T1 112011024 Full text

TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF ONLINE NEWS FOOTBALL
MATCH REPORT: HOW THE WRITERS WRITE DIFFERENTLY

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Agustinus Dias Suparto
112011024
English Department
Faculty of Language and Literature

SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2015

TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF ONLINE NEWS FOOTBALL
MATCH REPORT: HOW THE WRITERS WRITE DIFFERENTLY

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Agustinus Dias Suparto
112011024
English Department
Faculty of Language and Literature

SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2015

ii

Approval
TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF FOOTBALL MATCH REPORT:
HOW THE WRITERS WRITE DIFFERENTLY

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

Agustinus Dias Suparto
112011024

Approved by:

Dian Toar Sumakul , M.A. Christian Rudianto, S.Pd, M.AppLing

__________________________
Supervisor

iii

________________________
Examiner

Copyright Statement
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for
examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma

in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no
material previously published or written by any other person except where due
reference is made in the text.

Copyright@ 2015. Agustinus Dias Suparto and Dian Toar Sumakul, M. A

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means
without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English
Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, SatyaWacana University,
Salatiga.

Agustinus Dias Suparto

iv

Publication Agreement Declaration
As a member of the SatyaWacana Christian University (SWCU) academic
community, I verify that:
Name
Student ID Number

Study Program
Faculty
Kind of Work

: Agustinus Dias Suparto
: 112011024
: English Language Education Program
: Language and Literature
: Undergraduate Thesis

In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive
royalty free right for my intellectual property and the contents there in entitled:
Transitivity Analysis of Online News Football Match Report: How the Writers
Write Differently
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name is still included as the writer.

This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in: Salatiga
Date: 24th April 2015
Verified by signee,

Agustinus Dias Suparto
Approved by:
Thesis Supervisor

Thesis Examiner

Dian Toar Sumakul, M. A.

Christian Rudianto, S.Pd, M.AppLing

v

Table of Content
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Cover Page………………………………………………………………..i
Inside Cover page…………………..………………………….................ii
Approval Page…………………………………………………………...iii
Copyright Statement……………………………………………………..iv
Publication Agreement Declaration………………………………………v
Table of Content…....…………...………………………………....…….vi
List of Tables….………………………………………………………...viii
List of Figures…………………………………………………………....xi
Thesis Body………………………………...……………………….……1
a.
Title……………….……………………………………………..1
b.

Writer‟s Name…………………………………………………...1
c.
Abstract…………….……………………………………………1
d.
Key words………….……………………………………………1
e.
Introduction……………………………………………………..1
1.
Introduction……………………………………………...1
2.
Systemic Functional Linguistics…………………………3
3.
The Three Metafunctions...………………………………3
4.
Transitivity……………………………………………….4
5.
Previous Study on Transitivity Analysis…………………7
f.
The Study……………………………………………………….8
1.

Research Question……………………………………….8
2.
Context of The Study……………………………………8
3.
Object of The Study……………………………………..8
4.
Instrument of Data Collection…………………………...9
5.
Data Collection Procedure……………………………….9
6.
Data Analysis……………………........…...……………10
g.
Result……………………………………………………………11
1.
The Most Dominant Process Type.……………………..11
2.
The Most Dominant Participant Type…………………..14
3.
Types of Circumstance in the Texts…………………….16
h.

Discussion………………………………………………………19
1.
The Most Dominant Actor in Each Text………………..19
2.
Mental Process in Text C……………………………….22
i.
Conclusion……………………………………………………..24
j.
The Role of Transitivity Analysis in Text……………………..25
k.
Acknowledgement…………………………………………….26
l.
References……………………………………………………..27
m.
Appendix………………………………………………………29
1.
Appendix A..…………………………………...………29
vi

2.

3.

Appendix B...…………………….……………………...37
Appendix C...………………….………………………...40

vii

List of Tables
Table 1: Process types in text A, B and C…………………......…………………11
Table 2: Participants in text A, B, and C……………..…………………………..15
Table 3: Circumstances of the texts ......................................................................18
Table 4: Some actors that represent the side of the text........................................20
Table 5: The number of actors and their side.........................................................22

viii

List of Figures
Figure 1: Participant, process and circumstance in a clause……………………....5
Figure 2: Material processes in a sentence……………………………………….12
Figure 3: Material process in a clause……………………………………………13

Figure 4: Material process in a clause……………………………………………13
Figure 5: Participants of material process in a clause……………………………14
Figure 6: Participants of mental process in a clause………………………......…14
Figure 7: Circumstance in a clause……………………………………………....17
Figure 8: Circumstance in a clause………………………………………………17
Figure 9: Match data..............................................................................................19
Figure 10: Mental process in text C.......................................................................23
Figure 11: Mental process in text C......................................................................23

ix

TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF ONLINE NEWS FOOTBALL
MATCH REPORT: HOW THE WRITERS WRITE DIFFERENTLY
Agustinus Dias Suparto
Abstract
Football news is the way to let the public know what have just happened in
football world. However, the report presented in football news may be biased by
the writer‟s view which makes some different perspectives towards a fact which is
raised to the public. To analyze some certain perspectives that might be used by
the writers, transitivity of Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) can
be used. This metafunction looks at the participants, processes and circumstances
in the texts. This paper showed how transitivity can reveal the perspectives used
by the writers. This paper examined three match reports of the match between
Manchester City FC and Chelsea FC on September 21st, 2014 from three different
websites. This paper revealed which match report was taking a side or neutral
related with the participants, processes and circumstances involved. This paper
also related the using of transitivity components with the purpose of the texts. By
analyzing the actors involved, the point of view of the writers could be
recognized. In the end, this paper showed that two of three texts took sides while
one was neutral. Finally, this paper showed that transitivity analysis in SFL can be
a tool to measure whether a text is biased by its writer‟s opinions or not.
Key words: transitivity analysis, systemic functional linguistics, football match
reports

Introduction
The written text such as news which have purpose to report facts
sometimes is more interested in advancing their own cause such as taking a
certain perspective. White (2006) figured out that news reporting, especially, as
ideologically inclined and with an agenda to influence its intended audience (p.1).
The writer often creates such opinions which can influence the reader to be
affirmative of their perspectives. Ghannam (2011) also found that “language can
1

be used in many different ways in order to reinforce and manipulate a message”
(p.3). Hence, like common newspaper articles, football match reports also can be
a source of creating perspective toward the readers who most of them are football
fans. Mineshima (2009) has found that even when the writing is not too biased,
the reader may not be aware to accept some writer‟s perspectives about a fact.
Some of the facts are just viewed from a certain point of view which is usually
directed to the target readers. Thus, language is not seen as the reflection of our
reality anymore and becomes the central of creating reality (Taiwo, 2007).
Therefore, whether the messages which are presented are on purpose or not by the
writer, it makes a certain point of view which differ one to the others.
News stories which work for forming ideologies or perspectives and are
directed to the readers can be analyzed using Systemic Functional Linguistics
(SFL). Teo (2004) claimed that „Transitivity‟, a component in Halliday‟s SFL, can
reveal the attribution of agency to participant in texts and he also added that it is
an analytic tool which foregrounds agency and makes salient “who does what to
whom” (p.25). White (2006) added that the bias of opinion may occur because of
the grammatical choices which participants are represented as agentive or as
affected/acted upon. Thus, the effect of the degree of agency assigned may
influence the amount of blame designated to one participant rather than another
(p.3). Therefore, this study will be conducted by using Transitivity analysis to
investigate the point of view taken by the writers of the texts.
This study investigates three match reports of Manchester City versus
Chelsea on Sunday, 21st of September 2014 retrieved from different sources. The

2

texts will be examined using analytical resources of SFL components which focus
on the concepts of Transitivity or Experiential Metafunction.

Systemic Functional Linguistics
Halliday (1990) claims that language, or any other semiotic systems, can
be seen as a system of choices which is called Systemic Functional Linguistics
(SFL). He claimed that SFL is particularly suitable for the type of investigation
that
“… enables us to analyse any passage and relate it to its context in the
discourse, and also to the general background of the text: who it is written
for, what is its angle on the subject matter and so on (p. 34)”.
In other words, Halliday‟s SFL emphasizes on how language is used to express
meaning. Some linguists agreed that it is a systematic way to analyze how
language works or functions in communication. Bloor and Bloor (1995) also
agreed that SFL is semantic means that it concerns with the meaning and also
function which means it concerns with how the language is used (p.2). Therefore,
White (2000) concluded that SFL is a popular tool to investigate how linguistic
items and grammatical patterns are used to express different semantic values.

The Three Metafunctions
In SFL, Halliday (1985) also proposed three interrelated Metafunctions,
which are the Ideational or Experiential, the Interpersonal and the Textual to

3

classify the various options available and choices by the speakers. He later
claimed that:
“Language has developed in response to three kinds of social-functional
needs. The first is to be able to construe experience in terms of what is
going on around us and inside us. The second is to interact with the social
world by negotiating social roles and attitudes. The third and final need is
to be able to create messages with which we can package our meanings in
terms of what is new or given.” (Halliday, 1994 : 11)
From his statement, the Ideational or Experiential relates to the way languages is
used to express the perceptions of the world and explains how the language is
used to describe „doings‟ and „happenings‟. The Interpersonal Metafunction refers
to language as medium for interaction, expressing attitudes and obligation. Then,
the Textual Metafunction refers to „the enabling function, the speaker‟s textforming potential expressing the relation of language to its environment and
weaving together the Experiential and Interpersonal meanings‟ (Plemenitas, 2004,
p. 26). However, Transitivity analysis in this paper only examines the texts from
Experiential Metafunction perspectives which only focus on the process, actors
and circumstances of the texts.

Transitivity
Part of Ideational or Experiential function, which concerns with the
transmission of ideas, is Transitivity (Cunanan, 2011, p. 72). The system of
Transitivity specifies the different types of processes and consists of the process

4

itself, participants in the process (e.g. Actor, Goal, Beneficiary) and circumstances
attendant on it (Plemenitas, 2004, p. 27). The following clause, Figure 1 taken
from text A, shows an example of how the Participants, Process and
Circumstances work.
Figure 1: Participant, process and circumstance in a clause
Two

second-half scored

as the points were shared after a keenly

substitutes

contested match in Manchester

Participant

Process

Circumstances

(Actor)

(Material)

(Contingency)

Halliday (1976) claimed that Transitivity represents process or experiences
like actions, events, processes of consciousness, and relations that covers “all
phenomena and anything that can be expressed by a verb: event, whether physical
or not, state or relations” (p. 159). Hence, Transitivity basically presents how the
world is perceived in three dimensions: the material world, the world of
consciousness and the world of relations (Cunanan, 2011, p. 73). Thus, those three
terms can be considered in the following manner:
1. The Material World
The verbs included in this term can be categorized as doing and
happening verbs. This includes actions, activities and events. As well
as the term Material, these verbs can also be termed as Behavioral
processes. Both Material and Behavioral can be used to describe

5

experiences in the external world, but Behavioral processes relate more
to psychological and physiological behavior (Butt, 2000, p. 51).
2. The World of Consciousness
The verbs in this term can be categorized as Mental and Verbal.
Mental verbs refer to cognition, emotion, intention and perception
(Matthiessen & Halliday, 1997). These verbs encapsulate the inner
mind and consciousness. Verbal Processes are verbs of “saying” and
encode the physical act of speaking (Thompson, 2004, p.100).
3. The World of Relations
The verbs in this term also can be sub-divided into Existential and
Relational verbs. Existential Processes are identified by the use of is,
are, was, were and signal the existence of a relationship between two
concepts (Thompson, 2004, p.96). The function of Relational verbs is
to “identify one entity in favor of another” (Thompson, 2004, p.96).
The use of was, were, have, felt and belong to are typical of these
processes.
There is more detailed process type system which relates the process with
its participants. There is Material process which has many kinds of participants
such as Actor, optional participants like Goal, Range, Beneficiary, which can be
Recipient or Client, Attribute. Mental process has Senser and Phenomenon.
Verbal process has participants Sayer, optional participants Receiver, Verbiage
and Target. Behavioral process has participant Behaver, or optional Behavior
which can be Phenomenon or Verbiage. Existential process has participant

6

Existent. And Relational process is further divided into Identifying with
participants Token and Value, and Attributive with participants Carrier and
Attribute, optional Beneficiary. (Plemenitas, 2004, p. 30)
Circumstances are the indispensable part of each process type. These
circumstances are comprehended by prepositional and adverbial phrases. These
circumstances can be classified as: Extent and Location, Manner such as means,
quality and comparison, Cause such as reason, purpose and behalf, Contingency
such as condition, concession or default, Accompaniment such as comitative or
additive, Role such as guise and product, Matter and Angle

Previous Study on Transitivity Analysis
Text analysis is one area of linguistic investigation that uses of extensive
application of SFL theory. Mineshima (2009) conducted a Transitivity analysis
from two political texts which are from an article from the Guardian newspaper
titled The Other Extradition, written by Norman Stone in November 1998 (Text
A) and an article titled Will Castro Be Next in the Dock?, was published by the
New Statesman magazine, also in November 1998 and written by Maurice Walsh
(Text B). He later found that text A is predominantly material-oriented where the
subject is the actor whereas the other text is rational-oriented where the subject is
the sayer. In other words, Text A foregrounds Ocalan as a dynamic and dangerous
figure whereas Text B depicts Castro as a loud but harmless character. Text B‟s
frequent use of agentless passives also contributes to Castro‟s inconspicuousness.
Ruddick (2007) also attempted a similar study using the same two texts as

7

Mineshima did and he concluded that the use of material and verbal process can
assist the writers to position the reader (p 15). Thus, this study will try to attempt
the similar approach to reveal the point of view of the reader using Transitivity
analysis.
The Study

Research Question
This study tried to answer the following research question: What are the
differences between the three match reports in terms of transitivity to show the
point of view of the texts?

Context of Study
This qualitative study attempted a text analysis which is one area of
linguistic investigation which requires the application of SFL. The study tried to
reveal the perspective or side of the writer as Bell (1999) claims that journalists do
not write articles; on the other hand, they write stories (p.236). This text analysis
was using one of three Metafunctions in SFL, which is Transitivity, to analyze
three match reports retrieved from three different websites.

Object of Study
The objects of the study which the texts chosen for analysis were match
reports retrieved from three different websites on Sunday, September 21, 2014
which was about the match between Manchester City and Chelsea in the

8

matchday 5 of English Premier League which was held on Sunday, September 21,
2014. The match reports were retrieved from www.chelseafc.com (Text A) which
is the official website of Chelsea Football Club, www.mcfc.co.uk (Text B) which
is the official website of Manchester City Football Club and the last one is from
www.premierleague.com (Text C) which is the official website of English Premier

League. The texts were chosen due to the uniqueness of the match because the
legend of Chelsea FC, Frank Lampard scored for Manchester City after 13 years
playing for Chelsea. Text A consists of 1264 words in 3 sections which are about
team news; first half highlight and second half highlight. Text B only consists of
497 words and only reports about the match. Text C consists of 701 words with
featuring the post-match interviews from both managers from Manchester City
FC, Manuel Pellegrini, and Chelsea FC, Jose Mourinho. The data acquired from
the text were the main clauses in the texts which contain process types. In the
following section the process types used in the texts were highlighted.

Instruments of Data Collection
The instrument of data collection is Experiential Metafunction of SFL
which is the fundamental instrument of Transitivity analysis.

Data Collection Procedure
The steps of the data collection were simply opening the official websites
of Chelsea Football Club at www.chelseafc.com and looking for the match report
of the match between Manchester City and Chelsea on September, 21, 2014.

9

Then,

opening

the

match

reports

from

www.mcfc.co.uk

and

www.premierleague.com was necessary to obtain the similar match reports, so the

data were from three different sources and writers. Lastly, the websites displaying
match reports from those websites were saved and analyzed to get the finding.

Data Analysis
The analysis of the texts were conducted by highlighting the process types
and the participants, both the actor and the goal. The process types of the texts
were counted and analyzed according to its categories. Then, the participants also
were examined based on their process types. Next, the circumstances also were
analyzed to ascertain the most active participant which is explained in the text.
After that, the process types, participants and circumstances grouped were
analyzed according to the side that they belong to which also showed the point of
view taken by the writers. Then, in order to ascertain the most prominent verbal
group chosen by the authors, process types were counted and placed into the
categories. After that, Actors and Material Process types affiliated with them were
counted in order to determine the most active participants. Next, in an attempt to
reveal which participants were affected most by actions, Material Processes were
counted in relation to Goals. Following these processes, some quantitative data
were used to be the base of the qualitative analysis.

10

Findings and Discussion
This study looked at the 3 elements of Transitivity to answer the research
question which is revealing the point of views of the texts trough Transitivity
analysis. The analysis focused on the dominant types in each element. This was
done to determine the reason why the writers wrote in such a way that may
contain a purpose and their point of views and the reason why they took a certain
point of view. Therefore, firstly, this is essential to know which Process,
Participant and Circumstance which are dominant.

The Most Dominant Process Type
In order to determine which processes were dominant of the texts, which
the texts chosen were all football match reports which have been mentioned
before, the processes were placed into several categories mentioned below. The
dominant process type would determine the dominant participants that would later
be discussed.
Table 1: Process types in text A, B and C
Chelsea FC (Text

Man City FC (Text B)

Premier League (Text

A)

C)

Material

55

65.4%

15

65.2%

15

51.7%

Mental

5

6.0%

2

8.7%

8

27.6%

Rel.

7

8.3%

3

13.1%

2

6.9%

8

9.5%

1

4.3%

2

6.9%

attributive
Rel.

11

identifying
Existential

6

7.2%

2

8.7%

0

0%

Verbal

3

3.6%

0

0%

2

6.9%

Total

84

100%

23

100%

29

100%

The table shows that all the texts use Material process greatly above the other
processes. This type of process was dominantly found in all texts. For example,
the following sentence below shows the Material process works in the sentences
in text A.
Figure 2: Material processes in a sentence
After the whistle Lampard

the Chelsea And

went to

applause was shared

end
Location

Actor

Material

Goal

conj.

Goal

Material

In the sentence above the process can be seen from the verbs „went to‟ and „was
shared‟. Those belong to material category as “Material types are processes of
doing, representing the processes of the external world” which describes the
actual activities about what happened in the match at that time (Plemenitas, 2004,
p.30). The verb „went to‟ shows that the participant is doing an activity of moving
to somewhere and the verb „were shared‟ represents the activity of using or
enjoying something jointly with others. Therefore, those processes of activities
can be described by that verb groups which are included in Material process.
Other occurrences of this process type are found in Text B and Text C in the
figure 3 and 4.
12

Figure 3: Material process in a clause
Frank

Scored

a

Lampard

dramatic as ten-man City came from

equalizer

behind to draw 1-1 with
Chelsea

Actor

Material

goal

Means

Figure 4: Material process in a clause
Neither side
Actor

could find

a breakthrough

before half-time

Goal

Material

Location

In those figures, both verbs „scored‟ and „could find‟ are also categorized as
Material process because those verbs represent the actual activities of the external
world. Therefore, the using of those verb groups may caused by the function of
the text which is football match report which is directed to describe the actual
event, which is about football match, which have just happened.
Related to the purpose of those texts, Table 1 also shows that the Material
process in Text A just slightly outnumbers Text B and C in percentage even
though Text A is consisted of eighty four instances, which fifty five of them are
Material processes while the other texts are only consisted of twenty two and
twenty nine instances in total. Those numbers of instances show that Text A
focused more on describing in detail of what happened on the pitch when the
match is ongoing than Text B and C. However, those three match reports still
show that their purpose of giving information about what was going on in that

13

match is fulfilled because those three texts use Material processes more than any
other processes.

The Most Dominant Participant Type
Plemenitas (2004) stated that „agents‟ or participants are interpreted as the
function which typically has the power to determine whether or not the process
will occur or in other words, it is the controller of the process (p.35). Halliday
(1994) earlier has mentioned that Transitivity also features of causation which the
process comes to exist. Therefore, the evaluation of kind of participants cannot be
separated from the process type that is involved. Figure 5 and 6 will show how
participants are tied with the kind of the process type involved.
Figure 5: Participants of material process in a clause
Jose Mourinho‟s

Took

six points

off city

side
Actor

Goal

Material

Location

Figure 6: Participants of mental process in a clause
Mourinho

will rue

the

missed to have gone eight points clear

opportunity

of one of their rivals for the
title

Senser

Mental

Phenomenon

14

Matter

From Figure 5 and 6, kind of participants are determined by the process type that
presents. Like in Figure 5, when the process type is Material, the participants that
probably involved are Actor and Goal. Similar to Figure 5, Figure 6 also shows
that the participants that are involved are Senser and Phenomenon because its
process type is Mental. However, determining the active and passive participant is
very important. As we know that there are two kinds of participant in Material
process, Thompson (2004) distinguished between those Material processes that
represent action related only to the actor and those that “also affect or are „being
done‟ to another participant”, in this case categorized as the goal (p.90).
Next, in Table 2, the participants involved in the texts are calculated which
will be determining the most dominant participants which are explained in the
texts.
Table 2: Participants in text A, B, and C
Chelsea FC (Text A)

Man City FC (Text

Premier League

B)

(Text C)

Actor

49

35.8%

15

41.6%

15

30%

Goal

35

25.5%

8

22.2%

10

20%

Beneficiary

1

0.7%

1

2.8%

1

2%

Senser

5

3.7%

2

5.6%

6

12%

Phenomenon

5

3.7%

1

2.8%

6

12%

Carrier

7

5.1%

2

5.6%

1

2%

Attribute

7

5.1%

3

8.2%

2

4%

Identified

8

5.8%

1

2.8%

2

4%

15

Identifier

7

5.1%

1

2.8%

1

2%

Existent

6

4.4%

2

5.6%

2

4%

Sayer

3

2.2%

0

0%

2

4%

Target

3

2.2%

0

0%

0

0%

Receiver

1

0.7%

0

0%

0

0%

Verbiage

0

0%

0

0%

2

4%

137

100%

36

100%

50

100%

Total

The table shows that actor is the most dominant participant in those three texts
which also shows that goal is also dominant as the Material process dominates all
the three texts. As it has been explained before, the actions which are involved in
the texts mostly are caused by the function of the texts which are giving the actual
descriptions about the match. Plemenitas (2004) assumed that actors are „agents as
the real instigators or controllers of the process‟ (p.35). In other words, actors are
participants which are active in determining the process, which is the Material
process and the using of actors supports the texts to give information about “who
was doing” in the match.

Types of Circumstance in the Texts
The other transitivity component is circumstances which are propositional
and adverbial phrases. However, in Transitivity analysis, circumstances just show
the clue about participants and the processes in terms of time, place, condition,
reason, comparison, etc. Therefore, circumstances can only help the Transitivity

16

analysis in terms of the purpose of the text or the kind of text. Figure 7 and 8 will
show how circumstances help the writer to describe the situation at that time in
the match.
Figure 7: Circumstance in a clause
Costa

Thumped
Actor

a post

Material

from distance
Goal

Location

Figure 8: Circumstance in a clause
Frank

denied

Lampard

former club

with a late equalizer in an

Chelsea a victory

entertaining 1-1 draw at

over Manchester

Etihad stadium

City
Actor

Material

Goal

Means

From Figure 7 and 8, we can see how the actor was doing the process by looking
at the circumstances involved. In Figure 7, the writer gives explanation about the
situation when the actor was doing the action, whereas in Figure 8, the writer
gives explanation about how the actor was doing the action. Therefore,
circumstances are very important in giving descriptions about the process. Table
3 only shows what kind of circumstance which dominates the texts in relation
with the purpose of the texts which is to give description about the match.

17

Table 3: Circumstances of the texts
Chelsea FC (Text

Man City FC (Text

Premier League

A)

B)

(Text C)

Extent

0

0%

0

0%

1

3.4%

Location

45

58.4%

14

48.3%

12

41.5%

Contingency

8

10.4%

1

3.4%

1

3.4%

Cause

7

9.1%

1

3.4%

4

13.8%

Accompaniment

1

1.3%

5

17.3%

2

6.9%

Matter

0

0%

0

0%

4

13.8%

Role

0

0%

0

0%

0

0%

Manner

0

0%

0

0%

0

0%

Means

8

10.4%

5

17.3%

3

10.3%

Quality

7

9.1%

3

10.3%

2

6.9%

Comparison

0

0%

0

0%

0

0%

Angle

1

1.3%

0

0%

0

0%

Total

77

100%

29

100%

29

100%

From Table 3, it is clear that location dominates the circumstances in each text.
Location is a circumstance which provides information about when and where the
process happens or in the other word; location shows the time and the place of the
occurrences during the match. Thus, the information provided from Location
circumstances, it gives us clear descriptions about what were going on the pitch at
that time. The other circumstances such as Means, Accompaniment and cause also

18

gave better descriptions about the match since those circumstances provides
information about how it was going and what that would happen because of the
occurrences during the match. However, in Text C, there were more matter
circumstances than the other text which shows that Text C tried to explain about
the match and consequences about the match that Text A and B did not provide.
Therefore, those three texts can be categorized as match repots which could report
the way of the match clearly because the circumstances mostly are presented in
dependent clauses which provide more information than just in form of
prepositional and adverbial phrases.

The Most Dominant Actor in Each Text
As Table 2 reveals that Actor is the most dominant participant, it is
necessary to identify which side which has more dominant actors and goals
described in the texts. Figure 9 shows the data of the match which was taken from
Text A to show the side and participants who may represent their side or be in
neutral side.
Figure 9: Match data
Man City (4-4-2): Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany (c), Mangala, Kolarov (Lampard
76); Milner, Toure, Fernandinho (Navas 72), Silva; Aguero, Dzeko (Sagna 70).
Scorer Lampard 85
Manager Manuel Pellegrini
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c),
Azpilicueta; Fabregas, Matic; Ramires (Mikel 62), Willian (Schurrle 62),

19

Hazard; Diego Costa (Drogba 85).
Scorer Schurrle 70
Manager Jose Mourinho
Referee Mike Dean
Venue Etihad Stadium (Manchester City)

As Actor is the most dominant participant, the actors involved in the texts will be
broken down into its side which determines the side of the text. Table 3 will show
the example of kinds of actors which represent the side of the text which
involving Manchester City FC as the host of the match, Chelsea FC as the visitor
team and neutral sides such as the referee or something that represent both sides
such as the match itself.
Table 4: Some actors that represent the side of the text
Text A

Text B

Text C

Man.

The home side

Frank Lampard

Frank Lampard

City side

Sergio Aguero

The Champions

Manuel Pellegrini

Lampard

Manuel Pellegrini

City

Milner

City

Aguero

Yaya Toure

Four home players

The

goal

goal)
Neutral

Two second-half

The teams

substitutes

The heavyweight

20

Neither Side

(City‟s

It (the match)

Premier League clash

Both defences

of the campaign

He

(Mike

Dean-

referee)
Chelsea

Andre Schurrle

The visitors

The visiting fans

side

Cesar Azpilicueta

Chelsea

Silence

Eden Hazard

Jose Mourinho‟s side

fans‟)

Chelsea

Costa

Diego

Mourinho‟s men

(Chelsea

Costa‟s

hamstring
The visitor
The

Belgian

(Hazard)

Table 4 shows many kinds of actor which actually represent the same side of the
text. Mostly, Actors of both sides were represented by the people who were
directly involved in the match such as the players‟ names and managers or
explicitly using the club‟s name or the home or visitor side because the match was
done in Manchester City‟s stadium as the side who was doing something.
However, in those three texts, the number of Actors involved is not spread
evenly. This may be caused by the writer who took side and described one side
more than the other. Table 5 will show how many number of Actors involved in
the texts and their sides.

21

Table 5: The number of actors and their side
Text A

Text B
%

Man.

Text C
%

%

17

34.7%

8

53.3%

7

46.7%

Neutral

8

16.3%

2

13.4%

1

6.6%

Chelsea

24

49.0%

5

33.4%

7

46.7%

City side

side

Table 5 clearly shows that Text A which is from Chelsea FC official website
described Chelsea or actors which belong to Chelsea more than their opponent in
that match report. The match report from Manchester City official website or Text
B was also the same that they put more Actors which belong to them more than
their opponent. The decision to put more participant of their own side may be
influenced by the fact that the audiences of their website are their own fans. Thus
the writer and the audiences may also prefer to know more that their side was
doing than the other side which was their opponent. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the writer from each side took a point of view from their side to
describe the match by using more Actors as the active participant from their side.

Mental Process in Text C
From Table 1 which shows about the number of process types involved in
the texts, we can see that Text C has more Mental processes than the other texts.

22

The gap-difference between text C and the other two texts also shows that
something “uncommon” was occurred in Text C. As we know that Mental verbs
refer to cognition, emotion, intention and perception, it is unusual to find such
many kind of this verb group in a match report which is aimed to give description
of a match (Matthiessen & Halliday, 1997). Text C used more Mental processes
than text A and B to show more the perspective side of the match in which Figure
10 and 11 shows how Mental processes are used in Text C.
Figure 10: Mental process in text C
Jose

looked

set the 1-0 Barclays at City last season after Pablo

Mourinho‟s to repeat

Premier

men

victory

Senser

Mental

League Zabaleta was sent off and
they Andre Schurrle netted from a

earned

brilliant counter attack

Phenomenon

Location

Figure 11: Mental process in text C
Lampard

refused to celebrate

Senser

Mental

The verb groups such as “looked set to repeat” and “refused to celebrate” are
included in Mental process type as Plemenitas (2004) stated that „mental types are
processes of sensing, belonging to the world of consciousness‟ (p.30). That verb
represents the process of thinking of something which cannot be represented in
actual world. This may be caused by point of view of the writer which was also

23

existed instead of just describing of what was happening. The writer assumed that
the participant was having something in mind related to the event instead of
describing what was happening. In the first verb group “looked set to repeat” can
be replaced with other verb groups from material process type such as “could not
repeat” or

“failed to repeat” to describe the reality of the match.

Another

example of the writer‟s perspective is that the writer used “refused to celebrate”
instead of “did not celebrate” to shows the writer‟s assumption about what was
going on in the participant‟s mind. Therefore, Text C involves more opinions of
the writer than text A or B because of those features. However, there is no reliable
source or explanation about the reason why neutral texts have these kinds of
feature of deploying more opinions than just giving descriptions about the facts of
the match which shows that there is no relation between neutral text and more
opinion involved.

Conclusion
From the first discussion, it shows that actors who are involved in the texts
can assist the writer to take aside and influence the readers to see the writer‟s
perspective. As there were two sides involved in the text, the writer could simply
report more on the side he or she wanted to take. By using more actors who
belong to a certain side, the writer could describe what was happening related to
those actors and make the readers see the writer‟s perspective by knowing more of
what was happening to the actors involved in the text. Like in text A, the writer
took the side which the writer described actors related to Chelsea more than their

24

opponents. For example, when Chelsea was attacking in the match, the writer
would describe on how actors in Chelsea side attacked Manchester City side more
than Manchester City side defended against Chelsea side. When Chelsea side was
defending, the writer also described more on how Chelsea was defending than
how Manchester City side was attacking. Thus, the reader of text A will also be
influenced that Chelsea was doing good or not in that match. Similar to text A, the
writer of Text B also focused more on actors belonged to Manchester City. Text B
also used more description about Manchester City side in the match than their
opponent. Therefore, both text A and text B took one side perspective to report the
match.
Unlike Text A and B, text C described the actors from both sides evenly.
However, there were many mental processes involved in the text compared with
the number of mental processes in text A and B. Mental processes used by the
writer in text C shows that the writer wanted to display what were happened in the
participants‟ minds related to the occurrences in the match. Rather than reporting
the fact, it shows that the writer wanted to influence the readers by using his
opinions about what happened in the match. However, there is no relation about
neutral text to deploy more opinions than facts.

The Role of Transitivity Analysis in Texts
Language used for communication sometimes has something to influence
people‟s perceptions and attitudes toward the information that is explained. When
report is to give information precisely as what happen in reality, articles are

25

written to interpret that information in certain ways to influence the audiences.
However, there is a mixing between report and articles which can manipulate the
data and information with certain purposes and agendas. Ruddick (2007) noted
that “texts are not simply there but are infused with ideologies and agendas”
which can promote meaning according to the writer‟s agendas (p.15). Therefore,
the analysis above shows that Transitivity components in Halliday‟s Systemic
Functional Linguistics can be a potent tool to reveal “the stratagems that writers
use to convince the audiences about their point of view” (Ruddick, 2007, p.15).
The analysis of the number of active participants involved in the texts can show
how audiences are dragged into a side of the writer‟s take side and the type of
process in the texts shows the purpose of the texts that are presented to the
audiences.
Finally, herein the importance of studying Functional Linguistics
especially transitivity system which highlights the linguistic choices made by
three writers to show how those choices assign agency. By using transitivity
analysis which examines the processes, participants and circumstances of the text,
the positions of the reader to accept positive or negative point of view of the
participants of the texts are likely able to be figured out.

Acknowledgment
First, I would like to thank God as my savior by turning this kind of
suffering into something enjoyable to do through the people who always support
me. I am thankful as I have been guided by my favorite lecturers such as Mr.

26

Toar Sumakul and Mr. Christian Rudianto to finish my thesis writing. Thank you
for Mr. Toar Sumakul as I have been guided from searching my topic until
finishing the conclusion in my thesis writing. I would like to thank Mr. Toar
Sumakul for giving me some suggestions and enjoyable supervisions which are
very useful for me to finish this assignment. I am also very grateful because Mr.
Christian Rudianto is my examiner who taught me Transitivity Analysis in his
Discourse Analysis class. I would like to thank my parents and sister who always
pray for me to finish my study on time. Lastly, I would say thank you to my
friends, especially Ruth who is my best friend in my collage life.

References:
Bloor and Bloor. (1995). The Functional Analysis of English- A Hallidayan
Approach. London: Arnold.

Butt,

C.

et

al.

(2000).

Using

Functional

Grammar-

An

Explorer’s

Guide.Macquarie University, Sidney: Natinal Centre for English

Language Teaching and Research.
Cunanan, B.T. (2011). Using Transitivity as a Framework in Stylistic Analysis.
Asian EFL Journal. Vol. 54(1). (pp. 69-79)

Ghannam, D. (2011). Newspaper Ideology: A Critical Discourse Analysis of An
Event Published in Six Lebanese Newspapers. Johannesburg:

University of the Witwatersrand
Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). Introduction to functional grammar . London: Arnold.

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Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London:
Edward Arnold.
Lukin, A. (2005). Mapping Media Bias: A Multidimensional Affair. Australian
Journalism Review. Vol. 27(1). Pp. 139-155

Mineshima, M. (2009). Discourse Analysis of News Texts by the Application of
Systemic Functional Grammar. Niigata Institute of Technology. Pp.
101-123
Plemenitas, K. (2004). Some Aspects of the Systemic Functional Model in Text
Analysis. Ljubljana: Birografika Bori.

Ruddick, M. (2007). A Comparative Analysis of Two Texts using Halliday’s
Systemic Functional Linguistics. University of Birmingham.

Taiwo, R. (2004) “Speech as Headline in Nigerian Newspapers”, in Segun
Awonusi and E. A. Babalola, eds. The Domestication of English in
Nigeria (pp.323 –335). Lagos: University of Lagos Press 2004

Thompson, G. (2004). Introducing Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). London.
Arnold.
White, P. R. R. (2006). Evaluative Semantic and Ideological Positioning in
Journalistic Discourse- A New Framework for Analysis. In Larsen, I
(ed.). Mediating Ideology in Text and Image: Ten Critical Studies.
John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Pp. 37-69

Widdowson, H. G. (1998). Review Article: The Theory and Practice of Critical
Discourse Analysis. Applied Linguistics. Vol.19(1). Pp. 136-151

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Appendix
Appendix 1: Football Match Report from Chelseafc.com (Text A)
Highlited : Processes

Red: Process Types

Underlined font: Participants

Blue: Participants Types

Ita lic font : Circumstances

Green: Circumstances Types

Match report: Manchester City 1 Chelsea 1
NEWS Sun, 21 Sep 2014

1. Two second-half substitutes (actor) scored (material) as the points were
shared after a keenly contested match in Manchester (cause).
2. Andre Schurrle (actor) appeared to have set (material) the Blues (goal) on our
way to a consecutive league win on this ground with 20 minutes to go when as at
Burnley (location), he finished a fine move. (projected clause)
3. The home side (actor) had only just been reduced (material) to 10 men with
Pablo Zabaleta dismissed to increase Chelsea hopes (cause), but after Diego
Costa had gone within a whisker of extending the lead, instead striking woodwork
(location), it (actor) left (material) the way clear (goal) for Frank Lampard
(beneficiary) to rescue Man City (cause), doing what he has done so many times
in the darker blue, arriving at the right moment in the box to score. (means)
4. The first half (carrier) had been (relational attributive) one of more bookings than
clear-cur chances (attributive), the second period (carrier) was (relational
attributive) more open (attributive), and it (identified) was (relational identifying) a
match that did not do disservice to its billing as a clash of two Premier League
heavyweights (identifier).

29

5. Cesar Azpilicueta (actor) returned (material) in place of Filipe Luis (goal) in one of
two changes with the other the expected selection of Diego Costa up front.
(location)
6. Although naming the same midfield personnel as against Schalke (contingency),
Jose Mourinho (sayer) reordered (verbal) the positioning (target), with Cesc
Fabregas rather than Ramires lining up deep with Nemanja Matic, and the hardrunning Brazilian instead wide on the right with compatriot Willian the central
attacking midfielder. (means)
7. Eden Hazard (actor) remained (material) on the left. (location)
8. Manuel Pellegrini (senser) chose (mental) this big occasion (phenomenon) to
give a debut to his big summer signing at centre-back, Eliaquim Mangala. (cause)
9. Sergio Aguero (actor) came back (material) into the starting line-up to partner
Edin Dzeko with James Milner coming in on their right in a 4-4-2 shape. (location)
10. There were (existential) changes (existent) at full-back with Zabaleta and
Aleksander Kolarov selected. (location)
11. Lampard (actor) started (material) on the City bench. (location)
12. While last year’s league meeting between these sides on this ground surprised
everyone with how open it was, especially in the first period (location), this
rematch (identified) was (relational identifying) a whole lot tighter affair (identifier)
, although given the quality on display (contingency), not one you (actor) could
take your eyes (goal) off (material).

30

13. There was (existential) no arguing(existent) Man City made the stronger start,
able to work the ball wide and deliver even if they didn’t create a genuine chance
in the first 10 minutes. (projected clause)
14. Then(location) Milner (actor) managed to hold off (material) the close attentions
of Azpilicueta (goal) as he rang down the wing. (means)
15. The England international’s ball (actor) led to (material) a Dzeko shot (goal) that
was deflected for a corner. (projected clause)
16. From the delivery (location) Yaya Toure (actor) headed (material) on target for
the first time (location) but it (carrier) was (relational attributive) comfortable
for Thibaut Courtois (attribute).
17. A break in play for treatment to Aguero and Willian (senser), the latter fouled by
Fernandinho at the expense of a booking (location), helped reduce (mental) the
home side’s momentum (phenomenon), and the contest (senser) began to
(mental) really (quality) warm up (phenomenon) with impressive on-the-ball
physical tussles between Matic and Toure followed quickly by Diego Costa and
Kompany.(means)
18. Willian’s short bursts forward with the ball in the middl