Process types Verb kinds
Association
Material Doing Bodily, physically,
materially Behavioral Behaving physiologically,
psychologically Mental Sensing Emotionally,
intellectually, sensorily
Verbal Saying Lingually, signaling
Relational Being
equal to, or some attributes Existential Existing there
exist Meteorological Weathering
It can be seen on the table that verbs are not always doing words, some verbs rather express state of being and having. For example, to write an accident,
to tell an accident and to hear an accident are different orders of doings and beings’. The first is a process of material doing, the second is a process of saying,
and the third is a process of sensing. The other two linguistic structures, circumstances and participants, are
incumbent upon any processes mentioned above. Circumstances realize meanings about: time, place, manner, quality, comparison cause, accompaniment, matter
and role; whereas the participants can vary from one kind of process to the other.
a. Material process.
Material process is a process of material doing. ‘It expresses the notion that some entity physically does something’ Gerot, et al., 1994:55. It mostly has
two participants an Actor and a Goal, but the possible participants of a material process are four : Actor, Goal, Range, and Beneficiary.
‘Actor is the constituent of the clause who does the deed or performs the action’, whereas ‘the Goal is that participant at whom
the process is directed, to whom the action is extended’, Eggins 19974:231.
The cleaning staff cleaned
five bedrooms for the guests
yesterday Actor
Mat Process Goal
Beneficiary Cir:time
In the example, the cleaning staff is the Actor that performs the deed cleaned, and the deed is directed at five bedrooms. The word group for the guest is the
Beneficiary. Eggins defines ‘beneficiary as participant that benefits from the process’
Eggins, 1994:235. There are two kinds of beneficiary; ‘a Recipient the one to whom something is given, and a Client the one for who something is done’
Eggins, 1994:235. Whereas a Range specifies one or two things: 1.
either it is a restatement or continuation of the process itself, or 2.
it expresses the extent or ‘range’ of the process. Eggins,1994:233
For example: She gives
a smile Actor Pr:material Range
She gives a
book Actor Pr:material Goal
A smile in the example of the clause above does not exist when the giving is not done, so it is classified as Range; unlike a book in the second clause example it
exists even the giving is not done. A smile expresses the extent of the process gives.
Instead of an Actor, a material process can be an Agent. Eggins 1994:239 defines an Agent as the one who initiates the action, the one who
makes something happen, for example:
The boss Causes
Her to participate in the seminar
Agent Pr:causative Actor Pr:material
Cir:place The Actor is her, the one who does to participate. The boss is an Agent that causes
her to participate.
b. Behavioural Process
This process expresses meanings in between mental and material processes. The verbs that usually express this process are such as: ‘watch, look
over, taste, sniff, stare, gawk, work out, think on, dream, breathe, cough, snuffle, smile, frown, laugh, grimace, scowl, etc.’ Eggins, 1994:250.
That old man Cough
heavily Behaver Pr:behavioural
Cir: manner
Eggins suggests that the behavioural process can have just one, or two 2 participants, but the majority it has one participant Eggins, 1994:250. When it
has two participants; the first is Behaver and the second can be of two kinds. The one which is like a range, a restatement of the process is called Behaviour. The
other one which is not a restatement of a process is called a Phenomenon. The examples are presented below:
He smiles
a broad smile Behaver Pr:behavioural Behaviour
Mom Sniffed
the soup Behaver Pr:
behavioural Phenomenon
A broad smile is a restatement of the smile, so it is called Behaviour; whereas the
soup is not a restatement of sniffed, and therefore, it is called Pheniomenon.
A Behavioural Process involves the role of conscious being, and it never takes present progressive tense Eggins, 1994:250.
c. Mental Process Halliday 1994:105 calls ‘a mental process as the one that encodes
meaning of thinking and feeling’. Therefore, the mental process can be probed by the question
‘What do you thinkfeel about X?’ Eggins also suggests that when probing a mental process is done; what is asked is about the mental reactions; they can be
cognition realized by verbs of thinking, knowing, understanding, affection
realized by verbs of liking, fearing, and perception realized by verbs of seeing,
hearing. The participant that a mental process is associated with must be at least
two 2. One of them should be a conscious human since it is just a conscious human that can be a Senser acting as an active participant. The other participant is
the passive one and it is called Phenomenon.
For example: He
knew all the problem
before you came Senser Pr:mental Phenomenon
Cir:time
d. Verbal Process
