A comparative study of transitivity system in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN LÊ MỸ NỮ

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TRANSITIVITY

SYSTEM IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE WEATHER FORECASTS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

NGUYỄN LÊ MỸ NỮ

SO SÁNH HỆ THỐNG CHUYỂN TÁC TRONG CÁC

BẢN TIN THỜI TIẾT TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ

TIẾNG VIỆT

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8220201

Người hướng dẫn: PGS. TS. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of the MA thesis entitled “A

comparative study of transitivity system in English and Vietnamese weather

forecasts”. The thesis contains no material published elsewhere or written by

other people except where reference is made in the text of the thesis.

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or

diploma in any other tertiary institution.

Binh Dinh, 2021

Nguyễn Lê Mỹ Nữ

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and

appreciation to my research supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Quang

Ngoạn, for his careful guidance and professional, academic advice on my

thesis. I am really lucky to receive his great encouragement, enthusiasm, and

immense knowledge to finish my thesis in such a limited time.

I am also grateful to all the lecturers of my MA course at the

Department of Foreign Languages, Quy Nhon University, for their useful

guidance and support and all the staff of the Post - graduate Department at

Quy Nhon University for their sympathy and administrative assistance.

I would also like to send my special thanks to my friends and

colleagues to support me in completing the research and sharing helpful

materials and experiences during my study.

Next, my sincere thanks to my school management board and

colleagues at Nguyen Dinh Chieu High School, whose assistance made it

feasible for me to participate in this MA course and fully concentrate on

completing my thesis.

Finally, I owe my all family a debt of gratitude, especially my parents,

who always stand by me and provide me with emotional support and great

care while my thesis was in process and have helped me overcome many

unexpected difficulties during the course and the thesis. This accomplishment

would not have been possible without them.

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ABSTRACT

The study aims to investigate the processes in English and Vietnamese

weather forecasts in light of Halliday’s Functional Grammar. The thesis aims

to analyze each kind of process type, analyze the dominant processes found in

English and Vietnamese weather forecasts as well as realize participants and

circumstances involved in the processes. It also identifies the similarities and

differences between the English weather forecasts and the Vietnamese ones.

The data for analysis was taken from ten weather forecasts for each kind of

language (English and Vietnamese) with about 20 samples for investigation.

The samples were in the form of clauses in English and Vietnamese weather

forecasts collected from the official websites of the weather forecast in the

United States and Vietnam. The research was carried out based on a

combination of a variety of methods such as the analytic method, descriptive,

contrastive, and synthetic method. The researcher has carried out this study

which is mainly based on the Functional Grammar of Halliday and

Matthiessen's theory (2014) to investigate the transitivity system of English

and Vietnamese weather forecasts. Weather forecasts are categorized into

clauses are analyzed to determine the distribution of 3 main elements in

weather forecasts texts. In English, there are only 5 Processes that are found,

but in the Vietnam data, all the six types occur. Material Processes are one of

the two crucial processes for both languages. In the total dominant process in

English, the rate of 64.04 % belongs to Material Processes, which makes it a

dominant type. Occupying the second position are Verbal Processes.

Meanwhile, in Vietnamese weather forecasts, Relational Processes are the

prominent ones, followed by Material Processes. It can be said that although

the percentages are different, Location is prominent in weather forecasts in

both languages.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.................................................................... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................ii

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................iii

TABLE OF CONTENT .................................................................................. iv

ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................ vii

LIST OF TABLES .........................................................................................viii

LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................... ix

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1

1.1. RATIONALE ......................................................................................... 1

1.2. AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ........................................ 3

1.2.1. Aim of the Study .............................................................................. 3

1.2.2. Objectives ........................................................................................ 3

1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................................... 3

1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ...................................................................... 3

1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ...................................................... 4

1.6. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ........................................................... 5

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND.........................................................................................................................6

2.1. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................... 6

2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ..................................................... 10

2.2.1. Overview of Functional Grammar ................................................. 10

2.2.2. Ideational metafunction ................................................................. 12

2.2.3. Process ........................................................................................... 14

2.2.4. Types of Processes ......................................................................... 15

2.2.5. Circumstances as the component of Experiential meta-function ..........23

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2.2.6. Overview of weather forecasting ................................................... 33

2.3. Summary .............................................................................................. 34

CHAPTER 3. BACKGROUND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........ 36

3.1. Research design .................................................................................... 36

3.2. Research methods .................................................................................. 37

3.3. Criteria for collecting data ................................................................... 37

3.4. Data collection ..................................................................................... 38

3.5. Data analysis ........................................................................................ 38

3.6. Reliability and validity ......................................................................... 40

CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ......................................... 41

4.1. The transitivity systems in English weather forecasts ......................... 41

4.1.1. Process types .................................................................................. 41

4.1.2. Participants ..................................................................................... 46

4.1.3. Circumstances ................................................................................ 50

4.1.4. The most dominant process types .................................................. 55

4.2. The transitivity systems in Vietnamese weather forecasts.................. 56

4.2.1. Process types .................................................................................. 56

4.2.2. Participants..................................................................................... 62

4.2.3. Circumstances ................................................................................ 67

4.2.4. The most dominant process types .................................................. 72

4.3. Similarities and differences in transitivity between English and

Vietnamese weather forecasts. .................................................................... 73

4.3.1. Six processes types in EWFs and VWFs. ...................................... 73

4.3.2. Participants in EWFs and VWFs. .................................................. 75

4.3.3. Circumstances in EWFs and VWFs. ............................................. 76

4.3.4. Most dominant types in EWFs and VWFs. ................................... 78

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ......................... 80

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5.1. Conclusions .......................................................................................... 80

5.2. Implications .......................................................................................... 83

5.3. Limitations of the study ....................................................................... 84

5.4. Suggestions for further researches....................................................... 84

REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 85

APPENDIX

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ABBREVIATIONS

ABB Full words/ phrases

FG Functional Grammar

Circ. Circumstance

Pro. Process

EWFs The English weather forecasts

VWFs The Vietnamese weather forecasts

SFG Systemic Functional Grammar

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1. Three lines of meaning in the clause ....................................................... 12

Table 2.2. Types of sensing, examples and examples of verbs serving as

Process in mental clauses .......................................................................18

Table 2.3. The principal categories of the ‘relational’ clause ..................................20

Table 2.4. Example of verbs as Process in behavioural clauses .............................22

Table 2.5. Process types, their meanings, and characteristic participants.............. 23

Table 2.6. Examples of Manner circumstantials ......................................................27

Table 2.7. Examples of Cause circumstantials......................................................... 28

Table 2.8. Examples of Accompaniment circumstantials .......................................29

Table 2.9. Types of circumstantial element............................................................... 30

Table 3.1. Names and Official Websites for data collection ...................................38

Table 3.2. Framework for data analysis ....................................................................39

Table 4.1. Participants used in EWFs ........................................................................46

Table 4.2. The percentage of Participants in Relational Process ............................49

Table 4.3. Circumstances involved in the Processes in EWFs ...............................50

Table 4.4. Material Processes,Verbal Processes and other Processes in EWFs ....55

Table 4.5. The percentage of Participants in Relational Process in VWFs ............59

Table 4.6. Participant Functions used in VWFs....................................................... 63

Table 4.7. The percentage of Participants in Relational Process in VWFs ............65

Table 4.8. Circumstances involved in the Process in VWFs ...................................67

Table 4.9. Relational Process, Material Process and other Processes in

VWFs .......................................................................................................72

Table 4.10. Participants’ frequency of occurrence and percentage in EWFs and

VWFs....................................................................................................... 75

Table 4.11. Circumstantial Elements frequency of Occurrence and Percentage

in EWFs and VWFs. ...............................................................................77

Table 4.12. Most dominant Processes in EWFs and VWFs. ..................................78

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1. The grammar of experience: Types of processes in English ...............15

Figure 4.1. Type of Processes in EWFs.................................................................... 42

Figure 4.2. The percentage of Participants in the Material Process .......................47

Figure 4.3. The Percentage of Circumstance Types in EWFs. ............................... 51

Figure 4.4. The Percentage of the most dominant types in VWFs. ........................55

Figure 4.5. Types of Processes in VWFs ..................................................................56

Figure 4.6. The percentage of Participants in Material Process in VWFs .............57

Figure 4.7. The Percentage of Circumstance Types in VWFs. ...............................68

Figure 4.8. The Percentage of the most dominant types in VWFs. ........................73

Figure 4.9. 6 Process types of English and Vietnamese weather forecasts ............73