Transitivity Analysis in English Sports News

时间:2022-07-01 07:57:48

【摘 要】及物性(transitivity)是“表现概念功能的一个语义系统,其作用在于人们在现实生活中的所见所闻,所作所为分成若干过程,并说明各种过程有关的参与者和环境成分。”本文通过对英语体育新闻进行及物性分析发现,物质过程,关系过程和行为过程是文章作者讲述事实,吸引读者的语言学原因。

【关键词】及物性;英语体育新闻;语篇分析

【Abstract】Transitivity is a semantic system expressing the experiential metafunction. It specifies the different types of process that are recognized in the language, and the structures by which they are expressed. This thesis will analyze transitivity in English sports news to find out material, relational and verbal processes are the linguistic reason to describe the events and to arouse the readers’ interest.

【Key words】transitivity; English sports news; discourse analysis

I. Introduction

This thesis will apply transitivity analysis to English sports news to try out the possibility and feasibility of transitivity analysis in sports news analyzing, to work out the transitivity features of sports news and pragmatic functions of each transitivity type in sports news, thus to give implication on the understanding and writing of sports news reporting.

II. Types of transitivity in Hallidayan SFG

2.1. Material process

Material processes are processes of ‘doing’. They express the notion that some entity ‘does’ somethingwhich may be done ‘to’ some other entity. (Halliday, 1994)

2.2. Mental process

Mental processes are processes of ‘sensing’, which can be further classified into perception processes (‘seeing’, ‘looking’), reaction processes (‘liking’, ‘hating’) and processes of cognition (‘thinking’, ‘knowing’).

2.3. Relational Process

Relational processes are processes of ‘being’. The verb “be” or copular verbs such as seem, become, appear or verbs like have, own, possess usually occur in relational process.

2.4. Behavioral Process

Behavioral processes are processes of physiological and psychological behavior, like breathing, coughing, smiling, dreaming.

2.5. Verbal process

Verbal processes are processes of ‘speaking’. The typical verbs for verbal process are “say”, “ask”, “tell”, “praise” and so on.

2.6. Existential Process

Existential processes represent that something exists or happens. It is normally recognizable because of the empty subject “there” and a copular verb “be” as in “There is a book.”

III .Transitivity Analysis of the Texts from China Daily

Text1. Transitivity analysis of “Bryant sparks lakers to road win over Rockets” from China Daily, 2009-01-14 16:43

Kobe Bryant's clutch three-pointer capped a 33-point performance and launched the Los Angeles Lakers to a 105-100 road win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday. (material, material)

Bryant’s long shot with 27 seconds remaining put the lakers ahead 102-100 and they never trailed again, bringing the Rockets’ three-game winning streak to an end. (material, material)

“I just rose up and hit it,” Bryant told reporters after his only three-pointer of the game. (material, material, verbal)

“Houston played extremely well and we found a way to win,” he added. “we came into a hostile (environment)and got a big win”(material, material, verbal, material, material)

Bryant had 13 points in the quarter, coming up with his key shot after Shane Battier had given Houston a 100-99 lead with 47 seconds to play with a three-pointer of his own.(relational, material)…

As the analysis shows, in the text of 14 verbs altogether, there are 11 material processes, which accounts for 79% in all processes; there are 1 relational processes, which occupies 7% in all processes; there are 2 verbal processes, which takes up 14% in all processes.

From the above figures, they show that in the text the material process, the relational process and the verbal process are the main transitivity types. The material processes take up the highest percentage, which shows in the sports news there are many sentences to describe the events and what had happened. Relational processes are to set up and clarify certain relationships between participants. Verbal processes make sure news true and credible. There is not high percentage of mental processes, existential process and behavioral process.

IV. Features and Functions of Transitivity Types in Sports News

4.1. Features and Functions of Material Processes in Sports News

From the above analysis, we can see that the material processes have the very high percentage in the sports news. Since the sports news writers’ intention is to tell the readers what had happened.

4.2. Features and Functions of Relational Processes in Sports News

Compared to material process, relational process plays a comparatively minor part in sports news. However, much explicit and implicit information are extracted from relational processes which are usually used to describe the background, discussion of the news and people’s reaction to the news.

4.3. Features and Functions of Verbal Processes in Sports News

In sports news text, it is evident that verbal processes play a significant role. The effect of using quotation, both direct or indirect, is a journalistic gimmick to arouse the readers’ attention, or moreover, to strengthen the readers’ confidence in the news.

V. Conclusion

This thesis has applied the transitivity system in analyzing the English sports news. In the sports news there are mainly material processes, relational processes and verbal processes regularly. Among all the above functions, the material processes mainly have the function of summarizing main idea to make the news informative. And the relational and mental processes mainly have the functions of attracting readers’ attention and increasing news’ attractiveness.

【参考文献】

[1]Halliday, M.A.K.1970. Language Structure and Language Function. In John Lyons(ed), New Horizons in Linguistics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

[2]Halliday, M.A.K.1971. Linguistic Function and Literary Style: An Inguiry into the Language of William Golding’s The Inheritors. In Seymour Chatman(ed)Literary Style: a Symposium. London: Oxford University Press

[3]Halliday, M.A.K.1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.

[4]Reach, D.1998. The Language of Newspapers. London: Routledge.

[5]胡壮麟.系统功能语法概论[M].长沙:湖南教育出版社,1989:71.

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