ABSTRACT
As the first chapter of the book, this chapter serves as an introduction to the whole book, focusing on the most basic notions, linguistic theories and disciplines, and analytical approaches upon which this book is based. It starts with a general discussion of the notions ‘politics’, ‘power’, discourse’, ‘discourse analysis’, ‘political discourse’ and ‘political discourse analysis’, before exploring previous studies of political discourse of Hong Kong society. This book intends not only to analyze political discourse by the systemic functional theoretical framework, but also to approach political discourse analysis (PDA) from the systemic functional perspective. This chapter then introduces a general description of the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), covering the most fundamental concepts like human language as a semiotic system, stratification and realization, three basic modes of meaning, potential versus instance, and rank, but leaving the discussion of specific areas at the beginning of each of the following chapters. From the systemic functional perspective, this book takes the stance that ‘politics’ is a functional construct while ‘doing politics’ is a mediation of context and politics through language systems. This chapter thus revisits and upholds the model of SFL through the characterization of ‘doing politics’. Finally, this chapter presents an overview of the book by introducing the major sources of data used, the major approaches implemented and the organization of the book.
