i

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

NGUYỄN THU HIỀN 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 hệ thống)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi – 2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate of originality i
Acknowledgement ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF TABLES vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Justification of the study 1
2. Aims and Objectives of the study 1
3. Scope of the study 2
4. Method of the study 2
5. Format of the study 3
PART B : DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND…………………………… ……4
1.1 Systemic Functional Grammar 4
1.2 Grammatical Metaphor 5
1.2.1 What is Grammatical metaphor? 5
1.2.2 Classification of Grammatical Metaphor 6
1.2.2.1 Ideational Metaphors 6
1.2.2.2 Interpersonal Metaphors 7
1.3 The Language of Political Discourse 8
1.3.1 Political Discourse 8
1.3.2 The Language of Politics 8
1.3.3 Language, power and ideology 10

3.2.4 Textual Function 28
3.3 Nominalization in President Nguyen Minh Triet’s Speech: Diễn Văn Khai Mạc
Đại Lễ 1000 năm Thăng Long (October, 10
th
, 2010) 30
3.3.1 The Realization of Nominalization 31
3.3.2 Ideational Function 31
3.3.3 Interpersonal Function 33
3.3.4 Textual Function 34
3.4 Concluding Remarks 35
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION:
A CONTRASTIVE COMPARISON…………… ………………… 36
4.1 Introduction 36
4.2 The Similarities and the Differences on Linguistic Properties 36
4.3 The Similarities and the Differences on Cultural Properties 37
PART C : CONCLUSION 40
1. Recapitulation 40
2. Implications 41
3. Limitation and Suggestions for Further Studies 41
REFERENCES 43


discourse. However, the use of this kind of metaphor in political discourse with the role in
the enactment, reproduction, and legitimization of power and domination, may cause
difficulties for the readers or the listeners in understanding what is meant or referred to by
the writer or the speaker. Our thesis is entitled “Nominalization as grammatical metaphor
in Political Discourse in English and Vietnamese from the perspective of Systemic
Functional Grammar”. The choice of our thesis is based on three reasons. Firstly, the
nominalization, as explained in later sections, is the nominalizing process, which is “the
single most powerful resource for creating grammatical metaphor” (Halliday: 1994: 352).
The absence of sufficient research on nominalization as grammatical metaphor in political
discourse poses an interesting challenge for us. Secondly, an insight into the nature and the
functions of nominalization in political discourse can help the researcher to make
comprehensive and comprehensible presentations of nominalization and help readers to
realize its importance for the comprehension of English and Vietnamese political speeches.
Finally, we set out a view of the interrelationship of language and society, with the
emphasis on power and ideology. Ideology is pervasively present in language, that fact
ought to mean that the ideological nature of language should be one of the major themes of
modern social science. Particularly, there is a close connection between a linguistic choice
and a certain ideology maintained by relations of power, and the power phenomenon is
manifested in a variety of linguistic structures.
2. Aims and Objectives of the study
The aim of this study is to make an inquiry into the nature of nominalization in English and
Vietnamese in general. 2 This study also points out the functions of nominalization in political discourse and
therefore explains why nominalization should be given special treatment in working with
this specialized genre. Its impacts on the message content are also explored.


3 5. Format of the study
The paper includes three parts namely Part A- Introduction, Part B- Development and Part
C-Conclusion. Part B is divided into four chapters:
Chapter 1 explores theoretical background of Systemic Functional Grammar, the concept
of Grammatical Metaphor and the Language of Political Discourse.
In chapter 2, the emphasis is on Nominalization in English and Vietnamese as a general
description.
In chapter 3, the focus shifts to Nominalization in political discourse in English and
Vietnamese with a case study on two speeches: one of the President Bush and the other of
the President Nguyen Minh Triet.
Chapter 4 brings focus on a comparative and contrastive analysis between nominalization
in English and Vietnamese to find out both the similarities and the differences. Therefore,
the researcher can suggest some implications for teaching and translating.


161), experiential meanings are accounted for in clauses by the transitivity system. The
transitivity system includes choices of process type and the configurations of possible
participants, process and circumstances which are associated with a particular process type.
Logical meanings are realized by relationships of coordination (or parataxis) and
subordination (or hypotaxis) between clauses and other structure units. The way of
analyzing the clause in terms of process, participants and circumstances produces
constituency structures whereas logical meanings are associated with interdependency
structures. The following example represents an experiential analysis of clause:
Who
has cleaned
the floor?
Actor
Process: material
Goal
Interpersonal metafunction is concerned with the interaction between the speaker and the
addressee(s)- the grammatical resources for enacting social roles in general, speech roles in
particular, in dialogic interaction; i.e. for establishing, changing and maintaining 5 interpersonal relations. The functions within the interpersonal component include giving or
demanding information, expressing intention, assessing degree of probability, expressing
attitude, and so on. These functions have to do with social interaction than with “content”.
The grammar of interpersonal meanings put the focus of clause as a unit of exchange
structured as Subject, Predicator, Complements and Adjuncts. An analysis of a clause from
this perspective can be shown in the following example:
Who
has

between different grammatical categories. The difference in the message is the kind of 6 meaning variation which Halliday (1994) calls Grammatical Metaphor. Therefore,
grammatical metaphor means a substitution of one grammatical class, or one grammatical
structure by another. Similarly, Matthiessen (1995) discusses grammatical metaphor as a
way of expanding the semantic potential of the system; or Thompson (1996) as the
expression of a meaning through a lexical- grammatical form which originally evolved to
express a different kind of meaning. For example:
(a) the index dropped surprisingly sharply
(b) a surprisingly sharp drop in the index
In short, for Halliday and systemic Functionalists, metaphor constitutes a
lexicogrammatical phenomenon; they are the result of realignments in the realizational
relationship between semantic units and grammatical ones that create a complex
relationship between semantics and lexicogrammar. There is, thus, a congruent and an
incongruent or metaphorical realization. It is important to say that there will always be
some semantic features or features distinguishing grammatically metaphorical forms and
their non-metaphorical counterparts (Halliday, 1985).
1.2.2 Classification of Grammatical Metaphor
Halliday (1994) divides grammatical metaphor into metaphors of mood (including
modality) and metaphors of transitivity. In terms of semantic functions, these are,
respectively, interpersonal metaphors and ideational metaphors.
Thompson (1996) classifies grammatical metaphor into logical and experiential metaphors,
interpersonal metaphors and textual metaphors.
In the following sections we will adopt Halliday‟s view in classifying grammatical
metaphors into interpersonal and ideational metaphors.
1.2.2.1 Ideational Metaphors

As we cannot always decide how best to unpack metaphorical meanings, we can identify
the main ways in which grammatical metaphor arises. One of the most important is
nominalization, i.e. the turning of clausal patterns into nominal ones. This type of
grammatical metaphor plays a key role because it involves a realignment of all other
elements of the message. Halliday discusses nominalization- the drift towards
“thinginess”- as a category of ideational metaphor. Halliday (1994: 352) points out the role
of nominalization as follows:
Nominalizing is the single most powerful resource for creating grammatical
metaphor. By this device, processes (congruently worded as verbs) and properties
(congruently worded as adjectives) are reworded metaphorically as nouns; instead of
functioning in the clause, as a Process or Attribute, they function as Thing in the nominal
group.

Ideational metaphors are found in all types of adult discourse. Complete congruency and
complete incongruency are rare (Halliday, 1994: 342). In general, Halliday argues, written
language has more ideational metaphors than spoken discourse. In written language,
various lexical meanings are packed into one single nominal group and metaphor of
transivity makes writing more vivid and expressive.
1.2.2.2 Interpersonal Metaphors
Interpersonal grammatical metaphor focuses on the area of Modality and Mood.
In Metaphors of Modality, the grammatical variation which occurs is based on the
logical-semantic relationship of projection. Whereas modal meanings are congruently
realized in modal elements in the clause (i.e. modal operators, modal adjuncts or mood
adjuncts), interpersonal metaphors are defined by Halliday (1994) as expressing modal 8 meaning outside the clause, for instance, by means of an additional projecting clause. That

Language is a means of communication, a means of representing and shaping argument 9 and political argument is ideological, in that it comes from a series of beliefs. The way
language is used says a great deal about how the idea is shaped, thus when analyzing the
language of a political text, it is important to look at the way the language reflects the
ideological position of those who have created it. Politicians choose their words carefully
because they believe in the power of language to influence thought, and they believe
implicitly in linguistic relativity. Politicians throughout the ages have owed much of their
success to their skillful use of rhetoric, whereby they attempt to persuade their audience of
the validity of their view by their subtle use of elegant and persuasive language. Some of
the linguistic rituals, which are significant features of various political activities and
regarded as potentially ideological, are as following (van Dijk, Fairclough, N., 2001, Jones,
J. & Peccei, J. S., 2004):
(i) Presuppositions are the implicit, taken-for-granted-to-be-true assumptions embedded
within a sentence or phrase.
(ii) Implicatures allow the politician‟s audience to make assumption about the existence of
information that is not made explicit in what the politician actually says. The use of
presupposition and implicature is particularly useful in political discourse because it can
make it more difficult for the audience to identify and (if they wish to) reject views
communicated in this way, and can persuade people to take something for granted which is
actually open to debate.
(iii) Rhetoric is defined as „the art of using language to persuade or influence others; the
body of rules to be observed by a speaker or writer so that he may express himself with
eloquence‟ (Oxford Dictionary as cited in Jones, J. & Peccei, J. S., 2004: 45). Politicians
often use rhetorical figures such as repetition, parallelism, additions, deletion, euphemism
and substitution, which is the case for irony, metonymy and metaphor to increase the

because the nature of the ideological assumptions depends on the power relations which
underlie the conventions; and because they are a means of legitimizing existing social
relations and differences of power. Also, ideologies are closely linked to language, because
using language is the commonest form of social behaviour (Fairclough, N., 2001: 2). The
exercise of power, in modern society, is increasingly achieved through ideology, and more
particularly through the ideological workings of language. The nature of the power
relations acted here is often not clear, and the discourse involves hidden power for the
favored interpretations and wordings are those of the power-holders in our societies.
1.4 Some Basic Characteristics of American and Vietnamese Culture
1.4.1 American Culture
The Americans have strong individualism, especially in economic environment of
capitalism (Levine & Adelman, 1993 as cited in Nguyễn, Q., 2002:213). Because of the
strong individualism, the Westerns or Americans have the psychology of individual-
respecting, wanting to be free to make choice, to pursue their own ideas, which display the
“ego” or the “ironclad, hungry for success” in dealing with the outside world as they like 11 solving the conflicts by using arm forces and always keep in mind the ambition of having
the opponent‟s absolute submission (Trần, N.T., 2008). Besides, the American themselves
always proclaims the virtues of national independence and economic development, they
have the habits of seeking to remark the region in the US image and pretensions about the
universality and superiority of American ideas and ways of doing things (Douglas, 2004).
They want to facilitate American hegemony and the expansion of US power around the
world. Most Americans have continually constructed self-image for themselves as citizens
of benevolent world power acting to support universal principles and interests (Melani,
McA., 2005). Regarding the concept of the “ego”, the Anglicists objectify the “ego” and
regard it as an object (Nguyễn, Q., 2002); therefore, in Anglicist language and culture,


Nominalization is a process of turning a verb or an adjective into a noun (Quirk et al,
1985). In Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (1996), nominalization refers
to any derivation of nouns from another word class, usually verbs or adjectives. According
to Halliday (1985), nominalization refers to any element or group of elements that is made
to function as a noun or a nominal group in the clause, including clauses (finite or non-
finite clauses), nominalized adjectives (the so-called de-adjectival) or verbs (de-verbal). 14 Another definition offered by Dik is that nominalization is an embedded construction
which has one or more properties in common with a primary, nominal term (1997: 157).
He distinguishes two types of nominalization: headed, the embedded construction
adjoined to a nominal head with a rather general meaning such as “fact”, “thing”, or
“circumstance”; and non-headed, the predicate itself taking on certain nominal properties.
Based on the above definitions on nominalization, we can see that in English
nominalization can occur at the different levels such as at the word level (Lexical
nominalization) or at the clause level (Clausal nominalization). For examples:
(1) …the argument to the contrary (Halliday, 1994)
(2) John deplored that Peter had to leave. (Dik, 1997)
(3) I disapproved of John’s drinking. (Dik, 1997)
2.2.2 Categories of Nominalization in English
2.2.2.1 Lexical nominalization
Lexical nominalization: refers to any nominalized word or word group which is derived
from verbs (named de-verbal nominalization) or adjectives (named de-adjectival
nominalization). Most derived nouns are abstract in meaning. Lexical nominalizations are
created by adding suffixes to the roots. Nominalizing suffixes in English are listed below;
the symbols V and A in the list show whether the noun is derived from a verb or an
adjective respectively.

accuracy, adequacy, infancy
boredom, freedom, wisdom
devotee, absentee, employee
actor, writer, visitor
bravery, refinery, robbery
likelihood 15 -hood
-ing

-ism
-ity
-ment
-ness
-tion
-ure
state of being A
action/ instance of V-ing,
place or material
ideology, movement, tendency
state or quality of being A
action or instance of V-ing
state or quality of being A
action or instance of V-ing
feeling, meeting, training
building, landing, crossing

catch
cheat

walk
someone who is A
someone who is A

something that is V-ed
someone who V-s

act of V-ing
presidential hopefuls
they speak like the whites do
in the South
they had a fine catch of fish
…accused him of being a
cheat
we can go for a walk later
(Biber, Conrad, & Leech, 2009: 91) 16 Derived nouns can occupy the functions of nouns such as subject, object, complement of
sentences, and complement in prepositional phrases. For example:
The conventionalist system lacks the capacity to reach anything like the flexibility of
pragmatism, because any relaxation would inevitably involve the defeat of publicly
encouraged expectation. (Biber, Conrad, & Leech, 2009)
2.2.2.2 Clausal nominalization


wh-words, except that whether is used only with interrogatives. Nominal relative clauses
can be paraphrased with a general head noun and relative clause. Exclamative wh-clauses
begin with how + adjective or what as a pre-determiner (Biber, Conrad, & Leech, 2009:
322). Exclamative wh-clauses are less common than the other types.
Wh-clauses can occur as subject, object, subject predicate or as complement of adjectives,
prepositions or nouns. For examples:
(1) I was thinking how nice you are, what a good actor, and what a nice man.
(2) What he did was surprising.
(3) That‟s why I returned to the village.
(4) It was incredible what had happened to them.
(5) His parents were proud of what he had done.
(6) We have no knowledge of where it came from.
(iii) To-infinitive clauses
To infinitive complement clauses are more common in the written register than in
conversation. They are used to report speech, mental states, intention, desires, efforts,
perceptions, and other general actions. They often occur in post-predicate and subject
predicate position. However, they can also occur in subject position and in extraposed
construction, or function as nouns complement (Biber, Conrad, & Leech, 2009: 328). For
examples:
(1)I‟m just trying to get away early.
(2)A fourth challenge is to develop management arrangements within hospital.
(3)I‟m not sure it‟s necessary to ask you not to pass any information on to the
Communist.
(4)[…] „To take away the profits of crime is one thing; to seize the assets that have no
connection with crime is another.
(5) Last year the society‟s committee made a decision to relaunch in a bid to attract
more members.
(iv) V-ing clauses
Ing-complement clauses serve a wide range of functions. They are often used with verbs

is considered among Vietnamese-speaking people that nominalization is characteristic for
official and socio-political writings. On the whole, by means of the adaptation of certain
morphemes, nomimalized nouns can be found at the word level (Lexical nominalization)
or at the clause level (Clausal nominalization). For examples:
(1) Việc điều tra vụ giết người đang được cảnh sát tiến hành.
(2) Điều anh nói làm cô ấy rất buồn.
1.4.3.2 Categories of Nominalization in Vietnamese
1.4.3.2.1 Lexical Nominalization
Lexical nominalization, nominalization at word level, is the formation of a new noun from
a verb or an adjective by the adaptation of such morphemes or the so-called “nominal 19 preffixes” (Trần, H.M., 2005) or “nominalizers” as cái, nỗi, niềm, sự, việc, cuộc, điều,
điềm, tính, etc. These morphemes can be lexical-meaningful or meaning-empty. These
nominalized nouns can create the meaning of quality or the meaning of action.
Verbs can be converted into abstract nouns or the names of actions by the adaptation of
such nominalizers as sự, việc, cuộc with a clause with or without subject. They are those
which belong to three groups (Trần, H.M., 2005:439-40):
(i) state, achievement and accomplishment verbs; for example: sự phá hủy
“destruction” [ phá hủy “destroy”]
(ii) action verbs; for example: việc học “learning” [học “learn”]
(iii) verbs denoting finished actions; for example: việc điều tra “investigation” [điều
tra “investigate”]
Adjectives can also be nominalized to express mental phenomenon by nominalizers like
nỗi, niềm (Diệp, Q. B., 2005: 487); for examples: niềm vui “happiness” [vui “happy”], tính
hiền lành “gentleness” [hiền lành “gentle”]
Adjectives can also be nominalized to express quality by nominalizers such as tính, tính

meaning together with của +complement.
In addition to the nominalizing process by adding nominalizers to the front adjectives or
verbs, some words such as bó, chồng, gợn, xiên, etc. are verbs per se but they can be turned
into nouns or classifiers in particular as in bó (củi), chồng (sách), gợn (sóng), xiên (cá).
The list includes 25 words (Diệp, Q. B, 2005: 489). Furthermore, like the case of converted
nouns in English, in Vietnamese, some verbs or adjectives can be used as nouns without
any addition of any morpheme. They can be realized as a verb, an adjective or a noun in
context. For example: “Đầu óc căng thẳng vì tiếng bom, tiếng đạn, tiếng rú và trong mỗi
một người đều phải trải qua những bực tức, giận dữ, lo âu và cả sợ sệt nữa” (Bùi, M., T.,
1999).
Besides the nominal prefixes mentioned above, there are some more words that are used
for the purpose of nominalization. A rather long list of such morphemes and various
interpretations of them (Hoàng Trọng Fiến 1970, cited in Lev Morev, 2005) testifies that
up to now there are no strict common linguistic rules of nominalization in Vietnamese (Lev
Morev, 2005: 458).
1.4.3.2.2 Clausal Nominalization
According to Trần Hữu Mạnh (2005) and Nguyễn Kim Thản (2008), a clause, which
includes Subject and Predicate, can be nominalized by adding the nominalizer
“Việc/Điều/Cách” to the clause; therefore, it can function as a noun or noun group.
Its structure will be “ Việc/Điều/Cách + subject + predicate” as in:
Anh lên tiếng là đúng. → Việc anh lên tiếng là đúng.
Cậu nói rất đúng. → Điều cậu nói rất đúng.