THE IDEATIONAL METAFUNCTION: METAPHORICAL MODES OF EXPRESSION

Supervisor : Pro. Dr Hoàng Văn Vân
1. Nguyễn Thị Huyên
2. Phạm Thị Mai Oanh
3. Đào Thị Minh Tân
4. Nguyễn Thị Quế Hương
5. Nguyễn Thu Hiền
6. Lê Thu Trang


Outline
1. Rhetorical transference
2. Grammatical metaphor
3. Ideational metaphor
3.1. Metaphors of transitivity
3.2. The representation of metaphorical forms
3.3. Spoken and written language
3.4. Ideational metaphors and nominalization
4. Interpersonal metaphors
4.1. Metaphors of modality
4.2. A further account of modality
4.3. Metaphors of mood


Rhetorical transference
(figures of speech)

Metaphor

Metonymy

Involves a “non – literal” use of words.

Synecdoche
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Metaphor
A word is used for something resembling that which it
usually refers to.
(M.A. K. Halliday, 1994, p.340)
Eg: A flood of protests poured in following the announcement.
A flood  literally:
a moving mass of water,
 Metaphorically: a large number of people
Metaphorical movement from a literal to a new, figurative meaning

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Metonymy
A word is used for something related to that
which it usually refers to.
(M.A. K. Halliday, 1994, p.340)

e.g. It won’t happen while I still breathe.
= It won’t happen while I still live (breath relates to life
because people can’t live without breathing)
He is always chasing skirts
= He is always chasing girls (skirts relates to girls who
often wear them)
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Synecdoche
A word used for some larger whole of which that
which it refers to is a part.
(M.A. K. Halliday, 1994, p.341)

A synecdoche involves the substitution of a part for the
whole, or the whole for a part, or, it may refer to the
logic of sets, where a member represents the whole set
or vice versa

e.g. They all live under one roof.
(= They all live in a house)
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Interpretation by reference to
kinds of relational process
Metaphor

A flood of protests poured in
following the announcement.
A large quantity is a flood

Intensive
Metonymy

It won’t happen while I still
breathe.

Living is by breathing

Circumstantial
Synecdoche They all live under one roof.
A house has a roof
Possessive

Relational
process


Outline
1. Rhetorical transference
2. Grammatical metaphor
3. Ideational metaphor
3.1. Metaphors of transitivity
3.2. The representation of metaphorical forms
3.3. Spoken and written language
3.4. Ideational metaphors and nominalization
4. Interpersonal metaphors
4.1. Metaphors of modality
4.2. A further account of modality
4.3. Metaphors of mood


Grammatical metaphor
Grammatical metaphor is a substitution of one grammatical
class, or one grammatical structure,by another.
( M.A. K.
Halliday & J. R. Martin, 1993, p. 79)

 Congruent form
Eg: a. Mary saw a wonderful sight.
 Metaphorical form
b. Mary came upon a wonderful sight.  Metaphorical form
c. A wonderful sight met Mary’s eyes.
 b and c are interpreted as metaphorical variants of a.
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Grammatical metaphor
A flood of protests poured in following the
announcement

Two perspectives
on metaphor
(lexical metaphor)

Traditional view “from below”
Metaphorical
Literal
meaning
meaning
A moving
lexeme with“Aa moving
certain
“A
mass
of feeling
literal

meaning
can
have
mass
of water”
rhetoric”
metaphorical or
meanings
Flood
Starting point: 1 lexeme

(grammatical metaphor)

New view “from above”
Starting Point: 1 meaning

A meaning can be
“Many people protested”
expressed by different
“A largegrammatical
number “A forms
flood of
of people
protested”
Congruent form

protests”
Metaphorical
form

View from Below vs. view from Above
Traditional view “from Below”

New view “from Above”

Focus on lexical metaphor

Focus on grammatical metaphor

Metaphor as variation in the
meaning of a given expression

Metaphor as variation in the
expression of a given meaning

Comparison of meanings of one
lexeme in different collocational
contexts

Comparison of various
grammatical configuration as
expressions of the same meaning

Literal vs. Metaphorical
meanings of a given lexeme

Congruent vs. Incongruent
expressions of a given meanings

Types of grammatical metaphor

Grammatical metaphor

Ideational Metaphors

Interpersonal Metaphors

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Outline
1. Rhetorical transference
2. Grammatical metaphor
3. Ideational metaphor
3.1. Metaphors of transitivity
3.2. The representation of metaphorical forms
3.3. Spoken and written language
3.4. Ideational metaphors and nominalization
4. Interpersonal metaphors
4.1. Metaphors of modality
4.2. A further account of modality
4.3. Metaphors of mood


3. Ideational metaphor
3 metafunctions

Ideational

Textual

Interpersonal


3. Ideational metaphor
Ideational metafunction
Reality can be
subdivided into:

Focuses on the
role of language in
representing and
shaping reality

- Processes that take
place
- Entities that can take
part in these
processes
- Qualities that we can
use to describe these
entities


3. Ideational metaphor
Congruent

Default expression of

ideational meanings:
-Process – clauses
-Qualities – adjectives
-Entities – nouns/ noun phrases

Metaphorical

Expression of ideational
meanings is extended
in important ways beyond
their default encoding


3. Ideational metaphor
E.g. (1) John wrote a letter to

his sister, which surprised me (congruent)

process – clause
John’s writing of a letter to his sister surprised me (metaphorical)
process- noun phrase
 Process as a clause changes into process as a noun phrase

E.g. (2) She is dishonest

(congruent)

quality- adjective
You can’t count on her honesty (metaphorical)
quality- noun

 Quality as an adjective changes into quality as a noun


3.1. Metaphors of transitivity
Eg.1. Mary

saw

something wonderful.

Senser

mental

phenomenon

Mary

came upon

Actor

material

E.g. 2. The waitress
Actor

gave

material

a wonderful sight
goal

my aunt
recipient

What the waitress gave my aunt
identified

a tea pot.
goal

was
relational

a tea pot.

identifier
 Metaphor of transitivity makes writing more vivid and
expressive


3.2. The representation of metaphorical forms
In principle, metaphorical expressions can be represented
in either ways:
- Taking them at their face value
- Interpreting them in their congruent form
E.g. The fifth day saw them at the summit

Metaphorical

Congruent

The fifth day

saw

them

at the summit

Senser

Mental
process

phenomenon

Place

They

arrived

at the summit

on the fifth day

Actor

Material
process

Place

Time


3.2. The representation of metaphorical forms
Problems
-The first analysis: “saw” is not an ordinary mental process and “a day” is not a
conscious being
-The second analysis is not what the speaker said
Solutions: match the elements vertically as closely as posible into a single
reprsentation
On the fifth
they
at the summit arrived
day
Circumstancetime

actor

Circumstance- Material
place
process

The fifth day

saw

them

at the summit

Sensor

Mental
process

Phenomenon

Circumstanceplace


3.2. The representation of metaphorical forms
Reasons : (i) to bring out contrasts in grammatical functions
(ii) to show where there is also a lexical metaphor
(iii) to suggest reasons for choice of metaphorical form
E.g. (i) the fifth day is congruently a circumstance of Time, metaphorically a
Senser
(ii) saw may be a lexical metaphor
(iii) one reason : making the time element an unmarked Theme
On the fifth
day

they

at the summit

Circumstancetime

actor

Circumstance- Material
place
process

The fifth day

saw

them

at the summit

Senser

Mental
process

Phenomenon

Circumstanceplace

arrived


3.2. The representation of Metaphorical Forms

* However, according to Halliday (1996), “There is no very
clear line to be drawn what is congruent and what is
incongruent.
* Throughout the history of language, demetaphoricalization
occurs: grammatical metaphors gradually lose their
metaphorical nature, and in this way become “domesticated”


Outline
1. Rhetorical transference
2. Grammatical metaphor
3. Ideational metaphor
3.1. Metaphors of transitivity
3.2. The representation of metaphorical forms
3.3. Spoken and written language
3.4. Ideational metaphors and nominalization
4. Interpersonal metaphors
4.1. Metaphors of modality
4.2. A further account of modality
4.3. Metaphors of mood


Spoken and written language
 Written language is said to be “lexically dense”.
Various lexical meaning are often ‘packed’ into one
single nominal group.
 Spoken language is “grammatical intricate”: it
build up elaborate clauses complexes out of
parataxis and hypotaxis.

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Spoken and written language
• Lexical density helps to distinguish writing from
speech.
• Lexical density is a measure of the density of
information in any passage of text, according to how
tightly the lexical items have been packed into the
grammatical structure.
• To measure lexical density, simply divide the number
of lexical items by the number of ranking clauses.
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