An Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnets from the Perspective of Textual Metafunction_英语论文

摘要

国内对于莎士比亚十四行诗的研究较少从系统功能语言学视角出发，对莎士比亚十四行诗的构建进行分析。然而语篇功能，特别是其主位结构对于分析文本凝练的莎士比亚十四行诗的信息的组织有着重要的意义。因此本文以随机抽取的二十首莎士比亚十四行诗作为研究样本，基于语篇功能，以主位结构为理论框架，集中从主位结构的角度分析其语篇功能，采用定量跟定性结合的方法，探讨其主位结构的特征及构建意义。研究发现，在主位结构方面，莎士比亚十四行诗更倾向使用非标记性主位，而在非标记性主位的成分选择上，代词和名词（包括名词词组）的选择频率最高，占主导地位，这些选择对其文本的构建起着重要的意义。本文既从语篇功能的角度解读莎士比亚十四行诗及其诗歌的构建，也为二语习得者认识和构建莎士比亚十四行诗提供指导，还为欧洲文化的研究带来新的视角和启示，具有重要的现实价值和意义。

关键词：莎士比亚十四行诗  主位结构  主位的选择  非标记性主位的成分  

Abstract

Domestic researches on Shakespeare’s sonnets focus less on their constructions from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. However, the textual function, especially thematic structure, plays an important role in analyzing the organization of information in the concise sonnets of Shakespeare. Therefore, taken 20 randomly selected sonnets of Shakespeare as the research samples, this thesis is based on textual function and focus on the analysis of textual function from thematic structure, which is the theoretical framework. The research combines quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis to discuss the characteristics and construction significance of thematic structure. The paper finds out that in terms of thematic structure, Shakespeare's sonnets are more inclined to using unmarked themes, and in the selection of components of unmarked themes, pronouns and nouns (including noun phrases) are the most frequently selected and dominant, which play an important role in the construction of his texts. It not only interprets Shakespeare’s sonnets and their constructions from the perspective of textual function, but also provides guidance for second language learners to understand and construct Shakespeare’s sonnets. In addition, the study could provide us with an additional perspective which would inspire us to do researches on culture of Europe. Therefore, the value and significance it has is crucial and actual.

Key words: Shakespeare’s sonnets  thematic structure  choices of theme components of unmarked themes

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Background of the Research 1

1.2  Significance of the Research 2

1.3  Structure of the Thesis 3

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4

2.1  Previous Studies on Shakespeare’s Sonnets 4

2.1.1 Foreign Studies on Shakespeare’s Sonnets 4

2.1.2 Domestic Studies on Shakespeare’s Sonnets 5

2.2  Previous Studies on the Building of English Poetry and Shakespeare’s Sonnets 6

2.3  The Practice of Textual Function Analysis in Poetry of English 7

2.4  Summary 7

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework. 8

3.1  Halliday’s Theory of Meta Function 8

3.2  The Principle of Textual Function 9

3.3  Thematic Structure 10

3.3.1 The Choices of Theme 10

3.3.2 The Selections of Components of Unmarked Themes 11

3.4  The Other Two Parts of Textual Function 12

3.4.1 Information Structure 12

3.4.2 Cohesion 12

Chapter Four  An Analysis of Textual Function in Shakespeare’s Sonnets 13

4.1  Introduction 13

4.2  An Analysis of Unmarked Theme and Marked Theme 13

4.3  An Analysis of the Components of Unmarked Themes 15

4.3.1 An Analysis of Pronouns as Unmarked Themes 16

4.3.2 An Analysis of Nouns (including Noun Phrases) as Unmarked Themes 17

4.4  Summary 19

Chapter Five  Conclusion 20

5.1  Major Findings 20

5.2  Limations and Suggestions for Future Study 21

Bibliography

Appendices

Acknowledgments