An Analysis of Mood System of Narrative Rock Song Lyrics and Its Interpersonal Functions

赫元贞 / 哈尔滨工程大学

An Analysis of Mood System of Narrative Rock Song Lyrics and Its Interpersonal Functions

赫元贞 / 哈尔滨工程大学

【Abstract】This thesis takes narrative rock song lyrics as the target of texts analysis from the perspective of m ood and its realization of interpersonal functions. Song lyrics texts have the quality of both oral and w ritten text and can be regarded as oral text w ritten for the purpose of singing. Am ong all kinds of songs, subject w ith rock is probably the m ost com m on genre of song lyrics. Therefore this study focuses on rock song lyrics, specifically narrative rock song lyrics.

m ood system； Rock lyrics.；Interpersonal function;；Analysis of the lyrics

一、Register analysis of narrative rock song lyrics

Firstly, the field of narrative rock song lyrics is originally about anti-culture, later describing the experience in the fast-changing modem society, narrative rock song lyrics is mainly about what the young people concern most, such as love, self-fulfillment, and dissatisfaction with society, most of which reflects the attitude and action of American young people. Interpersonally, mode mediates the semiotic space between monologue and dialogue. Tenor deals with the relationship between the narrator and audience in narrative rock song lyrics. The narrator provides the audience with some enlightenment and inspiration towards the way of thinking. They function to be the receiver of goods and services.

二、 Interpersonal function realized in mood

In order to understand the role relationship in narrative rock song lyrics, fifteen songs are chosen. An analysis of mood components is conducted at clause level to decide mood types used in narrative rock song lyrics.

There are all among which declarative clauses together 332 clauses (not including embedded clauses),take up 78.4%, imperative 13.5%, whinterrogative 4.5%,yes-no interrogative 3.6%. The frequent occurrence of the same mood types in the same song. In the following part, what interpersonal meaning different mood types realize would be observed.

三、Conclusion

To sum up, different mood types contribute to the realization of interpersonal meaning in narrative rock song lyrics. Declaratives provide goods & services for the audience through story-telling. They indicate that the relationship between narrator and audience is that of teller and listener, carrier of emotion and receiver of emotion. Imperatives and interrogatives create a sense of dialogue in the form of command, arousing the audience's attention and evoking their thinking.

References：

[1] Bakhtin, M. 1986. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays [M]. Austin: University of Texas Press.

[2] Brown, G. & Yule, G.1983. DiscourseAnalysis [M].Cambridge: CUP

[3] Bloor, T.&M. Bloor. 1995. The Functional Analysis of English: A Hallidayan Approach [M]. New York: St. Martin's Press.

[4] Eggins, S. 2004. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics (2d Edition) [M]. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.