Discourse Analysis Of CGFNS Exams Based On Systemic-Functional Grammar

The thesis focuses on analyzing the discourse features in the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing School (CGFNS) Qualifying Exams from the perspective of systemic-functional grammar. The key points of the thesis to be analyzed and solved are: what is the characteristic of CGFNS Qualifying Exams in terms of context? what is the characteristic of CGFNS Qualifying Exams in terms of ideational function? what is the characteristic of CGFNS Qualifying Exams in terms of interpersonal function? what is the characteristic of CGFNS Qualifying Exams in terms of textual function? By distinguishing the various discourse features in the CGFNS Qualifying Exams explicitly, we hope that Chinese test takers, as the foreign language speakers who take an American exam, would better understand the meaning and underlying tone of the texts in the test paper so that they could satisfactorily deal with both possible language and cultural barriers in the test.The data of the thesis is collected from Official Study Guide for the CGFNS Qualifying Exams. Four sets of CGFNS Qualifying Practice Exams provide 1,040 questions to be analyzed. The exams, whose test paper writers are all Americans, aim at testing the graduate of a nursing school located outside the United States. Now that many Chinese students and nurses apply for taking the examination, it has become an important test for prospective nurses in China.The thesis adopts Halliday's systemic-functional grammar to help analyze the features of the discourse. Chapter two reviews the recent researches using systemic-functional grammar as an analytical tool, and the review shows that no research, so far, has analyzed the discourse of CGFNS Qualifying Exams from the perspective of systemic-functional grammar. This thesis aims at bridging the gap. In chapter three, the thesis introduces the theoretical framework of systemic-functional grammar to provide a basic tool of analyzing our own data, which include Halliday's theory of context--- both situational and cultural--- and his discussion of three meta-functions. Chapter four is a careful data analysis and discussion according to the framework provided in chapter three. First of all, in terms of context, register analysis, also called field, tensor and mode analysis, reveals two kinds of relationship, both contradictory and complementary, run through the text: one is solemn and serious between examiner and examinee, and the other is warm and casual between the supposed nurse and the supposed patient. Consequently, two kinds of genre appear in the exam. From the perspective of cultural context, the exam takes a deep root in multicultural America and many different cultures come together and collide in the exam. In the thesis, our discussion of American culture mainly focuses on four aspects: multi-religions, right-orientation, direct communicative pattern and dieting habits.Secondly, in terms of ideational function, the thesis analyzes the exams'transitivity system (i.e. material process, mental process, relational process, verbal process, behavioral process and existential process), voice, and ideational metaphor. The result reveals two prominent features of the test paper: objectivity and subjectivity. The description part in the test prefers material process and relational process, and the use of passive voice is also common, which reflects that the exam pursues an objectivity and formal genre. As for the part of possible answers in the test, the biased process and the lack of passive voice manifest the patient's self-uncertainty, the nurse's kindness and the exam's practicality, all of which contribute to an intimate, subjective oral genre. What's more, ideational metaphor analysis shows that nominalization is used to increase lexical density to highlight the emphasized information and makes the discourse more scientific and rigorous in the description part.Thirdly, in terms of interpersonal function, mood, modality and interpersonal metaphor are analyzed to reveal that the features of authority and affability exist in the two parts of the exams. In the description part, declarative and WH-interrogative clauses are mainly used by the examiner to offer the general information and ask for an answer. The repeated lexis is not replaced by the pronoun because the examiner wants to keep the discourse as scientific as possible. In this way, confusion or misunderstanding is almost not possible. However, the median politeness of modality is also used to weaken the formality of the discourse. In the part of possible answers, the supposed nurse offers information or instruction to the supposed patient or demands valuable information for assessment. Sometimes the imperative mood is used by the nurse to demonstrate professional and authoritative attitude to reassure the patient and save time, but the supposed nurse usually uses a tone of affability and courtesy to serve the supposed patient. Our analysis also shows how the supposed nurse uses interpersonal metaphors to make discourse implicit and polite.Fourthly, in terms of textual function, our data is analyzed from four aspects: theme, information, cohesion and textual metaphor. A pattern emerges from our analysis: the text tends to use unmarked simple theme to be the subject, adopt constant theme progression to vary themes, and the given information usually appears at the very beginning, followed with new information. Four cohesive ways coming from grammatical and lexical cohesion make the discourse structure compact and continuous. Textual metaphor constructs a set of systemic lexical connecting nets to make the whole discourse more smoothly. All these features of the text highlight the topic and integrate the exam logically.The thesis shows that systemic-functional grammar is a very good tool in analyzing such a medical-oriented genre. As an attempt to study CGFNS Qualifying Exam from a linguistic point of view, the thesis will hopefully arouse others'interest and contribute to the theory and practice of special English teaching.