Speech-Heler’s-Invasech-on-Hition-of-the-U.S.S.R.

EnglishLanguageTeaching;Vol.7,No.9;2014ISSN1916-4742E-ISSN1916-4750PublishedbyCanadianCenterofScienceandEducation132ExperientialMetafunctionalAnalysisofWinstonS.Churchill’sSpeechonHitler’sInvasionoftheU.S.S.R.ChenLiping11SchoolofForeignLanguages,GuangdongUniversityofPetrochemicalTechnology,Guangdong,ChinaCorrespondence:ChenLiping,SchoolofForeignLanguages,GuangdongUniversityofPetrochemicalTechnology,Maoming525000,Guangdong,China.Tel:[phone].E-mail:[e-mail]:June20,2014Accepted:July21,2014OnlinePublished:August14,2014doi:10.5539/elt.v7n9p132URL:“goings-on”—happening,doing,sensing,meaningandbeingandbecoming,eitherinternallyandexternally.Thisistheexperientialmetafunction.WiththefocusonTransitivity,apoliticaldiscoursehasbeenstudiedfromtheperspectiveofExperientialFunction.Moreusesofmaterialandrelationalprocessescanmakethespeechmorepowerfulandpersuasive.Keywords:experientialmetafunction,politicaldiscourse,WinstonS.Churchill1.IntroductionTheanalysisofdiscourse,asBrown&Yule(1983,2000,p.1)putit,is“necessarilytheanalysisoflanguageinuse”.Thetimewhendiscourseanalysisemergedcouldbedatedbacktothe1950s.Harris(1952,quotedfromLin&Yang,2007,pp.3-4)wasthelinguistwhofirstusedthetermDISCOURSEANALYSIS,whichhemaintained,couldbeappliedtothestudyofawholetextsothatthestructuringabovesentencecouldbediscovered.Itwasin1960sthatHallidaybegantodevelopSystemicFunctionalGrammar(SFG),whichis“atheoryofmeaningaschoice,bywhichalanguage,oranyothersemioticsystem,isinterpretedasnetworksofinterlockingoptions:‘eitherthis,orthat,ortheother’,‘eithermoreliketheoneormoreliketheother’,andsoon”(Halliday,1994,2000,F40).ButonlythestructuralpartofSFG,orfunctionalgrammar,isenoughto“showhowtheoptionsarerealized”(ibid,F41).AccordingtoHalliday’sSFG,alladultlanguageisorganizedaroundasmallnumberof“functionalcomponents”whichcorrespondtometafunctions(orthepurposeswhichunderliealllanguageuse)andthatthesemetafunctionshaveasystematicrelationshipwiththelexicogrammarofthelanguage(T.Bloor,&M.Bloor,1995,2001,p.9).Weuselanguagetotalkaboutourexperienceoftheworld,includingtheworldsinourownminds,todescribeeventsandstatesandtheentitiesinvolvedinthem.Wealsouselanguagetointeractwithotherpeople,toestablishandmaintainrelationswiththem,toinfluencetheirbehaviour,toexpressourownviewpointonthingsintheworld,andtoelicitorchangetheirs.Finally,inusinglanguage,weorganizeourmessagesinwayswhichindicatehowtheyfitinwiththeothermessagesaroundthemandwiththewidercontextinwhichwearetalkingorwriting.Andthethreecategoriesaboveareusedasthebasisforexploringhowmeaningsarecreatedandunderstoodbecausetheyallowthematchingofparticulartypesoffunction/meaningswithparticulartypesofwording(Thompson,1996,2000,p.28).Thesethreecategoriesareknownasideational,interpersonalandtextualmetafunctions.Whenwefocusmainlyonwhatamessagecontainsratherthantheaimofthespeaker,weexaminetheideationalfunctionoflanguage.Ideationalfunctionfallsintotwocategories:experientialfunctionandlogicalfunction.Inthispaper,theauthorwillanalyzetheexperientialfunctionofapoliticaldiscoursebyWinstonChurchill—SpeechonHitler’sInvasionoftheU.S.S.R.(hereafterreferredtoSpeech)withthefocusontransitivity.2.TransitivityTransitivityreferstoasystemfordescribingthewholeclause,ratherthanjusttheVerbanditsObjectintraditionalgrammar(Thompson,1996,2000,p.78).Itshowshowspeakersimagineinlanguagetheirmentalpictureofrealityandhowtheyaccountfortheirexperienceoftheworldaroundthem.Transitivityfocusesonthe:(i)theprocessitself;(ii)participantsintheprocess;(iii)circumstancesassociatedwiththeprocess(T.Bloor,&M.Bloor,1995,2001,p.107).AccordingtothetypesofprocessinEnglish,theprocesscanbedividedintomaterial,relational,mental,behavioural,verbalandexistentialprocess.Material,relational,mentalarethethreemaintypesofprocesses.Theyarethe“principal”typesinthattheyarethecornerstonesofthegrammarinitsguiseasatheoryofexperience,theypresentthreedistinctkindsofstructuralconfiguration,andtheyaccountforthemajorityofallclausesinatext.Theotherthreeprocessesarelocatedateachoftheboundaries.Behaviouralprocessessharethecharacteristicsofmaterialandmentalprocesses;verbalprocessessharethoseofmentalandrelationalprocesses,whileexistentialprocessesarebetweenrelationalandmaterialprocesses(Halliday,1994,2000,p.138).Apoliticianusuallyemploysvariousprocessestoachievehis/herpurpose.Anditbecomesalmostarulethatatleastoneprocessdominatesinaparticulardiscourseduetotheparticularregisteritbelongsto.SpeechisbroadcastonTVonthedaywhenHitlerinvadedtheSovietUnion.Throughthisspeech,Churchillwantstomakethefollowingpointsclear:1)TheNaziregimeisgreedy,cruel,aggressiveandisindistinguishablefromthew