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consists of a theme combined with a Rheme. Within that configuration, the theme is starting point for the message; it is the ground from which the clause is taking off‖.
2.3 Transitivity System
The concept of transitivity in Halliday‘s grammatical system is a powerful tool in the analysis of the meanings expressed in clauses. The term transitivity has a broader and
narrower meaning. The narrower meaning found in traditional grammatical description and the one with which most readers are probably familiar involves the verb‘s relationship to
dependent elements of structure. Transitive verbs take a direct object and intransitive verbs do not. Stated differently, the action of the verb extends to another entity in a transitive
clause, but not in an intransitive clause. For example, the difference between ―The tiger Actor pounced Process‖ and The tiger Actor ate Process the deer Goal‖ is that the
action ―eat‖ extends to ―the deer‖. In the broader meaning as proposed by Halliday and assumed in the OpenText.org annotation, the system of transitivity consists of the various
types of processes together with the structures that realize these process.
There are three basic elements to all process structure-the process itself, the participants in the process, and the circumstances associated with the process. In the SFL
model, a representation of experience consists of:
1. Processes: what kind of eventstate is being described. 2. Participants: the entities involved in the process, e.g., actor, sayer, senser, etc.
3. Circumstances: specifying the when, where, why and how of the process. Example: The dog bit the postman yesterday
The dog bit
the postman yesterday
Participants Process participants Circumstance
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Halliday distinguishes six process types. They are: 1. Material Process
Material process is process of doing, that some entity does something and undertakes some action which may be done to some other entity. Clauses with a material process
obligatory have a doing process and a doer participant. Actions involve actors or participants.
The dog barked
Participant Process
The fuel ignites
Participant Process
The entity who or which does something is the Actor. There is an entity to which the process is extended or directed. This entity which may
be done is the Goal. Because some processes also have a second participant. For example:
The dog barked
the stranger
Participant Process
Participant
As an Actor as a Goal
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The Police arrested
the robber
Participant Process
Participant
As an Actor as a Goal
The term ―Goal‖ implies meaning of ―directed at‖. Goal is that participant at whom the process is directed or to whom the action is extended. Another term that has been used for
this function is patient which means one that suffers or undergoes the process. Nevertheless, the writer will keep familiar term goal in the present analysis. The goal is most like the
traditional direct object which is known as transitive verb may take.
There are two variables of material process: 1. Creative a ‗bringing about‘
2. Dispositive a ‗doing to‘
In the creative type of material process, the goal is brought about by the process: Frederick Douglas wrote
a narrative story
Actor Material process Goal
In dispositive type, we have doing and happening. He
dismissed the secretary
Actor Material process Goal
Material process reflects a ‗doing to‘ action.
The gun discharged
Actor Material
Material Process reflects a happening.
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2. Mental Process
Mental process is a type of transitivity process that relates to sense, feelings, thought or perception. Some processes involve not material action but phenomena described as states
of mind or psychological events. People are not always talking about concrete process of doing. They very often talk not about what they are doing, but about what they think or feel.
Halliday calls processes which encode meanings of thinking or feeling as mental processes. These processes tend to be realized through the use of verbs like think, believe, understand,
know, feel, smell, hear, see, want, like, please, admire, repel, enjoy, fear, and frighten. There are three types of mental process:
1. Affective or reactive feeling which is recognized through the use of verbs liking and fearing.
2. Cognitive thinking which is recognized through the use of verbs like thinking, knowing and understanding.
3. Perceptive perceiving through the five senses which is recognized through the use of verbs like seeing and hearing.
Mental process is mental, covert kinds of goings-on, and the participant involves within it, is not so much acting or acting upon in a doing sense, as sensing-having feelings,
perceiving or thinking. We can recognize that mental process is different from material process because it no longer makes sense to ask ―What did X do to Y?‖
I hate injections What did you do to the injection? I hate it
She believes her excuses
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What did she do to his excuses? She believed them With these clauses, it makes more sense to ask: ―What do you think or feel or know
about X?‖
- What do you think about injections? I hate them.
- What did she think about her excuses? She believed them.
What makes mental process looks different from material one is that we probe them differently. That when we probe, we find we are not asking about an action or doing in a
tangible, physical sense; but it is about mental reaction; related to a thought, feeling or perception.
The participants role in mental process are‘ senser‘ and ‗phenomena‘ associated with any mental process. Even if one participant is apparently absent, it will need to be retrieved from
the context for the clause to make sense. She believed
always implies she believed something or someone. One participant in mental process clause must be a conscious human participant, because only a conscious
human being can perform a mental process. This participant is called senser. The senser who feels, thinks or perceives, must either be human or an anthropomorphized non human. It must
be a conscious being: She
believed her excuses
Senser Mental process
I hate
injections Senser
Mental process
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It is important to consider what label has to apply to the second participant in a mental process clause. Halliday labels the second participant as the phenomenon. The phenomenon
is that which is sensed: felt, thought or seen by the conscious senser. She
believed her excuses
Senser Mental process Phenomenon
do you
Want more soup?
Senser Mental process Phenomenon
Halliday also identifies two types of embedded phenomena: acts and facts. 1. Phenomenon: Acts
Acts occur with mental process of perception: seeing, hearing, noticing, etc. An act is realized by an imperfective non-finite clause acting as if it were a simple noun.
I Saw
the operation taking place Senser Mental process
Phenomenon: act
2. Phenomenon: Facts A fact is an embedded clause is usually finite and usually introduced by a‘ that‘,
functioning as if it were a simple noun. She
didn‘t realize that it was a bomb
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Senser Mental process Phenomenon: Fact
3. Relational Processes
Relational processes involves states of being, including having. Relational process is typically realized by the verb be or some verb of the same class known as Copular Verbs,
for example, appear, become, seem or sometimes by verbs such as have, own, and posses. Relational process can be classified according to whether it is being used to identify
something or to assign quality to something. Process which establishes an identity is called identifying process. While process which assigns a quality is called attributive process. Each
has its own characteristic participant roles. 1. Identifying Process
An identifying clause is not about describing or classifying, but defining. The meaning of an identifying intensive is that ‗X serves to define the identity of Y‘. In this
process, the participant roles are tokens and value. You
Are the tallest one here
Token Identifying process Value
You are identified as the ‗holder‘ or ‗occupant‘ of the identity or label of the tallest one.
Grammatically, the defining involves two participants: a. Token which stands for what is being defined
b. Value which defines All identifying clauses are reversible, they can form passives:
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The tallest one is you
Value Identifying
Token
The reversibility of identifying clauses raises the question of determining which ‗side‘ of the clause is the token and which one is the value. This can be determined both
semantically and grammatically. Halliday 1985:115 points out that semantically, t
he token will be a ‗sign‘, name, form, holder or occupant of a value which gives the ‗meaning, referent, function, status or
role‘ of the token. While, the token is the nominal group which contains the ‗name‘ which gives the classification.
- Token will always be the subject in an active clause
- Value will always be subject in a passive clause
2. Attributive Process In the attributive sub-type, a quality, classification or descriptive epithet Attribute is
assigned to a participant carrier which is realized by a noun or nominal group. Attribute is a quality or epithet ascribed to the carrier means that ‗X carries the attribute a‘ while carrier
means ‗X is a member of the class a‘
You are
very tall Carrier Attributive
Attribute
I won‘t be
a liar Carrier
Attributive Attribute
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On the contrary to identifying clauses, the essential characteristic of the attributive clauses is that they are not reversible. In the other words, there is no passive form of the
clause; the subject can never conflate with the role of attribute, but it will always conflate with the role of carrier.
Relational process can be further sub-classified according to whether they are intensive quality, possessive and circumstantial. The option available to relational process
can be shown as presented: Attributive : Carrier, Attribute
RELATIONAL Identifying: Token, Value
PROCESSES Intensive
Possessive Circumstantial
4. Verbal Processes
Verbal process is a process of saying or of symbolically signaling. A verbal process typically contains three participants:
- Sayer - Receiver
- Verbiage The sayer is the participant responsible for the verbal process, who encodes a signal
source. Does not have to be a conscious participant although it typically is, but anything capable of putting out a signal. The receiver is the one to whom the verbal process is
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directed, or the one to whom the verbalization is addressed. The verbiage is a nominalized statement of the verbal process, a noun expressing some kind of verbal behaviour, a name for
the verbalization itself statement, answer, question, or story. I
asked my teacher
a question Sayer
Verbal Receiver
Verbiage Human Participant
Human Participant
The sayer signal source needs not to be a conscious being. The sign says
―no smoking‖ Sayer
Verbal Verbiage
Signal Participant The alarm clock
screamed
Sayer Verbal
Signal Participant
Here are some examples of verbal processes in the list below. Some of them are used only for reporting and others for both reporting and quoting.
Reporting Quoting
Hypothesize, deny, insinuate say, tell, remark, observe, point out, report, ask
Remind, claim, make out announce, shout, cry, demand, reply, interrupt
She told
me a rude joke
Sayer Verbal
Receiver Verbiage
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Pretend explain, protest, warm, insist, inquire
Direct quoted speech I
said ―can you avoid the scar tissue?‖
Sayer Verbal
Indirect reported speech I
asked them
to avoid the scar tissue Sayer
Verbal Receiver
Direct quoted speech He
said commanded ―carry the bag‖
Sayer Verbal
Indirect reported He
said commanded Her
to carry the bag Sayer
Verbal Receiver
5. Behavioral Processes
Behavioral Processes is process of physiological and psychological behavior, like breathing, dreaming, snoring, smiling, hiccupping, looking, listening, watching, and
pondering. Halliday describes this process semantically as a ―half-way house‖ between mental and material process. It means that the meanings they realized are midway between
materials on the one hand and mental on the other. They are in part about action that has to be experienced by a conscious being.
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There is one obligatory participant: the behaver and it is typically a conscious being like a senser in the mental process clause. But, the process is one of doing, not sensing, such
as She
lives in a big city
Behaver Behavioural process
Circumstances: place
Behavioural process often occur with circumstantial elements, particularly of manner and cause.
He coughed
loudly Behaver Behavioural process
Circumstance: manner
Behavioural process may contain a second participant that is called as behavior.
He laughed at me
He laughed at
me Behaver
Behavioural process Behavior
6. Existential Processes
Existential process is process of existence. It represents that something exist or happens. It also represents experience by positing that ―There was is something.‖
There Is a gateway
in the garden Existential process Existent
Circ: place
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There was snow
on the roof Existential process Existent Circ: place
on the wall there hung
a picture of me Circ: place
Existential process Behavior
there were
two of us Existential process Existent
It is easy to identify the clause contains existential process, as the structure involves the use of the word There. ―There‖ has no representational function, it has no representational
meaning: it does not refer to a location.
There is only one reason
There is only one reason
Pr: Existential Existent
There is a woman in front my house
There is a woman
in front of my house Pr: Existential Existent
Circ.loc: place
2.4 The Elements of Transitivity Processes