The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF AGING THROUGH TRANSITIVITY: A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL APPROACH TO CHINESE ELDERS’ NARRATIVES A Dissertation in Applied Linguistics by Xingren Xu ©2008 Xingren Xu Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2008 The dissertation of Xingren Xu was reviewed and approved* by the following: Sinfree B. Makoni Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Sandra J. Savignon Professor of Applied Linguistics Xiaofei Lu Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics Xiaoye You Assistant Professor of English Joan Kelly Hall Professor of Applied Linguistics and Education Head of the Department of Applied Linguistics *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii ABSTRACT The research applies transitivity of Systemic Functional Theory (SFT) to examine age impact on picture-elicited narratives of elderly Chinese participants. The choice of using SFT is that SFT studies language through “context of situation” and reveals meaning potential in the context. Transitivity of SFT is compatible with Chinese language, and it provides a solution to the problem raised by Makoni, Lin and Schrauf who argue that the analysis is complicated because it is difficult to use Western views when analyzing Chinese texts. Transitivity and its 6 processes uncover subtle aspects of participants’ performances in picture-elicited narratives, and thus they provide a detailed understanding of age impact which cannot be obtained otherwise. The research uses 60 Chinese participants whose age range is from 50 to 79 years old. The participants are equally divided into three age groups: A (50-59 years old), B (60-69 years old) and C (70-79 years old) with 10 males and 10 females in each group. The elicited narratives are secondary data from Paradis. In the present research, the narratives are encoded by two separate raters according to the coding system developed by the author who gives a great consideration to Paradis’ stimuli and the six processes of transitivity. The present study uses General Linear Model in ANOVA to analyze the encoded data to find age impact on the participants’ transitivity performances so that the participants’ factors, levels and the interactions of factors and levels are taken into account. The results indicate that age can statistically have a significant impact on the participants’ transitivity performances. The points of the participants’ performances increased from group A to group B, and the points of participants’ performances decreased from group B to group C. Education and gender do not have a significant impact. The significance of the present study is that it reveals the age impact on participants’ transitivity performances in detail, and that it revises the previous researchers’ general assertion. Finally the author critically evaluates the strength and limitation of the present and suggests directions for future research. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables………..........…………………………………………………………ix List of Figures….........................................................................................................xi Acknowledgments ….................................................................................................xiii Chapter 1 Introduction…………………………………………………..…………1 1.1 Background…………………………………………………………………….1 1.2 Chinese Aging and the Gap in its Research ………………………….……..…5 1.2.1 The Problem of the Elders in China ……………………………….………...5 1.2.2 Language-related Chinese Aging Research and its Gap..….…….……..……8 1.3 The Significance of the Present Study …………………….……….…………10 1.4 Goals of the Present Study………………………………………….…………10 1.5 Brief Descriptions about the Present Research………………………………..11 1.6 Chapter’s Overview……………………………………………….….…….….12 Chapter 2 Literature Review……………………………………….…………..…14 2.1 Picture-elicited Narratives …………………………………………..….…….15 2.2 Previous Research in Aging using Picture-elicited Narratives…………….....17 2.3 The Previous Research Using the Insights of Transitivity in SFT…….….…..26 2.4 The Relation of the Present Research with the Previous Research……….…..29 Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework………………………………………….….….34 iv 3.1 A Brief Introduction to SFT..……………………………………………..……34 3.1.1 A Brief Introduction to Halliday’s SFT…………………………….…….…..35 3.1.2 The Difference between Halliday and Martin…………………………...……39 3.1.3 The Difference between Berry and Halliday ………………………….……...42 3.1.4 The Overlap between Halliday, Vygotsky and Bernstein…………….….…...43 3.2 Transitivity……………………………………………………………...……….45 3.2.1 The Position of Transitivity in SFT………….……………………….………46 3.2.2 The Development of Transitivity………………………………….….………46 3.2.3 The Content of Transitivity………………………………….……….……….48 3.2.4 The Difference between Halliday’s Transitivity and the Traditional Transitivity……………………………………..……..49 3.2.5 Transitivity – the Intersection of SFT and Other Schools of Linguistics…....50 3.2.6 Transitivity in Neurological and Health Science Research………..….……51 3.3. Chinese and Transitivity.…………………………………………….…….…...52 3.3.1 The Compatibility of Transitivity for Studying Chinese…………….….……52 3.3.2 Chinese Scholars’ Research in Transitivity…………………………………..54 Chapter 4 Methodology …………………………………………………………... 57 4.1 Hypotheses ……………………………………………………………………..57 4.2 Data Collection…………………………………………………………….…....58 4.3 Rationale for Using Secondary Chinese Data …………………………….….…60 4.4 Participants……………………………………….……………………….……..61 4.5 Instrument...…………………………………….…………………….….……...63 v 4.6 Purpose of Analyzing the Picture-elicited Narrative…………………………...66 4.7 Coding System………………………………………………………….……….67 4.8 Post-Explanation ………………….……………………………………………71 Chapter 5 Analysis………………………………………………………………….73 5.1 Coding…………………………………………………………………..………73 5.2 Coder Training………………………………………………………………....73 5.3 Raters Accuracy and Reliability……………………………………..………….74 5.4 Transitivity………………………………………………………….…………..76 5.5 Analysis…………………………………………………………….…..………76 5.6 Analyses with Extracts ………………………………………………..……….80 Chapter 6 Results……………………………………………..…………………….100 6.1 Statistical Solution…………………………………………………….………..100 6.2 Impact of Age, Education and Gender on the Participants’ Overall Performance of Transitivity ………….………………………..………104 6.3 Impact of Age, Education and Gender on Material Process……………….…..112 6.4 Impact of Age, Education and Gender Impact on Mental Process…………….117 6.5 Impact of Age, Education and Gender on Verbal Process Performances…..…121 6.6 Impact of Age, Education and Gender on Behavioral Process Performance…..124 6.7 Impact of Age, Education and Gender on Relational Process………………....129 6.8 Impact of Age, Education and Gender on Existential Process Performance......133 6.9 Summary of Age, Education and Gender Impact on Transitivity……….……137 vi Chapter 7 Conclusion………………….……………………………………...…….142 7.1 Summary of the Objectives, Results and Analysis………………………..……142 7.2. Strengths of the Present Research……………………………………………...144 7.2.1 Transitivity as a Proper Framework for an Aging Study…………………….144 7.2.2 Justification of Paradis’ Stimuli and Development of Coding System……....145 7.2.3 Proper Use of GLM to Determine Significant Impact………………….….…146 7.3 Limitations ………………………………………………….………..…………146 7.3.1 Absence of Post-reflective Comment………………………………………...146 7.3.2 Quasi Longitudinal Study and No True Longitudinal Study…………………147 7.3.3 No Requirement for Processing Speed…………………………….………….148 7.4 Recommendations for Future Research…………………………….………….148 7.4.1 Extension of Age-span………………………………………….…………….148 7.4.2 The Comparison of Normal Elders with Elderly Patients………….…………149 7.4.3 Mini-lingual Status Examination……………………………………….……..150 7.4.4 Semi-computerized Coding …………………………………………………...150 7.5 Final Remarks…………………….……………….……………..…….……….151 References…………………………………………………………………….….…...152 Appendix......................................................................................................................162 Appendix A: Coding Sheet……………………………………………………….…..162 Appendix B: Examples of Empty “be” Relational Process in Chinese…....................165 vii Appendix C: Permission to Use Data….......................................................................168 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.2.1.1 China Population by Five-year Age Group and Gender…....................7 Table 3.4.1 Extension to Transitivity………………………………………...…..….30 Table 3.4.2 A Comparison of the Present Research with Previous Research……....31 Table 3.1.1 Metafunctional Integration in the Structure of the Clause…….…….…..37 Table 3.2.4.1 Transitivity in Comparison with the Traditional Verb Functions…..49 Table 4.1.1 The Participant’s Age Information………………………….……….….62 Table 4.1.2 The Participant’s Education Information….............................................63 Table 4.4 A Comparison of Paradis’ Stimuli and Present Coding System …….…..68 Table 6.1 Factors and Levels………………………………………………………..101 Table 6.2.1 The 20th Participant’s Transitivity Performance…………………………105 Table 6.2.2 General Linear Model: Overall Transitivity versus Age Group, Education and Gender……………………………….…….… 108 Table 6.3.1 The 42nd Participant’s Material Process Performance ………….……..112 Table 6.3.2 General Linear Model: Material Process versus Age Group and Education and Gender…................................................................114 Table 6.4.1 The 18th Participant’s Mental Process Performance……….…………..117 Table 6.4.2 General Linear Model: Mental