Meta-functional thought is a core idea of systemic functional grammar. Through meta-functional analysis, language and language use can be explained in many ways. However, for the analysis of language elements with only formal meaning, the explanation provided by systemic functional grammarians needs further discussion. Scholars such as Halliday, Thompson, Akins, Downing and Locke combine formal markers with language elements with practical conceptual meaning as functional components, and sometimes analyze the function of formal markers separately from other components, which lacks coherence and consistency. Through the analysis of its passive marker by in meteorological process, existential process, passive voice and formal markers what and how in exclamatory sentences, we try to show that the functional grammar analysis of formal markers can be found in the text. In order to illustrate the problem, we respectively investigated the functional analysis of these formal markers by the above scholars, and then put forward our analysis from three main levels of meta-function to find out the possible laws. Limited by space, we only discuss the transitivity system at the conceptual functional level, the thematic structure at the textual functional level and the mood system at the interpersonal functional level. Especially what we are talking about here. Quot "mark" is not "marked" but "formal mark".
2. Meta-functional analysis of formal markers
2. 1 conceptual function level
The typical analysis of conceptual functional layer is transitivity analysis. For it, Halliday (1994: 143) thinks that the clause "It's raining" belongs to a meteorological process, which is a process type between the existing process and the material process. He pointed out that it can be used as a subject, but it has no participant role and no transitivity function; Things like It's blowing/It's raining can be interpreted as material events without participants, while things like it's fog/cloud/misty/hot can be interpreted as relational processes, in which it is a "carrier". Halliday did not provide a specific analysis of legends, and we still don't know whether he separated it from other language components in the meteorological process. Thompson (1996: 77-8) also thinks that the clause indicating weather or time has no participants and the subject it has no conceptual meaning. In this way, from the perspective of transitivity, clauses indicating weather or time are just "processes". Thompson (1996: 233) analyzed this clause as follows:
It is snowing heavily outside.
Process: material environment composition: model environment composition: orientation
Downing and Locke (1995: 37) also pointed out that it represents time, meteorological conditions and distance without conceptual significance. But they did not provide a specific analysis.
It is unconvincing to classify it as a process, because it has no conceptual meaning and has no role as a participant in the clauses expressing weather, time and distance. Thompson's classification of it and "process" is not strict enough, and his analysis seems to show that components other than verb components can also act as processes. Therefore, it is suggested that transitivity analysis of this kind of clause should be separated from other components without specific analysis. For example:
It is snowing heavily outside.
Process: meteorological environment composition: model environment composition: orientation
Whether clauses like it's fogged/cloud can be regarded as a relational process is still controversial. However, it in these clauses still does not refer to any conceptual entity, and it has no conceptual meaning. It is just a formal marker, and its omitted form fogged/Cloudy is no different from the original clause in meaning. It is not strict enough to regard it as a "carrier" in the process of relationship. So it can also be separated separately in transitivity analysis.
Halliday (1994: 142-3), Akins (1994: 254-5) and Thompson (1996:106544) They all think that, like a lamp, there may be some other dark patterns with only one participant, that is, "existence". There is also a formal marker, which has no conceptual significance. Its function is only to eliminate the need or possibility of using another subject. Eggins( 1994: 254-5) shows that there is no need for analysis at the conceptual and functional levels. Thompson (1996: 10 1) compared this process with the corresponding material process:
There may be some darker pattern process: existence.
There may be other dark patterns in the actor process: matter.
As we know, the process of existence is a special type of process, because the process is an "environmental component" other than the participants ("existences"), and the "environmental component" is not mandatory and can be omitted. In this way, there are neither participants nor environmental components, but only formal (structural) significance. Therefore, it is feasible to analyze the process of existence at the level of conceptual function. In other words, there is separated as a formal marker, which has no conceptual significance and will not be treated.
As for the passive marker by in the passive mood, Halliday is either a case analysis (such as glass broken by a cat) (1994: 170) or a transitivity analysis (1994:10,/kloc-0). 125,172,283) all integrate it with the participant role as a functional component, and * * * plays the role of the participant. But when discussing the coincidence of subject, actor and theme, he separated them for analysis (Halliday 1994: 34):
(1)
I remind the theme/theme/actors of the third dance.
(2)
The second theme caught my attention.
(3)
Third, I stopped the theme/actor.
(4)
By the fourth theme/actor theme, I was eliminated.
Later, Halliday (1994: 345) drew by and "process" (the verb part) together when making a double analysis of clauses with grammatical metaphor, and both * * * acted as "process", as shown in the following figure:
The guests finished their ice cream, followed by a gentle swim.
Function Participant: Identifier/Value Process: Relationship Participant: Identifier/Tag
Category noun phrase verb phrase noun phrase
Thompson's transitivity analysis of passive marker by tends to connect by with the participants as a whole, acting as functional components (1996: 85,11). For example, when the process of analyzing the relationship between words was applied by the police, he changed by to "recognizer/marker" (1996: 96). But for "Who took her calculator?" Thompson (1996: 30) analyzed as follows:
Who took her calculator?
Participant goal process
When analyzing the transitivity of clauses, because 18 15 was not disturbed by any war, he classified by and any war as "actors".
Halliday and Thompson used different standards when analyzing the passive marker by, which is inconsistent. This shows that by's analysis of passive markers is still unclear. Halliday did not consider by when comparing the consistency of theme, subject and actor. This just shows that the formal mark by has no practical conceptual significance at the conceptual and functional levels and is not suitable for integration with functional components. Fawcett's classification of prepositions helps us to understand this problem deeply. He believes that prepositions can be divided into two types, one is semantic, such as in, at, front and so on. The "time" relationship of the upper, front, middle and middle tables. The second preposition has no practical meaning, which only means that the complement is the role of the participant. For example, the by in the document is checked by the customs only to show that the customs is a participant, while the of in shooting the police is only used to show that the police are a participant. We believe that passive marker by belongs to the second case, so it should not be classified as a participant or a process. It should be separated from other components and regarded as a formal marker without further analysis, such as:
Or recognized and thanked by former patients.
Process: Psychological Process: Speech Senser/Speaker
As a type of straightforward affirmative sentences, exclamatory sentences can be divided into two types, one is a small sentence (temporarily translated into a non-modal sentence) and the other is a big sentence (translated into a modal sentence). Due to the lack of "process", it is difficult to analyze the conceptual function of non-modal sentences. For modal sentences (such as Thompson's How absolutely lovely she looks tonight! Your plants are really good! ) can be used for transitivity analysis. The question is how to classify it. Participants, processes or environmental factors? In this regard, systemic functional grammarians have not provided specific analysis.
In our opinion, what/how in exclamatory sentences still has no conceptual meaning, they are just a formal marker. Whether modal or non-modal, with or without what/how, exclamatory sentences are expressed by pronunciation, and their exclamatory sentence attributes do not change with what/how. Without what/how, the meaning of exclamations will not change, but there are some differences in tone, such as "what a lovely day!" Use "beautiful day!" . Therefore, when analyzing exclamations at the conceptual and functional levels, how/what can still be regarded as a pure formal marker, which is not assigned to any participant, process or environmental component.
2.2 Functional level of discourse
In English, it is often used in clauses in traditional grammar. For the textual function analysis of it in clauses, please refer to Guo-Wen Huang (1999). This paper only discusses its textual function in clauses expressing time and weather.
The thematic structure of meteorological processes (such as it was raining cats and dogs) and clauses indicating time (such as it is 7: 30 now) is not as controversial as clauses. Scholars regard theme as the starting point of information according to its definition (Halliday 1994: 37), while others regard it as theme (Downing & Locke1992; eggins 1994； Thompson 1996).
However, because it is a formal marker and meaningless, it does not conform to Halliday's basic view that "theme" is "something related to clauses" (Halliday 1994: 37), because it has no referential or conceptual meaning and does not belong to "something related to clauses". "Theme must express one aspect of transitivity, participant, process or environment" (theme must always contain a component that plays a role in transitivity: participant, process or environment) (Thompson 1996: 136). As stated in 2. 1, it is not a participant, a process or an environmental component, so it is not a theme, let alone an empirical theme. In this regard, EnkeWest (1993) put forward the subject hypothesis, Stanton (1993) and Berry (1989/ 1995).
As mentioned above, Halliday regards the fog/cloud/misty/hot of it as a relational process and regards it as a "carrier", which shows that he advocates taking it as a theme in such clauses, because the "carrier" is a participant role. Because it does not express any aspect of transitivity in such clauses, it is contradictory to regard theme as "an aspect that theme must express transitivity" When analyzing the textual function of such clauses, it is suggested that they should be regarded as formal markers and clauses with only rheme but no theme.
Of course, in some clauses that express meteorological processes (such as wind blowing). Sunny, and so on. ), the situation is different. Wind/sun is the theme in the textual function, and acts as the participant and subject in the conceptual function and interpersonal function respectively.
Regarding the place in the process of existence, Halliday thinks that it is the theme and the rest is the rheme. Thompson takes there and the verb * * after there as the theme, and the rest are rhemes. In addition, Halliday (1985/ 1994), Martin (1992) and Akins (1994) all clearly pointed out that there is a theme in existential sentences (that is, Thompson's empirical theme). Eggins( 1994: 289) also pointed out that existence in the process of existence is a special case. It is not part of a participant role or environment, but it is a theme. In this regard, Guo-Wen Huang (1999:139-140) thinks that "taking it as a theme is hard to be convincing in theory, meaningless, without the role of participants and without environmental elements". He also pointed out that there in existential sentences has no effect on transitivity, and its pronunciation is the same as that of one. It is actually a thematic means, indicating that the actual theme will appear in the process, which can be called "thematic aggregation", for example:
There is a cat on the mat.
Theme-rheme of theme-induced language
It's a big breakthrough to use it as a theme trigger. But from another perspective, the theme of the above clause becomes "cat on the mat", which is a clause without predicate. The verb be is very important in this kind of clause, and it can even be replaced by notional verbs such as stand and hang in some contexts. Once it is replaced by a notional verb, the process in this clause is embodied by a verb. Therefore, taking there was as the theme initiator still cannot fully explain the textual function of existential sentences in various situations.
In fact, there in existential sentences is still a formal marker and has no conceptual meaning. Halliday once pointed out that there in existential sentences has no representational function (1994: 142). Based on this, we think that when analyzing the thematic structure of existential sentences, it can be separated from the textual functional analysis. But the question is how to analyze the composition after that? One method is to analyze the textual function of imperative sentences with reference to Thompson (1996:124) (leave the lamp there) and take be as the theme in existential sentences (as shown in the following figure). In other words, imperative sentences and existential sentences have the same thematic structure, except that the latter begins with a mandatory marker there. Another way is to refer to Zhao Yanchun's point of view and put all the parts after that into the rheme. Zhao Yanchun believes that Thompson's view that verbs in imperative sentences (such as leave) are the theme is unconvincing. Imperative sentences actually have implied themes, and the rest are rhemes. In this way, we can also say that the thematic structure of imperative sentences and existential sentences is the same, except that the latter begins with a mandatory mark there. As shown in the figure below:
Leave the lamp there.
Theme and rheme
There is a cat on the mat.
Theme and rheme
There is a cat on the mat.
epitope
The textual function of passive marker by in passive sentences is not difficult to distinguish, because by and noun phrase * * * both act as rheme in ordinary passive sentences. We are going to discuss the situation where the passive marker by and the agent are at the beginning of the sentence. For example, her nephew sent her flowers. Halliday did not take by as a part of the theme when analyzing the textual function of such clauses, but he did not provide a basic standard for reference (see&; 2. 1)。 Fawcett (in publication) thinks that by in passive sentences is only used to lead out who is the participant role, and it has no conceptual significance.
It is not difficult to find that when "by phrase" is placed at the beginning of a passive sentence in advance, on the one hand, it is used to mark the role relationship of the participants, on the other hand, it is used to highlight the theme and realize the specific textual cohesion function. When analyzing its text function, it can also be separated from the actors without any analysis, such as:
The fourth time I was knocked down.
Theme and rheme
As mentioned earlier, some exclamatory sentences are "non-modal sentences", such as how interesting! Congratulations! Hello! Sue! Wait a minute. However, only "modal sentences" have a complete thematic structure, while "non-modal sentences" have no clear thematic structure, so it is impossible to analyze them. Thompson (1996: 124-5) analyzed the thematic structure of exclamatory sentences of "modal sentences" as follows:
What a nice plant! Your plants are so cute! She made a reservation tonight!
Theme and rheme
Similarly, what/how in exclamatory sentences is only a formal marker, and the nature of exclamatory sentences is not affected by not using what/how. What/how has no conceptual meaning in exclamatory sentences, because the exclamatory features of exclamatory sentences are embodied by pronunciation. They are not only formal marks, but also not mandatory formal marks. Therefore, the formal marker what/how should not be considered when analyzing the thematic structure of such clauses. They are still not participants, processes or environmental components, such as:
Your plants are really good!
Theme and rheme
2.3 interpersonal function level
Interpersonal function is mainly embodied in mood and surplus, and mood is composed of subject and finite elements. Among them, the subject can be a pure formal marker or a conceptual participant role. When it and there appear as formal markers at the beginning of a sentence, they usually act as subjects and are part of the mood. Therefore, we agree with functional grammarians' interpersonal function analysis of formal markers it, there, taking it/there as the subject, the verb part as the limiting component and the rest as the rest.
When by is used as a formal marker and located at the beginning of a sentence, interpersonal function is quite special. For example, the flowers sent by her nephew are at the beginning of the sentence, but it is still the rest and the subject is her. Of course, when by is not a formal marker and has its conceptual meaning, the phrase composed of by and noun phrases can be used as the theme. For example, by is best for me in By train, and it is no longer a passive marker of passive sentences.
With regard to what/how in exclamatory sentences, Thompson( 1996: 47-8) points out that what/how in exclamatory sentences and wh- interrogative sentences always appears at the beginning of sentences, but the difference is that the subject in exclamatory sentences comes before the qualifier: subject is refined. Halliday holds the same view (Halliday 1994: 86). However, Butler (1987: 213-4) points out that Halliday did not fully consider exclamations when discussing mood at lexical grammatical level. Martin (1992: 44) pointed out that exclamatory sentences like what idiot have no mood and belong to "mood-free sentences". He also illustrated the exclamatory structure of "non-modal sentence" (Martin 1992: 74).
He's such an idiot!
Sort of.
A complete imbecile!
Not exactly.
Rch is complete!
Rex: Oh, okay!
Note: eh = exchangech = checkrch = response to checkrex = response to exchange.
It can be seen that in actual communication, there are not many exclamatory sentences with what/how, and in most cases, "sentences without mood" are used, which have no subject and no determiner, that is, no mood part. Therefore, when analyzing the interpersonal function of exclamatory sentences, there are often only the remaining parts, of which what/how is a dispensable component. And what/how-guided modal exclamations are often what/how and its components followed by * * * as the rest, such as:
Your plants are really good!
The remaining subject determiners
Language qi
3. Conclusion
To sum up, it in the clause indicating time and weather, there in the existential sentence, by in the passive sentence and what/how in the exclamatory sentence have no participant role and are not process or environmental components. They only appear as formal markers in clauses and have no specific concept or textual meaning. In other words, they are just formal means to express some meaning. Although their syntactic functions in clauses cannot be ignored, we can separate them from other conceptual language components in meta-functional analysis, thus highlighting their markedness and avoiding some unnecessary confusion. This may be the basis of functional analysis of formal markers. For the textual function, if we have to analyze it, we can refer to Berry's analysis of theme (1996:1-64), and divide theme into theme and theme, that is, theme as meaning and theme as form. The formal markers discussed above can be regarded as themes, that is, formal themes.