Semantic propositions of nominalisations as grammatical metaphor in English and Vietnamese media discourse

Tóm tắt

In the domain of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), the term ‘grammatical metaphor’ as coined by Michael Halliday (2004) refers to variation in the expression of meaning, which aims to transform the functions of grammatical elements that constitute meaning [1]. Grammatical metaphor (GM), also seen as an incongruent form of expression, has become a predominant feature of official or scientific discourses. However, these non-congruent metaphorical modes of expression or nominalisations have been increasingly used in other discourses, either in descriptive or media discourses. This article attempts to find out the semantic configurations of nominalisations as grammatical metaphor in English and Vietnamese media discourse. Based on the framework introduced by Halliday [1] and the categorisation of nominalized constructions suggested by Sušinskienė [2], it characterizes the semantic propositions of nominalisations as grammatical metaphor and compare the semantic representations of these constructions in the media discourse between English and Vietnamese.