Explorations Into Grammatical Metaphors In Est Texts

The significance of the grammatical metaphor theory to systemic-functional linguistics (SFL) as well as to metaphor studies has been generally acknowledged. According to Halliday (1994) and Thompson (1996), in SFL grammatical metaphor (GM) refers to a metaphorical expression of a meaning through a lexicogrammatical form, which originally evolved to express a more congruent kind of meaning. According to the three metafunctions of language, GM is initially classified into three types: ideational metaphors, interpersonal metaphors and textual metaphors. Later on Halliday proposes the notion of grammatical metaphor syndrome (GMS) and classifies GM into 13 types. Experiential metaphor, a subcategory of GM, especially nominalization, is a very common phenomenon in EST (English for science and technology) texts. Halliday and Martin claim that in EST texts what is called GM is primarily nominalization. Based on the framework of grammatical metaphor theory in SFL, this thesis, by conducting a statistical analysis of the distribution of 13 types of GM in 60 EST texts which are chosen at random and aimed at different readers, is intended, on the one hand, to test and verify the applicability and feasibility of Halliday's grammatical metaphor theory as well as the correctness of Halliday-Martin's claim and on the other, to analyze the reasons for using GM, especially experiential GM substantially in EST texts, and the consequences of experiential GM.The present thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter is primarily intended to deal with a few GM-related problems in preparation for a systemic-functional approach to GM in the next chapter. These problems include the relationship between grammatical metaphor (GM) and lexical metaphor (LM) as well as a brief account of the history of metaphor and GM. The history of GM dates back to the ancient times, and in the Middle Ages in particular, GM was used substantially. Halliday considers metaphor as a kind of variation. In his opinion, LM is the "variation in the meaning of a given expression", while GM is the "variation in the expression of a given meaning". (Halliday, 1994: 342) The author thinks that LM and GM are only two different perspectives on metaphor and they are not mutually exclusive, but complementary to each other. Thesecond chapter is devoted to the review and discussion of a systemic-functional approach to GM. The author first traces and reviews the different ideas proposed by some important researchers within systemic-functional linguists. In this connection, the author argues that the researchers of GM each define GM in their own way, emphasizing some respects and neglecting the other aspects dealt with by other researchers. All in all, the forerunners certainly have done a lot of work on GM and thus opened a whole new realm of studying GM, but still leave much space for us to explore. Then the author suggests a definition of GM under the framework of a systemic-functional approach. GM is an incongruent realization of meanings involving transference of grammatical units between different domains. At last the classification of GM is introduced. All these work paves the way for conducting an investigation into the GMs in EST texts. The third chapter first conducts a statistical analysis of the distribution of the 13 types of GM in EST texts chosen at random. The statistical results reveal that EST texts abound in nominalization and adjectivization, two most important types of GM in EST texts. Then the author analyzes the reasons for the use of the above GMs in EST texts from the following perspectives: the disguising of overt processes, the creation of special texture, the creation of discoursal effects and making use of the resources available to nouns. Besides, the author is of the opinion that the two kinds of GM abound in EST texts is also related to register. The study further finds that in EST texts nominal ization and adjectivization result in syntactic ambiguity and the complexity of EST texts, which can only be solved through unpacking GM by recourse to context. The thesis concludes with some implications for language teaching and learning that may arise from this study. This study can help the readers with a better understanding and command of the characteristics of EST texts which will surely bring benefit to language teaching, especially the reading, writing and translation of EST texts.That the idea of GM is brought forth serves as a great milestone in the history of metaphor study. This study clearly shows that there exists a legion of GM, mainly nominal ization and adjectivization in EST texts. It is of great value and importance to explore these GMs for us to have a better understanding and command of the features of EST texts and in turn a better study and understanding of the nature of language of science and technology, language at large, and ultimately a more solid prediction of thetrend of language development and even the law of human cognitive development.