The Periodic Analysis Of The Commentary In Ecological Documentary

After Martin proposes the theory of discourse periodicity, Theme in SFL is projected to the level of paragraph or even the whole discourse, which provides a new way of discourse analysis. However, the definition of hyperTheme given by Martin is not flawless when explaining discourse periodicity. Therefore, Zhang Daqun slightly revised the definition of hyperTheme by underlining the initial position of hyperTheme in a paragraph on the basis of the definition of Theme proposed by Halliday. Following Zhang Daqun’s thought, we project the concepts of Halliday’s marked and unmarked Themes to the paragraph level in this thesis, which further develops and completes the theory of discourse periodicity to make it more explicable and sensible in analyzing discourse construction.In this thesis, the revised theory of discourse periodicity is used to analyze the documentary series Wild China, in the hope of summarizing the distribution of Themes at different levels and of seeking the formation of discourse periodicity to intensify the understanding of ecological documentary.These are the major findings of this thesis. In the ecological documentary series Wild China, at clausal level:(1) the multiple Themes mainly appear in the form of textual+topical, whereas the form of textual+ interpersonal+ topical Themes is rare to be seen;(2) marked Themes appear with a high frequency, especially the situations that prepositional phrases and adverbial groups are marked Themes, which may be the result of the situation that lots of them need to be used to show time and location. Above clausal level:(1) it is feasible to project markedness of Theme to the level of paragraph as marked hyperTheme and unmarked hyperTheme;(2) when unmarked hyperTheme appears, the paragraph unfolds in the form of hierarchy. In this situation, listeners/readers can interact with speaker/writer actively; whereas when marked hyperTheme occurs, the paragraph expands in the form of serial expansion or in the combination of hierarchy and serial expansion. In this situation, the interactive relationship between listeners/readers and speaker/writer is weakened and listeners/readers are in the charge of speaker/writer. All they can do is merely follow.