Siriporn Woochaiyaphum. An analysis of texual metafunction of Vietnamese online newsreports : A case study of the Tet festival . Master's Degree(Linguistics). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2008.
An analysis of texual metafunction of Vietnamese online newsreports : A case study of the Tet festival
Abstract:
The objectives of this research were to analyse Theme and Rheme structure and to explore text development (thematic progression), and some significant features of Vietnamese online news reporting. The data were drawn from 14 backdated Tet festival online news reports taken from VietNamNet − www.vnn.vn, from 8 February 2005 to 11 February 2005. The data were analysed based on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The analysis focused on textual metafunction theorized as the system of Theme and Rheme. The results revealed that the Theme structure of Vietnamese online-news reporting was comprised of a sequence of textual, interpersonal, and topical Themes. In terms of Theme selection both unmarked and marked Themes were selected. In addition, option textual Themes could be found at positions before Rhemes. The unmarked Themes (82.67%) were found more frequently than the marked Themes (17.33%). Within the marked Theme selection, the most favoured marked Themes were temporal circumstantial Themes (10.55%). These results relate to the data sources which were based on the three important days of Tet festival celebrations. The profile of Theme selection was related to a news-writing structure which was concerned with specific details about who, what, when, where, why and how. There were three types of thematic progression patterns. The most frequent thematic progression was a constant thematic progression