A FUNCTIONAL STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL
MEANING IN LORD OF THE FLIES
by
Xu Yuhua
A Thesis
Presented to the Graduate School and College of English
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Master of Arts
Under the Supervision of
Dr. Xu Haiming
Shanghai International Studies University
May 2010
Acknowledgement
My deepest gratitude and appreciation first goes to my supervisor, Dr. Xu Haiming,
whose rigorous scholarship and witty lecturing have set me an example to follow. His
lecture on research methodology and thesis writing provided me with the weapon to
conquer the fortress of thesis writing. It is his delicate correction of my thesis that makes
it possible to appear in its present form.
I shall also give my sincere thanks to professors from whose lectures I have
benefited a lot in the past two years: Prof. Yu Dongming, Prof. Yu Jianhua, Prof. Xu
Yulong, Prof. Li Ji’an, Prof. Zou Shen, etc. Inspired by them, I have decided to do my
MA thesis in this interdisciplinary field across linguistics and literature.
Finally, I should owe my gratitude to my husband and parents who have always
been supportive in my study and in writing this thesis.
i
Abstract
Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William
Golding. It discusses how culture created by man fails, using as an example of a group of
British schoolboys stuck on a desert island who try to govern themselves, but with
disastrous results. In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one
hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present. This thesis tries to analyze
the interpersonal meaning in it from the perspective of systemic functional grammar.
Interpersonal meaning can reflect the nature of interpersonal communication
through language. Halliday distinguishes three metafunctions in his systemic functional
grammar (SFG) and identifies in the clause level distinct linguistic resources that realize
the three metafunctions respectively. In Hallidayan tradition, interpersonal meaning is
mainly realized by mood system, modality system, adjuncts, etc.
Systemic functional stylistics (SFS) relying on SFG has flourished ever since the
early 1970s. It not only broadens the view and scope of stylistic studies, but also stresses
the relationship between language, text and context of situation. SFS considers style as
“motivated prominence”. If a prominent language feature is connected with the theme of
the work as a whole, it can be seen as “motivated prominence”. Though many scholars
home and abroad have done studies on literary works in the perspective of function, most
of them adopt the transitivity system in ideational function as their analytical tool
neglecting interpersonal function which should be equally important in the text.
Lord of the Flies is Golding’s first novel and the most popular one. Numerous
researchers have studied it from different aspects, such as literary critics, narratology，etc.
However, none of them has studied it from the angle of SFS. This thesis intends to make
a more objective and comprehensive study on it by drawing on the theories of
foregrounding, criteria of relevance, and interpersonal meaning from Hallidayan SFG so
as to find out how interpersonal meaning contributes to the expression of the theme of
the whole novel, how the language features reflecting interpersonal meaning realize their
stylistic values and the inspiration it can give to literature teaching.
ii
This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter gives a general introduction to
the whole thesis and states the necessity of doing this study. It also clarifies the aims,
significance and organization of this thesis. Chapter two presents an overview of style
and stylistics, esp. systemic functional stylistics and the three metafunctions of it. It
provides a brief introduction to the novel, Lord of the Flies and a general survey of the
researches done on it home and abroad. The analyzing methodology adopted in this
thesis is also included in this part. Chapter three is concerned with the detailed
description of the mood and modality system and situational context which contribute to
the realization of interpersonal meaning. Chapter four analyzes the context of the novel
and applies mood and modality system to the analysis of excerpts from the novel.
Chapter five offers a conclusion to the whole thesis.
It is found that Hallidayan interpersonal meaning is very helpful in displaying the
roles of interactants and their relationships and revealing the author’s style. This thesis
limits itself to mood and modality system in exploring the interpersonal meaning in the
novel, so further studies can be perfected in this aspect so as to testify the overlapping of
the linguistic devices that help to realize the three metafucntions.
Keywords: systemic functional stylistics
modality
Lord of the Flies
iii
interpersonal meaning
mood
摘要
《蝇王》是诺贝尔文学奖得主威廉·戈尔丁的代表作。 它以一群滞留在孤岛
上的英国男孩为例，探讨了人类文明是如何堕落的。这部作品以其复杂深刻的内涵
被评为二十世纪最具影响力的文学作品之一。 本文尝试运用系统功能语言学的理
论对威廉·戈尔丁小说《蝇王》中的人际意义进行分析。
人际意义反映了人们运用语言进行人际交往的本质。韩礼德在功能主义框架中
区分了语言的三个元功能，并在小句层面确定了表达这三个元功能的独立的语言资
源。他提出人际意义主要是由语气和情态系统实现的。
20 世纪 70 年代初以来，以系统功能语法为分析基础的功能文体学蓬勃发展。
这是因为功能文体学不但拓宽了文体学研究的视野和范围，理论方面具有很强的系
统性，而且强调了语言、语篇与社会语境的关系。功能文体学将文体视为“有动因
的突出”。在文学作品中，某个突出的语言特征只要与作者整部作品意义的表达有
密切的联系，就可被视为“有动因的突出”
。虽然国内外的众多学者采用这一理论
从功能角度对文学作品进行了大量的文体研究，但这些对文学作品文体的研究大多
是从实现概念功能的及物性系统的理论角度出发，而对于在语篇中同样具有重要作
用的人际功能没有给予足够的重视。
小说《蝇王》是戈尔丁的第一部作品，也是他最受关注的作品。国内外学者曾
经从不同的角度对该小说做过研究，包括文学批评的和叙事学的视角等；但是迄今
为止笔者仍未发现从系统功能语言学角度对其做过研究。本文以此为出发点，以韩
礼德的功能文体的前景化理论、相关性准则理论、人际功能理论为基础，对这部文
学作品进行分析。揭示小说主人公对待彼此的态度，推断他们之间的关系及其性格
特征；探讨人际意义如何对小说主题意义的表达产生影响，表达人际意义的语言特
征是如何实现其文体价值的，并且对文学教学提出启示。
论文共分五章。第一章是引言，简要说明研究的必要性，目的，意义和内容安
排。第二章主要介绍文体和文体学，尤其是功能文体学和三大元功能，以及小说《蝇
王》和国内外对其的研究成果，说明本文的研究方法。第三章着重阐述实现人际功
能的语气，情态系统和情景语境。第四章对两位主人公在对话中所使用的小句类型、
主语、情态动词和情态附加语的频率分布进行了统计、比较和分析。第五章为结论
部分，指出韩礼德的人际意义理论在文学作品分析中的可行性，及其对于了解戈尔
iv
丁的风格的助益。但本论文只是从语气和情态系统入手分析相关的语言资源，探索
人际意义，今后的研究可以更加全面地探讨人际意义与概念意义，人际意义与语篇
意义，以及三大元功能的结合在文学作品分析中所起的作用。
关键词：功能文体学，人际意义，语气系统，情态系统，
《蝇王》
v
Contents
Acknowledgement....................................................................................................................... i
Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... ii
摘要 ............................................................................................................................................ iv
Chapter One Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 General Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Necessity of the Study .................................................................................................. 1
1.3 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................. 1
1.4 Organization of this Thesis .......................................................................................... 2
Chapter Two Literature Review ................................................................................................ 2
2.1 Brief Introduction to Stylistics ..................................................................................... 2
2.1.1 Style and Stylistics ............................................................................................. 2
2.1.2 The Stages of Stylistic Studies .......................................................................... 3
2.2 Systemic Functional Stylistics (SFS) .......................................................................... 5
2.2.1 Brief Introduction to SFS .................................................................................... 5
2.2.2 The Three Metafunctions ..................................................................................... 6
2.3 Brief Introduction to Lord of the Flies .......................................................................... 7
2.3.1 Summary of the Novel ......................................................................................... 7
2.3.2 The Themes of the Novel ................................................................................... 9
2.4 Related Researches on Lord of the Flies ................................................................... 11
2.5 Analyzing Methodology ............................................................................................. 14
2.5.1 Objectives ......................................................................................................... 14
2.5.2 Qualitative Discourse Approach to the Analysis ............................................ 14
2.5.3 Data Collection and Selection ......................................................................... 15
Chapter three Theoretic Framework ....................................................................................... 15
3.1 Stylistic Features ......................................................................................................... 15
3.1.1 Style as Foregrounding .................................................................................... 16
3.1.2 The Classification of Prominence ................................................................... 17
3.2 Interpersonal Function ................................................................................................ 18
3.2.1 Mood System .................................................................................................... 19
vi
3.2.1.1 Speech Roles .......................................................................................... 19
3.2.1.2 Mood Elements ...................................................................................... 21
3.2.2 Modality System .............................................................................................. 22
3.2.2.1 Types of Modality .................................................................................. 22
3.2.2.2 Modal Values .......................................................................................... 24
3.2.3 Context of Situation ......................................................................................... 26
Chapter four Interpersonal Meaning in Lord of the Flies ...................................................... 28
4.1 Context of Lord of the Flies ....................................................................................... 28
4.1.1 Historical Context ............................................................................................ 28
4.1.2 Tenor ................................................................................................................. 30
4.2 Mood in Lord of the Flies ........................................................................................... 31
4.2.1 Mood Features and Choices ............................................................................ 31
4.2.2 Interpreting Mood Features and Choices ........................................................ 39
4.2.2.1 Mood Analysis of Appendix 1 .............................................................. 39
4.2.2.2 Mood in Appendix 2 .............................................................................. 41
4.2.3 Summary ........................................................................................................... 45
4.3 Modality in Lord of the Flies ..................................................................................... 45
4.3.1 Modal Operators ............................................................................................... 46
4.3.1.1 Modal Operators in Appendix 1 ............................................................ 47
4.3.1.2 Modal Operators in Appendix 2 ............................................................ 50
4.3.1.3 Values of Modality ................................................................................. 52
4.3.2 Modal Adjuncts ................................................................................................ 53
4.3.3 Summary ........................................................................................................... 55
Chapter five Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 55
5.1 Major Findings ............................................................................................................ 55
5.2 Limitations and Further Study ................................................................................... 56
References................................................................................................................................. 58
Appendix 1................................................................................................................................ 61
Appendix 2................................................................................................................................ 65
vii
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 General Introduction
William Golding was a British novelist, poet and Noble Prize winner in Literature
“for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and
universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today” (Dictionary
of Literary Biography Year Book, 1983: 12). The most concerned theme of his is “the
darkness of human heart”, on which many of his works, from Lord of the Flies to The
Paper Man, are centered. Because of the rich morals in his works, his works are widely
studied by researchers home and abroad.
Golding is a prolific writer with nearly 20 novels and collections, among which
Lord of the Flies is the most influential one. The novel depicts the transformation into
savagery of a group of English boys aged six to twelve landing onto a desert island from
an air crash in a nuclear war imagined by the author with no adult supervision.
1.2 Necessity of the Study
Despite the fact that Golding and his works are studied extensively, there has not
been much functional study on his works, though one of the most famous study in the
field of systemic functional stylistics is based on Golding’s The inheritor by Halliday in
his Linguistic function and literary style: an inquiry into the language of William
Golding’s The inheritor (Halliday, 1971:330-365). Most researches are quite fragmentary,
and most of them are of traditional impressionist nature, few conducts analysis from the
perspective of function. Till now, none of M.A. theses in China has dwelt on Golding’s
works from functional perspective. Thus it makes a point of analyzing Golding’s works
systematically adopting functional theory.
1.3 Significance of the Study
As shall be elaborated in 2.4, though there have been many researches on Lord of the
1
Flies, studies on it adopting linguistic theories and methodology, especially using
theories from functional perspective are scarce.
Meanwhile, traditional literary criticism was often criticized by linguists as arbitrary
and rather flexible, lacking compact analysis and theoretical support. In this case,
functional stylistics (FS) compensates for its limitations. On the other hand, language is
the material for literary creation and the chief medium for literary communication. So the
concept of rich exploitation of language would be meaningless without taking into
consideration literary works: language and literature are somewhat inextricable. The
author hopes to testify the effectiveness and powerfulness of FS as a tool to analyze
literary works，which may also promote its development and perfection.
1.4 Organization of this Thesis
This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter clarifies the necessity of the
study, its aims and the significance and organization of the whole thesis. Chapter two
gives an overview of style and stylistics, esp. systemic functional stylistics and the three
metafunctions of it. It presents a brief introduction to the novel, Lord of the Flies and a
general survey of the researches done on it home and abroad. Chapter three is concerned
with the detailed description of the mood and modality system and situational context
which contributes to the realization of interpersonal meaning. Chapter four analyzes the
context of the novel and applies mood and modality system to the analysis of two
dialogues excerpted from the novel. Chapter five offers a conclusion to the whole thesis.
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Brief Introduction to Stylistics
2.1.1 Style and Stylistics
Talking about stylistics, it is necessary to define the term “style”. There have been
many views of style, but none of them has been generally acknowledged. According to
2
Liu (1997:9-10), there are more than 31 definitions of style. The following are some of
them:
1) Style as form
----Aristotle
2) Style as equivalence
3) Style as function
----Jacobson and Levistrauss
---- the Prague school approach
4) Style as foregrounding
5) Style as prominence
----Mukarovsky
----Halliday
6) Style as meaning potential
----Halliday (Liu, 1997: 9-10).
Though it’s hard to draw an agreed definition for “style”, it is often used in two
ways: when used in its narrow sense, style refers to literary style, such as the style of a
certain era: the Victorian style, the style of 1930s. Here style is a set of features peculiar
to characteristics of an author—his or her “language habits” or idiolect. In the broad
sense, style is seen as distinctive: in essence, the set or sum of linguistic features that are
characteristic of register, genre or period, etc.
Stylistics is “the study of style”, as simply defined by Wales (1989:437). “Stylistics,
for a long time, refers to microstylistics, literary stylistics. It is an interdiscipline between
Linguistics and Literary Criticism” (王左良&丁望道, 1987: 508). That is to say,
“Stylistics is a discipline adopting modern linguistic theories and methods to study style”
(Wright & Hope, 2000: 12) of literary works. It is concerned with “style”.
2.1.2 The Stages of Stylistic Studies
The history of stylistics can be traced as far as back to ancient Greece, however, it
was at the beginning of the last century that it evolved and only in the 1960s did it get
well established as a discipline. There are four stages in the development of stylistics
(Shen 2000:22-28):
(1) in the first half of the 20th century: the growing period
In the early 1900s, the approach of stylistic analysis adopting modem linguistic
methods got rid of the limit of traditional literary analysis and became more
systematical and scientific. With the European historical linguistics and general
linguistics having developed into influential independent disciplines, stylistics connected
3
with linguistics evolved as a relatively independent interdisciplinary field at the
beginning of the 20th century.
There were two representative scholars promoting its development in this period.
One is Bally，a student of Saussure，and is regarded as the pioneer of modern stylistics.
The other is L. Spitzer，a German stylistician, who is regarded as the father of literary
stylistics.
The symposium of stylistics held in Indiana University in 1958 not only marked the
birth of modern stylistics as an independent interdisciplinary subject, but also marked an
approaching bright prospect of stylistic studies.
(2) In1960s and1970s: the flourish of modern stylistics
In the 1960s and 1970s ， linguistics and structuralism experienced a rapid
development，which contributed to the growth of stylistics. The flourish of modern
stylistics is reflected by the great diversity of stylistic schools. According to the linguistic
theories followed by stylisticians, stylistics can be classified into Formal Stylistics，
Functional Stylistics (FS thereafter) and Discourse Stylistics. According to the research
goals of stylisticians，stylistics can be classified into Linguistic Stylistics, Literary
Stylistics, and Social Historical/Cultural Stylistics.
In this period，literary stylistics was in its prime，and many linguists and literary
critics turned to this field. However, stylistic schools were mainly classified as Formal
Stylistics in the 1960s，because formal linguistic theories were adopted by almost all
stylisticians then. In early 1970s, FS developed vigorously, which had begun to emerge
and develop since 1971 when Halliday studied William Golding’s The Inheritors.
(3) In1980s: the rise of Discourse Stylistics
1980s sees the rise of Discourse Stylistics which conducts stylistic analysis based on
theories from discourse analysis, pragmatics and text linguistics. From the perspective of
research objects, the difference between Discourse Stylistics and other stylistic schools
lies in two aspects. One is that Discourse Stylistics emphasizes the analysis of discourse
and the communication between interactants; the other is that it pays much attention to
the units above sentence.
However, similar to functional stylisticians，discourse stylisticians stress on the
accuracy and systematicity of linguistic description. Furthermore，they pay attention to
4
the illustration or inspection of the feasibility of the applied linguistic patterns. At the
same time, Discourse Stylistics places more and more emphasis on the relationship
between text and social/historical context. It stresses out the significance of the
relationship between stylistic features and class, power and ideology, which undoubtedly
promoted the development of Social Historical/Cultural Stylistics.
(4) In1990s: the vigorous development of Social Historical/Cultural Stylistics
Functional Stylistics and Discourse Stylistics still develop quickly in this period.
The prominent characteristic of this period is the vigorous growth of Social
Historical/Cultural Stylistics, which is highly concerned about the relationship between
language and social ideology, and its interaction with ideology and social structure. For
some people, the task of stylistic analysis is to reveal the inequality and discrimination in
the society.
2.2 Systemic Functional Stylistics (SFS)
2.2.1 Brief Introduction to SFS
Broadly speaking, functional stylistics is the study of the style of language on the
basis of functional linguistic theories. However, it specifically refers to two theories of
stylistics: that based on the linguistic theory of the Prague School and that based on
systemic functional linguistics (SFL). In this thesis it refers concretely to the stylistic
school that takes Halliday’s SFG as analytic framework. Halliday is one of the
forefathers of this genre whose Linguistic functions and literary style: an inquiry into
William Golding’s The inheritors delivered at the Symposium on Literary Style held in
Italy may be seen as the inauguration of functional stylistics. It put forth that the
functional theory of language is a good tool for style study. The functional theory of
language is to explain language structure and phenomenon from the perspective of the
role it plays and the needs it meets in our life. He differentiated the three meta-functions
of language: the ideational function which expresses the speaker’s experiences, the
interpersonal function that manifests the attitude, comments and the relationship of their
interpersonal roles and the textual function that organizes the text. These three functions
correlate with each other as the composing parts of semantic level or semantic potential.
5
2.2.2 The Three Metafunctions
1) The ideational function
The ideational metafunction refers to the kind of language function which expresses
people’s material and mental experiences in the world. A fundamental property of
language is that it enables humans to build a mental picture of reality to understand their
experience of what goes on around them and inside them. And “this metafunction is what
we call the ideational function. To be more specific，it is viewed as the representation of
different Processes” (Halliday,2000: 106).
From the experiential perspective，language comprises a set of resources
for referring to entities in the world and the ways in which those entities
act on or relate to each other. At the simplest level, language reflects our
view of the world as consisting of goings-on (verbs) involving things (nouns) which
may have attributes (adjectives) and which go on against background details of place，
time，manner，etc. (adverbials). (Thompson，2000: 76)
2) The interpersonal function
Language is used to enable people to participate in communicative acts with others,
to take on roles and to express and understand feelings, attitudes and judgments. This
function is known as the Interpersonal Function (Bloor & Bloor, 2003: 9).The
interpersonal function is realized by Mood and Modality.
3) The textual function
The textual function, the third and final strand in Hallidayan SFL—is described as
the “relevance” or the “enabling” function: language is used to organize language itself.
This function provides “the remaining strands of meaning potential to be woven into the
fabric of linguistic structure” (Halliday,2000:34) and “fills the requirement that language
should be operationally relevant ,that is, should have a texture, in real context of situation,
that distinguishes a living message from a mere entry in a grammar or a dictionary”
(ibid). There are three subsystems included in this function. They are thematic structure,
information structure and cohesion and coherence.
6
2.3 Brief Introduction to Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by Nobel Prize winner William Golding. It
discusses how culture created by man fails, taking as an example of a group of British
schoolboys stuck on a desert island who try to govern themselves, but end up with
disastrous results. Its stances on the already controversial subjects of human nature and
individual welfare versus the common good earned it Position 68 on the American
Library Association’s list of the one hundred most frequently challenged books of
1990–1999. In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred
best
English-language
novels
from
1923
to
present
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies#cite_note-0).
Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding’s first novel, and although it was
not an immediate success at the time—selling fewer than three thousand copies in the
United States during 1955 before going out of print—it soon went on to become a
bestseller. By the early 1960s, it was required reading in many schools and colleges. It
was adapted to film in 1963 by Peter Brook, and again in 1990 by Harry Hook.
2.3.1 Summary of the Novel
Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of British boys whose plane crashes on a
desert island in the Pacific Ocean. With no adults, the boys are left to fend for and govern
themselves. The boys range in age from six to twelve, and Ralph, one of the older boys,
becomes “chief” with the assistance of a conch shell.
When the boys get aware and fearful of a “beast” somewhere on the island they
meet their first trouble. So they decide it would be rational to build a fire to signal any
passing ships. To do so, they use the glasses of a boy named Piggy.
Things heat up when the leader of the choir, Jack, jealous of Ralph’s power, decides
the boys should devote their energies to hunting food instead of maintaining the fire. Jack,
among many others, seems to become more and more savage the longer they are on the
island. Meanwhile, another key player, a wise and philosophical boy named Simon,
works with Piggy to build shelters.
It all goes smoothly until the boys who are supposed to be watching the fire skip out
7
on their duties to kill a pig. The scene makes all the boys seem like primitive savages
instead of well-behaved British gentlemen when they come back from the hunting. The
blood and gore of the hunt is all very exciting until they realize that, while they were
hunting, the fire went out and a ship passed by without noticing them. Ralf and Jack had
their first major conflict at this moment.
Right about this time a dead man attached to a parachute blows to the island. The
mysterious parachuting pilot is mistaken for the beast, and the boys begin a massive hunt
to kill it. Simon is the only one who doubts that there is such a creature, believing instead
that the beast is part of them, that their fears are only about themselves. He leaves for the
woods to contemplate the situation while Jack and Ralph ascend the mountain and find
the beast – but don’t stick around long enough to see that it is in fact only a dead man.
Coming back from the hunt, Jack is agitated by Ralf’s “irreverent” remarks about
his hunters and decides Ralph shouldn’t be chief anymore. He and Ralf had their second
most fierce verbal dispute on the island. Failing to overthrow Ralf’s position, Jack
secedes from the union and invites whoever wants to come with him and hunt. Ralph and
Piggy set about building the fire, but realize by the end of it that most of the older
children have gone, presumably to join Jack. During all of this, Simon is hidden in his
meditation spot, watching Jack and his gang hunt a pig. This time, they slaughter a fat
mother pig, cut off her head, and jam it onto a stick in the ground.
Simon stares at the head, which he calls “the Lord of the Flies” as it tells him that it
is the beast and that it is part of him (Simon). Simon faints, gets a bloody nose, and
wakes up covered in sweat, blood, and other disgusting things. Despite all this, he
decides to continue up the mountain to face the beast. Simon discovers that the beast is in
fact just a dead man. Then he vomits and staggers down the mountain.
By now, Ralph and Piggy are attending with all the other boys a big feast that Jack
is throwing. It’s all a frenzied reenactment of the pig hunt until Simon, still bloody,
sweaty, and covered in puke, stumbles down into the center of the crazy boys. He tries to
tell them about the beast, but he is unrecognizable and the boys jab at him with their
spears until he is dead. Again, the boys are portrayed as savage animals.
Simon’s body is washed out to sea that night, as is the body of the dead parachuting
man. Ralph and Piggy later convince themselves they didn’t take part in murdering
8