从系统功能语法的角度分析英文求职信中人际意

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Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Object of the Research

A cover letter, defined by Wikipedia, “is a letter of introduction attached to, or

accompanying another document such as a résumé or curriculum vitae.” (2009)

As described from Wikipedia, “Job seekers frequently send a cover letter along

with their CV or employment application as a way of introducing themselves to

potential employers and explaining their suitability for the desired position.” And

meanwhile, “employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover

letters as one method of screening out applicants who are not sufficiently interested in

their position or who lack necessary basic skills.”(2009) Therefore, a cover letter is the

first communication between a job seeker and an employer. During this communication,

the realization of Interpersonal Meaning is of great importance.

“A good beginning is half done.” That is to say, a cover letter plays a key role on

the first impression that a job seeker leaves to the employer. Whether the employer

would like to continue reading the applicant’s following resume is largely dependent on

the cover letter.

1.2 Purposes of the Research

For Chinese job seekers, when applying for a job, an English cover letter is not

necessarily required, but is really a big plus, especially when applying for a job in

multinational corporations. On one hand, an English cover letter can show one’s English

ability, on the other hand, it also shows the applicant’s cross-cultural communication

skills.

A cover letter is the first communication between the job seeker and the employer.

How to achieve a successful communication? Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Grammar

is adopted here.

Systemic-Functional Grammar (SFG) is a model of grammar developed by M.A.K.

Halliday in the 1960s. According to his SFG, “functional bases of grammatical

phenomena are divided into three broad areas, called metafunctions: the ideational, the

interpersonal and the textual.” (Elke Teich, 1999, p.21)

This thesis will go deep inside the three main parts of cover letters to find out how

interpersonal meanings are achieved? Is there any common feature in the cover letters

A Systemic-Functional Grammar Approach to the Realization of Interpersonal Meaning in English

Cover Letters

written by Chinese and native English job seekers? Compared with the cover letters

written by native speakers, is there any distinction? And what implications can be drawn

from the distinctions?

1.1 Data Collection and Research Methods

The study is based on 100 English cover letters collected randomly from two

leading recruitment websites in China: 51Job （www.51job.com ）and Zhaopin

(www.zhaopin.com ).

Qualitative and quantitative research methods are mainly used in this thesis,

together with the method of Comparative Analysis.

First of all, the occurrence of different modal expressions in each part of the

English cover letters will be counted; and then, the frequencies of major modal

expressions will be compared and analyzed in order to find out the general features

when using these modal expressions; and some significant conclusions will be drawn

from the study; furthermore, by comparing the conclusions of this thesis to former

scholars’, some differences and similarities will be found and some cross-cultural

factors will be generalized.

1.2 Significance of the Research

Firstly, a cover letter as a kind of common-used business letter, it is necessary to

know its general features. For employers, they can judge a candidate from the cover

letter, and for applicants, they can attract the employers’ attention and arouse their

interests through the cover letters.

Secondly, Halliday’s SFG has been applied to a lot of fields, such as speeches,

advertisements, language teaching, film lines etc., to use it in the research of cover

letters is relatively rare.

Thirdly, as mentioned above, the research data are collected from two biggest

recruitment websites, which will make the research conclusion more characteristic and

valuable.

Lastly, this thesis is trying to make further comparison and analysis based on

former scholars’ research methods and findings, which can be regarded as a step

forward in academic research.

Chapter One: Introduction

1.5 Possible Problems and Hypothesis of the Research

Certainly, there are still some limitations in this research since the research data

can not cover all the possibilities.

Also, the findings of the research still remain unknown and there may generate two

outcomes: one is that there are some distinctions in the English cover letters written by

Chinese and native English speakers and the other is that they are almost the same.

So here I hypothesized that there are some distinctions as well as similarities

between the English cover letters written by Chinese and native English speakers but

the comparative result will be— more similarities than distinctions.

A Systemic-Functional Grammar Approach to the Realization of Interpersonal Meaning in English

Cover Letters

Chapter Two: Literature Review and Theoretical

Framework

2.1 Brief Introduction to the Study of Interpersonal Meaning

The study of language has a long history, as a main tool of social communication,

it has multiple functions. Among so many scholars who focused on this field,

Malinowski, Karl Buhler, Roman Jakonson, Dell Hymes and M.A.K. Halliday are of

distinguished status.

Malinowski (1923) is one of the founders of functional school, and he is the first

one to come up with the dichotomy distinction of language function, that is pragmatic

function versus magical function.

And then, in 1934, Karl Buhler put forward another trichotomy distinction which

included expressive, conative and representational function in his Theory of Language.

Later in 1960, Jakobson developed Buhler’s theory into six functions which included

poetic, transactional and the metalinguistic function in his Linguistics and Poetics.

Besides these, Hymes (1972) added another situational (or the contextual) function. We

also call these seven functions as Buhler-Jakobson-Hymes model of function

classification.

Halliday’s (1985) classification of language function is deeply influenced by the

above Buhler-Jakobson-Hymes model. He divides the function of language into three

kinds: ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunction. This is the origin of

interpersonal metafunction.

Interpersonal meaning can be perceived from different approaches. For example,

Jenny Thomas (1995) put forward her point of view that “meaning was constructed

through the interaction between the speaker and the hearer” in her book An introduction

to Pragmatics, which is from the perspective of Pragmatics; and from the

Sociolinguistic approach, Sociolinguists also put great emphasis on the use of language

to establish and maintain social relationship.

And in China, I have to mention that there are some distinguished scholars who

have introduced the theory of functional grammar into China and also made great

contributions to the study of those theories. Those scholars include Hu Zhuanglin

(1989), Zhu Yongsheng (1989), Zhang Delu (1989), Huang Guowen (2000), Yan

Shiqing (2001), and Miao Xingwei (2004) etc. they have done great achievements in

Chapter Two: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

helping Chinese scholars and students to understand the theory of interpersonal

meaning.

The book Interpersonal Meaning in Discourse written by Li Zhanzi in 2002 can be

regarded as a representative work in the study of Interpersonal Meaning in China.

The theory of interpersonal meaning has been applied to the analysis of many

discourses, such as advertising language, news reports, novels, political speeches,

foreign language teaching, scientific articles, etc. here are some examples:

1) Ma Tao (2002) wrote his “On the Interpersonal Meaning of Political

Speeches--With Clinton's Speech in Beijing as a Demonstration” to analyze “how

interpersonal meanings are generally realized in a political speech.”

2) Chen Jieyan (2005) made an analysis on the “Interpersonal Meaning of

Commercial Consumer Advertising Texts” in order to find out the interaction between

the advertisers and the potential customers.

3) Liu Miao (2009) wrote an article on “The Analysis of Interpersonal Meaning of

EFL Classroom Discourse in Junior High School” to explore the Chinese junior high

school English teacher's roles in EFL class through analyzing the realizations of

interpersonal meaning (IP) in classroom discourse.

2.1.1 Halliday’s Theory of Interpersonal Meaning

Halliday’s theory of interpersonal meaning is the theoretical framework of this

paper. As mentioned above, there are three systems corresponding to the three functions

of ideational, textual and interpersonal:

1) The ideational function is realized as the transitivity system in the clause as a

representation of experience, in which there are six processes: material, mental,

relational, behavioral, verbal and existential processes. Actor, the so-called logical

subject, is an important participant in the material process.

2) The textual function is realized as the thematic structure of the clause as a

message. The two main constituents are Theme and Rheme. Theme is the point of

departure of the message while Rheme is the part in which the theme is developed.

3) The interpersonal function is realized as the mood system in the clause as an

exchange, which is divided into two major parts of Mood and Residue. Subject and

finite verbal operator are of the two parts of Mood.

“Language is used not only to exchange information, but also to interact with other

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摘要：

ChapterOne:Introduction1ChapterOne:Introduction1.1ObjectoftheResearchAcoverletter,definedbyWikipedia,“isaletterofintroductionattachedto,oraccompanyinganotherdocumentsuchasarésuméorcurriculumvitae.”(2009)AsdescribedfromWikipedia,“JobseekersfrequentlysendacoverletteralongwiththeirCVoremploymentapplica...

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