An Analysis Of Metaphors Of Mood In Women’s Utterances In Desperate Housewives

In the light of Halliday (1985/1994/2000)’s theory, language is endowed with three meta-functions. They are ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. Interpersonal function refers to the function of reflecting the interpersonal relationship and is realized by means of the mood and modality system. If an interpersonal metaphorical phenomenon happens in the realization of the interpersonal meaning, this kind of phenomenon is defined as the interpersonal grammatical metaphor. Moreover, the interpersonal grammatical metaphor is composed of metaphors of mood and metaphors of modality. This thesis will elaborate how metaphors of mood are realized, that is, how the different speech functions are realized by the different mood types.In the process of conducting this research, the author first transcribes the dialogues of the first10episodes of the Season5of the American TV series Desperate Housewives, and then spends a large mount of time figuring out all metaphors of mood appearing in the four housewives’ utterances. After that, the author selects34typical examples to make an exploration about the realization of these metaphors of mood and their communicative functions based on Halliday’s SFG and his grammatical metaphor theory. Through the detailed analysis, the author intends to prove that metaphors of mood are enriched in the women’s utterances and contribute to a successful communication.Structurally, the thesis includes five chapters. Chapter one, the introduction, introduces the background, the significance of the research and the organization of the thesis. Chapter two is the literature review. It reviews the previous research findings about GM, the interpersonal GM and women’s utterances. This chapter also tells us what has been done and what’s necessary to continue to study on GM. Chapter three presents Halliday’s systemic function grammar and his grammatical theory, which provide a comprehensive theoretical framework for the study. Meanwhile, research questions are put forward in the chapter. Chapter four, the body part, expounds the specific research process, discusses how different mood types realize the various speech functions in women’s utterances and proves that metaphors of mood are commonly used by women to express their implicit intentions. What’s more, the author concludes the communicative functions of metaphors of mood. Chapter five is the conclusive part of the whole thesis with the research findings, research limitations and suggestions for the future study of this field.