TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT STORY “THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE” BY OSCAR WILDE FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT ST

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG

TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT

STORY “THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE” BY OSCAR

WILDE FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

PERSPECTIVE (Chuyển tác và sự thể hiện của nó trong truyện ngắn “The

Nightingale and the Rose” của Oscar Wilde dưới góc độ ngữ pháp

chức năng hệ thống)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English linguistics

Code: 60220201

Hanoi – 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG

TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT STORY “THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE” BY OSCAR WILDE FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

PERSPECTIVE

Nightingale and the Rose” của Oscar Wilde dưới góc độ ngữ pháp

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi – 2014

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DECLARATION

A thesis submitted for the partial fulfillment of degree of Master of Art in English

Linguistics Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Language and International Studies

Faculty of Postgraduate Studies

I declare that this thesis hereby is the presentation of my original work Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions

The work was done under the guidance of Professor Hoang Van Van, at the University of Language and International Studies, Hanoi

Hanoi, September 2014

Nguyễn Quỳnh Trang

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people Therefore, I hereby would like to express my appreciation to all of them

First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Dr Hoang Van Van, for his invaluable inspiration, assistance and guidance during the time I tried to complete this thesis

My sincere thanks go to all my teachers at University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) for their enthusiastic lectures during this M.A program

I also thank Assoc Dr Le Hung Tien and the staff members of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies for their enthusiastic support

Last but not least, I also owe my family, my friends and my classmates for their whole-hearted support and encouragement in bringing this study to a success

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ABSTRACT

This study offers an analysis of the transitivity system used in the short story

“The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde using Halliday's systemic functional grammar as the theoretical framework The main goals are to explore systemic functional grammar concepts and to use them as the framework for the analysis and discussion of the story It also conducts an analysis of how Oscar Wilde uses the different types of process and the attending circumstances in his story The emerging patterns will be summarized to reveal the experiential meanings of the short story; some educational implications will be made and some suggestions will be offered for further studies

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration……….….i

Acknowledgements………ii

Abstract……… iii

Table of contents……… iv

List of tables……… vi

Abbreviations……… ……….……vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION……….…………1

1 Rational of the study … 1

2 Aim and objectives of the study ……… 3

3 Scope of the study … 3

4 Methods of the study……… 3

5 Design of the study……… 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT……….….5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……….5

1.1 An overview of systemic functional grammar ……… 5

1.2 The theory on transitivity……….………….7

1.3 The transitivity system……….…….8

1.3.1 Material process……….……….………9

1.3.2 Mental process……….……….….….9

1.3.3 Relational process………….……… … 10

1.3.4 Behavioral process……….………… ………11

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1.3.5 Verbal process……….……… ……… 12

1.3.6 Existential process……….12

1.3.7 Other participant functions……… ……….…………12

1.3.8 Circumstances……….……… 13

1.4 Summary……….14

CHAPTER 2: TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT STORY “THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE”…….……… 15

2.1 The context of the chosen text……….……… 15

2.2 The analysis of the story into clauses ……… 16

2.3 The transitivity analysis of the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”… 17

2.3.1 The transitivity pattern of the text……… 17

2.3.2 Circumstances used in the text……… 20

2.4 Summary……….22

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……… ……… … 23

3.1 Findings……… 23

3.2 Discussion……… 25

3.2.1 The first part of the story……….………25

3.2.2 The second part of the story………29

3.2.3 The third part of the story………32

3.2.4 The fourth part of the story……….……….34

3.3 Summary……….………35

PART C: CONCLUSION………36

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1 Summary………36

2 Limitations of the study……….37

3 Implications………37

4 Suggestions for further studies……… ………38

REFERENCES…… ……… 39 APPENDICES……… I Appendix 1: The clause analysis of the text………….……….I Appendix 2: The analysis of the text in terms of transitivity……… IX

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Process types in English……….9 Table 2: Types of circumstance elements……… ……….14 Table 3: Frequency of process types in the story……… ……….24

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Of all possible human qualities, the one that wields the most power is the ability

to use, understand and communicate effectively through language A proficient use of language allows us to communicate an exact idea from one person to another person or group of people We can use language to let others know how we feel, what we need, and even ask questions Clearly, language cannot be separated from human life Being aware of the importance of language, many well-known linguists have studied the way the language is structured We usually call this grammar

There are many ways of describing the grammar of language If pre-twentieth centuries approach represents traditional grammar, most twentieth-century approaches are varieties of formal grammar and functional grammar The main thing that traditional grammar set out to teach was the parts of speech, or word classes: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and so on (Cope, 1993) However, according to Christie (1981), it will be a “jail” when teaching traditional grammar for the students, because the teachers will be bound to teaching language structure without any reference to the learning context (cited in Cope, 1993)

Like traditional grammar, formal grammar specifies all the possible grammatical structures of a language It viewed grammar as set of rules and focused on forms of grammatical structures and their relationships to one another Through this period of teaching both types of grammar, some linguists were thinking to generate one more developed grammar which is systemic functional grammar (Halliday et al, cited

in Cope, 1993) Many approaches to linguistics focus entirely on the purely structural characteristics of language, and ignore the possible functions of language Thus, functional grammar appeared as a means for seeking and solving problems such as using words “in context” (Halliday, 2004) Functional grammar offers us an analytical

of functional grammar

As shown by the title, “Transitivity and its realization in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde”, I hope that this thesis will be of some helps for my student to approach English in particular, and is a reference for anyone who wants to make researches using functional grammar as the theoretical framework

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2 Aim and objectives of the study

This study aims to explore the experimental meanings of the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde, using systemic functional grammar as the theoretical framework To achieve this aim, some of the following objectives are set for exploring:

- Exploring systemic functional grammar concepts to establish the framework for the transitivity analysis

- Analyzing the transitivity of the story to see how Oscar Wilde uses the different types of process and the attending circumstances to reveal the experiential meanings in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”

3 Scope of the Study

This study does not attempt to cover all aspects of functional grammar but limits itself to one aspect: transitivity and its realization in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde

4 Methods of the Study

The study is carried out as an attempt to understand more about the nature of transitivity and its realization in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” To complete the study, the descriptive and analytical methods will be used as the principal methods The descriptive method is concerned with the description of concepts related

to systemic functional linguistics as well as transitivity system The analytical method

is used to analyze the text In some cases, some statistics are made to qualify the frequency of use of the processes used in the story The procedures and conventions

used in the thesis are based on Halliday‟s (1994) An Introduction to Functional

Grammar

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5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion Part A, the Introduction, deals with the rationale, aim and objectives, scope and methods of the study, and design of the study

Part B, the Development, which is the main part of the thesis, includes three chapters Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study including an overview of systemic functional linguistics, its metafunctions and the transitivity system to establish the framework for analysis and discussion in Chapter 2 Chapter 2 analyzes the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” in terms of the transitivity Chapter 3 summarizes the types of process and the types of circumstance used in the story, and discusses the significance of their uses

Part C, the Conclusion, offers a summary of what has been studied, points out the limitations of the study, presents educational implications and gives some suggestions for further studies

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter will provide the theoretical background of the research I will begin with an overview of systemic functional grammar Then, I will present six types of process in the transitivity system and their incumbent circumstances

1.1 An overview of systemic functional grammar

Systemic functional grammar developed by Michael Halliday and his colleagues has had a great impact on the approach to language It is different from other models

of grammar in that it interprets language as interrelated sets of options for making meaning and seeks to provide a clear relationship between functions and grammatical systems (Halliday, 1994)

Functional linguists analyze a text, whether spoken or written, from a functional point of view A text is “a harmonious collection of meaning appropriate to its context” (Butt, et al., 2000) A text cannot be fully understood without any reference to the context in which it occurs And context can be observed from two perspectives: the context of culture and the context of situation If the context of culture refers to the broad sociocultural environment such as ideology, social conventions and institutions, the context of situation relates to the specific situations within the sociocultural environment (Droga & Humphrey, 2002) Montgomery (2006: 105) said that

“language is sensitive to its context of situation”, and with respect to this, all the situational differences between texts can be explained by three aspects of the context that Halliday & Hasan (1989) developed They are called field, tenor, and mode

The field is the social action in which the grammar is embedded, what is going

on, what is being talked about in a particular setting of space and time It also includes what the interaction is about (the subject matter) and what the participants know about

it (shared knowledge) Tenor is the term denoting the relationship between the

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participants, which is visualized as a continuum of formality (from most casual to most formal) Mode is concerned with what part the language is playing in the interaction It also refers to the channel of communication (spoken or written) (Eggins, 1994) For

example: a recipe in a cook book

- Field: cooking (ingredients and process of preparing food)

- Tenor: expert writer to a learner, learner is beneficiary of the advice

- Mode: written, prepared Text often read as part of process of cooking

These three aspects reflect the three main functions, or metafunctions, of language Halliday (1994) describes the three metafunctions based on language choices which are obviously affected by the register variables because they reflect three main

functions of language The first metafuncion is ideational function; it uses language to

represent experience It is realized in field through the transitivity patterns of the grammar In this function, language gives structures to experience, and helps to determine our ways of looking at things and combining things in a logical way (Hoang

Van Van, 2006: 28) Secondly, the interpersonal function uses language to encode

interaction and to create interpersonal relationships This is realized within tenor through the pattern of grammar used According to Halliday, the interpersonal component represents the speaker's meaning potential as an intruder Through

language, the speaker intrudes himself into the context of situation Lastly, the textual function uses language to organize information into a coherent written or spoken text

which is realized in mode through theme patterns of grammar Accordingly, if choice

of word or grammar pattern is changed, the meaning of the language will be different too In the systemic functional approach to language study, the three metafunctions exist simultaneously in the certain text (Eggins, 1994:78), more detailed, in a certain clause “A clause in English is the simultaneous realization of ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings.” (Halliday,1981:42)

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As mentioned in the title, the purpose of this study is to concentrate on the transitivity analysis of the story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde; therefore we will provide an overview of the theory on transitivity to establish the framework for the analysis of the story in Chapter 2

1.2 Theory on Transitivity

In this part, we are looking at the clause from the point of view of its experiential function – a way of representing patterns of experience Language therefore represents external reality by happenings and states, which are referred to as Processes; entities, known as Participants, and circumstances in which the happenings

and states occur, which are referred to as Circumstances (White, 2000:4) Halliday

“goings-on” – happening, doing, sensing, meaning, being and becoming In the process

of presenting, the clause plays a central role to be sorted out and embodied a general

principle for modeling experience which is made up of process The process is to show

out the entire things which we usually call “states of affairs” or “representation” As I have mentioned above, language has three metafunctions of which transitivity is concerned with representating the ideational metafunction which includes the experiential and logical metafunctions When the experiential function of the clause is described, the clause can be broken down into three functional constituents: participant, process and circumstance

- The process: Process is a powerful concept which represents the possible

worlds as consisting of goings-on: doing, happening, feeling, and being Halliday (1994: 106-107) states that the processes in a language like English are construed by

the transitivity system These goings-on are expressed through the structure of the

clause Apart from the structural meaning, the meaning of the clause also expresses the

experiential aspect, called transitivity Process can be classified into: material,

relational, mental, verbal, behavioral, and existential processes

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- Participants: Can be a person, place or object and they are usually realized by

nominal group They are all to answer the questions: Who? Which? What? To Whom?

For Whom? about the process

- Circumstances: they are the background against which the process takes

place, usually realized through a prepositional phrase, adverbial group, or even noun

group For example:

A process and participant analysis of the text will “reveal the way language users manipulate language to represent their perceptions of reality” (Bloor & Bloor, 1995:107) The relationship between processes, participants, and their circumstances are expressed through what Halliday terms “transitivity network” To understanding about the transitivity system, the next section will present six types of process in detail

1.3 The Transitivity system

In the transitivity system, there are six types of process, namely: material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal, and existential We can see the processes at

the table below:

Table 1: Process types in English (Halliday, 1985: 131)

1.3.1 Material process

According to Halliday (1985:110), material processes are those that express our outer experiences Material processes are processes of doing: action and event such as

running, beating Related to the process itself, there can be one, two, or even three

participants If there is only one entity, it is the Actor (one that performs the action),

e.g He (Actor) was coming (Process: material); when it has two participants, they are

Actor and Goal (one that is affected by the action), e.g The mechanic (Actor) repaired

(Process: material) my car (Goal); and when it has three participants, these roles are

referred to Actor, Goal, and Receiver (one that benefit from the process), e.g I

(Actor) gave (Process: material) her (Receiver) a flower (Goal)

The representation of a material process can come either in active voice (e.g He

kicked the dog) or passive voice (e.g The dog was kicked by him)

1.3.2 Mental process

Mental processes are those that express our inner experiences Mental clause

construes processes of perception, cognition and affection such as thinking, loving

Mental processes involve two entities – two participants: a Senser (the conscious being that feels, sees or thinks) and a Phenomenon (which is sensed, felt, thought or seen)

E.g Mary (Senser) liked (Process: mental) the gift (Phenomenon)

The Relational process in English operates with three main types:

In attribute mode, an entity has some quality ascribed or attributed to it

Structurally, we label this quality the Attribute, and the entity to which it is ascribed is the Carrier

When a relational clause is in the identifying mode, two equating participants

are referred to respectively in two pairs of terms: Identified/Identifier and Token/Value

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Circumstantial process expresses being in terms of circumstantial elements such

as time, place, distance, reason The relation between the participants and its

circumstantial element is that of Carrier and Attribute Possessive process expresses

being in terms of ownership, the relation between the two terms can be characterized as

Possessor and Possessed but for generalization and convenience of analysis, they are still referred to Carrier and Attribute (Hoang Van Van, 2006:50)

1.3.4 Behavioral Process

Behavioral processes are those describing physiological and psychological

behavior like coughing, breathing, smiling, dreaming, and staring They are partly like

the material and the mental processes The participant who is behaving, labeled

Behaver, is typically a conscious being – Senser, but the process is grammatically

more like one of doing E.g She (Behaver) is smiling (Process: behavioral)

The distinction between behavioral process with material and mental process is indeterminate, but we can recognize the following types as typical:

a Process of consciousness (near mental processes) represented as forms of behavior:

watch, stare, listen, think, dream

b Verbal processes as behavior (near verbal processes): chatter, grumble, talk

c Physiological processes manifesting states of consciousness: cry, smile, frown, sigh

d Other physiological processes: cough, sleep

e Bodily postures and pastimes (near material processes): sing, dance, lie down, sit

(down/ up)

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1.3.5 Verbal Process

Verb processes are processes of saying such as telling, insulting, praising,

promising They are representing symbolic relationships constructed in human

consciousness and enacted in the form language They involve four entities: Sayer, Verbiage, Target, and Receiver Sayer can be anything that puts out a signal, Target

is one that the verbalization is directed to, Receiver is one that benefits from the verbal process, and Verbiage is the name of the verbalization itself

1.3.6 Existential Process

Existential clauses resemble relational clauses by the way that they construe a participant involved a process of being but different from relational ones by the way

that there is only one participant, the Existent Frequently existential clause contains a

distinct circumstantial element of time or place In English the word “there” is needed

as Subject, but it has no experiential meaning

1.3.7 Other participant functions

The participant functions above are those that are directly involved in the process: the one that does, behaves, senses, says, is or exists, together with the complementary function where there is one – the one that is done to, sensed etc There are other participant functions in English clause, also specific to each particular process type That is beneficiary It is the one to whom or for whom the process is said to take

place It appears in material and verbal processes, and occasionally in relational

- In a material process: The beneficiary is either Recipient or Client The

Recipient is one that goods are given to; the Client is one that services are done for

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The preposition is “to” with Recipient and “for” with Client E.g She gave the parcel

to John; He painted a picture for John

- In a verbal process: The Beneficiary is the one who is being addressed (the

Receiver) E.g John told Mary a story

- In a relational process: There are also a few relational (attributive) processes

containing a Beneficiary We shall just refer to this a Beneficiary E.g She makes him

a good wife

1.3.8 Circumstances

Circumstances essentially encode the background against which the process takes place Circumstances are concerned with such matters as the settings temporal and physical, the manner in which the process is implemented Circumstance elements, typically realized by adverbial groups, prepositional phrases and even by nominal groups, tend to occur freely in all types of process Halliday (1994) proposes nine main types of Circumstance elements, which are summarized in Table 2 below:

(how? what with? in what

way? like what?)

The pig was beaten with a stick

It was snowing heavily

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default (under what

Table 2: Types of circumstance elements

1.4 Summary

This chapter has provided the theoretical background of the study This will be a basic foundation to analyze the chosen data in the next chapter in terms of the process types: material, behavioral, mental, relational, verbal, existential and their incumbent circumstances: extent, location, manner, cause, contingency, accompaniment, role, matter and angle Now I finished chapter 1 and turn to chapter 2 where I will explore the experiential meanings of the story “The Nightingale and the Rose” through the transitivity analysis

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CHAPTER 2: TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF THE SHORT STORY

“THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE”

In this chapter, I will analyze the story “The Nightingale and the Rose” in terms

of transitivity The analysis is based on the framework of Halliday‟s (1994) An

Introduction to Functional Grammar Firstly, I will introduce the context of the chosen

text in order to have a general understanding about the story Then, the story will be analyzed into clauses, which are the basic units for analyzing in functional grammar From the clause analysis of the story, I will present a detailed analysis of the clauses and their components as shown in Appendix 2 Finally, based on the analysis of the clauses, I will find out the transitivity pattern in the story

2.1 The context of chosen text

No name is more inextricably bound to the aesthetic movement of the 1880s and 1890s in England than that of Oscar Wilde This connection results as much from the lurid details of his life as from his considerable contributions to English literature “The Nightingale and the Rose” is one of Wilde‟s best short stories It was published in 1888 with some other short stories To have a deep understanding of the story, let us look at content of the text As I have mentioned above, filed answers “what is being talked about?”, and it has direct connection with ideational metafunction that transitivity is the main focus; therefore, it is very important to look at the field of the story The plot of the story is very simple It starts with a student who wanted to dance with the girl he liked The girl said she would dance with him if he got her a red rose But the student was unable to find a red rose A nightingale overheard the story and went to search for

a red rose The bird ended up sacrificing itself to come up with a red rose But the following day, the girl disregarded the rose and the student flung it to the gutter The field of the story is reflected through a wide range of process types used in the text I will go for more detailed in the next section

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Besides, this story belongs to the narrative genre with typical features of the narration The author developed the story with a sequence of events and experiences from the beginning to the end Besides, the setting of the places and times that the events happened were modified clearly in the text A young lover, a beautiful girl, a red rose and a nightingale with the sweetest voice and a most gentle heart – everything seems ready to set the scene for a simple but touching story of love These above features are very important for identifying the meaning and the intention of the author when creating this story

2.2 The analysis of the story into clauses

In order to explore the transitivity system of the story “The Nightingale and the Rose”, I will divide the story into smaller parts, called clauses (See Appendix 1) Then, each clause will be analyzed in detail to see how the different components of the transitivity system reflect the functions of language After that, the transitivity pattern

of the story can be set up based on the functions of the components (See Appendix 2)

The analysis of the story into clause will use the following notions: two vertical strokes “||… ||” represents clause boundary The number of clause will be marked as 1,

2, 3, etc The presentation of the clause analysis will be shown in a box; the first line is the components of the clauses which are divided into smaller units based on their function in a clause; the second line provides the configuration of the functions that each component has Due to the limited space, some functions of each component in a clause will be abbreviated and appear in bold type; but wherever they are enough spaces, they are written in full form Below are some instances of how a clause is presented in terms of transitivity

The sample text:

(1) ||| The young student was still lying on the grass, (2)|| where she had left him, (3)|| and the tears were not yet dry in his beautiful eyes.|||

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This text consists of three clauses Each clause will be divided into different components and classified into different types of process For example:

(2)

(3)

2.3 The Transitivity analysis of the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” 2.3.1 The Transitivity pattern of the text

Based on what have been done in previous part, in this section, the Transitivity system will be shown in detail by different components assigned with their functions

(See Appendix 2) Within 351 clauses of the story, 150 clauses are material process

(brought in 3; filled in 10; depend in 11; have read in 12; have written in 13; have sung

of in 18; has set in 25; gives in 26; bring in 29,31; shall hold in 32; will lean in 33; will

be clasped in 34; will pass by in 37; will break in 39; cannot buy in 48; is set in 49; may not be purchased of in 50; can be weighed out in 51; play in 54; will not touch in

57; will throng in 58; give in 61; flung in 62; buried in 63; ran in 67; was fluttering

about in 69; spread in 79; soared in 80; passed in 81; sailed in 82; flew over in 85; lit

in 86; give in 87,99,114; will sing in 89,101,116; shook in 90,102,117; go in 93,108;

grows in 94; will give in 95,110; flew over in 97,112; was growing in 98; blooms in

106; comes in 107; grows in 109; was growing in 113; wave and wave in 120; has

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chilled in 121; has nipped in 122; has broken in 123; can get in 129; must build in 139; stain in 140; must pierce in 143; must flow in 144; pay in 147; hide in 155; blows in

156; spread in 160; soared in 161; swept in 162; sailed in 163; has left in 165; will

build in 171; stain in 172; are written down in 187; has built in 191; sing in 192; had finished in 198; got up in 199; pulled in 200; walked away in 203; cannot be denied in

204; would not sacrifice in 209; must be admitted in 213; do in 217; went in 218; lay

down in 219; began to think of in 220; shone in 222; flew in 223; set in 224; went in

229; ebbed in 230; sang in 231; followed in 233; hangs in 235; blossomed in 237; press

in 239,253; Press in 240,254; will come in 242,256; is finished in 243,257; pressed in 244,258; sang of in 246; kisses in 248; had not yet reached in 249; can crimson in 251;

touched in 259; shot in 260; sang of in 263; is perfected in 264; dies not in 265; began

to beat in 270; came in 271; choking in 274; gave in 275; lingered on in 278; trembled

in 280; opened in 281; bore in 282; woke in 283; floated in 284; carried in 285; is

finished in 288; opened in 291; looked in 292; leaned down in 299; plucked in 300; put

on in 301; run up in 302; winding in 304; brought in 308; will wear in 311; frowned in

315; has sent in 319; threw in 324; fell in 325; went over in 326; got up in 334; went in 335; walked away in 338; are not going to happen in 342; shall go in 347; study in 348; returned in 349; pulled out in 350; began to read in 351) We can easily see that

all the verbs in the text are used to denote the physical actions of the characters

Besides the verb of “doing”, the verb denoting the perception, affection, feeling

and cognition of the characters are shown in 27 mental processes (heard in 6; knew in

19; see in 21; suffers in 43; understood in 76, 188; thought in 78; saw in 84; want in 96,111, 126, 137; watch in 152; could not understand in 184; knew in 186; felt in 189, 273; thinks in 210; knows in 211; heard in 276, 279; forgot in 277; have never seen in 295; love in 314; knows in 320; don’t believe in 331; making believe in 343)

50 clauses of the text are behavioral processes which show the physiological

and psychological behavior of the characters (would dance in 2, 307; cried in 4, 9, 73,

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88, 100, 115, 127, 148,168, 238,252, 241,255, 287, 293, 309; looked in 7; wondered in 8; murmured in 27; will dance in 30, 55, 56; shall sit in 36; sing of in 42; will sit in 52;

will not dance in 59; wept in 64; is weeping in 65, 71; laughed in 74; sat in 77; sits in

105; must sing in 141, 142; sit in 151; was still lying in 164; looked up in 182; listened

in 183; sang in 196, 225, 228; leaned down in 226; listened in 227; look, look in 286;

was lying in 290, 305; was sitting in 303; dance in 312)

Verbal process appears in 29 clauses, mainly are used to narrate the speech and

conversations among the Nightingale and other characters (said in 1, 17, 41, 53, 68, 72,135, 138, 202, 306, 323, 327, 337; have told in 20; asked in 66; whispered in 70;

answered in 92,104,119, 131, 318; dare not tell in 133; tell in 134, 328; was saying in

185; whispered in 193; made in 289; will tell in 313; is always telling in 341)

85 clauses are relational process denoting the relationship among the

characters (are in 14, 23, 91, 103, 118, 154, 178, 180, 195, 212, 322, 329, 330, 344; is

in 22, 44, 45, 46, 47, 125, 132, 146, 149, 150, 153, 157, 158, 173, 175, 176, 177, 179,

181, 207, 208, 215, 296, 336, 339, 345, 346 ; has made in 24; will be in 28, 174; will

have in 38; have in 60; was in 75, 190, 197, 234, 236, 261, 267, 268; is made in 15; shall have in 124, 170; am in 136, 206, 297, 316; become in 145; compared to in 159; were in 166; Be in 167,169; shall feel in 194; has in 201, 214, 298, 333; has got in 205;

do not mean in 216; fell in 221; grew in 245, 262, 269, 272; came into in 247; remained in 250; became in 266; will not go with in 317; cost in 321; have ever got in

332; does not prove in 340)

The last type of process in the transitivity system is existential process In this

text, 10 clauses are existential process (is in 5, 16, 35, 40, 128, 130, 294, 310; was

standing in 83; blossomed in 232) which is used to talk about the present of the things

and other characters in the story

It can be seen clearly from the analysis that most of the processes in the story

are used in past simple (153/ 351) and present simple (135/351) The past simple

portion, characterizing the actions which had occurred, were occurring, and will occur

There are 12 passive clauses (15, 34, 49, 50, 51, 187, 204, 213, 228, 243, 257,

and 264) where the Goals are placed in the first position

2.3.2 Circumstances used in the text

Among 195 circumstances used in the story, there are 36 circumstances which appear at the beginning of the clauses, and 158 circumstances stand at the end of the clauses Types of circumstance are flexibly used in the text The dominant

circumstance in the text is Location which is presented up to 123 times (in all my

garden in 5; From her nest in the holm-oak tree in 6; out in 7; through the leaves in 7; here in 16, 40, 294, 310; now in 21, 288; upon his brow in 25; tomorrow night in 26; in

my arm in 32; upon my shoulder in 33; in mine in 34; in my garden in 35; forth in 49;

in the market place in 49; in their gallery in 52; upon their stringed instruments in 54; round her in 58; down in 62; on the grass in 62; in his hands in 63; past him in 67; in the air in 67; after a sunbeam in 69; in the oak-tree in 77; into the air in 80; through the grove in 81; across the garden in 82; in the centre of the grass-plot in 83; when in

84,195, 198, 222, 248; to it in 85; upon a spray in 86; to my brother in 93,108; round

the old sun-dial in 94, 98; to the Rose-tree in 97, 112; upon an amber throne in 105; in the meadow in 106; beneath the Student's window in 109,113; in the ocean-cavern in

120; this year in 124; out of music in 139; against a thorn in 141, 224, 225, 239, 253,

244, 258; into my vein in 144; in the green wood in 150; in his chariot of gold in 152;

in her chariot of pearl in 152; in the valley in 155; on the hill in 156; into the air in

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161; over the garden in 162; through the grove in 163; on the grass in 164; where in 165; in his beautiful eyes in 166; out of music in 171; from the grass in 182; in books in 187; in his branches in 191; out of his pocket in 199; through the grove in 203; in her

voice in 214; into his room in 218; on his little pallet- bed in 219; in the heavens in

222; to the Rose-tree in 223; into her breast in 229; away from her in 230; in the heart

of a boy and a girl in 231; on the top-most spray of the Rose-tree in 232; over the pale in 235; on the topmost spray of the Tree in 237; in the soul of a man and a maid in

river-246; through her in 260; in the tomb in 265; over her eyes in 271; in her throat in 274;

Then in 275, 301; in the sky in 278; to the cold morning air in 281; to her purple cavern in 282; in the hills in 282; from their dreams in 283; through the reeds of the river in 284; to the sea in 285; in the long grass in 290; in her heart in 290; at noon in

291; out in 292; to the Professor’s house in 302; in his hand in 302; in the doorway in 303; on a reel in 304; at her feet in 305; to-night in 311; next your heart in 311; into

the street in 324; where in 325; into the gutter in 325; to your shoes in 332; from her chair in 334; into the house in 335; in this age in 346; back in 347; to Philosophy in

347; to his room in 348

The circumstance of Manner occurs 40 times: as the hyacinth- blossom in 22;

as the rose of his desire in 23; lonely in 36; surely in 46; in the balance for gold in 51;

so lightly in 56; in their gay dresses in 58; in a soft, low voice in 70; outright in 74; silent in 77; like a shadow in 81,82; as white as the foam of the sea, and whiter than the snow upon the mountain in 91; as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden in 103; and yellower than the daffodil in 105; as red as the feet of the dove, and redder than the great fans of coral in 118; by which in 129; by moonlight in 139, 171; with your own heart's-blood in 140; like a shadow in 162, 163; with my own heart's-blood in 172; as honey in 180; like frankincense in 181; merely in 210; deeper and deeper in 229; as the feet of the morning, and silver as the wings of the dawn in 235; As the shadow of a rose

in a mirror of silver, as the shadow of rose in a water-pool in 236; closer in 239, 253,

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244, 258; like the flush in the face of the bridegroom in 247; like the rose of the eastern

sky in 266; as ruby in 268; with ecstasy in 280; dead in 290; like it in 295; angrily in

324;

The remaining types range from Extent, Cause, Accompaniment to Matter

There are 10 circumstances which are Extent: Night after night in 18, 20; till dawn in

30; all night long in 142, 225, 228; after a time in 221; all over in 280; in all my life in

295; in all the world in 310 9 Cause: for want of a red rose in 15; why in 65, 331; for

a red rose in 71; for flight in 79,160; for a red rose in 146; for others in 209; how in

314; 11 Accompaniment: with me in 2, 30, 59, 307; to the sound of the harp and the

violin in 55; with his tail in 67; with his scythe in 107; with your breast in 141; with her

breast in 225; with the thorn in 290; together in 312; 2 Matter: What in 42; about the

mystery of love in 78

2.4 Summary

In this chapter, the analysis of transitivity pattern of the text is done The story is analyzed into clauses; then I concentrate on the detailed analysis of the text in terms of process types to find out the material process, mental process, behavioral process, verbal process and existential process with their incumbent circumstances The data gained from this chapter will be the foundation for the next chapter to summarize and discuss the use of process types in the story, and to see how the experiential meaning is represented in the story based on the transitivity system

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CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In the previous chapter, transitivity components have been analysis in detail From what have been done and listed, it can be seen that the story “The Nightingale and the Rose” used all process types: material, mental, behavioral, verbal, relational, and existential processes These processes are supported by incumbent circumstances (Extent, Location, Manner, Matter, Accompaniment, and Cause) In this chapter, I will look at the way Oscar Wilde uses these types of process and the attendant circumstances to reveal the experiential meaning in the story “The Nightingale and the Rose”

3.1 Findings of the results

The experiential meaning is realized by using the transitivity of the verb and it demonstrates linguistic implications corresponding to situational variation For example, if the speaker said: “Could you report to me the meaning of diary before the end of the lesson?” The experiential meaning is shown by the verb “report” It is a more technical answer referring to corresponding changes in a situation, that is, the speaker‟s need to be more technical, requiring not only the answer but also detailed information However, its experiential meaning will be different if the speaker said:

“Could you tell me the meaning of diary before the end of the lesson?” Its ideational meaning is realized by utilizing the transitivity of verbal processes “tell” The situation

is changed to an informal context, such as an interaction between friends or spouses, the speaker may use another register such as polite Therefore the changing of the field has had a very immediate and significant impact on the text, particularly on the content words used (Eggins, 1994:68) With that reason, it is necessary for us to identify and sort out the different forms and how they realize or encode the experiential meaning of the story

In order to make it easier for analysis and discussion, I will study this story based on four main parts of the story The first part of the text is from clause 1 to

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clause 78 It introduces the reader the setting of the story with the main characters are the Nightingale and the student: The Nightingale was struck by the “the mystery of love” Part 2 lasts from clause 79 to clause 145, mainly to talk about the way the Nightingale looks for a red rose to facilitate the love The next part ranges from clause

146 to clause 290, the Nightingale sacrifices her life for a red rose The ending part of the story, which is from clause 291 to clause 351, talks about how the student discards the red rose

From the text analyzed in Appendix 2, we can see that there are 351 processes

in the story, among which 150 (42,8%) are material processes, 27 mental processes (7,7%), 50 behavioral processes (14,3%), 29 verbal processes (8,2%), 85 relational processes (24,2%), 10 existential processes (2,8%) The transitivity pattern of the text will be represented in Table 3 as follows

Material Mental Behavioral Relational Verbal Existential Total

49 (14%)

85 (24,2%)

29 (8,2%)

10 (2,8%)

351 100%

Table 3: Frequency of process types in the story

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3.2 Discussion of the results

The analysis of the experiential function of a clause reveals how speakers represent their experience differently by choosing different clause constituents With the knowledge of experiential grammar, the author is able to explicitly and systematically introduce the range of choices available for expressing human experience in an English clause These choices include the different types of processes (e.g material, mental, relational, verbal, etc.), the different participant roles related to process types (e.g Goal, Actor, Carrier, Sayer, Senser, etc.), and the types of Circumstances (e.g extent, location, manner, quality, means, etc.) Look at the table 3 above, the material process type is the dominant one in all four parts This confirms that the fairy tale is written in narrative structure

3.2.1 The first part of the story

The first part of the story includes 78 clauses Analyzing the text from experiential metafunction (it means analyzing the meaning of the text, the experiences about the real world, including the inner world inside the writer‟s mind based on the transitivity system), the result is surprising Up to 27 processes within 78 processes are material process (34,6%) Using no less than material process is the behavioral process which accounts for 24,3% (19/78) Relational process, verbal process, mental process and existential process take turn to appear 13, 9, 6, 4 times From the first observation,

we can see that in this part, the writer focuses on introducing the actions of the main character – the Nightingale and the student with a wide range of action verbs

The story begins with a clause complex said by the student: “She said that she

would dance with me if I brought her red roses” This clause complex includes 3

clauses, and all of them are used to introduce the reason for beginning the story The

first process used in this part is verbal process with the verb said to narrate another person‟s speech In clause 2, the behavioral process is used with the verb would dance and followed by the circumstance of accompaniment with me Two process types are

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followed by the material process brought Looking at the verbs said, would dance,

brought based on the experiential reflection, we can explain them as a process type, or

more detailed, the actions that can be observed when they are being done in real life All of them are written in the past simple tense; therefore we can know that this happened to the student before he narrated the speech This is a very interesting way to introduce the time, the context of the fairy tale

Coming back to the clause 3, I is identified as an Actor because it is the person who carries out the action brought Following the verb brought is the Client her to identify the object of the action In the last part of clause 3, after the Client her, we see the appearance of a noun phrase red roses, a type of visible thing that can be observed, felt and touched The noun phrase red roses represents the scope of influence of the verb brought or the target that the verb brought affects to Therefore, this component‟s

function is assigned as the Goal Clearly, just in a short speech of the student, we can see the intention of the author when choosing different type of words Each word standing in different places in a clause has their own function With the choice of place and using of the words, the author succeeds in introducing the main character – the young student with his main concern – the red roses Besides, the reader is stimulated

by the way Oscar began the fairy tale As usual, the fairy tale begins with the

circumstantial phrase “Once upon a time, there was…”; however in this story, he begun the text by a speech of the student Moreover, the pronoun She is repeated two times in clause 1 and 2 without explaining who she is She in clause 1 is assigned as Sayer while She in clause 2 functions as Behavior corresponding to the behavioral

process This will attract the reader to find out who she is in the rest of the story

In the next clause, Oscar Wilde chooses to use the verb cried to express the

Student‟s action and feeling This verb in the transitivity system functions as behavioral process which shows the physiological and psychological behavior The

verb cried represents the state of consciousness; it makes the reader not only see the

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action of the student, but feel the sadness and misery that the student was experiencing Oscar is extremely clever in choosing the words to express the feeling of the student

This behavioral process cried is repeated many times in the whole story, not just only

in part 1 Within the first part, we can see cried occurs three times (in 4, 9, and 73) In clause 4 and 9, the Behavior is still the young student, which is replaced by he in 9;

however in the clause 73, the Behavior changes from the student to other characters of the story – the little Green Lizard, the Butterfly, and the Daisy Oscar Wilde once again

is very skillful in the choice of word to introduce the new characters together with their consciousness

Clauses 5 and 6 begin with the prepositional phrase in all my garden and from

her nest in the holm-oak tree These are two components constituting the context,

locating the places for the actions In the transitivity system, both of them are assigned

as Circumstance positioning the location of specified places Especially, the

Nightingale – the main character of the story is first introduced by from her nest in the

holm-oak tree – the place where she lived and observed the whole sad love story of the

student The author seems to focus the reader on the place of the Nightingale which was very high and small in an oak tree However, it is the thing that Oscar Wilde wants the reader to feel and perceive From a very high and small place like this, the Nightingale still feels and shares the student‟s misery And from this empathy, the Nightingale wondered and stuck by the “mystery of love”

The material process in the first part also appears in many other clauses One

thing that should be noted in this part is the passive clause which is used 4 times: will

be clasped in 34, is set in 49, may not be purchased of in 50, can be weighed out in 51

In clause 34, the noun phrase her hand functions as the Goal which is the object of the process will be clasped It is placed at the beginning of the clause with the purpose to

attract the reader to the object of the action Moreover, this clause is agentless passive with no Actor, but the reader is still able to understand who the Actor of this action is

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by the prepositional phrase in mine This phrase in the transitivity system is assigned as

the circumstance to identify the exact place where the action was carried out From

clause 49 to 51, we can see a chain of passive clauses which focus on talking about it – here is the love that makes the Nightingale wondered in clause 8 The author uses the verbs denoting the actions that can be seen in real life set, purchase, and weigh out to

describe the indefinite of love The reader seems to feel the mystery of love clearly and specifically with the choice of words and structure like this

Relational process and existential process in this part appear less than material and behavioral process with the percentage of 16,7% and 5,1% Relational process represents the relationship among the separate things, so in the first of the text, most of

relational processes are intensive where “X is a” The components after the process are

assigned Attribute such as dark in 22, red in 23, like pale Ivory in 24 The appearance

of the student in the eyes of the Nightingale is reflected through the list of Attribute from clause 22 to 24 makes the reader feel the love that the Nightingale gave to the

student The existential process appears 4 times with the verb is in 5, 16, 35, and 40 to

denote the existence of the true lover – the student in the Nightingale‟s mind and the absence of the red rose – the reason makes the student miserable like this

Besides, Oscar Wilde uses a lot of the verbs expressing the perception, feeling and thinking of the Nightingale which are mental processes based on the transitivity

system The Nightingale heard in 6, knew in 19; see in 21, suffers in 43, understood in

76 and thought in 78 We can see the chain of the perception in the Nightingale‟s mind

through the list of mental process the author used At first, the Nightingale heard to see what was happening, then in clause 19, she knew what was happening to her, then she sees him! The Nightingale totally falls in love with the Student; even she suffers with what the student is suffering And then, it understood the reason why the student was sad and so miserable Clearly, through the choice of the mental verbs, the author is bringing the reader to the reason why the Nightingale was trying to find the ways to

as well as the Accompaniment (10%) are used to set up the background for the main actions As listed in the previous part, we can see that the circumstance of Location is used on the top, up to 27 out of 50, more than 50% It can be easily understood because

in the opening part of the story, the setting of place and time needs to be set up to build

an environment for the story to develop The places for the appearance of the

characters and the actions are flexible: in all my garden in 5; From her nest in the

holm-oak tree in 6; through the leaves in 7; here in 16, 40, 294, 310; upon his brow in

25; in my arm in 32; in the market place in 49; in their gallery in 52; on the grass in 62; in his hands in 63; in the air in 67; after a sunbeam in 69; in the oak-tree in 77, etc

They sometimes are placed at the beginning of the clause, sometimes at the end of the clause The reader is led to many different places in a small part of the text; this attracts the readers to the development of the story The Location denoting the time for the

story is also used in this section: now in 21; tomorrow night in 26 Although this fairy

tale is narrative genre, most of the verbs are used in the past simple, we still see the time denoting the present and future tense because they appear in the speech of the Nightingale and the student Clearly, in the first part of the story, Oscar Wilde introduces the setting of the story and the main characters as well as others with their own matter by using a wide range of the verbs together with their circumstances This clearly shows how the language is functioned in the first part

3.2.2 The second part of the story

The next part of the story includes 68 processes with the dominant one belongs

to material process (36/68), more than 50% again The behavioral process, relational

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process and verbal process together take 8 out of 68 clauses, account for 11,7% each type Using not many times in this part is mental process (7,3%) and existential process (4,4%) I will go in detail to find out how the experiential meaning is expressed through the processes in this part

The main content of this part is to talk about how the Nightingale look for a red rose; therefore in the beginning of this second part, the author uses a series of four material processes from clause 79 to clause 82 to reflect what the Nightingale did when

she understood the mystery of love He uses four strong verbs spread, soared, passes, and sailed to describe the attitude of the Nightingale when she realized what she would

do to bring the red rose to the student she loved The bird now was not only flying, but with the use of different types of action verb, the reader can feel the hurry of the Nightingale in finding the red rose Specially, after each process type, there is the performance of circumstance that supplements the information about the cause, the manner of the action and the place where the action happens or directs to As the listed

verbs in the previous section, the action give is expressed three times in clause 87, 99,

114 with the same reason “Give me a red rose” It seems that now after realizing the

mystery of love, the Nightingale tries to do everything to just to have one thing; that is

a red rose The red rose here becomes the Goal of the process give, and the target of this action is me It is assigned as Receiver This clause is repeated up to three times

with the function to emphasize the hope and wish of the Nightingale to have a red rose

The process give also reappears in clause 95 and 100, but this time, the future tense will

give is used expresses that this still does not happen at the moment of speaking Oscar

Wilde uses flexibly the tense of the process in this part This is a narrative genre, so the

past simple is still used such as flew over in 85, lit in 86, shook in 90,102, 117, etc Besides, the past continuous is also used such as was growing in 98, 113 We have already seen the performance of the present simple with the verb give in 87 or go in 93,

grows in 94, the future tense with will give Now, the present continuous is also

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appeared in has chilled in 121, has nipped in 122, has broken in 123 to express the harshness of the nature with the Actors are the winter, the frost, and the storm They affect directly to the Goals my vein, my buds, and my branches What they have done

to the Goals still exist at the moment of speaking Clearly, there cannot be the appearance of a red rose in that kind of harshness With the main content is to find out the way to have a red rose, the author uses so many action verb to show that the

Nightingale is looking for a red rose by every means she can do such as flew over in 97,112; will sing in 89,191,116; etc

The mental process that cannot be ignored in this part is the process want; it

appears up to 4 out of 8 times in clause 96, 111, 126, 137 Although in clause 96 and

111, we do not see the appearance of Phenomenon, we still understand that it is a red rose, just a red rose In clause 126 and 137, this time, the Phenomenon appears with the

exact name: a red rose With the purpose of using the process want 4 times, the author

is successful in describing the desire for a red rose of the Nightingale Similarly, the

Behavioral process cried is also repeated 4 times in clause 88, 100, 115, and 127 with

the Behavior is the Nightingale Once again, the reader is able to immerse with feeling and desire of the Nightingale Oscar Wilde applies the function of language very lively and powerful It is shown by choosing the use of different words in each clause

The verbal process that mainly appears in this part is the verb answered, 4/8

times in clause 92,104,119 and 131 Responding to desire of asking for a red rose of the Nightingale, the different rose-trees take turn to refuse the Nightingale The author

uses the process answer as a proof for the finding a red rose of the Nightingale The

relationship between the things in this part is mainly to describe the performance of the

different roses with different Attribute like white in 91, yellow in 103, and even red in

118 Different from the usual way of using to be to express the existent, this part has an interesting way of introducing the Existent in clause 83 Look at clause 83 for more

detail The clause begins with a prepositional phrase in the centre of the grass-plot