A discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor: Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar approach (2014)
1. Introduction Achieving successful communication in language involves the writer's organization of meaning as messages in clauses and texts, and the reader's identification of them to interpret the messages of the texts appropriately. Therefore, one of the concerns of readers has always...
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Alzahra University
2025-02-01
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| author | seyed abbas navabi sohi ferdous aghagolzade ahmad mohseni |
| author_facet | seyed abbas navabi sohi ferdous aghagolzade ahmad mohseni |
| author_sort | seyed abbas navabi sohi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 1. Introduction
Achieving successful communication in language involves the writer's organization of meaning as messages in clauses and texts, and the reader's identification of them to interpret the messages of the texts appropriately. Therefore, one of the concerns of readers has always been how to uncover the textual and discoursal meanings of texts, especially literary texts. Fortunately, since the 1970s, functionalism has had a significant influence on analyzing literary texts, and since 1994, it has been used as an approach to analyzing texts.
Based on the textual metafunction in functional grammar, thematic systems organize meanings in clauses and texts. Thematic structures are responsible for organizing meanings in clauses, and thematic patterns are responsible for organizing meanings in texts so that they not only create cohesion and coherence but also convey the intended messages. Accordingly, this study aims to analyze the texts of short stories based on the thematic progression factor in textual metafunction to identify the progression patterns and the discoursal factors that influence them. To do this, the present paper relies on Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar (2014), Shieh and Lin’s seven thematic progression patterns (2011), and a descriptive-analytic method.
Correspondingly, the research question of this study is how thematic systems contribute to coherence and the conveyance of messages in six Persian short stories. Based on this question, the related research hypothesis is that thematic systems, by using thematic patterns in the story texts, achieve coherence and facilitate the conveyance of messages, thereby representing textual and discoursal meanings.
There is some literature on progression patterns and a significant body of research on theme analysis. For example, Marfuaty and Wahyudi (2015), in their investigation of thematic progression patterns in the opinion section of the Jakarta Post, concluded that the most frequent pattern and theme were linear pattern and topical theme. Rahnemoon et al. (2019) investigated the themes of 643 clauses of English news texts and their Persian translation, finding that there were no significant differences between the progression patterns in English and Persian, except for the simple linear pattern. Larasati et al. (2022) used thematic structure and progression patterns to investigate Boris Johnson's speech and showed that the most dominant topical theme and pattern were circumstantial adjuncts and the constant pattern, respectively.
These studies demonstrate the presence of different kinds of themes in clauses and thematic patterns in texts. However, the above studies are mostly structure-based rather than discourse-based. Nevertheless, the present study offers several advantages compared to previous research. In addition to using seven thematic patterns instead of two, three, or four, this research is discourse-based and investigates the discourse factors influencing the use of these patterns in the six short story texts.
Materials and methods
The corpus of this study consists of six contemporary Persian short stories frwritten by famous Persian authors, including “A City Like Paradise” (Daneshvar, 2015), “Three Drops of Blood” (Hedayat, 2002), “ Cooking Samanu” (Ale Ahmad, 2004), “My China Doll” (Golshiri, 2015), “Mirror” (Dolatabadi, 2005), and “Two Days” (Vafi, 2018) spanning the period from 1932 to 2012.
The research was conducted using a descriptive-analytic method. The corpus consisted of 3736 clauses. Using a data analysis sheet based on Halliday and Matthiessen’s functional grammar (2014) for thematic systems and Shieh and Lin's seven thematic progression patterns (2011), the clauses were analyzed to identify, sort, and tally the patterns, determine their frequencies, and calculate the percentage of each variable. The results were presented in a table and discussed to address the research question and test the related hypothesis.
Results and discussion
The findings revealed that the authors predominantly used the constant pattern, which appeared in 83.25% of the cases, as the primary thematic progression pattern in the six short stories. This shows that the writers frequently repeated themes to maintain continuity, preserve the topic, and enhance coherence in the texts.
Moreover, they employed the uncommon zig-zag pattern in 7.25% of the cases as a secondary major pattern and writing style to expand the topic. Furthermore, they used less common patterns, such as the derived hypertheme, juxtaposition, and multiple patterns, in 9.5% of the cases as special strategies to direct, change, or introduce a new topic within the stories. However, the crossing and concentrative patterns were not used, suggesting that the writers tend to avoid a complex writing style.
Conclusion
The results showed that the constant pattern was extensively used as the predominant thematic progression pattern and primary writing style to maintain topic continuity and textual coherence as a key strategy for conveying the intended messages.
Nevertheless, when there were good discoursal reasons such as directing, extending, reducing, changing, or introducing a topic, authors primarily employed the uncommon linear pattern as a secondary pattern and writing style. In specific cases, they also used less common patterns, such as the derived hypertheme and juxtaposition patterns, while the multiple pattern was rarely used. These strategies helped to organize the topical themes within the texts, ensuring coherence and message conveyance.
The authors deliberately avoided the crossing and concentrative patterns, likely to avoid a complex writing style that could reduce accessibility for readers. Furthermore, by identifying the thematic patterns in the short stories, it was possible not only to achieve the writer's perspective on the subject matter and the direction of the texts but also to extract the intended discoursal meanings and overall messages.
It is recommended that further research compare thematic patterns in fiction and non-fiction to determine whether certain thematic structures are associated with certain genres. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-fbf2373ee091482792f287e3dc6d6d14 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2008-8833 2538-1989 |
| language | fas |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Alzahra University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | زبان پژوهی |
| spelling | doaj-art-fbf2373ee091482792f287e3dc6d6d142025-08-20T03:17:12ZfasAlzahra Universityزبان پژوهی2008-88332538-19892025-02-011754376810.22051/jlr.2024.45082.23547951A discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor: Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar approach (2014)seyed abbas navabi sohi0ferdous aghagolzade1ahmad mohseni2Department of Linguistics, Islamic South Tehran branch, Valiasr, Azad University, Tehran, Iranprofessor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, IranAssociate professor, Department of foreign languages,, Faculty of Literature and foreign languages, South Tehran branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran,Iran1. Introduction Achieving successful communication in language involves the writer's organization of meaning as messages in clauses and texts, and the reader's identification of them to interpret the messages of the texts appropriately. Therefore, one of the concerns of readers has always been how to uncover the textual and discoursal meanings of texts, especially literary texts. Fortunately, since the 1970s, functionalism has had a significant influence on analyzing literary texts, and since 1994, it has been used as an approach to analyzing texts. Based on the textual metafunction in functional grammar, thematic systems organize meanings in clauses and texts. Thematic structures are responsible for organizing meanings in clauses, and thematic patterns are responsible for organizing meanings in texts so that they not only create cohesion and coherence but also convey the intended messages. Accordingly, this study aims to analyze the texts of short stories based on the thematic progression factor in textual metafunction to identify the progression patterns and the discoursal factors that influence them. To do this, the present paper relies on Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar (2014), Shieh and Lin’s seven thematic progression patterns (2011), and a descriptive-analytic method. Correspondingly, the research question of this study is how thematic systems contribute to coherence and the conveyance of messages in six Persian short stories. Based on this question, the related research hypothesis is that thematic systems, by using thematic patterns in the story texts, achieve coherence and facilitate the conveyance of messages, thereby representing textual and discoursal meanings. There is some literature on progression patterns and a significant body of research on theme analysis. For example, Marfuaty and Wahyudi (2015), in their investigation of thematic progression patterns in the opinion section of the Jakarta Post, concluded that the most frequent pattern and theme were linear pattern and topical theme. Rahnemoon et al. (2019) investigated the themes of 643 clauses of English news texts and their Persian translation, finding that there were no significant differences between the progression patterns in English and Persian, except for the simple linear pattern. Larasati et al. (2022) used thematic structure and progression patterns to investigate Boris Johnson's speech and showed that the most dominant topical theme and pattern were circumstantial adjuncts and the constant pattern, respectively. These studies demonstrate the presence of different kinds of themes in clauses and thematic patterns in texts. However, the above studies are mostly structure-based rather than discourse-based. Nevertheless, the present study offers several advantages compared to previous research. In addition to using seven thematic patterns instead of two, three, or four, this research is discourse-based and investigates the discourse factors influencing the use of these patterns in the six short story texts. Materials and methods The corpus of this study consists of six contemporary Persian short stories frwritten by famous Persian authors, including “A City Like Paradise” (Daneshvar, 2015), “Three Drops of Blood” (Hedayat, 2002), “ Cooking Samanu” (Ale Ahmad, 2004), “My China Doll” (Golshiri, 2015), “Mirror” (Dolatabadi, 2005), and “Two Days” (Vafi, 2018) spanning the period from 1932 to 2012. The research was conducted using a descriptive-analytic method. The corpus consisted of 3736 clauses. Using a data analysis sheet based on Halliday and Matthiessen’s functional grammar (2014) for thematic systems and Shieh and Lin's seven thematic progression patterns (2011), the clauses were analyzed to identify, sort, and tally the patterns, determine their frequencies, and calculate the percentage of each variable. The results were presented in a table and discussed to address the research question and test the related hypothesis. Results and discussion The findings revealed that the authors predominantly used the constant pattern, which appeared in 83.25% of the cases, as the primary thematic progression pattern in the six short stories. This shows that the writers frequently repeated themes to maintain continuity, preserve the topic, and enhance coherence in the texts. Moreover, they employed the uncommon zig-zag pattern in 7.25% of the cases as a secondary major pattern and writing style to expand the topic. Furthermore, they used less common patterns, such as the derived hypertheme, juxtaposition, and multiple patterns, in 9.5% of the cases as special strategies to direct, change, or introduce a new topic within the stories. However, the crossing and concentrative patterns were not used, suggesting that the writers tend to avoid a complex writing style. Conclusion The results showed that the constant pattern was extensively used as the predominant thematic progression pattern and primary writing style to maintain topic continuity and textual coherence as a key strategy for conveying the intended messages. Nevertheless, when there were good discoursal reasons such as directing, extending, reducing, changing, or introducing a topic, authors primarily employed the uncommon linear pattern as a secondary pattern and writing style. In specific cases, they also used less common patterns, such as the derived hypertheme and juxtaposition patterns, while the multiple pattern was rarely used. These strategies helped to organize the topical themes within the texts, ensuring coherence and message conveyance. The authors deliberately avoided the crossing and concentrative patterns, likely to avoid a complex writing style that could reduce accessibility for readers. Furthermore, by identifying the thematic patterns in the short stories, it was possible not only to achieve the writer's perspective on the subject matter and the direction of the texts but also to extract the intended discoursal meanings and overall messages. It is recommended that further research compare thematic patterns in fiction and non-fiction to determine whether certain thematic structures are associated with certain genres.https://zabanpazhuhi.alzahra.ac.ir/article_7951_a7ad7d2057d4912559981fe49d82a61d.pdftextual metafunctionthematic systemprogression patternspersian short stories |
| spellingShingle | seyed abbas navabi sohi ferdous aghagolzade ahmad mohseni A discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor: Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar approach (2014) زبان پژوهی textual metafunction thematic system progression patterns persian short stories |
| title | A discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor: Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar approach (2014) |
| title_full | A discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor: Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar approach (2014) |
| title_fullStr | A discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor: Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar approach (2014) |
| title_full_unstemmed | A discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor: Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar approach (2014) |
| title_short | A discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor: Halliday and Matthiessen's functional grammar approach (2014) |
| title_sort | discourse analysis of six stories based on the thematic progression factor halliday and matthiessen s functional grammar approach 2014 |
| topic | textual metafunction thematic system progression patterns persian short stories |
| url | https://zabanpazhuhi.alzahra.ac.ir/article_7951_a7ad7d2057d4912559981fe49d82a61d.pdf |
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