TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF SPOKEN DISCOURSE : A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THEMATIC CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT IN CHINESE AND ENGLISH SERMONS

Abstract

The study set out to investigate the similarities and differences between Chinese and English in thematic choice and development and their relation to genre. This was done because there is evidence from the literature reviewed that a poor understanding and ineffective use of the thematic structure has been a recurring problem for Chinese learners of English as a second language (ESL). Many researchers have reported this problem as a major cause of Chinese ESL learners' failure to compose effective discourse. It was hoped that the study would contribute to a better understanding of Chinese ESL learners' struggle to acquire communicative competence. The study was carried out at a theological institute in Singapore where there were many such learners. Data were collected in the form of translated sermons in Chinese and English. These were analysed for their thematic choice and development and also for genre-specific characteristics in thematic prominence. The theoretical framework used for the analysis was based largely on Halliday's model of Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday, 1973, 1978 & 1994). The results of the study suggest that there are genre-related features of thematic prominence which are generally common to the texts in Chinese and English. The two languages also share the same thematic choice for most declarative clauses except when marked Themes are featured in the English text. Markedness in Theme is relatively rare in Chinese because of its much more flexible word order. The analysis also shows that the thematic choice is almost always different in interrogative clauses, and that the WR-relative and the predicated Theme in English have no equivalents in Chinese. The findings of this study should prove useful in informing ESL pedagogy for Chinese learners and also for the training of Chinese-English translators. It is hoped that a continued interest and further comparative research in thematization in Chinese and English can lead to a greater contribution towards Chinese learners' mastery of ESL, to the end that they may acquire communicative competence in the language.