A Genre-based Research Into Aesop's Fables

This thesis carries out a genre-based research into Aesop's Fables.Aesop's Fables,which contains philosophy of life,has enjoyed great popularity in the world since it came into being.It has been studied in various aspects but few studies have placed focus on its linguistic features. To contribute to the linguistic studies on Aesop's Fables,this thesis probes into the generic structure and the lexicogrammatical patterns of Aesop's Fables,on the basis of Systemic Functional Grammar and the theory of the exemplum genre.The major conclusions of this thesis are around the generic features of Aesop's Fables, which are as follows:Firstly,the Generic Structure Potential of Aesop's Fables is(Abstract)~^(Orientation)~^ Incident~^(Coda)~^Interpretation,with the caret referring to"is followed by"and the elements in the brackets"optional part".Secondly,with regard to the lexicogrammatical patterns of Aesop's Fables,for Transitivity choice,the material process occurs most frequently in the incident stage,and there is a high percentage of relational process in the interpretation stage;for Modality choice,modalities of probability,usuality and obligation with high value and median value are mostly employed in the interpretation stage;for Theme choice,the animate ideational theme,especially the animal theme predominates in the incident stage,and the inanimate ideational theme realized by this fable,this or it is highly abundant in the interpretation stage.Hopefully,the conclusions of this thesis can assist language teaching and facilitate students' reading and writing processes.