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Working Papers,10 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante WORKING PAPERS, 10 A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL APPROXIMATION TO THE USE OF CLEFT SENTENCES AND REVERSED PSEUDO-CLEFT SENTENCES IN ENGLISH IN A NARRATIVE SAMPLE WRITTEN BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN WRITER ALAN PATON María Martínez Lirola Departamento de Filología Inglesa UNIVERSIDAD DE ALICANTE 2005 1 I would like to have one hundred tongues and one hundred hearts to create interest for the poor Africa, which is the least known part of the world and the most marginalized, therefore the most difficult to be evangelized. Saint Daniel Comboni 2 To Maribel and Lazaro, my parents, and to Alfonso, my teacher and mentor. Without their encouragement, support and dedication this small contribution would not have been possible. To Philip, whose generosity brought this book out of darkness. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my teacher and mentor, Dr. Alfonso Rizo Rodríguez from the University of Jaén, for his wise advice, support and patience. I would like to thank especially Philip Woodall for his precious time and kind revision of the English manuscript. He is not only a model translator but a wonderful human being. Without his help, dedication and advice this publication would not have been possible. My gratitude too to several members of the Department of English Studies at the University of Alicante, especially Dr. José Mateo Martínez, Dr. Francico Yus Ramos and Dr. Teresa Morell Moll for their support in the editing and publication of this book. 4 A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL APPROXIMATION TO THE USE OF CLEFT SENTENCES AND REVERSED PSEUDO-CLEFT SENTENCES IN ENGLISH IN A NARRATIVE SAMPLE WRITTEN BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN WRITER ALAN PATON Taking into consideration the fundamental principles of Systemic Functional Grammar, we have studied in detail two syntactically-marked structures in English, cleft sentences and reversed pseudo-clefts, in two novels written by the African writer Alan Paton: Cry, The Beloved Country (1958) and Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful (1983). To study cleft sentences and reversed pseudo-clefts in their context we will try to see the reasons why the author uses these structures to reflect the social situation that surrounds him. The study of the novels allows us to state that language creates and builds a social situation and that is why from one particular text we can predict the social context that surrounds that text. 5 Contents INTRODUCTION 1 Presentation 2 Objectives and contents 3 Methodology CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 1.1 MAIN ASPECTS OF THE SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL MODEL 1.1.1 Short introduction 1.1.2 Definition of fundamental concepts in systemic functional grammar 1.1.3 Historical perspective of the theoretical approach 1.1.4 The social function of language and similar matters 1.1.4.1 Ideology 1.1.4.2 Situation type 1.1.4.3 Context of culture (Genre) 1.1.4.4 Context of situation (Register) 1.1.4.5 Variables of the context of situation 1.1.4.5.1 Field 1.1.4.5.2 Tenor 1.1.4.5.3 Mode 1.2 HALLIDAY’S COMPLETE MODEL OF LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION 1.2.1 Linguistic metafunctions 1.2.2 The concept of “function”: definition and antecedents 1.2.3 Linguistic metafunctions, situational variables and systems of options 1.2.4 Interaction in the clause: Mood 1.2.5 Representation of the world: transitivity 1.2.6 Organization of the message: Theme 1.2.7 Synthesis 1.3 THE TEXTUAL FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE 1.3.1 The textual component of grammar 1.3.2 The concept of “theme” 1.3.3 Word order 1.3.4 Types of theme 1.3.5 Thematization structures 1.4 CLEFT SENTENCES AND REVERSED PSEUDO-CLEFT SENTENCES 1.4.1 General characterization 1.4.2 Subclasses of pseudo-cleft sentences 1.4.3 Syntactic analyses of cleft and pseudo-cleft sentences 1.4.4 Highlighted elements: form and function 6 1.4.5 Cleft sentences and theme-rheme structure 1.4.6 Pseudo-cleft sentences and theme-rheme structure 1.4.7 Reversed pseudo-cleft sentences and theme-rheme structure 1.4.8 Cleft and pseudo-cleft sentences in written and spoken language CHAPTER 2: APPLYING CONCEPTS RELATED TO THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE NOVELS 2.1 APPROXIMATION TO THE CONTENTS OF THE NOVELS 2.1.1 Synthesis of Cry, the Beloved Country (1958) 2.1.2 Synthesis of Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful (1983) 2.2 ANALYSIS OF THE NOVELS 2.2.1 Ideology 2.2.2 Situation type 2.2.3 Context of culture (Genre) 2.2.4 Context of situation (Register) 2.2.5 Field, tenor and mode CHAPTER 3: FORMAL AND FUNCTIONAL STUDY OF CLEFT AND REVERSED PSEUDO-CLEFT SENTENCES IN THE CORPUS OF EXAMPLES 3.1 APPROXIMATION TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE CORPUS 3.2 CLEFT SENTENCES 3.2.1 Formal aspects 3.2.2 Functional aspects of cleft sentences 3.2.2.1 Information structure: new and given information 3.2.2.2 Use of the structure in climactic moments 3.2.2.3 Characters who use cleft sentences in the novels 3.2.2.4 Cleft sentences as a way to talk about feelings 3.2.2.5 Accumulation of examples in the same paragraph or the same page 3.2.3 Conclusions 3.3 REVERSED PSEUDO-CLEFT SENTENCES 3.3.1 Formal aspects 3.3.2 Functional aspects 3.4 CONCLUSIONS APPENDIX: CORPUS OF EXAMPLES BIBLIOGRAPHY 7 INTRODUCTION Presentation The title of this research work is “Systemic Functional Approximation to the Use of the Cleft Sentence and Reversed Pseudo-Cleft Sentence in English in a Narrative Sample of the African Writer Alan Paton”. In this title we can find the different aspects of the contents of this work, such as the theoretical model: Systemic Functional Grammar. This linguistic model is characterized by the assumption that the phonological, grammatical and semantic structures of language are determined by the functions that language performs in society. The social function of language has special importance for Systemic Functional Grammar, and for this reason analysis of text is contextual, since there is a relationship between text and social context. This analysis helps us to understand the relationship between language and society. Taking into consideration the fundamental principles of this linguistic school, we are going to study in detail two syntactically marked structures in English: cleft sentences and reversed pseudo-clefts. These structures are studied in two novels written by the African writer Alan Paton: Cry, The Beloved Country (1958) and Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful (1983). These novels have been selected for two reasons: firstly because they contain abundant syntactical processes of thematization and postponement, and secondly because they reflect an interesting socio-political context: the apartheid era in South Africa. In both novels we find references to real situations presented by the author to report an unjust social situation characterized by racial segregation. In order to study cleft sentences and reversed pseudo-clefts in their context, let us begin to consider the reasons why this author uses these structures as the novelist tries to reflect the social situation that surrounds him. The study of the novels allows us to state that language creates and builds a social situation and that is the reason why from one particular text we can predict the social context that surrounds that text. Objectives and contents With this book, in the first place we intend to consider in detail the essential aspects of Systemic Functional Grammar, whose main figure is Michael Halliday. That is why we will start by defining the fundamental concepts of this theoretical model, moving on to expound its historical perspective and explain the social function of language and some important topics related to that function, such as ideology, situation type, context of culture, context of situation and the notions of field, tenor and mode. These concepts will be studied not only theoretically but will also be applied to the two novels written by Alan Paton that are the object of study: Cry, The Beloved Country (1958) and Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful (1983). We will then proceed with the study of Halliday’s integrative model of linguistic description, in which we will pay special attention to the concept of function and its antecedents, the linguistic metafunctions, the situational 8 variables, and the three systems of options proposed by him: transitivity, mood and theme. Next, we will concentrate on the textual function of language, and in this section we will include an analysis of the concept of “theme”, the different types of theme, and some questions related to word order, namely word order in the sentence and its grammatical relationships. While on the theoretical approach, we will also present the different structures of thematization and examine in detail the theory related to the structures we will analyse in our corpus of examples: cleft sentences and reversed pseudo-cleft sentences in English. To obtain conclusions about how language works, linguists should base their analysis on a concrete corpus of examples. After analysing the systemic functional model and reviewing the theoretical knowledge of the structures of thematization in general, we would like to focus our study on two structures in particular: cleft sentences and reversed pseudo-clefts. Our corpus of examples belongs to two novels by the South African writer Alan Paton: Cry, The Beloved Country (1958) and Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful (1983), which can be characterized by the frequent use of syntactical structures of thematization and postponement.
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