VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
DO KIM PHUONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STRUCTURE
AND MEANING OF GEOLOGICAL TEXTBOOKS
AS A GENRE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU CẤU TRÚC
VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CÁC GIÁO TRÌNH ĐỊA CHẤT
NHƯ MỘT THỂ LOẠI TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
NGHIÊN CỨU CẤU TRÚC
VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CÁC GIÁO TRÌNH ĐỊA CHẤT
NHƯ MỘT THỂ LOẠI TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 62.22.15.01

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION OF ENGLISH
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. HOANG VAN VAN Hanoi, 2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.1. Generic structure of English geological textbooks………………….…… 53

III
2.1.1. The organization of English geological textbooks………… …………… 54
2.1.2. Generic features of English geological textbooks……………………… …56
2.1.2.1. Generic structure of the Introduction Parts…………………………….….57
2.1.2.2. Generic structure of the Body Parts………………………………… …58
2.1.2.2.1. Classifying or decomposing…………………………………………… 58
2.1.2.2.2. Describing…………………………………………………………… 60
2.1.2.2.3. Explanation…………………………………………………………… 62
2.1.3. The organization of the Body Parts……………………………… ……… 65

2. 2. Linguistic features of English geological textbooks……………………….68
2. 2. 1. Transitivity analysis of Introduction Parts and Body Parts……………… 68
2.2.1.1. Transitivity analysis of the Introduction Parts………………… …… …68
2.2.1.2. Transitivity analysis of the Body Parts……………………… ………72
2. 2. 2. Mood analysis of Introduction Parts and Body Parts…………… ………80
2. 2. 2. 1. Mood analysis of the Introduction Parts……………… ……….….… 80
2. 2. 2. 2. Mood analysis of the Body Parts…………… …….………….……… 83
2. 2. 3. Thematic analysis of Introduction Parts and Body Parts………… 86
2. 2. 3.1. Thematic analysis of the Introduction Parts…………………………… 86
2. 2. 3.2. Thematic analysis of the Body Parts……………………… ………… 90
2. 3. Summary……………………………………………………………….…… 96

CHAPTER 3: GENERIC STRUCTURE AND LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF
VIETNAMESE GEOLOGICAL TEXTBOOKS
3.1. Generic structure of Vietnamese geological textbooks…………………….98
3.1.1. The organization of Vietnamese geological textbooks………………… 99
3.1.2. Generic features of Vietnamese geological textbooks…………………… 101
3.1.2.1. Generic structure of the Introduction Parts………………………………101

4.4. Comparison of thematic structure of English and Vietnamese geological
Introduction Parts and Body Parts………………………… …………… …….142
4.4. 1. Comparison of thematic structure in English and Vietnamese clauses in
different metafunctions…………………………………………………… …….142
4.4.1.1. The boundary between Theme and Rheme in English and Vietnamese
clauses………………………………………………………………………… 142
4.4.1.2. Single theme …………………………………………………….……….144

V
4.4.1.2.1. Topical Theme…………………………………………………… ….144
4.4.1.2.2. Interpersonal Theme……………………………………………… …146
4.4.1.2.3. Textual Theme……………………………………………………… 149
4.4.1.3. Multiple theme …………………………………………………….…….152
4.4.2. Comparison of thematic structure ……………………………… ……….155
4.4.2.1. Comparison of thematic structure in terms of markedness………… ….155
4.4.2.2. Comparison of thematic structure in terms of realization…………… …159
4.4.2.2.1. Subject Themes………………………………………………… ……159
4.4.2.2.2. Complement Themes………………………………………………… 161
4.4.2.2.3. Adjunct Themes…………………………………………………… …162
4.5. Discussion of the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese
geological textbooks…………………………………………………………… 164
4.5.1. Generic and linguistic similarities…………………………….……… …164
4.5.1.1. Generic similarities………………………………………………………164
4.5.1.2. Linguistic similarities…………………………………………………….167
4.5.2. Generic and linguistic differences……………………………………….…172
4.5.2.1. Generic differences…………………………………… ……………….172
4.5.2.2. Linguistic differences…………………………………………………….173
4. 6. Summary………….…………………………………………………… … 174

PART III: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………… 177
CHAPTER 2: GENERIC STRUCTURE AND LINGUISTIC
FEATURES OF ENGLISH GEOLOGICAL TEXTBOOKS

Table 2.1. Distribution of moves in the five English Introduction Parts
58
Table 2.2. Combination of four-move introduction structure and the
process type
69
Table 2.3. The Transitivity analysis of the Introduction Parts (illustrated by
clause)
71
Table 2.4. The Transitivity analysis of the Introduction Parts (illustrated by
percentage)
72
Table 2.5.The Transitivity analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by clause)
79
Table 2.6. The Transitivity analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by
percentage)
79
Table 2. 7. The Mood analysis of the Introduction Parts (illustrated by
clause)
82
Table 2. 8. The Mood analysis of the Introduction Parts (illustrated by
percentage)
83
Table 2.9. The Mood analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by clause)
85
Table 2.10. The Mood analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by

112
Table 3.5. The Transitivity analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by
clause)
117
Table 3.6. The Transitivity analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by
percentage)
117
Table 3.7. The Mood analysis of the Introduction Parts (illustrated by
clause)
119
Table 3.8. The Mood analysis of the Introduction Parts (illustrated by
percentage)
120
Table 3.9. The Mood analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by clause)
121
Table 3.10. The Mood analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by
percentage)
122
Table 3.11. The Thematic analysis of the Introduction Parts (illustrated by
clause)
124
Table 3.12. The Thematic analysis of the Introduction Parts (illustrated by
percentage)
125

X
Table 3.13. The Thematic analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by clause)
129
Table 3.14. The Thematic analysis of the Body Parts (illustrated by
percentage)

Table 4.10. Most common Conjunctions functioned as textual Themes in
Vietnamese geological textbooks
151
Table 4.11. Combination of textual and interpersonal Themes in English
geological textbooks
153
Table 4.12. Combination of textual and interpersonal Themes in
Vietnamese geological textbooks
153
Table 4.13. Similarities and differences between types of Themes in
English and Vietnamese clauses as of different metafunctions
154
Table 4.14. Unmarked Themes in English and Vietnamese geological
textbooks
157

XI
Table 4.15. Marked Themes in English and Vietnamese geological
textbooks
157
Table 4.16. Fronted Predicators function as the unmarked Themes in
Vietnamese declarative clauses
158
Table 4.17. Realization of Subject Themes in English and Vietnamese
geological textbooks
159
Table 4.18. Realization of Complement Themes in English and Vietnamese
geological textbooks
161
Table 4.19. Types of Themes and their realizations in English and

can see only what is happening at a single geological instant in time. Because of this
constraint, the inference of geologic processes relies heavily upon the fundamental
assumption that spatial variation can be interpreted as temporal evolution. In other
words, we assume that the same process can be found in various stages of
advancement in different places and that therefore we can piece together
observations made in different places to infer a temporal evolution of that process.

Second, geology deals with large-scale and complex systems for which controlled
experiments are difficult if not impossible to construct. Thus, the observation and
description of natural features acquire proportionately more importance than they
have in most other sciences.

Third, the fact that geologic evidence is fragmentary and incomplete makes any of
the inferences drawn from the data non-unique and highly dependent upon our
intuition and experience. Despite these differences, the methods employed by
geologists to investigate the Earth are philosophically much the same as those used
in other realms of science.

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Concerning the discourse of geology, it remains a separate subject area, with a focus
on natural geological phenomena and events. For the most part its discourse is
indistinguishable from that used in science, the main difference being the absence of
experiments to illustrate the scientific world view constructed in introductory
textbooks. Geology as explained to students is very explicit about its goals. The
three stages geologists have to deal with are: to observe, order and explain the
experiential world.

From the point of view of ESP teaching and learning, geological textbooks in
English and Vietnamese have never been exploited by any Vietnamese linguists so
far. It is presumably clear that to be effective, such an adaptation must be firmly

textbook-geological textbooks. The second task of the research is to examine
linguistic analysis in terms of Transitivity, Mood, and Theme using systemic
functional grammar as a theoretical framework. A comparison from the systemic
functional perspective would show the similarities as well as differences in generic
structure and linguistic features of geological textbooks in the two languages. This
research, hopefully, would be a worthwhile effort to provide a more articulate
insight into ESP teaching and learning; and to serve as a framework for
implicational purposes, which can be both theoretical and practical.

In terms of theoretical values, this research would be the first step in the
investigation of the English and Vietnamese geological textbooks from a systemic
functional perspective. Though the systemic functional linguistics model has won
international interest and support from linguists for nearly forty years, the
application of this linguistic approach in the study of Vietnamese can only be found
in the work of a small number of Vietnamese linguists such C. X. Hao (1991);
H.V.Van (1997, 2002) and D.Q. Ban (2005).

As regards practical purposes, a focus on generic structure and linguistic features of
geological textbooks in both English and Vietnamese can have startling and
immediate results in ESP teaching and learning. Martin (1990) states ―when the
students‘ texts are difficult to follow and it is hard to pinpoint exactly what they are
reading or writing about, the problem often originates in the nature of the language
used in the texts or the linguistic features to be exact‖. Once language learners

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understand how the ordering of language elements works in the language to orient
the audience and to signpost and organize meanings, they have gained a powerful
tool for managing the meanings of texts which are just beyond their current level of
language proficiency. In other words, an understanding of structure and meaning of
a text can increase the comprehensible input accessible to students, especially when


As stated above this dissertation focuses on the investigation into generic structure
and linguistic features of geological textbooks in English and Vietnamese. The
theoretical framework on which the study is based is that of the systemic functional
linguistics (hereafter abbreviated to ―SFL‖), a model of language as developed by
M.A.K. Halliday, and other systemicists. Generic structure is examined based on
the theories as observed by Bhatia (1993) and Martin (1990). In terms of linguistic
analysis, the research restricts itself to the analysis of the Transitivity, Mood, and
Theme of the texts chosen for the study. Therefore, the analysis of the texts in terms
of the issues such as cohesion, reference, substitution, ellipsis, lexical cohesion, etc.
are out of the scope of this research.

3. METHODOLOGY

The main methods employed in this study are descriptive, analytic, and contrastive.
It is descriptive because in comparing the generic structure and linguistic features of
geological textbooks in English and Vietnamese, we need to establish a common
theoretical framework; and in order to understand and use this framework
effectively we have to describe it in detail by either re-examining the existing
concepts or, in case of need developing the new ones. In our study, we will re-
examine the notion of genre, genre analysis as developed by Bhatia (1993),
Halliday and Martin (1993). As our study is concerned mainly with the generic and
linguistic analyses of the five Introduction Parts and Body Parts, it will present the
analyses of these parts in terms of Transitivity, Mood, and Theme. Finally,
contrastive method is applied to find out what are the similarities and differences
between English and Vietnamese Introduction Parts and Body Parts. 6
We use the contrastive method because we want to establish the similarities and


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The corpus selected for the study is five English and Vietnamese Introduction Parts
and five English and Vietnamese Body Parts. The English and Vietnamese
geological textbooks chosen for the study have to be based on the three following
principles:
(i) representative: geological textbooks in English and Vietnamese are
various consisting of different subjects and are written by different authors. To meet
the requirement of the representative, we chose textbooks of the main subjects in
geology including physical geology, tectonics, and Earth science in English and
Vietnamese. In a chosen textbook, we chose the contents having the representative
in both English and Vietnamese (the Introduction Parts, the Body Parts) and the
samples are of the same contents in both English and Vietnamese.
(ii) authentic: English and Vietnamese geological textbooks are written by
well-known authors, geologists. They are newly-published. They have been used as
main textbooks in Vietnam, the USA, Canada, many English-speaking countries.
The samples are authentic and original.
(iii) adequate/comprehensive: the size of the samples for the study is
considered appropriate to obtain the accurate results. They are neither too big nor
two small. The total number of clauses in the five English and Vietnamese
Introduction Parts is 124 clauses and 198 clauses respectively. The total number of
clauses in the five English and Vietnamese Body Parts is 657 clauses and 449
clauses respectively. The detailed analyses of the Introduction Parts and Body Parts
in terms of clauses, Transitivity, Mood, Theme, and the text analyses are
represented in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2.

The reason for the choice is that the generic structure and linguistic features of
geological textbooks in English and Vietnamese have not been studied especially in
systemic functional linguistics. After establishing the locus of genre, Transitivity,
Mood, and Theme in English and Vietnamese geological textbooks in the
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4. DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion, the study is organized into four
chapters.

The Introduction outlines the rationale of the study has been conducted; the aim
and scope of the study; the methodology, and the design of the study.

Chapter 1 attempts to establish the theoretical framework for the study. It concerns
itself with the notion of genre and how it is conceptualized from different linguistic
approaches. The review of genre from different linguistic approaches leads to the
exploration of generic structure of geological textbooks in English in SFL. The key
concepts in systemic functional linguistics are examined to provide a clear picture
of the linguistic model and also point out where the systems of Transitivity, Mood,
and Theme are located in the linguistic space. The aim is to show the notion of
genre and generic structure as well as linguistic features of geological textbooks in
English and Vietnamese.

Chapter 2 is concerned with the investigation into the generic structure and
linguistic features of the five English geological Introduction Parts and Body Parts.
The generic analysis deals with the nature of the two main functions of textbooks
exploited in English geological textbooks. The linguistic analysis is carried out in
terms of Transitivity, Mood, and Theme. This Chapter shows the inter-relationship
between the generic structure and the linguistic features of the English geological
textbooks.

Chapter 3 looks at the generic structure and linguistic features of the five
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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This Chapter is to review the theoretical bases relevant to the present study: genre
analysis and the framework of systemic-functional grammar. As a way of start, we
will take a look at the notions of genre, and genre analysis made as they are
understood by scholars such as Jamieson and Campbell (1978), Miller (1994),
Martin (1985, 1990, 1993, 2001), Preston (1986), Swales (1990), Bhatia (1993),
Halliday (1993) and many others. Then we will discuss the most relevant concepts
of the systemic-functional grammar, which provide the theoretical framework for
our analyses in the Chapters that follow.

1.1. Genre and genre analysis

1. 1. 1. The notion of genre

The notion of genre has its origin in literary studies. It has been understood
differently by different scholars. Swales (1990) for example, believes that the term
‗genre‖ has been maladroidly used and genre remains a fuzzy concept, a somewhat
loose term of art. He explains that the term became worse especially in the US as
genre has in recent years become associated with a disreputably formulaic way of

approach to academic English are of three main points.

First, the classifying of genre is seen as having some limited use, but as an archival
of typological convenience rather than as a discovery procedure. Second, a
community, whether social or discoursal, will often view genres as a means to an
end. Third, a community‘s perceptions of how a text is generically interpreted is of
considerable importance to the analyst.

In the concern with the use of genre in literary studies, Swales indicates that
folklorists may have special historicist reasons for holding onto the permanence of
form. In contrast, literary criticizes and theorists may have special reasons for de-
emphasizing stability, since their scholarly activity is typically designed to show
how the chosen author breaks the mould of convention and so establishes

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significance and originality. He also emphasizes that actual literary practice in the
twentieth century would seem, on the surface, to have thrown away convention - in
form, in content and in authorial role - as to render obsolete the term genre itself. He
then presented different arguments and observations on genre by scholars like
Todorov, Hepburn, Fowler, Hawkes, Schauber and Spoisky. These scholars either
argue the necessity of genre, genre generation, genre conventions in literary works
or stress the value of genre. As Fowler discusses the importance of genre and
denotes that genre provides a communication system, for the use of writers in
writing, and readers and critics in reading and interpreting.

From their points of view, Swales remarks neither Todorov nor Fowler accept that
genres are simply assemblies of more-or-less similar textual objects but, instead, are
coded and keyed events set within social communicative processes. He also
evaluated recognizing those codes and keys can be a powerful facilitator of both
comprehension and composition.

linguists.

Halliday (1978) proposed his comment on these terms: field, mode and tenor act
collectively as determinants of the text through their specification of the register, at
the same time they are systematically associated with the linguistic system through
the functional components of the semantics‘. He pointed out that field is associated
with the management of the ideas, tenor with the management of personal relations,
and mode with the management of discourse itself. The categories provide a
conceptual framework for analysis, they are not themselves kinds of language use.
On the other hand, Martin (1985) makes the following three-way distinction: genres
are realized through registers, and registers in turn are realized through language.
However, Couture (1986) provides unusual classification of the use of register and
genre within systemic linguistics. He notes that registers impose constraints at the
linguistic levels of vocabulary and syntax, whereas genre constraints operate at the
level of discourse structure. For Couture the two concepts need to be kept apart;
genre (research report, explanation, business report) are complete structured texts,
while register (language of scientific reporting, language of newspaper reporting,
bureaucratic language) represent more generalizable stylistic choices. Genres have

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‗complementary‘ registers, and communicative success with texts may require ‗an
appropriate relationship to system of genre and register‘.

Aside from scholars such as Martin, Couture, linguistics as a whole has
tended to find genre indigestible. The difficulty seems to derive from the fact
that register is a well-established and central concept in linguistics, while genre is a
recent appendage found to be necessary as a result of important studies of text
structure. In conclusion, Swales remarks that despite these equivocations, linguistic
contributions to the evolving study genre lie in the emphasis given to the three main
points: