Abstract
This dissertation investigates the functions of implicit elements in Old Chinese with a textual approach from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). SFL is concerned with the relationship between language and text/discourse which is closely related to context and genre. SFL emphasizes to interpret linguistic phenomena in text/discourse. This research discusses with a textual approach the functions of three implicit elements in Old Chinese which are nominal elements, verbs and preposition Yu. This study is further based on genre as the classification of nominal elements. It is necessary to analyze the implicit nominal elements from the perspective of genre. Chinese is highly dependent on context. We can get a better explanation of many implicit elements in Old Chinese from the textual perspective. With it, it is appropriate to observe the implicit phenomenon in Old Chinese, especially on their subtle differences. The result of this research can unify the relevant literature in Old Chinese to a theoretical level. In addition, this study also attempts to propose a characteristic structure of Chinese, temporarily referred to as implicit We structure. This structure is not just language uses, but the basic structure of Chinese language which is important but ignored all long. This structure can explain many Chinese phenomena both synchronically and diachronically.