A Systemic Functional Analysis of English Mood System in Selected Dramatic Texts
Chapter One
Aim and Objectives of the Study
The study aims at a systemic functional analysis of the English mood system in selected dramatic texts: Bernard Shaw‘s Arms and the Man and Femi Osofisan‘s Women of Owu.
The specific objectives of the study are to:
- identify the independent clauses equivalent to simple sentences from Bernard Shaw‘s Arms and the Man and Femi Osofisan‘s Women of Owu,
- analyse the types of mood system in the identified independent clauses from Bernard Shaw‘s Arms and the Man and Femi Osofisan‘s Women ofOwu,
- analyse the extent to which the writers‘ backgrounds affect their choice of mood system in Bernard Shaw‘s Arms and the Man and Femi Osofisan‘s Women of Owu.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter starts with the review of the relationship that exists between language and linguistics; it equally gives copious definitions of language though the research finally takes the position that language is a network of systems, and a resource for making meaning. It further states the functions of language as stated by scholars such as Evan & Green, Crystal, Yule and Halliday; with specific focus on Halliday & Matthessen‘s (2014) Metafuntions. The review also covers the relationship between drama and language, and the relationships that exist between sentence and clause, text and clause, grammar and syntax, and describes the concepts of mood and modality. In addition, the different theories such as Traditional Grammar, Transformational Generative Grammar, Structural Grammar and Systemic Functional Grammar are reviewed. The chapter presents the authorial review and explains the theoretical framework adopted for the study.
Language and Drama
The central object of study in linguistics is language. The term language covers several rather different concepts which need to be carefully distinguished and the word ‗language‘ can be seen from different points of view. The different views about language suggest that there are many definitions attached to it. It is in this regard that Syal and Jindal (2008) say
―Everybody knows the answer to the question ‗What is language?‘ but nobody has so far been able to come out with any standard definition that fully explains the term language.‖ Sapir (1921) says ‗Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.‘ We can infer from the definition that language is species-specific and species- uniform. However language does not pass from a parent to a child as blood genotype does. Hence, the language is environment-dependant. It follows that a ewe vocal sound in Africa will definitely be the same with the one in Europe but a child‘s vocal sound in Africa may not be the same with the one in Europe. This suggests that language has to be learnt.
Chomsky (1957) says ‗A language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.‘ This shows that each sentence has a structure. The human brain is competent enough to generate different sentences out of the limited set of symbols or sounds in a particular language. This indicates that a child can produce a sentence he has never heard before. To Chomsky, language is an innate ability that enables a person in a particular language to use the language; this is usually referred to as Language Acquisition Device.
To the dialectologists, ‗a language is a collection of mutually intelligible dialects‘ (Peter & Trudgill, 2004). Here, language is being looked at as an abstract phenomenon that can only be expressed in its dialects. Languages are the principal systems of communication by particular groups of human beings within the particular society (linguistic community) of the members (Lyons, 1970). The definition depicts language as a principal system of communication used by a particular group of human beings in the same linguistic community.
In Systemic Functional Linguistics, language is a resource for making meaning; and discourse is the basic unit of language not sentence (cf Matthiessen & Halliday, 1997). Moreover, language is seen as what is principally used for communication among humans (cf Downing and Locke, 2006:3). Here, language is looked at from the functions it performs in context; while in communication texts are constructed. Texts serve as the data used by systemic functional linguists to study a language. A functional grammar aims to match forms to function and meaning in context. There are three strands of meaning that form the basis of a functional interpretation of grammar: the representational, the interpersonal and the textual. Since there is no definition that can thoroughly account for the concept of language, the researcher chooses the view of the systemic linguists since in every text meaning must be communicated. This work examines how interpersonal meaning is communicated in thy selected dramatic texts through the mood system.
Dramatic text (play) is a literary work written to be performed by actors. Play writing requires a lot of imagination and talent. A well-written drama will have characters, setting, characterization, costume, dialogue, among others (Banjo et al., 2008:167). The most prominent feature of a typical drama is dialogue, and it involves the words spoken by characters in a text. The usual means through which a playwright achieves his/her characterisation is dialogue. A character is made known through what the author of a text says about him, what another character says about him or what he says about himself. Without dialogue, the characters in a text are dead; when dialogue is at work, language is also at work. This means that a literary work such as drama heavily depends on language to survive. If there is no literary language, it presupposes that there is no language of drama. Crystal (1994:412-413) avers that before we can say a variety of language exists, there must be a clear predictable correlation between the features of language and features of a social situation. Therefore, it is chimerical to make a boundary between a literary and non-literary variety of language. Moreover, literature cannot be identified by language, it can only be identified with it, and for it has no other medium of expression.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter of the study is divided into three sections: Sources of Data Collection, Method of Data and Analytical Procedure. It presents ‗Arms and the Man‘ and ‗Women of Owu‘ as the sources of data, and it shows that random sampling was used for the collection of the data while the main procedure for the analysis is from Ojo (2011).
Sources of Data Collection
The sources of the data are the dramatic texts by two playwrights: one from Ireland where English is mostly used as L1, and an L2 speaker of English from Nigeria. Thirty independent clauses were collected from each of Bernard Shaw‘s Arms and the Man, and Femi Osofisan‘s Women of Owu. All the clauses collected are comparable to simple sentences, not clauses from complex or compound sentences which are technically called clause complexes in Systemic Functional Grammar.
Method of Data Collection
A stratified random sampling was used for the collection of the data. The researcher first identified all the independent clauses (simple sentences) which totalled 390 independent clauses in Women of Owu and 665 in Arms and the Man. Subsequently, the clauses collected from each text were grouped separately into indicatives and imperatives making four groups. Then 15 independent clauses from each group making 60 independent clauses were randomly selected. This selection was done to have an in-depth view of the mood system as used in the texts.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
Introduction
The chapter discusses the presentation and analysis of the selected dramatic texts: Shaw‘s Arms and the Man and Osofisan‘s Women of Owu. The data were analysed from the stand point of Systemic Functional Grammar. Specifically the views of Ojo (2011, 2006), Downing and Locke (2006), Osisanwo (2006), Halliday & Matthiessen (2004), and Berry (1975) were taken for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Summary
This research is a systemic analysis of English mood system in Women of Owu and Arms and the Man. The different views on the concept of mood in grammar and how mood is conceptualised within Systemic Functional Grammar characterise the background of the study. Since mood always gives rise to interpersonal function of language, the researcher from the perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar attempts to investigate how playwrights of dramatic texts make use of a typical mood system to convey interpersonal meaning of language. In carrying out the study, stratified random sampling was used to collect data from the selected texts; the researcher identified the independent clauses (simple sentences) in the texts selected for the study, classified them into their major mood types and analysed 60 of them into their further choices along with their interpersonal functions.
Conclusion
The study shows how the concept of mood has received great attention in grammar right from the traditional grammar till date. The entry condition to the English mood system is the independent clause and the two major moods in the system are indicative and imperative.
The study concludes that there is no significant difference in English mood structures as used by a competent second user of English such as Osofisan and a user of English such as Shaw from Ireland where English is generally used as first language. As the analysis depicts, all mood types in Shaw‘s Arms and the Man are also found in Osofisan‘s Women of Owu.
Another conclusion of the study is that both playwrights of the selected dramatic texts (‗Arms and the Man‘ and ‗Women of Owu‘) use indicative more than imperative. This implies that interpersonal relationship is more embedded in the giving and taking of information than demanding someone to do one thing or the other. In short, there are more choices to make in indicative than imperative in the English mood system.
The study also concludes that the readers of the texts analysed can use the terminal punctuation marks to judge the function of a clause in relation to interpersonal role of language where a typical declarative is used as interrogative; though in such a case an interrogative usually has the same structure as a declarative as the analyses depict. For example, in ‗Women of Owu‘ we have ‗My former city, you mean?‘ In Arms and the Man we have ‗Your curiosity, you mean.‘
Recommendations
The research recommends that the students of English as a Second language (ESL) should use the terminal punctuation marks to judge the function of a clause in relation to interpersonal role of language where a typical declarative is used as interrogative.
The study also recommends that the teachers of English, who view mood as being the same with modality, should have a change of opinion and teach mood as a system at the clausal unit which reflects the interpersonal relationship. This is very useful since one of the principal functions of language is communication.
Contributions to Knowledge
The contribution of the study which agrees with the earlier studies is that though there are different perspectives to it, it is worthy of note to mention that it is only Systemic Functional Grammar, more than any other grammar, that conceives the mood more as a system of language that carries the burden of interpersonal function of language in metafunctions.
The researcher, in addition to Eggins‘ (2004) identification of the interpersonal roles (command [directive], offer, statement and question) of Mood, has shown through the analysis that wish is another function of a mood structure that is associated with optative mood in imperative mood.
Unlike Osisanwo (2006) and Ojo (2011) who differentiate between volitive mood and optative mood, this study highlights that there is no difference between volitive and optative because the type of clause Ojo (2011: 230) and Osisanwo (2006) identify as a volitive mood, Crystal (2008:343) identifies it as an optative mood. In short, the study is in consonance with Boyer (1988: 130) by not separating volitive from optative and buttresses that there are two major mood types – indicative and imperative.
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