AN ANALYSIS OF "THE EAGLE" IN SYSTEMIC-FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

This paper presents an attempt of applying Halliday's Functional Linguistics to the interpretation of the poem The Eagle. The focus of the paper is on how the metafunctions are applied in disclosing and interpreting the discourses of the classic poem. Following Halliday, we understand that the interpretation may involve two levels: "the understanding of the text" and "the evaluation of the text". The paper discusses the description for the eagle from the perspective of the experiential metafunction mainly We have discovered that the metafunctions under discussion are applicable in helping to disclose the profound meanings of a poem's discourse and to understand the semantic features of the discourse, which is essential for the interpretation and appreciation of a poem.