analysis of clause expansion in two Thanksgiving day gentlemen based on systemic
functional grammar and suggestions for teaching writing,” M. A. thesis, ULIS-VNU, 2010.
[8] G. Lock, Functional English Grammar: An introduction for second language teachers. Cambridge
University Press. 1996.
[9] V. V. Hoang, “The meaning and structure of a science fiction story: A systemic functional analysis,”
VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Studies, no. 2, pp. 28-31, 2005.
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