4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT i
ACKNOWLEDGE ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENT iv
FIGURES AND TABLES vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale 1
2. Scope of study 2
3. Aims of study 2
4. Significance 2
5. Methodology 3
6. Design of study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Martin Luther King and the speech ‗I have a dream‘ 5
1.2 An overview of CDA 6
1.2.1 History
1.2.2 Definition
1.2.3 Methodology for CDA – the three-dimensional framework
1.3 SFG and its role in relationship with CDA 9
1.3.1 SFG and its role in relationship with CDA
1.3.2 SFG and the three meta-functions of language

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FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1: Fairclough´s dimension of discourse and discourse analysis 8
Figure 2: Fragment of the mood system in English 14
Table 1: Overview of process types 12
Table 2: The primary speech roles 13
Table 3: Components of a multiple theme 16
Table 4: Summary of transitivity analysis data 23
Table 5: Modal verbs 28
Table 6: Tense 30
Table 7: Theme 31
Table 8: Summary of analysis and findings 38
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The study is beyond the scope of verbal aspects and social context when the speech
was delivered. Although paralinguistic factors such as intonation and stress, and
extra-linguistic factors such as facial expressions and eye contacts, are very important
in the speech, they are excluded in this study.
This research is linguistic study, and my own political view and my own support are
not expressed.
The paper mainly focuses on Transitivity and Modality which are used in the speech
with high frequency to uncover the relationship between the power, ideology and
language.

3. Aims of study
The aims of the study are:
- To provide a support to the theory of CDA and SFG.
- To uncover the power and ideology hidden behind the speech ‗I have a dream‘ by
M. L. King in the light of CDA and SFG.
- To offer some suggestions for teaching and learning language.

4. Significance
- The paper reaffirms the relationship between power, ideology and language.
- CDA is an effective approach to uncover the power and ideology hidden behind
the text.
- The research is also a contribution to language teaching and learning.
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5. Methodology

In Chapter 2, the theory of CDA and SFG in Chapter 1 are applied in analyzing the
speech to uncover the relationship between power, ideology and language. In this
part, transitivity and modality of meta-functions are mainly focused.
3. Some suggestions for teaching and learning language
In Chapter 3, some suggested activities used to improve teaching and learning
language are mentioned.

Part C: Conclusion
1. Summary of findings
In this part, principal findings are summarized.
2. Suggestions for further studies
Suggestions for further research are given.

References
Appendices

In this part, the history, definition and methodology with three dimensional framework of
CDA are mentioned.

1.2.1. History
In the 1970s, a form of discourse and text analysis that recognized the role of language in
structuring power relations in society emerged. At that time, much linguistic research
elsewhere was focused on formal aspects of language which constituted the linguistic
competence of speakers and which could theoretically be isolated from specific instances
of language use (Chomsky 1957). Where the relation between language and context was
considered, as in pragmatics (Levinson 1983), with a focus on speakers‘ pragmatic/
sociolinguistic competence, sentences and components of sentences were still regarded as
the basic units. Much sociolinguistic research at the time was aimed at describing and
explaining language variation, language change and the structures of communicative
interaction, with limited attention to issues of social hierarchy and power (Hymes 1972).
In such a context, attention to texts, their production and interpretation and their relation
to societal impulses and structures, signaled a very different kind of interest. The work of
Kress/ Hodge (1979), Fowler/ Kress/ Hodge/ Trew (1979), Van Dijk (1985) Fairclough
(1989) and Wodak (ed.) (1989) serve to explain and illustrate the main assumptions,
principles and procedures of what had then become known as Critical Linguistics.
An account of the theoretical foundations and sources of Critical Linguistics is given by
Kress (1990, 84-97). He indicates that the term CL was ‗quite self-consciously adapted‘
(1990, 88) from its social-philosophical counterpart, as a label by the group of scholars
working at the University of East Anglia in the 1970s (see also Wodak 1996a,
Blommaert/ Bulcaen 2000). By the 1990s the label CDA came to be used more
consistently to describe this particular approach to linguistic analysis. Kress (1990, 94)
shows how CDA was by that time ‗emerging as a distinct theory of language, a radically
different kind of linguistics. ‗He lists the criteria that characterize work in the Critical
Discourse Analysis paradigm, illustrating how these distinguish such work from other
politically engaged types of discourse analysis. Fairclough/ Wodak (1997) took these


ideology hidden behind the text.

1.2.3. Methodology for CDA – the three-dimensional framework

Figure 1:
Fairclough´s dimension of discourse and discourse analysis (Janks 1997:27)

In Figure 1: Inner square= 1st dimension (Text analysis/ Description)
Middle square= 2nd dimension (Processing analysis/ Interpretation)
Outer square= 3rd dimension (Social analysis/ Explanation)
The first dimension represents the discourse fragment, i.e. ‗the object of analysis
(including verbal, visual or verbal and visual texts) (Janks 1997: 26)‘. This first stage is
called ‗text analysis‘ or description. In the dimension, the text is analyzed in the terms of
vocabulary, grammar and textual structures, and a number of suggested questions
mentioned in Fairclough (2001 92-3).
The second dimension can be described as the aspect of context, or even the place where
struggles over power relations in discourse happen. This second is called ‗processing

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analysis‘ or interpretation. Interpretation is concerned with the relationship between text
and interaction. (Fairclough 2001:21-2)
The third dimension of discourse could be described as ´power behind discourse` or as
social practices, because it is containing ‗the socio-historical conditions that govern these
processes‘ (Janks 1997: 26). This third dimension is called ‗social analysis‘ or
explanation. Explanation is concerned with the relationship between interaction and
social context. It tries to show how discourses are determined by social structures, and
what reproductive effects discourses can have on those structures, sustaining them or
changing them (Fairclough 2001:21-2)
Despite some criticisms, CDA has interested linguists because CDA in most of situations
with the underprivileged, the dominated and attempts to reveal the linguistic means

within the systems of formal linguistic features made available by language. SFG takes a
modified social constructivist view of language, claiming not only that we use language
to construct reality, but also that language is socially formed: that is, there is a dialectical
relationship between society and language.
That means both SFG and CDA functionally to textual analysis through studying
grammar and other aspects of language form, and they also study the relationship
between the text and the social context. Hence, it is obvious that SFG has an important
role in CDA.

1.3.2. SFG and the three meta-functions of language
Halliday claims that the procedure of stylistic analysis can be divided into three logically
ordered phrases: Analysis, Interpretation and Evaluation. The limitless practical functions
can be generalized into a set of highly coded and abstract functions—meta-functions,
which are inherent in every language. His idea of meta-function includes the ideational
function, the interpersonal function and the textual function.

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1.3.2.1. The ideational function
The ideational metafunction is divided into two: experiential and logical metafunctions.
The experiential metafunction organizes our experience and understanding of the world.
It is the potential of the language to construe figures with elements (such as screen shots
of a moving picture or pictures of a comic novel) and its potential to differentiate these
elements into processes, the participants in these processes, and the circumstances in
which the processes occur. The logical metafunction works above the experiential. It
organizes our reasoning on the basis of our experience. It is the potential of the language
to construe logical links between figures; for example, "this happened after that
happened" or, with more experience, "this happens every time that happens".
According to Halliday, with this function, the speaker and writer embodies in language
his experience of the phenomena of the real world; and this includes his experience of the
internal world of his own consciousness: his reactions, cognitions, and perceptions, and

Existential processes represent that something exists or happens. In every existential
process, there is an Existent.
Process types
Category meanings
Participants
Example
Material:
Action
Event
‗doing‘
‗doing‘
‗happening‘
Actor, Goal, Recipient
The mayor dissolved the
committee.
The mayor resigned.
Behavioural
‗behaving‘
Behaver
(Phenomenon)
She cried softly.
Mental:
Perception
Affection
Cognition
‗feeling‘
‗sensing‘
‗emotive‘
‗thinking‘
Sensor, Phenomenon

darker pattern.
Table 1: Overview of process types (adapted from Halliday, 1994)

1.3.2.2. The interpersonal function
As Halliday observed, the speaker is using language as the means of his own intrusion
into the speech event: the expression of his comments, attitudes and evaluations, and also
of the relationship that he sets up between himself and the listener—in particular, the
communication role that he adopts of informing, questioning, greeting, persuading, and
the like. (Halliday, 1971:333)
The interpersonal function consists of all uses of language to express social and personal
relations, including the various ways the speaker enters a speech situation and performs a
speech act. The primary speech roles can be represented with the table drawn by Halliday
(1994):
Commodity exchange

Role in exchange

(a) Goods-&-services

(b) Information
(i) giving
‗offer‘
Would you like this tea pot?
‗statement‘
He‘s giving her the tea pot.
(ii) demanding
‗command‘
Give me that tea pot.
‗question‘
What is he giving her?
Interrogative Declarative Inclusive Exclusive

‗wh‘ yes/ no

Figure 2: Fragment of the mood system in English
(Hoang Van Van 1994:55)

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According to Halliday, mood consists of two parts: the Subject and the finite operator.
Modality refers to the intermediate ranges between the extreme positive and the extreme
negative. It is one of the most important systems in social communication. On the one
hand, it can objectively express the speaker‘s judgment toward the topic. On the other
hand, it can show the social role relationship, scale of formality and power relationship.
In English, except modal verbs such as ‗can‘, ‗could‘, ‗will‘, ‗must‘ and ‗should‘, modal
adverbs such as ‗still‘, ‗absolutely‘ and ‗really‘, adjectives, there are also personal
pronouns, notional verbs, tense, direct and indirect speeches to express the modalization.
1.3.2.3. The textual function
For this function, Halliday described, ―Language makes links between itself and the
situation; and discourse becomes possible because the speaker or writer can produce a
text and the listener or reader can recognize one‖ (Halliday, 1971:334).
This function refers to coherence. It means even though two sentences may have exactly
the same ideational and interpersonal functions, they may be different in terms of textual
coherence.
According to Halliday 1971, The textual function fulfils the requirement that language
should be operationally relevant, having texture in a real context of situation that
distinguishes a living passage from a mere entry in a grammar book or a dictionary. It
provides the remaining strands of meaning potential to be woven into the fabric of
linguistic structure. Information can be clearly expressed in a discourse. It can also be

interpersonal theme
Modal (adjunct)
Finite (operator)
WH- (interrogative)
Vocative element
Surely, maybe
Don‘t, would
What, who
Soldier, Ann
Table 3: Components of a multiple theme (adapted from Halliday, 1994:54)
Theme may be marked or unmarked. A marked theme is a usual or typical one. An
unmarked theme is an unusual one.
For example:
In Declarative clause, an unmarked theme is one that is similar to the subject. A marked
theme is one relates to Complement, Adjunct or Predicator.
In Interrogative WH- question, a marked theme appears when WH- word or group does
not come in the first position.
In Imperative clause, a marked theme appears when ‗YOU‘ is included.
To know how theme choices work together through a text to signal its underlying
coherence, there are four possible main, related functions: (Thompson, 1996)
1. Signaling the maintenance or progression of ‗what the text is about‘ at that point.
This is especially done through the choice of Subject as unmarked Theme:

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maintenance is done by keeping to the same theme as preceding clause,
progression often by selecting a constituent from the preceding rheme.
2. Specifying or changing the framework for the interpretation of the following
clause (or clauses). This is mostly done by the choice of marked theme, especially
adjunct, or a thematic equative or predicated theme. A ‗heavy‘ subject theme,
giving a large amount of information, can also be used for this purpose.

joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. ///
(8) // But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. (9) // One hundred years
later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the
chains of discrimination. (10) // One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely
island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. (11) /// One hundred
years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society (12) // and
finds himself an exile in his own land. (13) // And so we've come here today to dramatize
a shameful condition. ///
(14) // In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. (15) /// When the
architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the
Declaration of Independence, (16) // they were signing a promissory note to (17) // which
every American was to fall heir. (18) /// This note was a promise (19) // that all men, yes,
black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life,

25
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (20) /// It is obvious today that America has
defaulted on this promissory note, (21) // insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.
(22) /// Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a
bad check, a check (23) // which has come back marked "insufficient funds." ///
(24) /// But we refuse to believe (25) // that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (25) /// We
refuse to believe (26) // that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity
of this nation. (27) /// And so, we've come to cash this check, a check (28) // that will give
us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. ///
(29) // We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency
of Now. (30) /// This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off (31) // or to take the
tranquilizing drug of gradualism. (32) // Now is the time to make real the promises of
democracy. (33) /// Now is the time to rise from the dark (34) // and desolate valley of
segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. (35) // Now is the time to lift our nation
from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. (36) // Now is
the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. ///

victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. (74) /// We can never be satisfied as
long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, (75) // cannot gain lodging in the
motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. (76) /// We cannot be satisfied (77) //
as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. (78) /// We
can never be satisfied (79) // as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood (80) //
and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." (81) /// We cannot be
satisfied (82) // as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote (83) // and a Negro in New
York believes (84) // he has nothing for which to vote. (85) /// No, no, we are not
satisfied, (86) // and we will not be satisfied (87) //until "justice rolls down like waters,
and righteousness like a mighty stream." ///
(88) /// I am not unmindful (89) // that some of you have come here out of great trials and
tribulations. (90) // Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. (91) /// And
some of you have come from areas (92) // where your quest quest for freedom left you
battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. (93)

27
// You have been the veterans of creative suffering. (94) /// Continue to work with the
faith (95) // that unearned suffering is redemptive. (96) /// Go back to Mississippi, (97) //
go back to Alabama, (98) // go back to South Carolina, (99) // go back to Georgia, (100)
// go back to Louisiana, (101) // go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities,
knowing (102) // that somehow this situation can and will be changed. ///
(103) /// Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, (104) // I say to you today, my
friends. ///
(105) /// And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, (106) // I
still have a dream. (107) // It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. ///
(108) /// I have a dream (109) // that one day this nation will rise up and (110) live out the
true meaning of its creed: (111) /// "We hold these truths to be self-evident, (112) // that
all men are created equal." ///
(113) /// I have a dream (114) // that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the

will be able to sing with new meaning:
(144) // My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
(145) // Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
(146) // From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
(147) /// And if America is to be a great nation, (148) // this must become true. ///
(149) // And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. //
(150) // Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. //
(151) // Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. //
(152) // Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. //
(153) // Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. //