The Analysis of Guide Words About Xiamen Based on Systemic Functional Grammar

With the booming development of tourism, tour-guide English has gradually been favored by many people. Some studies about tour-guide English are increasing. The essay is based on the guide words about Xiamen in the aspect of SFG, especially the five processes of ideational metafunction. The guide words about Xiamen simply introduce some scenic spots including Gulangyu Islet, the Sunlight Temple, memory hall of Zheng Chenggong and so on. The guide words is analyzed through the material process, mental process, relational process, verbal process and existential process so that convey new information to readers and preferably understand English text about guide words.


Introduction
The guide words that is the bridge and bond of communication plays an important role between tour guides and tourists. Whether the scenic spot is described concretely or indistictly and whether tourists are able to understand the specialty and core of famous places, the guide words are extremely indispensable. The English guide words is regarded as a kind of language in the specific context and applied to tourism. The guide need to inform tourists basic information and explain doubts whenever and wherever possible. If the guide explains the scenic spot vividly, informatively and interestingly, the place will be welcomed by more and more tourists. Moreover, China had traditional cultures of 5000 years, more and more foreigners want to know more about mysterious and awesome China with inquisitive mind. The phenomenon causes the prosperity of tourism about the reception of foreigners. Therefore, it is indispensable for guide words in English in the field of tourism. English guide words is developing vigorously because of the advent of foreign tourists. It is a valuable discourse that worth analyzing. The guide words in the essay is about the simple introduction about some scenic spots in Xiamen.
Systemic functional grammar is suitable for discourse analysis because of operability and practicability (Liu, 2013). It refers to many different domains and helps those domains investigate the detailed implications, such as literature, news, advertisement and so on. In the view of functional linguistics, in order to understand meaning of language and analyze the function of words, grammar is extremely important. Halliday believes that linguistic structure can be interpreted clearly from the perspective of function (He and Zhang, 2017). He proposed that semantic function had three constituents that is ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function (Zhu, 2001). They are called three metafunctions which can appear in the discourse. In order to comprehensively and prudently understand every sentence of text, three metafunctions play a significant role in analyzing texts. For example, when reading the articles, who is the participants, what is the main process, relative constitutes of environment and the relationship between the process and participants need to be clear basically. We should judge what is happening, who are involved in the interaction, what is their relationship and how is the message organized to create focus and emphasis.
The main material of this essay is the text of guide words about Xiamen. In the view of five different processes in ideational metafunction, the text is analyzed carefully, for example, when introducing the details of scenic spot, the words are objective and impartial. Moreover, the guide pays attention to feeling and experience of tourists. In the essay, it has six parts. The introduction mainly talks about text of guide words and SFG. Data collection focuses on source of the guide words about Xiamen. Analytic framework is about five different processes of ideational metafunction. Data analysis is mainly about detailed explanation in the five processes. The following parts are findings and discussion. The last one is the conclusion.

Data Collection
The essay analyzed a text about guide words of Xiamen. The text about guide words comes from the internet. It is the website about ruiwen. The website is https://mip.ruiwen.com/daoyouci/1453934.html. The original text is too long. During the process of dealing with the text. It was curtailed because of words restriction. Some information about the driver, Sunlight Rock, Dragon Head Hill are moved out. The remaining text is about the guide, Linxi, introducing the Gulangyu Islet, the Sunlight Temple, memory hall of Zheng chenggong and so on. The text concludes 353 words that is simple and easy to understand. Through the analysis of the text about guide words, It can be divided into 36 clauses. The text is divided into two paragraphs. The first paragraph is about the guide"s greetings and welcome to tourists. The second paragraph is mainly about some resorts in Xiamen. In the first paragraph, the most words and sentences are appeared in friendly and intimate manner while there are some numbers and places that seem to be relatively objective and strict in the second paragraph.

Analytical Framework
The analytic framework of the essay is Systemic-Functional Grammar. The SFG regards the text rather than sentences or words as the main unit. The text is a cohenrent and meaningful unit which is worthy making a research. Moreover, the SFG studies the connection between text and society. The SFG believes the language is the system of constructive meaning rather than the way to express feelings and thoughts (Wang and Bill Winster, 1996). The SFG pays more attention to the meaning given by language rather than view the language as a system with certain rules. The meaning potential given by speakers is more important than what speakers are talking about. Meanwhile, the SFG makes the meaning as the starting point. The core concept of SFG is stratification which divides Language into four levels. The four aspects are context, meaning, vocabulary and structure (Halliday, 1994). In the aspect of context, there are three important terms including field, tenor, model. The field is about actual thing and the subjects of talking. The tenor is interpersonal relationship between participants and purpose of language that said by addressor in specific context. The mode is channel of communication and function of language, including rhetorical style. The use of language creates meaning which involves three meanings including ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning. They are equivalent to three metafunctions in systematic network of SFG. Actually, the field is ideational function. The tenor is interpersonal function. The mode is textual function. Ideational function expresses the understanding of the reality and subjective word (Xin and Huang, 2013). It has six processes including material process, mental process, verbal process, relational process, existential process and behavior process which will be discussed in detail in following sentences. Interpersonal function indicates the identity, status and the criteria to judge things by speakers. That is to say, people use language to communicate with others, to establish interpersonal relationship and to express their views about reality and internal world (Chang and Cong, 2018). The mood and modality are the most important components of interpersonal function. Mood can be divided into imperative mood, interrogative mood and declarative mood. There are three kinds of modality including low modal, median modal and high modal. Low modal include words as "may," "are allowed to." Median modal include words as "should." High modal have "must," "are required to." Halliday believes that the thematical system and informational system work together and realize the metafunction of text. Textual function is about the concept of theme and rheme, marked and unmarked themes. Theme is the starting point of the clause and predicts how to develop the discourse. It is given information. Rheme is explaination and development of the theme. It is new information. Marked theme is the theme relating to what is typical. Unmarked theme is atypical and unusual in the way a message is structured (Huang, 2016).
The essay mainly talks about text of guide words in the ideational function of SFG. Ideational function mainly refers to convey new information to communicate the content that is unknown to the hearer. The "transitivity" and "voice" are all included in the ideational function. Transitivity mainly includes nature of the action, roles played by the participants, processes, type and nature of the circumstances in which the event occurs. Transivity is also the expression of various kinds of experiences in real word by language. It reflects the things involved in the objective and subjective word (He and Zhang, 2017). It divides all behaviors, thoughts of human beings into several processes. At the same time, it makes the difference between participants and circumstantial roles involved. They can explore ideational function in SFG. The ideational function consists of six different processes, but behavior process is not explored in the essay. They are material process, mental process, verbal process, relational process and existential process. Material process is mainly about the verb or the action that was done, such as play, kick. It includes actor, material process and goal, that is to say, the action is done by people or article, for example, Mary hits Tom at home. "Mary" is the actor, the word of "hits" is material process. "Jack" is the goal. "At home" is circumstance (Huang, 1988). Mental process involves two participants, sensor and phenomenon. It relates to the organ of sense, such as enjoy, see. It expresses the non-behavioral process about affection, cognition and perception. For example, I see a boy. "I" is phenomenon. "See" is mental process. "A boy" is the sensor. Relational process is about processes of being, such as is, are. It is the relationship between one thing and the other thing or the situation, attribution, characteristic of an article (Cheng, 2005). Verbal process refers to say, tell, talk, describe and so on. It includes sayer, receiver and verbiage. For example, Martin told to Lisa. "Martin" is sayer. "Told" is verbiage. "Lisa" is receiver. Existential process is related to pattern of sentence including "there be." It is the process of existing or happening.  (22) is the most frequently used one among the six processes. Relational process(9) takes the second place. Mental relation (4) ranks the third. Verbal process (1) is the fourth place and existential process is used less frequently.
It is clear that material process is the most significant process in the text of guide words. Moreover, the use of material process and relational process frequently happens in the discourse about tourism. Then mental process is the third one. Verbal process follows. However, existential process is relatively less important.
Material process accounts for 61%. Material process is expressed by an action , an actor and the goal. In the text, the sentence pattern of actor-process-goal is frequently used. Relational process accounts for 25%. In terms of relational process, it includes the intensive, circumstantial and possessive aspects (Chang, 2010). The intensive aspect is about "A is a". The circumstantial aspect is about "A is at a". The possessive aspect is about "A has a" (Huang and Thompson, 2000). Mental process accounts for 11%. Mental process describes the inner world of mind, so whether it is human or non-human, the sensor will feel, think, and see something. Verbal process accounts for 3%. Verbal processes are processes of saying, which cover any kinds of symbolic exchange of meaning. Like the sensor in a mental process, there is a sayer in a verbal process that can indicate a signal. There are other two participants that is receiver, verbiage in a verbal process. ask for understanding and cooperation Existential process involves existential construction which is introduced by the word of "there" in position of subject. The typical verb that is the "be". In the text of guide words, there is no existential process

Discussion
After the text of guide words about Xiamen was analyzed in the framework of ideational metafunction in SFG, it can be discussed in this part. In the material process, some words in the first paragraph, for example, allow, extend, hesitate, try, make and so on. They are simple, concise and straightforward so that the guide hopes foreign tourists can exactly understand what the guide said, especially in the beginning. Maybe the reason is that English is foreign language rather than second language for most Chinese, so the guide has a simple exchange with tourists. Those words are simple but standard, so it has no problem for foreigners to understand. The guide and foreign tourists don"t know more about each other before the guide words are not said. These words are able to be familiarize each other. At the same time, they also show a friendly and enthusiastic attitude of the guide to tourists. Tourists can receive this kind of amiable information so that they can cooperate well and the following work will be done in an orderly manner. These sentences in the text can give the impression for foreigners that the guides are passionate, hospitality, gentry and humble. For example, 1.We"ll try our best to make your stay of Xiamen pleasant and enjoyable.
2.Please allow me on behalf of xx Travel Service to extend our sincere welcome to you. In the first sentence, "we" as actors can rapidly close the relationship between tourists and guides so that interpersonal activity can go on successively. "Try" and "make" as the process can convey the atmosphere of amiable, outgoing, welcome friendly attitude. They present equal mode of relationship. In the second sentence, These verbs indicate attitude of the guide who wants to service for tourists. The guide don"t want the distance between her and tourists to be distant and aloof. The guide will pay more attention to take care of tourists.
3.It was founded during the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt over 400 years ago,in 1956. 4.It bathes daily in the first rays of the morning sunshine hence, so its name Sunlight.
In the third sentence, the verbs including "founded and rebuilt" show the history of the Sunlight Temple. In the fourth sentence, the word of bathes tells tourists that the origin of the name about the Sunlight Temple. It is significant for guide to tell the basic information and unique characteristics of a scenic spot to tourists. Material process is closely related to the text of guide words, especially detailed explanation of a famous resort, that is to say, the analysis of text of guide words is mainly achieved by material process, the guide needs to tell specific characteristics or attribution of a place. Therefore, material process is absolutely necessary and plays a dominant role among six processes in the text of guide words. As for relational process, it can express relationship between things or people. Moreover, it embodies attitudes and views.
5.My name is Linxi, and I will be your guide during your stay in Xiamen. 6.Your visit to our city will be a happy experience.
In the beginning of a trip, tourists and guide are unfamiliar with each other. The guide should express her identity and information to affirm their relationship between tourists and guide. The relational process, "is" and "be", can help to implement the function in the fifth sentence.
The sixth sentence is the hope of guide. Before the trip, the visit is in initial state, it has not completed yet, guide wants to give tourists her best wishes to have fun in the journey. These words can indicate the importance of relational process according to self-introduction and the hope of guide.
7.Gulangyu Islet, is 600 meters off the southwest shore of Xiamen. 8.This tiny,1.91 square kilometers islet has a population of less than 20,000. In the seventh sentence, the word, "is" demonstrates the length of Gulangyu Islet. The objective attribution is described through relational process. In the eighth sentence, the population of Gulangyu Islet can be made clearly to foreign tourists. At the same time, the attitude of guide which deals with guide words is cautious and objective. The relational process not only makes the relationship between tourists and guide more intimacy, but also has the expository and descriptive explanation about the text of guide words. 9.we hope your visit to our city will be a happy experience. 10.Now,please pay attention to the islet on your left. In the mental process, the guide attaches great importance of the experience of tourists. In the ninth sentence, "hope" expresses the thought of guide that tourists will enjoy themselves in the trip. At the same time, the text of guide words adds the subjective thoughts and feelings. It not only embodies a friendly expectation of tour guide, but also brings psychological pleasure to tourists. In the tenth sentence, the phrase of pay attention to shows careful and cautious attitude towards tourists so that they can feel the sincerity and intentions of the service.
In the text, verbal process doesn"t appear at all. Maybe because the text is about guide words, the guide should lead tourists and make them know more about scenic spots. Most of chosen words should be objective, therefore, the text doesn"t quote what other people said.

Conclusion
In the process of analyzing the text of guide words, material process is the most frequently used one among the six processes. It indicates that text of guide words mainly focuses on the description of objective information and conveys friendly and intimate manner. Then relational process which is less than material process ranks the second. There are some attributions and characteristics of scenic spots which needed to be described. However, the verbal, mental, existential process have a low presence compared to material process and relational process. Therefore, the text of guide words is mainly neutral in describing scenic spot, but it needs to have some exchange and greeting in the beginning to get familiar with each other, which is good for next work. It can be regarded as the combination of descriptive text and argumentative text. The information which appeares in the text of guide words are exact and credible. At the same time, it also has interesting features to attract attention of tourists, The text of guide words should be regarded as the bridge in order to communicate with foreigners. It is more than the simple text and has many functions to disseminate culture. https://mip.ruiwen.com/daoyouci/1453934.html.