These are the examples of transitivity process which esist in clauses :
Process type Example Process + participants underlined; Process in
bold; circumstances in italics
Material During the European scramble for Africa, Nigeria fell
and to the
British.
the British ruled it until 1960
Behavioural people are laughing
Mental The Ibos did not approve of kings.
Verbal so we say
→that every fourth African is a Nigerian
Can you tell us about the political and cultural make-up of
Nigeria? Relational
that every fourth African is a Nigerian.
Existential so today there’s Christianity in the south
Halliday Matthiessen, 2004 : 171
a. Material Processes
The actions are usually concrete and tangible. Material process are process of doing happening Halliday Matthiessen, 2004 : 179. They express the idea that
some entity physically does something-which may be done to some other entity. Clauses with a material process is obligatorily to have a doing process and a
doer participant. The entity who or which does something is the actor. There optionally is an entity to which the Process is extended or directed. This entity which
may be done is the goal. The exhausted bushwalker dropped
his pack Participant :
Actor Process :
Material Participant:
Goal
There are two varieties of Material Processes: creative and dispositive. In the creative type, the goal is brought about by the process.
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Handel wrote
the Messiah Actor
Material Goal
In the dispositive type, we have doings and happenings. Kerr
dismissed Whitlam
Actor Material
Goal
The gun discharged
Actor Material
Material processes ‘take’ both the active voice as above and the passive. Whitlam
was dismissed by Kerr
Goal Material
Actor The gun
was discharged Goal
Material
b. Behavioural processes
These are processes of typically human physiological and psychological behaviour, like breathing, coughing, smiling, dreaming and staring Halliday
Matthiessen, 2004 : 248. In this process, there is one obligatory participant: the behaver. The behaver is a conscious being. But the process is one of doing, not
sensing, such as: She
lives in a beautiful old house
Behaver Behavioural
Circumstance : place
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He listens
carefully Behaver
Behavioural Circumstance : manner
Behaviourals can contain a second participant that is called the behaviour. He
smiled a big smile.
Behaver Behavioural
Behaviour
c. Mental processes
While material clauses are concerned with our experience of the material world, mental clauses are concerned with our experience of the world of our own
consciousness Halliday Matthiessen, 2004 : 197. Mental processes are processes of sensing feeling, thinking, perceiving. There are three types of mental processes :
affective or reactive feeling, cognitive thinking, and perceptive perceiving through the five senses. The participants in mental processes are called senser and
phenomenon. The phenomenon is that which is sensed: felt, thought or seen. That microwave
doesn’t like you
Participant: Senser
Process: Mental
Participant: Phenomenon
There are clauses with senser or phenomenon only, such as: Mark
understood Senser
Mental : Cognitive Loneliness
hurts Phenomenon
Mental : Affect
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The clause may also contain both Senser and Phenomenon, such as: Mark
likes new clothes
Senser Mental : Affect
Phenomenon
d. Verbal processes
