Nominalization as grammatical metaphor in political discourse in English and VietNamese from the perspective of systemic functional grammar = Nghiên cứu danh hóa như một hình thức ẩn dụ ngữ pháp trong các diễn văn chính trị tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt theo quan điểm ngữ pháp chức năng của hệ thống. M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 22 15

Abstract

Halliday (1998a) points out that grammatical metaphor of nominalization is as the main lexicogrammatical characteristic of the academic language. Grammatical metaphor of nominalization is a resource language used to condense information by expressing concepts in incongruent form which is very valued as a way of expressing “objectification”, abstraction”, “mystification”, a mark of prestige and power. Nominalization has been of particular importance in the evolution of academic language. Especially, in political discourse, nominalization has ideological functions such as deleting agency, reifying processes, creating cohesion and exerting power. Therefore, it has a great contribution to three metafunctions namely, ideational, interpersonal and textual. This thesis is an attempt to explore nominalization in English and Vietnamese in theory and in a specific political discourse in English and one in Vietnamese. The analysis of nominalization gives some indication of beliefs and ideologies. And these beliefs and ideologies need to be corroborated through the consideration of the situational and socio-cultural contexts. Additionally, by comparing nominalization in these two languages, we work out the similarities and differences on linguistic and cultural properties. This exploration enables us to have a better understanding of nominalization in English and Vietnamese and helpful to the reading or to the translating of political discourse to some extent.