MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SCIENCES

TRAN BINH TUYEN

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

BY NGUYEN AI QUOC - HO CHI MINH FROM A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE OF DISCOURSE

ANALYSIS

Major: Linguistics

Code: 62.22.02.40

ABSTRACT OF DOCTOR’S DEGREE THESIS

ON LINGUISTICS

HUE, 2017

Completed at:

Hue University’s College of Sciences

Instructors:

1. Associate professor – Dr. Truong Thi Nhan

2. Dr. Nguyen Thi Bach Nhan

Reviewer 1:

Reviewer 2:

Reviewer 3:

The thesis will be upheld at Hue University’s Thesis Evaluating

Council, met at Hue City.

on ……….hour…….date…….month……2017

The thesis can be found at the National Library.

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PREFACE 1. Reason for choosing the topic

Discourse analysis is one of the new directions of language research in the functionalist paradigm: language research in communication, in the process of use; Emphasizes the function and purpose of the language forms in the course of the functional practice. In addition, we found that political commentary in general and the political commemtary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh in particular have factors that are relevant to the direction of the study of discourse analysis (the purpose of choice and use of language, the relationship between context and language, the impact of language on the recipient, etc.) but not yet accessible. These are the reasons why we chose to study the thesis of Political commentary by Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh from a theoretical perspective of discourse analysis. 2. Objectives of the thesis

- To clarify the features of the political commentary discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh through Halliday’s Systemic Funtional Grammar viewpoint in terms of register.

- To contribute to prove language as a social entity, having a dialectical relationship with the non-linguistics elements.

- To contribute to analyze political commentary works in general and the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh in particular in the school. 3. Tasks of Research

The thesis defines the following basic research tasks: - Theoritical study: To establish the theoretical framework applied to

discourse analysis to identify steps of investigations, specific analyzes, and major contents that the dissertation aimed at; to systematize the theoretical issues and overview study as the basis for the research.

- To survey, collect corpus. - From the applied theoretical framework and identified theoretical

issues, the thesis carries out a systematical survey and analysis of the corpus on specific aspects of Field, Tenor and Mode.

- To draw out general comments on research issues 4. Objects and scope of the research

- The subject of the thesis is the characteristics of the political commentary discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh through the features of the Field, the features of Tenor and the features of the Mode.

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- The dissertation uses 13 typical works printed in Ho Chi Minh Collection (National Political Publishing House, 2002) as survey materials due to their most popularity and authenticity at present. 5. Research Methodology 5.1. Method of corpus collection 5.2. Method of corpus analysis 5.2.1. Method of discourse analysis: Using the theoretical framework of Halliday's theory of systemic functional grammar to analyse the language characteristics of political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh in order to clarify aspects: the features of Field, the features of Tenor and the features of Mode. 5.2.2. In addition, the thesis also uses research methods such as method of quantitative description, method of qualitative description. 6. Meaning / Contribution of the thesis 6.1. In terms of the theory

The thesis contributes to affirm the value of discourse analysis method: to consider not only the linguistic structural system but also the language functions; to examine subjects in overallity, language in use, language of acts, social interaction or use of language; thereby proving language as a social entity, having a dialectical relationship with society. 6.2. In terms of practicality

- The analysis of linguistic characteristics from Halliday's point of view of linguistic functions as well as its linguistic relationship with the elements of a particular communicative situation will help to clarify the characteristics of political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc- Ho Chi Minh in terms of: Field, Tenor and Mode; This has contributed to enrich the research direction as well as the literary language characteristics of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh’s political commentary.

- The research results of the thesis will also contribute to improve the efficiency in receiving the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh in the Phylology program of the high school.

- The thesis will be also used as reference for teaching and learning political commentary in particular and the literary career of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh in general in the Phylology program of the high school.

CHAPTER 1

OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH ISSUES AND RATIONALES 1.1. Overview of the research

3 1.1.1. Research situation on discourse analysis theory 1.1.1.1. Regarding discourse analysis

a. Studies in abroad The first authors mentioned Discourse Analysis were Harris (1952), Mitchell (1957), Sinclair and Couthard (1975, 1977). In 1975, in the

works of Logic and conversation, Grice outlined the theory of implicature. By 1983, in Discourse Analysis, Brown and Yule had studied discourse analysis in a specific way on the concepts, methods and theoretical rationales of discourse analysis. In addition, there are also other linguists who have specialized studies in Discourse Analysis such as Levinson (1983), Halliday (1985), Nunan (1997),...

b. Studies in Vietnam - In the early stages, when the subject of the linguistics study went

beyond the sentence to orient the text, prominent researchers such as Tran Ngoc Them (1985), Diep Quan Ban (1998, 2002),... have initially studied issues related to communication, discourse analysis and structure of the text. At the next stage, authors such as Nguyen Thien Giap (2000), Do Huu Chau (2001) mentioned the issues of pragmatics. Especially, with the appearance of works by two researchers Nguyen Hoa (Discourse Analysis: Some Theoretical and Methodical Issues-2003, Critical Discourse Analysis, Theory and Methodology -2006) and Diep Quang Ban (Communication, Discourse and Text-2012), the discourse analysis is actually introduced in a specific and systemic way.

- In addition to the authors mentioned above, some authors should aslo be mentioned such as Cao Xuan Hao (1991), Nguyen Duc Dan (1996, 1998), Hoang Phe (2003),... whose works also refered to the issues related to discourse and discourse analysis with different aspects. 1.1.1.2. Regarding practicality of applying the theory of discourse analysis to the study of discourses in Vietnamese. In Vietnam, there are many works that apply discourse analysis theory to specific research with two tendencies: using linguistic materials in socio-political documents and using linguistic materials in literature works. 1.1.2. Research situation on Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh’s political commentary

a. In the world In addition to the basic works that are generalized and focused on the

image of the author as well as ideas, content and art in general, there are not the articles that really specialized in linguistics issues. The typical authors are N. I. Niculin (Russia), U.Botsec (Australia), Apden Malex Khalin (United Arab Republic), Charlo Phuocnio (France),...

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b. In Vietnam b1. General studies on the political commentary language of Nguyen

Ai Quoc-Ho Chi Minh. Under the influence of structural tendencies, the researches generally focuses on the characteristics of individual units such as fixed words, paraphrases, sentences, and sentence patterns; It is not concerned with the categories that are intrinsic to the nature of speech act such as coherence and relationships between languages, the community of language users, and the impact of elements from contextual situations. Therefore, the value of research focuses on expressive meaning and assessment on the writer’s style.

b2. Studies on linguistic communication strategies of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh’s political commentary: these works had the general overview on strategy in choosing and using language to suit each specific recipient, context. However, they just oriented, generalized and separated each language unit, thus not systemically studied the object, not yet shown the basic functions of the language in the use process.

Political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh is also learnt and researched by postgraduate, graduate students in terms of aspects such as rhythm, Sino-Vietnamese, the art of argument and style, characteristics of Ho Chi Minh’s linguistics. 1.2. Some general reasonings 1.2.1. Theory on discourse analysis 1.2.1.1. Some basic concepts

a. Discourse In our opinion, the concept of Widdowson (1984) is the most specific

and comprehensive one as he synonymized the discourse with using the sequence of sentences to create communication behaviors that linked into the larger units of communication: Discourse is a process of communication. The caseual outcome of this process is a change in the way: information is conveyed, intentions are clarified, and the product of this process is the text.

b. Notion of Discourse Analysis We agreed with the notion of Brown and Yule as these authors

highlighted the subject of discourse analysis as the language in use, emphasized the function and purpose of the forms of language in use: Discourse analysis is necessarily an analysis of the language in use. Thus, it is impossible to limit discourse analysis to the description of linguistic forms without regard to the purpose or function created by these forms to take over in the world of human activity. 1.2.1.2. Theory of systemic functional grammar (SFG)

According to Halliday, grammatical analysis is a three-aspect perspective, meaning analysis in three levels. For Halliday, grammar is considered as a system, not rules. Halliday assimilated the meaning with

5 the function and he used the sentences as a base unit to explain the linguistic function. He asserts language is a communication tool, and must perform three functions (super function): Experiential function, Interpersonal function, Textual function.

In essence, SFG is a systematic grammar, recognizing language as a source of meaning, so using language is the choice of resources. In addition, SFG is theoretically oriented toward the functional language in communication, not towards the organization of the signaling system. Thus, issues such as content manifested themselves within the discourse - through the experience of language users; interpersonal relationship between the creator and the decoder; The way of the message organization, the discourse link are the focus of SFG and also the issues our thesis want to address. 1.2.1.3. Theory of the register

We agree with Halliday's notion (1989) of register when the author argues that "The register is a type of linguistic variant in use, associated with a given communication situation, a configuration of meaning and refers to a content or a certain field. Thus, according to Halliday, the register is a textual configuration of the potential nature of the text, tied to the situational characteristics, characterized by the field, the tenor, and mode. These three characteristics correspond to three super-functional languages: Experiential function, Interpersonal function, Textual function.

In addition to the above contents, the thesis also presents some issues related to discourse analysis such as the vital essence of discourse; reference and nature of reference in discourse analysis; Discourse structure and social function of discourse; coherence in discourse. The concepts and characteristics of the disource analysis theory will be the basis for our consideration and analysis of the features of the political discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh, to reveal the dialectical relationship between language and communication situations, and the functions of language in its course of action. 1.2.2. Overview on political commentary and Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh’s political commentary

The characteristics of political commentary as well as some outstanding features of the poitical commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh, especially in terms of the context, were emphasized to show that the political commentary in general and Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chí Minh’s political commentary in particular is the corpus appropriate to defined theoretical framework.

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CHAPTER 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF FIELD IN POLITICAL

COMMENTARY OF NGUYEN AI QUOC – HO CHI MINH The field of discourse is one of three factors under the situational context

that demonstrates the experiential function, particularly in the experiential aspect explained by the transitivity system. Transitivity system is described as the source of experiential interpretation in the form of the genre of processes, arguments involved in the process, and contexts concerning the process in sentence. These genres are confirmed by two systems: types of process types and contextualization. This is also two main content we will explore in this chapter to highlight the characteristics of the Field in the political comentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh. 2.1. Characteristics of Field in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through the transitivity process

Table 2.1. Statictisc of process types in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh

No Type of process Before 1945 After 1945 Quantity Rate (%) Quantity Rate (%)

1 Material process 826 59,3 293 58,8 2 Mental process 98 7,0 39 7,8 3 Behavioral process 51 3,7 4 0,8 4 Verbal process 134 9,6 12 2,5 5 Relational process 237 17,0 146 29,3 6 Existential process 48 3,4 4 0,8

Total 1.394 100 498 100 2.1.1. Material process

a. Material process in political commentary before 1945 Table 2.2. Distribution of the material process with various acting subjects in

the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh before 1945 Material process Acting subjects

Quantity Rate (%)

Enemies 641 77,6 The native people 155 18,8 Narrator 30 3,6 Total 826 100

The author focuses on reflecting the physical processes where the subject of enermies as the acting subjects impact the affected subjects as the native people (641 cases, making up 77.6%). The focus of these

7 processes is the system of verbs that indicate the physical operation with many different categories of meanings: repression (strike: 28 turns, catch: 22 turns, kill: 22 turns, shoot: 9 turns,...); Cultural, political enslavement; and economic exploitation, oppression (rob: 16 turns, rifle: 3 turns, etc.) thereby highlighting the value of denouncing the colonialism crimes. Conversely, the process that the acting subjects as native people made up a lower rate, focused primarily on the process of having no impact of the affected subjects, reflecting the activities forced to be performed under the oppression of enemies in all aspects: political, economic, social and cultural, dease (24 turns), hide / hide to joint the army (8 turns), pay taxes (5 turns), serve as coolie / servant (5 turns).

b. Material process in political commentary after 1945 Table 2.4. Distribution of the material process with various acting subjects in

the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh after 1945 Material process Acting subjects

Quantity Rate (%)

Enemies 88 30 The native people 197 67,2 Narrator 8 2,8 Total 293 100

If in the discourse before 1945, the acting subject in the material processes was mainly colonial subjects, after 1945, the acting subject focused on the subject of the people of Vietnam with 197 processes, accounting for 67.2% , in conformity with genre of calling and appeal. This transitivity reflects in detail the activities and events such as labor and fighting in a proactive, active manner among the Vietnamese people during the two wars of resistance against French colonialism and American imperialism (For example, unite, fight, attack, hit,...). 2.1.2. Mental process

a. Mental process in political commentary before 1945 Table 2.6. Statictisc of mental process with various emotional subjects in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh before 1945

Mental process Emotional subject Quantity Rate (%)

Enemies 45 45,9 Native people 24 24,5 Narrator 29 29,6 Total 98 100 In this phase, the authors continued to focus on building the mental

process where subject of enemy are the emotional subjects in order to

8 reflect psychology of this character with many meanings: aggressive, brutal (for example: outburst of anger, crazy...); deception, dupery, demagogy (i.e: aspire, resent...); Humble, stupid (i.e: panic, fear...). The use of mental processes is less than the material process (45/641 cases) also shows that the subject of enemy does not have any hesitation, worry about the crimes they have committed against the native people, through which the value of accusations is pushed up. In contrast, the mentality of the native people is in an only state of being passive, loss of control over the oppression and repression of colonialism (horrified, anxious...).

b. Mental process in political commentary after 1945 Table 2.8. Statictisc of mental process with various emotional

subjects in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh after 1945

Mental process Emotional subject Quantity Rate (%)

Enemies 4 10,3 Native people 35 89,7 Narrator Total 39 100 From the table 2.8, we find that the change of historical context has led

to changes in the political commentary discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh: After 1945, mental process with Vietnamese people as emotional subject had a majority (35 cases, accounting for 89.7%) with “positive” psychological verbs with different meanings: determine, unity; hope, trust,... on the great victory of the nation in two long-term war of resistance. By contrast, through the mental process, the enemies expressed their panic, fear of the power of Vietnam and their inevitable failure. 2.1.3. Verbal process

a. Verbal process in the political commentary before 1945 Table 2.10. Statictisc of the verbal process with various speaking

subjects in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh before 1945

Verbal process Verbal subjects Quantity Rate (%)

Enemies 73 54,5 Native people 20 14,9 Narrator 41 30,6 Total 134 100 Table 2.10 shows a great disparity in verbal processes between the

different speaking subjects. While the speaking subject performing the verbal process as the subject of enemy made up the highest proportion (73

9 cases at a rate of 54.5%), focusing on verbal verbs belonging to group of control, present, commit, and declare (i.e: to order, to request,to show off, to promise, to commit, to state), signifing the meaning of power; deceit, demagogy, the number of verbal processes made by the native peoples was only 20 cases (making up 14.9%), with mostly verbal verbs belonging to group of behavior (to beg, to implore, to cry, etc). This reflects the unjust social realities: the native people were the "small potatoes" and hard to speak out for democracy, human rights while Colonialism shows their cruelty, domination even in terms of speech.

b. Verbal process in the political commentary after 1945 Table 2.12. Statictisc of the verbal process with various speaking subjects in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh after 1945

Verbal process Verbal subjects Quantity Rate (%) Enemies 2 16,7 Native people 10 83,3 Narrator Total 12 100 After 1945, in the type of verbal process, the author focused on

powerful, public statements (eg, to state, to thank, to greet, etc.) with speaking subject as narrator - President Ho Chi Minh, representing the Government and people of Vietnam. These processes were not much, but contributed to reflect the picture of the history of the nation in the new era: the period of independence, sovereignty. 2.1.4. Relational process

Table 2.13. Statictisc of relational process in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh

Period Type of process

Before 1945 After 1945 Quantity Rate % Quantity Rate %

Intensive 183 77,2 98 67,1 Circumstantial 23 9,7 9 4,1 Possessive 31 13,1 42 28,8 Total 237 100 146 100 a. Relational process in political commentary before 1945 There was mainly an identity relationship process with the presence

of identified subjects and identifying subjects. This form not only clarifies the nature of the identified subject but also makes a comparison between the subjects. With the identified subject as the colonial or lackey, the attribute expressed clearly the essence, the mind of ihumanity, cruelty as well as fraudulence, demagogy; With the identified subjects as the native people of the colonial countries, the relational process showed the extremely miserable, trampled and exploited fate.

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b. Relational process in political commentary after 1945 The author focused on building the process of intensive relations and

possessive relations, especially the possessive relational process with possessor as nation of Vietnam to as clearly and strongly affirm the sovereignty. He reminded, warned and affirmed the power of the nation against the enemy and concurrently created the strength of beliefs to encourage the unity of the people in the process of building and liberating the nation. For example: We have the right, have the strength of solidarity of the entire people from north to south, have the tradition of indomitable struggle .. 2.2. Characteristics of Field in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through transitivity context

(1) Spatial context: In the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc before 1945, there were many different types of spatial context: space refering to specific places corresponding to the topic (sub-theme) as well as the composing circumstances of the author's work as France and the colonies; Functional-based space was the type of space of prison, enslavement, warfare, reflecting the real context of the colonial countries in which the discourse is directed; Referential space was just a way to use alternative pronouns but also to create a contrast between colonial and national space, which improves the generality of reality reflected.

(2) Temporal context, before 1945, besides the defined temporal context, there was the time context based on actions, events such as: immediately after, after,... or undefined time context as: One day, another day, every time, .. to increase the generality, repetition of the events. After 1945, for the purpose of reproducing the great historical events of the nation, the spatial context in Ho Chi Minh's political documents was often definable.

(3) The formality context was also used in Nguyen Ai Quoc-Ho Chi Minh's political commentary before and after 1945, particularly after 1945, especially the quality context with assessment words at high level.

(4) Causal context: The causal context of the concession showed the contradictions, paradoxes, injustice in colonial society before 1945; while the causal context of reason and causal context of purpose identified the nature of the scourge, brutality of the enemy (before 1945) or affirmed the ideal of fighting for the justice, for national independence of the Vietnamese people (after 1945).

(5) In addition, the other types of context, such as Problem Context, Perspective Context, or Role Context, also have specific roles in creating a "background" or "situation" to clearly explain about the process, the event or the situation being directed.

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CHAPTER 3 CHARACTERISTICS OF TENOR IN THE POLITICAL

COMMENTARY OF NGUYEN AI QUOC – HO CHI MINH In this chapter, we find out the characteristics of Tenor in the literary

discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh, which was expressed through the interpersonal function and concretized by the system of modalities in the types of sentence classified based on verbal purpose (consisting of Declarative Sentence, Interrogative Sentence, Imperative Sentence, Exclamatory Sentence) and modality system through modolity elements, reference expressions, metaphorical words, pairs of personal pronoun, Sino-Vietnamese and evaluation adjective system. 3.1. Characteristics of Tenor in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through the types of sentences based on verbal purpose

Table 3.1. Statistics of sentence types in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh

No Type of sentence Before 1945 After 1945 Quantity Rate (%) Quantity Rate (%) 1 Declarative Sentence 2.031 91,4 281 87,3 2 Interrogative Sentence 127 5,7 3 0,9 3 Imperative Sentence 31 1,4 23 7,1 4 Exclamatory Sentence 34 1,5 15 4,7

Total 2.223 100 322 100 3.1.1. Declarative sentence

In the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh in both different stages, rate of declarative sentences made up the majority (91.4% and 87.3% respectively). This result shows that in addition to expressing the observations, the information of author about the real world, it also reflected the purpose of selecting the types of sentences for constructing topic content in each different stage: Before 1945, there was a profound insight into the truth of the so-called "civilization" of colonialism in the colonies, thereby highlighted the life and destiny of the native people; After 1945, the declarative sentences provided information on the construction and struggle of the Vietnamese people in the new age, and also expressed the assertion and affirmation on strength, belief and the victory of the nation. 3.1.2. Interrogative Sentence

Before 1945, the questioner was the author or the native people and the receiving subject was a line of enemy characters with sarcastic and irony aspect, with purpose not to find the answer but to assert information and

12 direct to expose the mind and the crimes of the receiving subject; On the other hand, with the reciving subject as the colonial people and the genuine French people, the author had a close, friendly attitude, pulling them to his point of view to agree with him. After the revolution, the questioner was the author as the President, representing the voice of the Vietnamese nation in the new era, disclosing the enemy's crimes and exerting a strong influence on the psyche of the people when facing their personal interests and national interests, before life-end-death destiny of the country, etc., thereby greatly affecting the purpose of constructing the theme of discourse in this stage. 3.1.3. Imperative Sentence

Before 1945, the imperative sentences appeared mainly with adjunct let and the subject was fisrt person (the narrator) or second person (subject of colonism) or without subject. With the use of intonation with a relatively neutral tone, these imperative sentences were used as a form of narrative, from which to achieve the purpose of objectively reflecting and denouncing. When communicating with the colonial people, the author expressed his sentiments and attitudes more clearly, with the purpose of calling and expressing his desire to unite and unify to fight for national liberation, to liberate people from oppression. After 1945, the author of the discourse was the President, the supreme leader of the Vietnam Revolution, so the imperative sentence was aimed both at the enemy and towards the people of Vietnam as well as the peace-lovers in the world. The subject of the first person is usually the nation, we,... The interpersonal color focused on the purpose of motivating. Meanwhile, the imperative sentence of third person expressed the color of incisive order, showing the determination to expel the invaders of the entire nation as well as to express the views of independence and sovereignty of the Author. 3.1.4. Exclamatory Sentence

Before 1945, the author chose and used the exclamatory snetences not only to express the state, emotions, attitude and feelings before the reflected object but also was an effective way for the author to create interpersonal relations with the recipient, thereby enlisting their support for the issues mentioned. After 1945, in order to call on the Vietnamese people to participate in construction and unification of the country, the exclamatory sentences focused on expressing the definitive attitude and the indomitable struggle spirit of the Vietnamese people towards the enemy's wicked plot, as well as the warm sentiment of the author towards the country's compatriots and soldiers (i.e, Dear Compatriot, Dear Soldiers!)

13 3.2. Characteristics of Field in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through modalities 3.2.1. Elements of Epistemic modality 3.2.1.1. Factive modality

Prior to 1945, the declarative sentences had auxiliaries of probability such as: surely, certainly (16 turns), of course (7 turns),... to write about the enemy. It not only emphasized the predicate but also revealed the color of irony, accusations, thereby affirming the mind as well as the crimes of French colonialism. On the contrary, when writing about the subject as the native people, through these probative auxiliaries, the author expressed his profound judgement, especially his belief in justice, in the righteous people of France as well as to fact that the civilized nations of the world will support the reason, support the native people in the struggle for national liberation. After the revolution, the modalities such as surely (21 turns), certainly (8 turns), truthfully (3 turns) had the effect of affirming the enthusiatic revolutionary struggle of the Vietnamese people; It demonstrated the beliefs, joys, happiness, activeness, power of the speaker, as well as afirmed the inevitable victory of the nation and the inevitable defeat of the enemy. 3.2.1.2. Non-factive modality

Before 1945, the probability auxiliaries such as: maybe (53 turns), perhaps (6 turns), seemly (6 turns), it's said that (2 turns), were not to use oppositely with surely, certainly as used in factive modality on the reliable degree but to expressed the author's attitude on criticizing, denouncing the enemy profoundly, gently and deeply. The implication of these modalities is the assertion of the brutal reality that has been occurring daily throughout the French colonies. After 1945, in order to direct the praises and call for national unity to fight, the factive modality should be used rather than non-factive modality. Thus, in the survey discourse, we found the only non-factive modality was used: perhaps with 13 turns mainly focusing on the dangers caused by the colonists, imperialists to Vietnamese people in the future, It not only denounced the enemies' plot, negated their meaningless wars but also especially asserted the power of revolution and Vietnamese people in the new age. 3.2.1.3. Counter – factive modality

Prior to 1945, counter-factive modalities as negative adverbs such as not (66 turns), no (18 turns), not at all (6 turns), were used to produce evidence, convincing events reflect the injustice, the crimes or the dupery of colonialism. The use of copulatives to ask such as ư, à, nhé, nhỉ,... not only asserted more information, but also confirmed the acceptance of the recipient, thereby creating interpersonal relationship between objects of communication. After the revolution, the author used only negative

14 adverbs not (43 turns) to aim the goal of "summing up" the French colonial crimes before 1945 and especially to affirm the indomitable fighting spirit of Vietnamese people in the New Age: 3.2.2. Deontic modality

For the recipients as the Vietnamese people, the author used mainly the auxiliary of duties (must) on the average rating scale: showing encouragement and determination to fight against the enemy. It also emphasized the responsibility and duty of each Vietnamese people for the destiny of the nation. On the other hand, the auxiliaries of duty are obligatory (must, have to) at higher levels of the sentences that the subject is an enemy character line not only with the tone of the request, incisive order but also showed a truthful assessment of the enemy's inevitable failure; At the same time, it showed the determination to chase away the invaders of the whole nation and the author's viewpoint of independence and sovereignty. 3.3. Characteristics of Tenor on the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through referring expessions

Deriving from the nature of the reference and the characteristics of the scope of the survey, we established the referred subjects in the most concentrative way where the enemy line consisted of French colonialists in general and number of French colonial officials (in works prior to 1945); French colonialists and American imperialists (in works after 1945). Interpersonal meaning in these referring expressions is shown through the following aspects:

- Firstly, through the referring expressions, information about the social role of the objects is specifically established.

- Secondly, through these referring expressions, the author also revealed his attitudes and viewpoints, perspectives and subjective assessment for objects of reference in each particular context with shades of ironic, satirical, which concentrated in the works prior to 1945, such as: the Plenipotentiary Merlin, the governor Utoray...; Great Madarin Merlin...; Great France, mother country; these insects, this senior official, that respectable landowner, this upright official; this Mr. Utoray, this Mr.Merlin... Meanwhile, the referring expressions used in the works after 1945 brought more neutral shades, mainly assessed on positive and negative perspective according to view of Martin and Peter White in assessment theoretical framework. 3.4. Characteristics of Tenor in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through the metaphorical phrase

For the French colonialists, the author has used many unique metaphoric images (16 cases, making up 54,8%) such as sharks, hawks, leeches, corrupted medallion, etc, to concentrate on criticizing and denouncing

15 colonialism in terms of cruelty, greed, and maltreatment; At the same time it called on the honest French people in this country to rise up against the actions of the French Government to the colonies. In addition, the author used the metaphorical referring expressions (15 case, making up 45,2%) such as sacrifice, blood sea etc., in order to express the sympathetic attitude before the destiny as well as the suffering of the colonial people under the domination of the enemy. 3.5. Characteristics of Tenor through pairs of personal pronoun

- On the side of the colonial subject, the pair of personal pronoun of the French rulers in the form of: I/You (tao - mày / chúng mày) to the native people showed the relationship between the superiors, the boss with the inferior, the servant. However, with the same two roles of communication as above, the pair of personal pronoun had changed completely: the motherland - you which did not stem from the social status or attitude, sentimen but the purpose and the communication strategies of the spokesperson along with the impact of the new communication context

- Meanwhile, for narrator, if in the works prior to 1945, the pair of personal pronoun used by the author for the receiving subjects as French colonialists: I / we – you (tôi/chúng tôi – ông/ngài), with the irony attitude for the purpose of denouncing, exposing colonial essence. in post-1945 works, the author used the direct call to such as calling directly name of the object (hey Johnson) or used the second pronoun “thou” to express a disdainful attitude with strong accusations. Conversely, for the receiving subjects as the colonial people as well as genuine French people (before 1945) and the Vietnamese people (after 1945), the author chose and used pairs of personal pronoun with emotional and close shades: I / we – you (tôi/chúng tôi – ông/ngài) and I - compatriots / soldiers,... thereby building the friendly relationship and same sense of purpose. 3.6. Characteristics of Tenor in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through Sino-Vietnamese phrases

One of the prominent values of Sino-Vietnamese in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh is the interpersonal meaning expressed by choosing and using this phrase of the author, thereby to express the attitude, sentiment and evaluation for each specific object: Using the Sino-Vietnamese phrases in a positive and formal way, to reveal the true nature of the French colonial subjects in general and the French officials in particular; using the Sino-Vietnamese phrases has both expressive meaning and a high general meaning for the subject of the indigenous people to not only reflect the tragic fate of this object, the

16 author also expressed his deep sympathy; Using Sino-Vietnamese words in formal situations will bring about highly general or expressive values that are appropriate for specific contexts, especially when the Vietnamese word has no equivalent or unsuitable word for these situations. 3.7. Characteristics of Tenor in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through evaluation phrases

In the framework of the thesis, we only identify typical adjectives that are evaluated on two levels of "positive" and "negative." Before 1945, when writing about the enemy character line, besides using negative adjectives (cruel, brutal...), the author also used the positive adjectives such as good, humanistic, civilized, cute, honest, respectable in order to denounce, expose the cruel essance of the invaders. At this stage, the extremely passive, trampled status was the fate of the native people and the mercy, sympathy was the main sentimental emotion expressed by the author through the evaluation adjectives in assessing this character line (miserable, pitiful...). After 1945, the spirit of criticism, denouncing cruelty of the enemy had been continued, but Ho Chi Minh's political commentary discourse basically concentrated on praising the spirit of durable fighting, close solidarity of the entire people in the war of country liberation (heroic, brave...).

CHAPTER 4 CHARACTERISTICS OF MODE IN POLITICAL

COMMENTATY OF NGUYEN AI QUOC – HO CHI MINH 4.1. Characteristics of Mode in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through thematic structure 4.1.1. Features of theme 4.1.1.1. Thematic theme

Table 4.1. Statistics of thematic theme in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh before 1945

Unmarked theme

Marked theme

Time Space Purpose State, manner Complement Others

2.424/2.790 (87,8%)

399/2.790 (13,2%) 165/366 (45,1%) 73 48 49 16 15

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Table 4.2. Statistics of thematic theme in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh after 1945

Unmarked theme

Marked theme

Time Space Purpose State, manner Complement Others

319/370 (86,2%)

51/370 (13,8%) 30/51

(58,8%) 3 1 4 7 6

- Before 1945, the author used primarily the thematic theme - theme of sentence to convey the message. Of which, the highest is the unmarked theme (87.8%), as the theme matches with the subject to directly name the object mentioned (such as Xaro was used 31 times, Daclor was used 11 times...) or Personal pronouns (they (họ) was used 45 times, they (chúng) was used 46 times...)... expressed the purpose of denouncing or calling, encouraging and directly impacting on the recipent. In the political discourse after 1945, unmarked theme were also commonly used (86,2%). The themes were often person nouns in terms of occupation or social or personal pronouns such as we, our people, etc. Through this, the author concentrated on praising, affirming the spirit of building and fighting of the collective, of the nation.

- For marked theme, the marked theme indicating time made up a higher rate than other marked themes. Before 1945, the use of time-theme with indeterminate nouns (one time, another day...) helped the reader not only perceive events that take place daily or hourly but also emphasised on the rapidity or repetition of events and actions. In addition, the use of the themes indicating the state, manner, and existential space of the object also helped the author create a certain highlight by which the content reflected was deeper, more diverse. After 1945, the time-theme was precise and specific (March 9th of this year, before March 9th). As the President who was writing about important historical events of the nation, the author chose and used the time-theme in a completely accurate manner to ensure the integrity of historical events, thus contributing to the coherence of the theme of post-revolutionary discourse. 4.1.1.2. Textual theme

It is the theme outside of the message of sentence that functions to link the messages together. In both pre- and post-1945 discourses, there were many more contrasting themes, but, yet, however. This can be explained from the features of the antagonistic context between the enemy character line (before 1945, they were mainly French colonialists and Vietnamese native people, after 1945 they were the American empire, French

18 colonialists and the Vietnamese people). This resistance is the main content reflected in the discourses surveyed. In addition, the textual themes are conjugated terms such as: then, and ..., linking to the previous discourse. These copulatives are mainly used to present, list the order of events, in accordance with the content and the purpose of providing information by the political discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh. 4.1.1.2. Interpersonal theme

This theme was not used much, mainly to express the attitude, sentiment, the prediction of the author for the reflected object. For example: Maybe they were even promoted! 4.1.2. Classification of sentences according to thematic structure in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh

In order to organize the text for each theme in each specific context, Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh selected and used the most the single sentences (accounted for over 50% of the total number of sentence types in all discourses surveyed) with the basic thematic structure; Theme - Rheme 1, Rheme 2,... or type of complex sentence (especially coordinating complex sentence) with the repeating structure of Theme 1 - Rheme 1 // Theme 2 - Rheme 2//,... These structures also derived from the fact that the author choosed to use many thematic theme in order to focus on directly reflecting historical and social realities concentrated on specific groups; At the same time, it demonstrated erudition, intelligence through the deep, close arguments, the clear and persuasive data that helped the ideas, the content of each topic, and sub-topic link together, contributing to form a complete discourse in term of structure and content. In addition, other types of sentence, such as auxiliary sentence, abstractive sentence, etc., with their own characteristics and roles, also contributed to the linkage of the idea and content of the discourse. 4.2. Characteristics of Mode in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh through Discursive Structures 4.2.1. Discursive Structures of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh’s political commentary discourse 4.2.1.1. Part of title, system of sub-title

The title is recognized as the Subject of the whole text, focusing on expressing the subject of the whole discourse. Therefore, the type of title and subtitle used by the author was the noun - the noun phrase and the sentence (44 turns, 88%). In addition, the system of title and subtitle was closely interlinked through inter-textual relationships, creating coherence for discourse: linking paragraphes of a section, the sections of a chapter, the chapters of a discours which helped discourse become a unified unit of structure and content. For discourses that comprised of many sections

19 and chapters, subtitles are names of sections and chapters that are closely linked in relation to the name of the work, from which aim to large topic of discourse. 4.2.1.2. Beginning part

Depending on the specific discourse, the author has a different variety of vocabulary choices and forms of beginning part, outstandingly, Background information (6 turns, 46%), Comments made by the creator of the discourse (3 turns, 23%), Quotation (2 turns, 17,6%). However, in addition to their own characteristics, they share the same trait: clarifying the content of title and leading the implementation of the topic easily and effectively. 4.2.1.3. The body part

a. Towards a single theme (8 turns, 61%): is a type of discursive structure that is full of the remaining parts such as the title, the beginning, and the concluding part. The function of this type is to list the events, to clarify information for the content (topic) made at the beginning and the title; It is also the basis for the author to come to the concluding part of discourse.

b. Forming a different sub-theme system (5 turns, 39%): With discursive explanatory discourse, it's required to consider the object reflected in different aspects, so that the layout is more diverse, implemented by many different sections, chapters. Each section, chapter undertakes a private sub-theme, which serves the general theme which covers the entire discourse. 4.2.1.4. Concluding part

Ending by affirmation (7 turns, 53,8%): used in works of the call after 1945, to increase conviction in appeals. Ending by a general conclusion (2 turns, 15,4%): It is of the summarization of the arguments that have been developed in the earlier parts of the discourse in conformity with the development of great contents and messages that should be made the conclusion as an affirmation of what has been done before. Open ending (3 turns, 23,1%): it focused on works before 1945 on the theme of denouncing the crimes of colonialism. Since the theme has been implemented quite clearly in the previous sections, the defect of concluding part is also a way for the decoder to make its own judgment about the object reflected. 4.2.1.5. Model of political discourse structure of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh

- First form: Aiming a single theme:

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Chart 4.1. Model of form 1 of discourse structure in political

commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh Note: symbol expressing the dialectical relationship between the components. expressing dependency or impact relationship - Form 2: Forming a different sub-theme system

Chart 4.2. Model of form 2 of discourse structure in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh

4.2.2. Organization of discourse content in political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh 4.2.2.1. Linking topics

a. Basic linking methods (1) Reference:In the form of personal reference, the nature of object was

exploited in many aspects and the sentences, the sections were linked together to aim claritying the sub-theme that this part undertaked. For the definite reference, the author also used a variety of prepositions (that, these, this, etc.) with general meaning in order to replace the sentence, section or big idea of the discourse.

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(2) Ellipsis: Prior to 1945, writer often focused on the subject as the acting subject in the process as well as emphasised on the activities, behaviors affecting the target subject. After 1945, the author also tended to express fully, completely his idea, so he focused on the acting subjects and the action predicator to carry out activities to directly affect the psychological, cognitive of the recipent.

(3) Vocabulary link: The mode chosen most commonly used and repeated by Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh is the repetitive method, especially the repeat of proper nouns (Xaro - 31 times, Daclor - 11 times ...) or personal pronouns (they (họ)- 77

times, they (chúng)- 312 times,...)... The use of lexical iterations not only helped sentences and paragraphs connect formally but also linked the content of the paragraphs to aim clarifying the theme of the section, chapter, or entire discourse. 4.2.2.2. Logical link

a. Conjugation: Most commonly used are conjunctions within the scope of meaning in the field of extension such as complement, inverse, and change. In particular, the conjunction "and" with 744 turns of use (before 1945 was 581 turns, after 1945 was 163 turns) had the function of constructing coordinated sentences or emphasizing the activities and properties of acting subject. In addition, conjunctions in the reverse scope (on the contrary, but, however) also had important implications in the process of linking discourse because they directed for the reflection of events, activities contrary to the statements, the events that took place before; This leads to link sentences, paragraphes, or big ideas of discourse.

b. Vocabulary link. (1) The lexical coordination of predicates denotes the development of sequence of events, of actions taken in succession. (2) Indeterminate time noun phrases or unspecified referring expressions also play a role in creating a logical, coherent representation of the content mentioned. For example, the actions may be performed by different subjects but aim to reflect the same certain phenomenon and nature

c. Use transitional paragraph . The author has used quite much transitional paragraphes in the process of implementing the layout of the discourse, especially the transitional paragraph used to emphasize the content (29 turns, accounting for 51%) and for quotations (25 turns, accounting for 44%). The lowest rate is the type of using the transitional paragraph as beginning part (3 turns, accounting for 5%). However, each type has its own effects and role in the layout implementation of the text, contributing to the enumerating method for deductive style, contributing to the coherence of the discourse theme.

d. Art of segmentation: Used to (1) perform method of a string structure enumeration or parallel method in parallel structures, or

22 segmentation into different minor issues (contents) within a large issue (content); (2) make the transitional paragraph; (3) make a concise, terse conculding part, which is important in creating linkage in discourse.

e. Organization of arguments. In the surveyed discourse, there were a total of 145 cases with explicit conclusions and 78 cases of arguments with inferred conclusion, and there was a change in the rate of use between the two types of arguments at two different stage: before 1945 and after 1945. The use of argument types, as well as the change in the proportions of arguments express the purpose of the creator of discourse in that: linking, creating the coherence of discourse (in sentence structure, paragraph, discourse) from which to create persuasion for each recipient.

CONCLUSION 1. Theory of Discourse analysis is one of the new directions of

language research in the functionalist paradigm: language research in communication, in the process of use. In which, the way of pragmatics discourse analysis based on Halliday's theoretical systemic grammar pathology in terms of register is the outstanding direction to focus on find out characteristics of Field, Tenor and Mode as materialized through linguistics super-functions. This is also the direction we choose as a theoretical basis for approaching the subject of the topic.

2. Based on Halliday's view of register theory and linguistic super-functions, the thesis investigates and examines the features of the political discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh through the characteristics of Field, Tenor and Mode. Results as follows:

2.1. Characteristics of Field: are materialized through experiential functional expressed in two systems: transitivity process and transitivity context. With the transitivity process, we focus on four basic types of processes: physical, mental, verbal and relational; Identifies the manifestation, cause and effect of the opposition of the rate of processes, the meanings of the central predicate systems. In the context of transitivity, we analyze the effects of temporal and spatial context and qualitative formality context in reflecting the experiential values of historical and social reality by creating a "background" or "situation" for the process, explaining where, how, when, why such process, such event occurred, etc. The contents reflected through system of transitivity process and transitivity context not only provides the "experience" of the real world, but also the attitude and viewpoint of the author toward the target subjects; thereby leading to the expression of interpersonal meaning through the interpersonal function of the language - the

23 realization of the characteristic of Tenor in the political discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh.

2.2. Characteristics of Tenor are materialized through the interpersonal function, expressing the choice and use of the language in expressing and maintaining, developing social relationships and personal relationships with the object of reflection and reciever. In the political discourse of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh, interpersonal meaning is expressed through: firstly, the system of modalities in sentences classified based on verbal purpose with four specific types: Declarative Sentence, Interrogative Sentence, Imperative Sentence, Exclamatory Sentence; Secondly, the system of modalities in the modalities factors, the refering expressions, the pairs of personal pronounce, the Sino-Vietnamese and the evaluation adjective system through which express very specific attitude, emotional as well as the author's views, evaluations, and predictions on the subject being directed. From there, the interpersonal relationship between the creator of the text and the objects inside and outside the discourse is established and maintained in a natural and effective manner in each specific context.

2.3. Characteristics of Mode: are materialized through the textual function with the organization of thematic structure and discoursive structure. For thematical structure, the biggest feature is that the author focused on the structure of thematic theme with the function of conveying the message of the sentence,... From this characteristic, in building sentences, the author commonly selected single sentences and complex sentences (especially coordinated complex sentences). These types of sentence, with their distinctive thematic structure, make the ideas, the content of each theme, and the sub-themes coherent and cohesive, contributing to form a complete discourse on the structure and content, ideas. For the discourse structure, the author selected and appropriately used components such as headings, beginning part, body part and concluding part, along with model of topic link, lingking methods and elements making coherence... to build two basic structural models: to aim a single theme, and to form a different sub-theme system. Each components participating in the structure as well as the modes of linking, apart from its own specificities, roles, and contributions, also have dialectical relationships to together aim to build the completed, unified discourse in structure as well as theme, idea.. thereby creating the essence of ideological and interpersonal functions - the realization of the characteristics of the Field and the Tenor in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh.

3. Inheriting the general conclusions about the literary characteristics of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh in previous works, but with a

24 theoretical approach based on Halliday’s discursive theories of register in terms of particular aspects of Field, Tenor, Mode, the thesis not only studies the object in overall, but also places the subject of the study in dialectical relations with the elements of the context. Thereby, the language is fully exploited, in particular the super-functions of language and their dialectical relationship. The results of language research are beyond the scope of its own.

4. Some limitations and issues need to be further researched - Firstly, the subject of the study of discourse analysis is very broad,

and the literature of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh is also a huge field, but due to the limited capacity of the thesis, it is impossible for us to exploit fully the characteristics of the research object.

- Secondly, the concept that political commentary as a functional style approaches discourse as a unit of communication in the interaction between the speaker and the listener, and examines the source of various types of language consisting of various discourses, collectively referred to as political discourse, have enabled the thesis to effectively exploit the dialectical relationship between language and elements of situational context. However, in terms of genre, defining the scope of the thesis is 13 discourses with different genres is difficult to highlight the characteristics of each particular genre. This is also a limitation of the thesis but at the same time, opens up a new direction of research in terms of genre for this object.

- Thirdly, the political commentary is a functional style that is well suited to the direction of analysis of critical discourse - the direction that emphasizes the role of language in the structure of power relations in society and contributes to the proof that Language is a social reality. Thus, the application of the critically analyzed theoretical framework to the study of the characteristics of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh's political literature is another approach with a different point of view, which can bring about new results.

- Fourthly, in terms of theory, due to the limited time and allowed volume, the thesis has not yet set out and studied the grammatical metaphor in Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh's political literature to show the author's extremely rich and varied selection in expressing the super-functions of the language. Particularly in this regard, there should be in-depth studies of a particular thesis.

Although there are limitations and some issues need to be further researched, with the results achieved, this topic has, in some respects, made a small contribution to the process of searching and developing this language research direction in our country, contributed new research direction on the political language of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh in particular and the political commentary in general in the school.

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LIST OF THE WORKS OF AUTHORS RELATED TO THE THESIS

1. Tran Binh Tuyen (2016). The phrases hold the function of

naming, addressing in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh, Journal of Science and Technology, Hue University's College of Science, vol. 9 - No. 2, page 59 - 69

2. Tran Binh Tuyen (2016). The semantic structure of the sentences in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh, Science Journal of Hue College of Science, Vol. 126, No. 6A, 2017, p. 5-19.

3. Tran Binh Tuyen (2017) Phrases indicate actions in the political commentary of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh, Language Magazine (Institute of Languages), No .: 4 (335) - 2017. p: 71-80.