the transitivity system of language, is interpreted as a what-is-going-on process, which is related to material actions, events, states and relations. The what-is-going-an
process falls into various process. Halliday in Sinar 2003: 60 has identified the encoding processes of the realities under discussion, and he has also linguistically
grammatically classified the various processes in question into various process types, particularly the process types in the transitivity system of the English clause. In
this, Halliday categorizes the processes into three principal process types: 1 Material, 2 Mental, 3 Relational; and he classifies other processes into three
subsidiary process types: 1 Behavioural, 2 Verbal, and 3 Existential.
2.3.1.1.1 Material Function
Material function the process of doings and happenings, in which a participant, i.e. ‘a thing’, is engaged in a process of doing, which may involve some
other participants. For example: He overcame the problem
He overcame
the problem Actor
Material Goal
According to Halliday in Sinar 2003: 61 says that there are 2 participants inherent in the process, i.e. He overcame the problem. He as the actor and the
problem as the goal. The actor is the active participant in the process or the one that
Duma Sari Lubis : An Analysis Of Experiential Functions In Reader’s Digest Magazine’s Selected Articles, 2008 USU Repository © 2008
does the deed, whereas the goal is the one to which the process is extended, or the one being affected by the process.
2.3.1.1.2 Mental Function
Mental Function is the process of sensing, in which a participant, i.e. a conscious being or thing, is engaged in a process of seeing, feeling or thinking, which
may involve some other participants. In the case of a mental process having two participants, the second participant may be a thing or a fact. The first participant as
the conscious being or thing is the one that senses-perceives, feels or thinks. This sensing perceiving, feeling, thinking participant is typically human, or else human-
like, and is referred to as senser. The second participant, i.e. the sensed perceived, felt or thought participant, is called phenomenon, Halliday in Sinar 2003: 61-62.
Halliday in Sinar 2003: 62 categorizes mental processes into three principal subtypes: 1 perception, 2 affection, and 3 cognition. As has been stated, in a
mental process there should be one participant that is human or human-like, i.e. the one that senses-perceives, feels or thinks. In order to function as the one capable of
perceiving, feeling or thinking, this participant should be a conscious being, and a human being is a conscious. It is possible that a non-human being can be the sensing
participant if it is endowed with consciousness. This being the case, the sensing participant is called a human-like sensing participant. For example:
Duma Sari Lubis : An Analysis Of Experiential Functions In Reader’s Digest Magazine’s Selected Articles, 2008 USU Repository © 2008
1. Mental: cognition I
believe you
Senser Process : Mental,
cognition Phenomenon : fact
2. Mental: Perception I
hear your voice
Senser Process : Mental,
perception Phenomenon : act
3. Mental: Affection I
love you
Senser Process : Mental, affection
Phenomenon
Phenomena may be realized in embedded clauses. There are tow types of embedded phenomena: acts and facts. An act phenomenon typically occurs in a
mental process of perception seeing, hearing, noticing, etc, and it may be realized by a non-finite participle clause acting as if it were a simple noun. On the other hand,
a fact phenomenon may be realized by a finite embedded clause and is usually introduced by a that functioning as if it were a simple noun.
Duma Sari Lubis : An Analysis Of Experiential Functions In Reader’s Digest Magazine’s Selected Articles, 2008 USU Repository © 2008
2.3.1.1.3 Verbal Function
