Transitivity Analysis of Joe Biden’s Inaugural Address From the Perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar

Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar provides a new perspective and method for political discourse analysis. This paper first introduces the research status of political discourse at home and abroad, and then elaborates three metafunctions of Systemic Functional Grammar, namely ideational function, interpersonal function as well as textual function. On this basis, this paper makes an in-depth transitivity analysis of the inaugural address of the 46th president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden. Through profound research, this paper attempts to reveal how English language is applied to hide ideology in political speeches and how president Joe Biden uses various language features to persuade and inspire American people in order to reach his political purpose; at the same time, it also verifies the practicability of Systemic Functional Grammar in the analysis of political speech discourse.

О конъюнктивном употреблении разделительных союзов (на материале польского и русского языков)

The author considers the problem of conjunctive use of disjunctive conjunctions in the perspective of functional grammar. In the first part of the article, the author verifies the logical approach to conjunctions, especially disjunctive conjunctions. The linguistic meaning of a conjunction is defined as information on the credibility or applicability of a (semantically) compound sentence under condition [10, 01], which means an alternative participation of referents in the described situation. In the following chapters, the author analyzes several language facts, namely sentences that contain a disjunctive relationship and which nevertheless express the general meaning of conjunction. The author explains these phenomena by the fact that in such sentences there are the types of configurations of conjunction with the exponents of other semantic categories: quantification and modality.

The Discourse of Brand Slogans of the Best 100 Universities in Asia 2019: ASystemic Functional Grammar Analysis

Brand slogan as a part of branding plays a defining role for universities to win fierce competition. It creates emotional bonding and memorability in the mind of potential students and stake-holders. This study investigates words choice and word arrangement used in brand slogans of 100 best universities in Asia 2019 by making use of the Systemic Functional Grammar’s Experiential Metafunction. Results indicate that words most preferred for their brand slogans are patterned and are circled around: “Truth” (4/11%), “Integrity, “sincerity” (each 3/8%), and “Act”, “creating”, “creative”, “diligence”, “excellence”, “global”, and “justice” (each 2/6%); Verb (12/48%), Noun (11/44%), Adjective (1/4%), Prepositional phrase (1/4%). They are structured in Structures of Modification (10/40%), Structures of Complementation (9/36%), word (5/20%), and Structures of Predication (1/4%).

Modality analysis in Joe Biden’s speech delivered on the anniversary of the Covid-19 shutdown

Covid-19 has been global health problem and become the concern of global leaders in the world. One of them is Joe Biden, current president of American. He delivered his speech on Anniversary Covid-19 Shutdown on March 11, 2021. The clauses in his speech contain modality. Modality is included in interpersonal meaning where language is used to encode interaction between the speaker and the hearer. This research aims to analyze the type of modality used by Biden in his speech and utilize it to find his self-representation. The research uses Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in term of modality analysis as the tool and discourse analysis as the approach. The finding shows that three types of modalities found; inclination, probability and obligation. The self-representation of Biden found are being visionary, being determined, showing sadness, being powerful, and showing respect. DOI: 10.26905/enjourme.v6i2.6531

THE EFFECT OF RACISM IN THE MEDIA TO DEAL WITH MIGRATION

Migration is associated with important global issues, including development, poverty, and human rights. Migrants are frequently the most dynamic members of society; migration has historically aided economic development, the rise of nations, and the enrichment of cultures. It also presents significant challenges. The article is based on Halliday’s systematic functional grammar in terms of transitivity and modality. The aim of this article is to investigate the transitivity and modalities of migration as it appears in a number of British tabloids. The focus is on aspects of racism in the media and how to deal with the migration phenomenon. It is important to see how the media plays a role in the reproduction of racism. This article shows attitudes to migration as they have appeared in British periodicals over the last few years. It’s obvious that the role of the media in the reproduction of racism is inextricably linked to the general characteristics of racism and white domination in society, particularly the structural and ideological structuring of that kind of group power. This highlights the press's function as a business, social, and cultural institution. The press has to be examined in connection with the institutions of the economy and the political as well ‎.

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Incognegro (2008)

This study attempts to conduct a multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) of Incognegro (2008), a graphic novel by Mat Johnson and arts by Warren Pleece, by applying Michael Halliday’s theory of the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) (1994) for the written texts, i.e. the captions found on the images, and Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design (GVD), or what has been recently called Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) (1996) for the images themselves. The study employs, as well, Teun A. van Dijk’s modal of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (2004), in which power, racism, segregation, oppression, ethnicity, inequality, discrimination, identity, superiority, inferiority, dominant groups, and dominated groups are being analyzed. The study aims at showing the inequality, the oppression, the racial discrimination, and the exercised power Negroes previously suffered (1930s) in America, the land of freedom, and how this suffering is depicted through graphic novels for historical documentation. The study shows that the Whites considered themselves the dominant group, whereas the Negroes were treated as slaves, not even equal to human beings, and hence are recognized to be the oppressed and the dominated group.

"My opinion is that…": the subjective introduction in school students’ written discourse

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the modes chosen to express the speaker’s/writer’s personal evaluations in essays written by children of eleven and twelve years old. The structural-semantic repertoire of subjectification tools, their functional potential, and frequency of occurrence in descriptive and argumentative essays are considered. It has been found that the ‘subjective’ textual density of argumentative texts reflects the developmental level of verbal introspection (related to the theory of mind) and correlates with children’s academic achievements. The results are compared with the data concerning a later mastering of the linguistic means expressing subjectivity. The research combines the methods of longitudinal and assessment observation, elements of statistical data processing and the theoretical principles of linguistic material analysis accepted in the Petersburg school of functional grammar. The linguistic tools of subjectification are interpreted in connection with the concepts of modus, modus frame, and authorship. The guidelines offered to language and literature teachers take into consideration the cognitive and the systemic-lingual difficulty of various subjectification means; they are aimed to enhance communicative skills promoting successful socialization of school children.

Quantitative Distribution of Verbal Structures with Reference to the Authorship Factor in Legal Stylistics

The paper aims at describing the findings and conclusions formulated in the analysis of the authorship factor in legal discourse. It is hypothesised that verbal structures show systemically varied distribution across legal discourse and the relevant distinctions run through the authorship categories. When it comes to the aim of the research it draws on the tradition of sociolinguistic methodology targeting issues related to language variation which follows the basic assumptions of functional grammar. From the point of view of the material covered by the analysis it contributes to the research on legal discourse and specifically on its specialised domain referred to as corporate, company or business discourse. It provides additional empirical data pointing to the non-homogeneity of the legal style and formal distinctions originating from rich contextual background. The study is conducted on the material of a custom-designed corpus of English legal texts, classified as secondary genres. Methodologically, the study makes use of the tenets of supervised search of digitalised corpora and automatic data extraction based on discrete units, subsequent identification of recurring longer contiguous and/or non-contiguous sequences, if any, built around the axis of specific verbal structures and finally qualitative comparative analysis (characterisation) of the material. The discussion presents sample data and focuses on the most salient categories, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The inductive approach confirms the formal divergencies in the communicative situation covered by the analysis. The findings encapsulate patterns and tendencies in the quantitative distribution of verbal structures depending on the authorship category. It may be concluded that authorship is a factor delineating distinctions as regards (i) the repertoire of grammatical instruments exploited (verbal structures), which contributes to the specific stylistic profile of given authors. This shows that the thesis posed is verified positively and the study shows further, more detailed distinctions running through groups of subcategories distinguished within the authorship categories specified upon the start of the research.

Twentieth Century Linguistics at Closing Time

This chapter appraises the state of linguistics at the end of the twentieth century in the wake of the Generative/Interpretive Semantics episode. The period saw a huge upswing in Noam Chomsky’s influence with the dominance of his Government and Binding/Principles and Parameters model, but also the development of multiple other competing and intersecting formal models, all of which did away with Chomsky’s totemic concept, the transformation: Relational Grammar (RG), Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG), and so many more that Frederick Newmeyer tagged the lot of them Alphabet Grammars (AGs). Alongside these frameworks came George Lakoff’s most far-reaching and influential development, with philosopher, Mark Johnson, “Conceptual Metaphor Theory” (a label the author rejects).

Comparing Oral and Written Cooking Recipes Using Systemic Functional Grammar

This article compares oral and written cooking recipes of the same food created by the same person, by using systemic functional grammar. The aim of the article is to find out the similarities and differences of the language used in both recipes. The data are obtained from Jamie Oliver’s cooking show aired in a YouTube channel on how to make scones and the written recipe of the same food published in his website. The focus of the analysis is on the lexico-grammar of the clauses used in the texts. The result shows that there are more differences than similarities between the two texts. There are more clauses in the spoken text than those in the written text in terms of quantity and variety. In the ideational function, both texts have a similar variety of processes with the majority of material process showing imperatives of procedural texts and additional information using mental, existential, and relational processes, but in the written text there are two clauses using verbal process that are not found in the spoken text. In the interpersonal function, the two texts show demands of good and services and the use of modalities in expressing the expected results of the cooking process. In the spoken text, the relation between the cook and the audience is friendlier and closer than that in the written text. It is demonstrated in the use of vocatives and interrogatives that are not used in the written text. The textual functions show similar results in the use of conjunctions but the spoken text displays closer interpersonal textual functions found in the use of vocatives. The analyses of the three metafunctions of the two recipes may contribute to the study of food texts in linguistics that are relatively low compared to those in other disciplines.