A Functional Stylistics Analysis on The Old Man and the Sea

张帆

Abstract：The Old Man and the Sea is one of the most popular novels written by Ernest Heminway. It may become one of the true classics of this generation. Systemic-Functional Grammar is deep-going in stylistic study as it goes beyond language itself and deals with the social environment of language and considers language system a meaning potential.

Key words：functional stylistics； stylistics； The old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway's highly innovative style and technique won him the appellation Papa Hemingway in America（He Muying&Du Ping， 2004）. His novella The Old Man and The Sea depicts a story of an epic struggle between an aged， solitary Cuban fisherman and the greatest catch of his life. The paper will nalyze The Old Man and The Sea with the ideational function， the textual function and the interpersonal function.

1. Ideational Function

The ideational metafunction refers to the kind of language function which expresses people's material and mental experiences in the world. A fundamental property of language is that it enables human beings to build a mental picture of reality， to make sense to their experience of what goes on around them and inside them. And this metafunction is what we call the ideational function. To be more specific， it is viewed as the representation of different processes （Halliday， 1985）.

1.1 The material process

Material Process isone of the most salient types of processes involvingphysical actions， such as driving， running， throwing， kicking， and so on. A traditionaldefinition of a verb is "a doing word" and the process describes what is happeningand being done in the external， material world. The process consists， in principle，of three components. First is the process itself. Second is participants in the process and the third is circumstances related to the process.

1.2 The mental process

The second process type is called Mental Process. There are apparent differences between going on in the external world and something that. goes on in the internal world of mind， and there are many verbs which refer to. these mental processes of imagining， dreaming， thinking， seeing， wanting， and so forth. Mental process sets up an inner world of thought so that it can be accessible.

Participants of this process are labeled differently from the material process， and the subject who experiences the process is called Sensor， and what is experienced is given the label phenomenon. This process consists of three sub-types， such as perception is about seeing， hearing， affection about liking， fearing， etc， and cognition about thinking.

2. Textual Function

The textual function is described to the "relevance" or the "enabling" function， which means that language is used to organize language itself. This function provides that the remaining strands of meaning potential to be woven into the fabric of linguistic structure， and that fills the requirement that language should be operationally relevant-that is should have a texture， in real context of situation， that distinguishes a living message from a mere entry in a grammar or a dictionary.

2.1 The thematic analysis of The Old Man and The Sea

In the story of The Old Man and the Sea， the author tells us a story of an old fisherman who fights with the fish in the sea. The whole story happened during five days， and most of the setting is in the sea. The structure is just like a five-act play which pornays a vivid picture of the battle between the old man and the fish.

The relationship which is expressed by the textural function forms a lot of interrelated cycles to make all segments of the article into the whole. This kind of cycle can be called "cohesive chains".

2.2 The features according to the thematic structure of the text

Our intention is focused on describing and analyzing some of the clauses in the story as thematic structure. By doing so， we hope to figure out the thematic organization of the clauses and gain an insight of the story.

Firstly， the novel is developed through its cohesive chains. That's to say， the story is about the old man and the fish. Almost all of the messages are concerned with them. Actually， in the most important parts of the book， the author chooses "the old man" as the main theme that means the old man is the protagonist. So "Theold man" is definitely the dominant theme of the story， there are another two forms to mention the old man. One is the third person pronoun "HE"， and the other is the first person pronoun "I".

In fact， the dominant theme "HE" is the theme of the whole text as "the old man" and "I" could be said to be what "He" projects. On the other hand， however， the narrator frequently provides details about Santiago's inner thoughts by using "I" as the Theme. Despite the narrator's matter-of-fact tone， his reverence for Santiago and his struggle is apparent. That's why "I" and "the old man" also take a position in the Theme-choice.

Secondly， from the Theme table above， we also find that the story is evolved from the relationship between the old man and the big fish， and then the old man and the sharks. However， the fish is chosen as the second dominant theme is just so natural because the fish here makes an integral part of the story. It's noticeable that the author uses second person pronoun "YOU" and the third person pronoun "He" as the alternative theme to refer to the fish， this shows in the old man's eyes， he believes that the big fish is his brother.

In conclusion， stylistic analysis can be conducted more successfully and more exactly by applying Systemic Functional Linguistics. All these features are shown through stylistic analysis of the novel and in turn serve the novel perfectly.

【Reference】

[1] Halliday， M.A.K. An Introduction to Functional Grammar[M]. London： Edward， 1985.

[2] Halliday， M.A.K. An Introduction to Functional Crrammar[M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2001.

[3] 董 莉， 編. 英语文体学理论与实践[M]. 北京： 电子工业出版社， 2005.

[4] 胡壮麟. 功能主义纵横谈[M]. 北京： 外语教学与研究出版社， 2005.