A Functional Stylistic Approach to a Poem(从功能文体学角度谈一首诗).ppt

A Functional Stylistic Approach to Emily Dickinson’s Because I could not stop for Death By 何庆胜、何忠兴、赵鹏飞 Overview The theory to be applied: Functional Stylistic Theory The poem for analysis: Emily Dickinson’s Because I could not Stop for Death Functional Stylistics, which takes Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics as its theoretical basis, is the sub-school of stylistic theory. (Shen Dan, 1998: 82) It focuses on the exploration of the style of language from the perspective of the functions of language. Three Functions of Language According to Halliday, language has three metafunctions: 1. Ideational Metafunction 2. Interpersonal Metafunction 3. Textual Metafunction. Ideational Metafunction The ideational metafunction is the “content” of speech. The function expresses the speaker’s experience in the actual as well as the inner world. Interpersonal Metafunction The interpersonal metafunction reflects the social relation between the participants of speech. That is to say, the social relation between the speaker and the listener (or the writer and the reader) is set up and maintained through that function. The function is realized through 1). Mood and 2). Modality. Mood Mood is the core of the exchange and it can reflect the purpose which the writer wants to achieve. Mood is composed of two elements—the Subject and the Finite, in the form of an auxiliary verb (Halliday, 1994: 71) E.g.: He likes the weather today. (does+like=likes) He had his dinner just now. (did+have=had) Modality According to functional grammar, Modality means the writer’s judgment of the probabilities or the obligations. It is another means to realize interpersonal function. Textual Metafunction The textual metafunction organizes the ideational and the interpersonal metafunctions and relates language to “the context of situation”. [1] Because I could not stop for Death- [2] He kindly stopped for me- [3] The Carriage held but just Ourselves- [4]