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The present article aims to analyze six contemporary short stories based on Halliday and Matthiesen's systemic functional grammar framework (2014). In functional grammar, the message and textual meaning of clauses will not be revealed to the reader without identifying the topical themes and the discourse factors influencing to highlight them. Thus a perfect interpretation of the message will not be obtained. The study answers the question how the thematic structure in clauses helps highlight and convey the author's messages. The study hypothesis is: the thematic structure conveys the author's message by highlighting the topical themes by means of syntactic tools. the study corpus contains six contemporary short stories, comprising 3736 clauses. The descriptive- analytic method were used to analyze all the 3736 clauses based on thematic structure in textual metafunction.  The data analysis showed that in unmarked clauses the topical themes were used in their natural place as subjects, mostly being participants to preserve and maintain the topic. However, when there were good discourse reasons such as new events, topic change and certain meaning, mostly preposed adjuncts were used as topical themes in marked declarative clauses. while the process was used as topical theme in imperatives to show the participants social status. Therefore, the readers by using the thematic structure and identifying the topical themes can understand the author's intended textual meaning and his message in unmarked and marked clauses.
 

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In this article Systemic Functional framework of Halliday has been used to investigate stylistically some of Golestan proses in order to answer these questions: What linguistic elements have been foregrounded in each story(chosen at random) and which experiential metafunction  has been   used   in each one? What is the reason of its application and does the  the metafunctions foreground  the content of the story? The hypothesis is that the contents of the stories are in a close relation to the linguistic forms used in each story. In other words, the content has been forgrounded in the form. After analyzing the data results showed that the writer's intended content is in accordance with the communicative experiential metafunction in terms of frequency of occurance, but significant differences are recognizable only when the total number of verbs is bigger meaning that the story is longer.                    

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This research aims at studying  the discursive stylistics of the 28th sermon of Nahjulbalaghah from the perspective of two ideational and interpersonal  metafunctions of Halliday's Functional Theory alongside the  frequency of processes in the dissertation of thinkers and the way of formation and formulation of meaning in the layer of communication with the audience for expressing the discourse at the level of intertextuality.
By adopting an analytical and descriptive  research methodology, the current research seeks to apply the Halliday's theory in two levels of ideational and interpersonal metafunction, which is a descriptive discourse of the world and attempts to explain the discursive stylistics of the 28^th Sermon of Nahjulbalaghah.
The innovation of the research is that no research has been done on the analysis of Nahjulbalagha Sermons especially sermon 28 as a discoursive study.  
The results showed that the analysis of sermon's chapters at the ideational metafunction level indicates the highest frequencies of ideational processes belonging to material processes. By employing the frequency of material processes, the Prophet seems to try to tangibly express his attitude to the ephemeral features of the world and act for the hereafter.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

 

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The main purpose of present article is studying Tehran billboards based on Halliday’s functionalism regarding social semiotics. Communicative and functional roles are the main roles of language in functional approaches. Advertising billboards are tools trying to communicate and transfer messages to audience. They try to communicate with the audience and convey meaning and message through a variety of multi-layered texts. Each billboard image is sometimes a text that contains different elements such as color, shape, line, and speech, and there are always different linguistic and extralinguistic factors involved in conveying commercial messages. In this paper, an attempt is made to represent the three experiential, interpersonal and textual metafunctions in the image and speech of advertising billboards from the perspective of Halliday’s functional approach and to determine how to convey meaning through semiotic mechanisms. Therefore, in order to accomplish the objectives of the paper (representing the metafunctions in images and speeches of billboards),the topics of social semiotics, semiotics of images, metaphor, action  and tension processes of discourse are also discussed to explain how to convey meaning through verbal and visual signs.
    The main assumption is that advertisers have been able to convey and express meaning through words and images by using theoretical mechanisms and metafunctions of Halliday’s functional grammar and its connection with the field of special discourse. Therefore, in order to conduct the research, during a simple random sampling with a free subject, billboards in Tehran were photographed and then the research data were analyzed by analytical research methodology. Billboards containing visual and textual texts have
 been analaysed in accordance with theoretical mechanism of systematic grammer in terms of ideational, interpersonal, textual metafunctions and semiotics to achieve semiosis methods.
    Findings confirmed the desirable performance of this functional theory in the field of advetising billboards. Results of this study indicates that Halliday functional approach with its sociological semiotic features is an ideal model for achieving and gaining means of expressing meaning and can well be the basis of classifying, analyzing and explaining words as well as image. In these billboards textual texts have informative function and visual texts have expressives function.The current article shows that interpretation of meaning is done in different methods in multi-layer texts of billboards and the manifestation and embodiment of mentioned metafunctions are indicative of the fact that each advertising billboard is in fact a unitary and integrated text and the coherence resulted from aggregation of verbal and visual layers, provides a suitable basis for the semiosis of the various concepts and transmission of it to the audience.

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Halliday`s Systemic Functional Grammar analyzes text in context. Based on this theory, in the study of texts, , we are faced with three metafunctions: Ideational metafunction, Interpersonal metafunction and textual metafunction, that Ideational metafunction divided into experiential and logical ones. In experiential metafunctions the six processes, participants, and circumstances are analyzed. According to some experts, Garshasbnameh is the best heroic poem after Shahnameh among heroic texts. For this reason, in this study, the Tahmidiyehs of Shahnameh and Garshasbnameh have been selected for comparison based on Ideational metafunction of the Halliday`s Systemic Functional Grammar to determine how similar the Tahmidiyehs of these two works are linguistically and if we assume that Asadi has tried to write a work like Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, how much has he achieved his goal? After the study, it was found that in both Shahnameh and Garshasbnameh, the material process has the highest percentage. According to the genre of these two works, which is epic, this result and attention to the material process is predictable. Since the nature of Tahmidiyeh is to praise God, God is the main participant in most of these processes and the percentages are almost equal. It can be acknowledged, with a little forgiveness, Asadi has been able to follow in the footsteps of Ferdowsi in composing the Tahmidiyeh of Garshasbnameh, and the Tahmidiyeh of Garshasbnameh is equal to the Tahmidiyeh of Shahnameh from the view point of Ideational metafunction.
 

1.  Introduction

Tahmidiyeh means praise and glorification of God, and the term refers to the first lines or pages of prose or the first verses of poems. Writers and poets begin their work with the name and remembrance of God and the mention of His attributes, and thus bless their work with the name of God. In Tahmidiyehs, as a part of the preface of a work, in addition to paying attention to the name and remembrance of the great God, the genre for which the poet or writer writes the Tahmidiyeh should also be considered. For example, the Tahmidiyeh written for an epic work are different from Tahmidiyeh written for a lyrical work and from this point of view, literary works can be analyzed.
Among epic and heroic works, Shahnameh has a special place. Therefore, many writers over the centuries have tried to create a work like Shahnameh. According to some scholars, Asadi Tusi has tried to write a work similar to Shahnameh. In this regard, this research seeks to answer the question of how much Ferdowsi and Asadi in composing Tahmidiyehs of Shahnameh and Garshasbnameh have been able to create a Tahmidiyeh appropriate to the epic text and if we assume that Asadi in Garshasbnameh has tried to write a work as value as Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, how much has he achieved his goal?
 

2.  Methodology

In this research, based on the Halliday`s Systemic Functional Grammar, two works of epic literature are examined in order to achieve the extent of their use of epic language. Halliday`s Systemic Functional Grammar examines the function of language in context: context of culture and context of situation. Halliday considers language as a social phenomenon and he considers it necessary to pay attention to social function in language analysis. In Halliday`s Systemic Functional Grammar, language depends on the community in which it is used and must be analyzed from a social perspective.
In structural linguistics, the unit of language processing is sentence, while in functional linguistics clauses are important; This is because sentences alone do not convey the meaning of the text and should be considered in conjunction with other sentences. For this reason, the text is divided into clauses and analyzed. According to Halliday, each clause as a discourse chunk must be examined from three perspectives:  field, tenor and mode of discourse. Halliday defines the metafunctions with the help of these three domains. Thus, in the structural study of each text, according to the context of its position, we are faced with three metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual. Each of these metafunctions is also divided into several sub-categories. From these three metafunctions, ideational metafunction has been selected for analysis in this research. Ideational metafunction itself is divided into two experiential and logical metafunctions. In experiential metafunction, the six processes (three main processes and three sub-processes), participants and circumstances are examined. But in the logical metafunction, the relations between the clauses are discussed. Processes occur in the verb and are divided into three main processes and three sub-processes. Material, mental, and relational processes are the three main processes, and behavioral, verbal, and existential processes are the three sub-processes.
 

3.  Discussion and Conclusion

After determining the absolute frequency and relative frequency of ideational metafunction processes in the initial verses of Shahnameh and Garshasbnameh and putting them together, considerable results were obtained. One of the results is that in both works, the highest percentage is related to the material process. In both Shahnameh and Garshasbnameh, about 37% of all processes are related to the material process. As mentioned, the material process implies doing a work or happening an event, which according to the genre of the two works, which is epic, this amount of attention to the material process is predictable. Another process that should be considered according to the genre of the two works is the mental process. It seems that in composing an epic work, mental processes are less than genre like lyrical. The epic expresses the efforts and struggles of the heroes and pays less attention to mental issues (than material issues). In Shahnameh, about 18% and in Garshasbnameh, about 17% of the total processes are mental processes. Material and mental processes with few difference are the most similar among the types of processes and this shows that Asadi in composing Garshasbnameh has been able to be very close to Shahnameh linguistically in these two processes. The percentage of relational process in Shahnameh is higher than Garshasbnameh and this difference in verbal and existential processes in Garshasbnameh has been compensated. The percentage of the behavioral process in both works is zero, which is justifiable considering that the Tahmidiyehs of two works have been examined and have not yet entered the narrative section.
The results obtained for the participants in these processes are also significant. In Shahnameh, participant of about 31% of processes and in Garshasbnameh, participant of about 39% of processes is God. Considering that in this study, Tamhidiyehs of the two works were analyzed, assigning the highest percentage of participants to God was reasonable and predictable, and this shows the dominance and ability of the two poets.
In the end, with a little connivance, it can be acknowledged that Asadi was able to cope well with Ferdowsi in composing the Tahmidiyeh of Garshasbnameh, and the Tamhidiyeh of Garshasbnameh is equal to the Tahmidiyeh of Shahnameh based on ideational metafunction

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Halliday in the Systemic Functional Grammar model has considered three experiential metafunctions, interpersonal and textual, for the analysis of texts. Ideational metafunction refers to our experience of both the inner and the external through language. The most principal content for ideational metafunction is transitivity that considers processes types, participants in the process and marginal additions. This study attempts to examine the processes and participants existing in some sections of the two verses “Weiss and Ramin” and “Rostam and Esfandiar”, using the metafunction capabilities. This research use the analytical-statistical method. The findings includes: 1) The above material processes, along with the verbal and behavioral processes in the story of “Rostam and Esfandiar”, Created a passionate, epic atmosphere full of action and movement, while mental, relational and existential processes have taken its dynamic character from the verses of “Weiss and Ramin” to be suitable for expressing the emotional concerns and personal sentiments of the characters of the story. 2) Active participants in the story of "Rostam and Esfandiar", and inactive participants in the story of "Weiss and Ramin" are more frequent. 3) The semantic correspondence between surface structures and deep structures of the processes in "Weiss and Ramin" is very smaller thane "Rostam and Esfandiar". This research shows how lyrical and romantic literary genre overshadows some processes. And processes, which are apparently the illustrators of the transcendental world, reflect in the deep structure of the poet's inner world and the mentality of the characters in the story.