A TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF THE NOVEL GONE WITH THE WIND BY MARGARET MITCHELL

All the process types of transitivity system are found in Chapter 2, which are material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal and existential process.. 29 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF PROCES

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled

A transitivity analysis of the novel “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2018

Trần Thị Lan Hương

Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name)

Đỗ Kim Phương, Ph.D

Date:………

Ho Ngoc Trung, Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Que, Prof Assoc Dang Ngoc Huong, Prof Dr Nguyen Dang Suu, Prof Assoc Nguyen Thi Van Dong, Assoc Prof Dr

Vo Dai Quang, and other lecturers at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies of Hanoi Open University For concerns and assistance, my thanks also go to the staff of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies

Besides, I highly appreciate the helpful advice, assistance and participation from my colleagues and friends who help the study to be fulfilled and willingly share their precious time during the process of conducting this thesis

In particular, I also would like to convey my great gratitude to my beloved family for their continuous support and encouragement they have provided during the course and throughout the entire study process I will be grateful forever for their support

Last but not least, to all the authors of the publications in the list of references, I offer my sincere thanks for their useful materials

Hanoi, 2018

ABSTRACT

This study is concerned with Transitivity System used Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell The purposes of this research are to identify the process types of transitivity system, to find out their significance in the characterisation of each character in Chapter 2 as well as to describe the implications of the analysis This study is conducted by applying descriptive, analytic and statistical methods There are 395 clauses selected from the chapter All the process types of transitivity system are found in Chapter 2, which are material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal and existential process The result of the analysis is shown as follows : material (42,53%), mental (19,75%), relational (28,86%), verbal (5,82%), behavioral (0,76%), and existential (2,28%) In addition, the result also presents the occurrences of process types with each of the five characters in the chapter This will be carefully discussed in Chapter 4 of the study The findings of the study can, to some extent, be used as some suggestions for English teachers and learners to have more access to Process types of Transitivity System in order to achieve success in teaching and learning writing English texts Besides, linguistics researchers of Systemic Functional Grammar can conduct further study on the similar topic to investigate another aspects of the issue

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.2.1 Aims 2

1.2.2 Objectives 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Design of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous studies 6

2.2 Systemic Functional Grammar 8

2.2.1 Introduction to SFG 8

2.2.2 Metafunctions 9

2.2.2.1 Ideational Metafunction 10

2.2.2.2 Interpersonal Metafunction 11

2.2.2.3 Textual Metafunction 12

2.3 Transitivity system 13

2.3.1 Three components of the process 14

2.3.2 Types of process 17

2.3.2.1 Material Process 17

2.3.2.2 Mental Process 20

2.3.2.3 Relational Process 21

2.3.2.4 Verbal Process 23

2.3.2.5 Behavioural Process 25

2.4 Summary 26

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Subjects 27

3.2 Instruments 27

3.3 Procedures 28

3.4 Statistical Analysis 29

3.5 Summary 29

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF PROCESS TYPES OF TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM USED IN CHAPTER 2 OF THE NOVEL "GONE WITH THE WIND" 31

4.1 Process Types of Transitivity used in Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the Wind" 31

4.2 The significance of the identified transitivity patterns in the characterisation of each character in Chapter 2 38

4.3 Implications of the analysis in writing and teaching and learning writing 50

4.4 Summary 51

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 53

5.1 Summary of Findings 53

5.2 Concluding remarks 54

5.3 Recommendations for Further Study 54

REFERENCES 56

APPENDIX: 59

SFG: Systemic Functional Grammar

SFL: Systemic Functional Linguistics

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 2.1 Main systems of the metafunctions (Wilcock, 1993, p.19) 10

Figure 2.1 Layers of the metafunctions (Wilcock, 1993, p.19) 12

Table 2.1 Summary of processes and participants 15

Table 4.1: Process types in Chapter 2 31

Table 4.2: Summary of Process types in Chapter 2 39

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

Language, no matter how it is defined, analyzed and accessed, is a tool of communication It is widely believed that people who study and use a language are interested in how meanings can be made and understood through choices of words and grammatical resources Therefore, language and language study attract a lot of academic researchers from different disciplines to better understand contemporary society

There are numerous language fields for linguistics researchers to conduct studies

on They may study the language of science, politics, religion, economics, literature, daily life, etc for their own reasons An analysis of a famous literary work in the light of Systemic Functional Grammar is my priotity over any other topics with the following justifications

The first motive for the study is based on the very book "Gone with the Wind" This

is the only novel by American modern woman writer Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell,

popularly known as Margaret Mitchell, was published in 1936 It is a successful

commercial novel and a world popular classic "Gone with the Wind" broke the

sales record and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 As of 2014, a Harris poll found it to be the second favorite book of American readers, just behind the Bible More than 30 million copies have been printed worldwide Despite its popularity and great success, it has not got much attention from the literary critics and linguistics researchers

The second reason concerns the Systemic Functional Grammar approach Among many different approaches to study and analyze the grammar of a language, Functional Grammar is found very useful and interesting because it offers language reseachers and learners an analytic tool of looking at the whole text Although it has been studied by many famous linguists in the world, it has not been studied much in

The last crucial factor leading to this study is the implications of the analysis in writing as well as in teaching and learning writing The result of the study provides

an useful tool for teachers and learners to be able to analyze and understand English written texts Applying process types in writing, teaching and learning writing, they will achieve better language competence

With these ideas in mind, in this study, Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the wind"

by Margaret Mitchell will be analysed in terms of Transitivity Process with the knowledge of Systematic Functional Grammar It is hoped that this study will provide some insights into the characterisation of each character in the chapter as well as suggest some applications for English-writing teachers and learners

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

novel "Gone with the wind" by Margaret Mitchell

+ Showing the significance of the identified transitivity patterns in the characterisation of each character in Chapter 2

+ Suggesting some implications of the analysis of Process Types

1.3 Research questions

With the above aims and objectives, the study deals with the following research questions:

1 What are Process Types of Transitivity System used in Chapter 2 of the novel

"Gone with the wind" by Margaret Mitchell ?

2 What is the significance of the identified transitivity patterns in the characterisation of each character in Chapter 2?

3 What are the implications of the analysis of Process Types?

1.4 Methods of the study

From the aims and objectives stated above, the study is conducted based mainly on three major methods: descriptive, analytic and statistical

The descriptive method concerns with the description of the theoretical background and framework of Systemic Functional Grammar, in terms of Metalfunctions and Transitivity System

The analytic method helps to identify Transitivity System used in Chapter 2 of the

novel "Gone with the wind" by Margaret Mitchell The analysis of the source

language text‘s clause is mainly based on Halliday‘s theories of Systemic

Functional Grammar taken in “An introduction to Functional Grammar‖

The statistical method is used to figure out the percentage of each process type used

in Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the wind" by Margaret Mitchell

1.5 Scope of the study

With regards to the problems and objectives of the study, the writer has to limit the scope of the study Therefore, this study concentrates on the analysis of Process

1.6 Significance of the study

This study is expected to offer some theoretical and practical contributions In terms

of theory, this study can hopefully enrich the literature about Transitivity System in exposition texts and also hopefully be useful for the readers who are interested in studying Transitivity System in which it can help them to master English and to understand the system itself In addition, this study can hopefully be used as a reference in the analysis of Transitivity System

Practically, the result of this study is expected to provide information for teachers, especially those regarding the quality of the texts so that teachers are able to select proper texts as teaching documents In addition, this study will help teachers enhance their ability to analyze texts using transitivity system Thus, teachers will

be able to help students gain their ability to create well-written texts

1.7 Design of the study

This study pictures an exploratory case study which encompasses five chapters

Chapter 1: outlines the rationale of the study; the aims and objectives of the study,

the significance of the study, the methods of the study, the scope of the study, and the design of the study

Chapter 2 attempts to establish the theoretical framework for the study The key

concepts in systemic functional linguistics are examined to provide a description of Metafunctions (Interpersonal metafunctions, Ideational metafunctions, Textual metafunctions) and Transitivity Sytem (Three components of the process, Material Process, Mental Process, Relational Process, Verbal Process, Existential Process, Behavioural Process)

Chapter 3 : is concerned with the methodology of the research It consists the

subjects of the study, the instruments, the procedures, and the data analysis of the study

Chapter 4: conducts the data analysis and explains the analysis results In this

chapter, the process types are carefully analyzed to help fulfill the purpose of the study mentioned in chapter 1

Chapter 5: provides a short conclusion of the study and makes some suggestions

for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous studies

Transitivity has been a hot topic in linguistic studies for a long time It has been studied from different angles Transitivity analysis has been widely used to understand the language of speakers and writers It examines the structure of sentences and clauses which are represented by processes, the participants involved

in these processes, and the circumstances in which processes and participants are involved

Using transitivity analysis, researchers have tried to reveal that language structures can produce certain meanings and ideology which are not always explicit for readers In other words, the task of functional analysis, particularly transitivity analysis, is to discover the relation between meanings and wordings that accounts for the organization of linguistic features in a text Therefore, the concept of transitivity has been used by a number of linguists in the world and in Vietnam to shed more light on the use of language in a literary text

Spearheading the study in Transitivity analysis, a research labelled as ―one of the groundbreaking analysis in stylistics‖ (Carter and Stockwell, 1971 cited in Nguyen,

p 86) was done by M.A.K Halliday to illustrate how the meaning is brought by the

grammatical structure of the text‘s language of William Golding‘s the Inheritors

This study entailed a wide employment of the transitivity analysis in analyzing texts such as short stories (Nguyen, 2012; Msuya, 2014; Mwinlaaru, 2012), sonnets (Indrayani & Seomantri, 2014) play (Gallardo, 2006) and essay (Cunanan, 2011)

Analyzing the short story entitled Heroic Mother by Hoa Pham, Nguyen (2012)

looked into the personality portrayal of the mother

Perusing the same type of literary text, Msuya (2014) studied Peter Abraham‘s

Mine Boy through the same framework but with particular regard to the verbal

processes of the characters named Xuma and Leah

Focusing on a different kind of literary text, Indrayani & Seomantri (2014) analyzed the sonnets written by Shakespeare The study includes the analysis of three of

Shakespearean sonnets namely The Time of the Year, Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds and My Mistress‟ Eye It was found that only four of the six processes

were present namely material, mental, relational and existential are present wherein the first occurred most frequently among the others The research also identified some archaic words and how these played an important role in the clauses

Cunanan (2011), on the other hand, studied the essay written by Virginia Woolf

entitled Old Mrs Grey and explained how stylistic analysis could help the ESL

readers understand the text through giving considerations to the author‘s linguistic choice The study pointed out that transitivity analysis allows the readers to have an access to the persona‘s stream of consciousness

Through the transitivity analysis, according to Nguyen (2012), ―…researchers have tried to reveal that language structures can produce certain meanings and ideology which are not always explicit for readers‖ (p 86) With this, ―…a good number of textual stylistic scholars have embarked on making analyses of different texts (Msuya, 2014:134) to unfold its different ideologies through the systemic-functional linguistics which established a bond between the word choice and meaning

The aforementioned studies ―…are just few among many‖ (Nguyen, 2012: p 86) existing research that have employed transitivity analysis These studies have invited other scholars to analyze different literary and non-literary texts to construe their underlying objective meanings embedded in the language Meanwhile, the present study which adapts the same framework explains briefly what transitivity theory

Thus, however small the study is, I would like to contribute to this fledgling field by

analyzing Transitivity System used in Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the wind"

by Margaret Mitchell from the perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar Before that, in this chapter, background knowledge of Systematic Functional Grammar and Process Types will be presented

2.2 Systemic Functional Grammar

2.2.1 Introduction to SFG

The origins of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) can be traced from earlier works of the Prague School Formed in Europe in the 1920‘s Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday is the founder of SFL He expanded the theory from his teacher,

JR Firth‘s work SFL is an approach that sees how the meaning of a language can

be related to human experience Many SFL-oriented linguists begin an analysis with social context and discovered how languages act upon, and is constrained and influenced by this social context

The functional grammar is primary concerned with the function of structures and their constituents and with their meaning in context The focus of this kind of grammar is usually on the appropriateness of a form for a particular communicative purpose in a particular context On the other hand, it is concerned with the way in which grammar is organized to make meaning

David et al ( 1995:23) stated whenever human speak or write, they make selections from entire lexical and grammatical system of English to choose appropriate meanings for the field, tenor, and mode of a context of situation, they introduce the notion that language simultaneously perform three functions (Ideational: Experiential and Logical, Interpersonal, and Textual) Halliday in David et al (1996:13) calls these main functions metafuctions Also, Gerot and Wignell (1995:6) state that ―functional grammar views language as a resource for making meaning‖

This kind of grammar attempts to describe language in actual use and so focus on text and their contexts It is concerned not only with the structures but also how those structures construct meaning Functional grammar explains language viewed from the relationship between context, meaning, and wording It starts with the question, ‗How are the meaning of a text realized?‘ However, Halliday (1994:17) assert that ―functional grammar is a study of wording, but one that interprets the

wording by reference to what it means and the meaning is encoded in the wording

as an integrated whole‖

In simple words, Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) is a grammar based on the

view that language is a system for making meaning Systemic refers to the fact that

when we use language, we make choices from sets of available options This is

contrary to the traditional view of grammar as sets of rules Functional assumes that

every time we make a choice from the available options, we are doing so in order to

fulfill a communicative purpose And Grammar simply refers to the fact that there

is an overall organisation to all of these possible options

From all of the above-mentioned, it can be concluded that functional grammar is a study of context, meaning and structure of language, the meaning which constructed

by the wording or structure of a language Meanings are created by combining function and structure It means that different structure builds different meanings Thus, analyzing functional grammar needs a good comprehension in relating the function and structure (Fontaine, 2013) However, function in a clause structure is mostly not only one Therefore, to discover those functions, metafuntions concept is presented (Halliday and Matthiesen, 2014)

2.2.2 Metafunctions

Metafunction is a term referring to three different functional components in

systemic theory (Halliday and Matthiesen, 2014:361)

The first component is ideational metafunction This metafunction views language

as human experience reflection of the world It represents processes like doing or happening, saying or sensing, being or having accompanied with several different participants and circumstances That is why the function is even called clause as representation

The second is interpersonal metafunction It views language as action This function reflects actions like informing or questioning, ordering or offering, expressing

It is supposed to be clause as an exchange since it reflects interaction between speaker and listener

The third is textual metafunction It is also called clause as message The function connects the clause and the text It develops the discourse sequences so that the discourse becomes cohesion and coherence (Halliday and Matthiesen, 2014: 30-31)

There are also three situation contexts: field, tenor and mode Field is what happens

in the situation; tenor is about social relation; and mode is about contextual coherence (Halliday and Matthiesen, 2014:33) Those contexts can be explored by analyzing metafunctions through functional grammar The field can be

comprehended by analyzing ideational function through transitivity system Tenor

can be understood by finding interpersonal function through mood and modality

systems Then, the mode context can be explained by elaborating mode context

through theme and cohesion (Gerot and Wignell, 1995:15)

The table below summarises the three systems and their respective metafunctions:

Figure 2.1 Main systems of the metafunctions (Wilcock, 1993, p.19)

2.2.2.1 Ideational Metafunction

The ideational metafunction refers to the use of language to construe and organise one‘s experience of the world It is further divided into the experiential and the logical subfunction The former describes clauses as representation and focuses on

content and ideas, and how people actively construe and make sense of reality, classifying the objects and events within their awareness (Halliday, 1999) Halliday‘s claim that grammar has an active role in helping construing reality in the experiential subfunction also shows a Whorfian influence

On the other hand, the logical subfunction focuses on the relationship between ideas, or in Halliday‘s words, systems ―which set up logical–semantic relationships between one clausal unit and another‖ (Halliday, 2003), and the emphasis is put on the symbolic representation of reality and experience through language

The ideational metafunction deals with how reality is represented in language, and asks questions such as ―who, (does) what, whom, how, why, where, and when‖ Halliday devised a system to analyse texts in the spectrum of this category:

transitivity, which includes processes, participants, and circumstances These will

be in the next part of the study (2.3 Transitivity System)

Below is an analysis example of a clause in terms of ideational metafunction :

2.2.2.2 Interpersonal Metafunction

The interpersonal metafunction expresses the role relationship between speaker and hearer or between writer and reader associated with the situation (Halliday, 1994:68) In addition, Bloor and Bloor (2004:28) the language is used to enable us

to participate in communicative acts with other people, to take on roles and to express and understand feeling, attitude, and judgments The interpersonal metafunction also concerns the use of language to set up and sustain interaction

between people using language

In interpersonal analysis, meaning is considered from the point of view of its

function in the process of social interaction A clause is analysed into Mood and Residue, with the mood element further analysed into Subject and Finite The Subject and Complement are typically realized by nominal groups The Finite is realized by the tensed element of the verb The Predicator is realized by the non- tensed (or nonfinite) element or elements of the verbal group The Adjunct is

Below is an analysis example of a clause in terms of interpersonal metafunction :

Subject Finite Predicator Complement Adjunct

2.2.2.3 Textual Metafunction

The textual metafunction refers to ―the use of language to organise the text itself‖

(Bloor & Bloor, 1995) and deals with clauses as messages (Wilcock, 1993) Two important elements of the textual metafunction are Theme and Rheme Theme is

―the point of departure of the message‖ carried by one clause (Halliday/Bloor& Bloor 1995: 71), it tells what the clause is about and is placed at the beginning of the clause Theme is followed by the Rheme, which comprises the rest of the message

Below is an analysis example of a clause in terms of interpersonal metafunction :

Their enthusiasm for the job impresses me the most

The table below summarises the practical application of the metafunctions and their systems:

Figure 2.1 Layers of the metafunctions (Wilcock, 1993, p.19)

Although there are three metafunctions, this study narrows down to adapt the ideational metafunctions Therefore, the theoretical framework of this study is based

on System of Transitivity as proposed by Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) and by other linguists who draw on Halliday (1994), Bloor and Bloor (2004), Thompson (2004), Eggins (2004) and Martin et.al (1997) Analyses using this function will construe the experience that can be realized by analysing the sentences using Transitivity According to Halliday (1973), the System of Transitivity is a major contribution to text-based understanding and the text-based investigation

2.3 Transitivity system

Transitivity is a system that construes the world of experience for describing the whole clause with a set of process types as its central

Transitivity is relevant to the Ideational Meaning of semantics and field of context

of situation The term transitivity is probably familiar as a way of distinguishing between verbs according to whether they have an object or not It is a proper of verb that relates to whether a verb can take direct object and how many such objects a verb can take

Martin et.al (1997) describes transitivity as a resource for construing our experience

in terms of configurations of a process, participant, and circumstances Butt et al (1996) state that ―most English clauses have a constituent structure that can be described functionally in terms of participant, process, and circumstance with process being the essential ingredient‖

However, Thompson (1996) states that ―transitivity refers to a system for describing the whole clause, rather than just the verb and its object‖ According to Halliday (1994) ―transitivity is a system that construes the world of experience into a managable set of process types‖ While, Gerot and Wignell (1995) state that

―processes are central to transitivity Participant and circumstance are incumbent upon process It indicates different processes suggest different participants in varying circumstances‖

This can be concluded that Transitivity is the system of grammatical choice, which

relations with the field of discourse, analysts can predict the choice of process that the interactants are making in order to achieve their communicative goals by looking at what the discourse is about Consequently, given the process types used

in the discourse, analysts can work out the meanings interactants are trying to communicate Transitivity, therefore, is sometimes referred to as process type

2.3.1 Three components of the process

As mentioned before, transitivity system is a grammatical system to achieve ideational meaning (Halliday and Matthiesen, 2014: 213) In analyzing ideational meaning through this system, each element of clause should be divided on its function as three components in principle:

(i) the process itself,

(ii) the participants in the clause,

(iii) the circumstances associated with the process,

on, like doing, happening, seeing, feeling, thinking, as well as being and having It

is the central to transitivity and consists of the various types processes together with the structures that realize these processes

Participant

The participant is the term used to refer in ganeral to entities involved in process

It can be a person, a place, or an object In the grammar of a clause the participant is realized by a nominal group Every major clause normally includes at least one participant which is labelled according to the process type

The participant refers to the roles of entities that is directly involved in the process : the one that does, behaves or says, together with the passive one that is done to, said

to, etc The participants are not necessarily humans or even animate; the term

―participant entities‖ would be more accurate ( Halliday, 1976:160 ) The participant entities are normally realized by noun phrases in the clause

The table below summarises the processes and their respective participants

Goal Beneficiary/Recipient

Scope Client Attribute

Phenomenon Relational

Attributive

Identifying

Carrier Attribute

Token/ Identifier Value/ Identified

Quoted Reported Receiver Verbiage Target

Circumstance

The circumstance is the third major component of the grammar of the clause in the

transitivity model Circumstances are not directly involved in the process because they are attendants of the clause Consequently, Circumstances occupy the adjunct element of the clause structure Prepositional and adverb phrases typically realise the circumstance component Simpson (2004) notes that the Circumstance component of the clause encompasses a wide range of semantic class which comprises of extent, location, manner, cause, contingency, accompaniment, role, matter and angle, as well as their sub-categories (Mwinlaaru, 2012:34)

Extent

distance How far? He ran three miles

duration How long? He ran for three days

frequency How frequently? He ran every day

Location place Where? He ran in Toronto

Manner means By what means? He saved her with a rope

quality How? She saved him quickly

comparison Like what? She ran like the wind

degree How much? She loved him more than anyone Cause reason Why? She ran because she loved to

purpose For what purpose? She ran to raise money

behalf On whose behalf She ran for her sister

Without an agreement, the plan will fail

concession With what

concession?

Despite her help, the plan failed

Accompa

niment

comitative Who/what with? John ran with Jane

additive Who/what else? John wears mittens in addition to

his gloves Role guise What as? She spoke as his mentor

product What into? He was transformed into a prince Matter matter What about? He warned me about the film Angle source According to

addition to the three main types, there are three subtypes of process namely

behavioral, verbal and existential which represent processes of behaving, saying,

and existing respectively

2.3.2.1 Material Process

Material processes are processes of doing in the physical world Material processes

have two inherent participants involved in them The first of these is the Actor,

which is an obligatory element and expresses the doer of the process The second is

the Goal, which is an optional element and expresses the person or entity _whether

animate or inanimate_ affected by the process In addition to these two inherent

participant roles, there is an extra element called Circumstance, which provides

additional information on the ―when, where, how, and why‖ of the process The Circumstantial meaning is realized, not in nominal phrases, but as either adverbial phrases or prepositional phrases, and so is subsidiary in status to the process Circumtance expresses supplementary information, such as place, time, extent, matter, manner, duration, condition, means, etc

Example: John kicked the ball

Example: John kicked the ball very hard

Actor Pro: Material Goal Circumstance

Example: The boat sailed in the bay

Of course, it is possible to reverse Actor - Goal in a passive form, placing a Goal at

an initial position and Actor at the end of the sentence, such as :

Example: The ball was kicked by John

Material process clauses can also contain four other participants: Beneficiary or Recipient, Scope, Client, and Attribute The Beneficiary or Recipient, is a

participant in a material process clause with a benefactive role, corresponding to the item that answers to the question, ―to whom?‖ (what for example inflectional languages realise with Dative) It usually involves verbs such as ‗give‘, ‗send‘,

‗offer‘, etc.:

Example: Anne gave you the keys

Actor Pro: Material Recipient Goal

In the material process clause in the example above, ‗you‘ is the Beneficiary or Recipient In particular, the label Beneficiary can be misleading at times, because

it may seem to imply that the receiver would only benefit from the action, when in reality it also refers to receiving something detrimental and even harmful, as in ―I‘ll give you something to cry about‖ (Bloor & Bloor, 2004,p113) To avoid semantic

confusion, this study refers to this participant as Recipient

Scope is very similar to Goal The main difference between the two participants is that Scope remains basically unaffected by the action, while an action is usually directed to the participant labelled as Goal Furthermore, Scope is usually

‗restricted to intransitive clauses‘ (Halliday, 2004, p192) The participants in the

following examples are all Scope (in italics):

Example: Armen and his friends play ping-pong every weekend

Armen and his

friends

Actor Pro: Material Scope Circumstance

Example: The band played ‗Waltzing Matilda‘

Client is similar to Recipient as it shares its benefactive role, and Halliday helps clarify the difference between the two: ‗The Recipient is one that goods are given to; the Client is one that services are done for‘ (ibid., p.191)

Example: Simon gave Mary a dose of poison

Finally, the Attribute ‗may be used to construe the resultant qualitative state of the Actor or Goal after the process has been completed‘ (ibid., p.195)

Example: They stripped them clean of every bit of jewellery

jewellery

Actor Pro: Material Goal Attribute Circumstance

2.3.2.2 Mental Process

Mental process clauses entail the description of states of mind and cognitive and

psychological events Verbs such as think, feel, hate, like, know, fear, want, see, hear, enjoy, etc., realise these processes The sentences below are an example of

such clauses, where it is clear that the reader cannot construe the process as an action, therefore material processes can be ruled out

Example: I know what shrimp soup is

Example: Mary saw the beautiful sunrise

Mental process clauses contain only two participants: Senser and Phenomenon Senser is usually the Subject of the sentence and the ―experiencer‖ of the Phenomenon

The passive voice is rare in mental processes, but not impossible When the passive

is used or it is possible to use the passive form, the order of the participants is reversed:

Active

Senser Process: Mental Phenomenon

Passive

Phenomenon Process: Mental Senser

Albeit grammatically possible, this type of passive structure seems quite heavy, but

it is possible to find mental process clauses where the Senser is omitted (―The shots

were heard‖), because ―one common motivation for using the passive voice is that it permits us to omit certain participants (Bloor & Bloor, 2004, pp 117-118)

Finally, there are cases, usually involving the verb know, where the Phenomenon

can be realised as a clause, as is the case in the example ―I know what shrimp soup

is‖, where I is the Senser, know is the Process, and what shrimp soup is is the

Phenomenon

2.3.2.3 Relational Process

Copular verbs, such as be, become, seem, appear, and verbs of possession realise

Relational processes Such processes are further divided in two subclassifications: Attributive and Identifying processes The first kind of process assigns an attribute

to an item:

Example: He is happy all the time

Carrier Pro: Relational Attribute Circumstance

In the example above, happy is the attribute and He is the Carrier of the attribution

Other examples of attributive relational processes are the following (Bloor & Bloor,

2004, p 121):

She could have been a girl of twenty-five or a

woman of fifty-five

Furthermore, sentences containing these other copular verbs can also be classed as

attributive relational processes: feel (as in I feel pretty), look (as in She looked pale), remain (as in Café Neko remained the best sushi bar in town), smell, sound, and taste

Finally, some possessive structures can be labelled as attributive relational process,

as exemplified below:

Example: Ivan Yakovlevich has an extra nose

Carrier Pro: Relational Attribute: Possessed

Identifying processes are relational processes such as the sentence in the example

below (Bloor & Bloor, 2004, p 121):

Example: Scarlett is her name

Token /Identifier Pro: Relational Value/ Identified

Scarlett and her name are the Identifier and the Identified participants,

respectively Their functions within the sentence would not change if the

speaker/writer reversed their order, which would then be more usual (or

‗unmarked‘)

2.3.2.4 Verbal Process

Verbal processes are realised through verbs introducing or describing speech To a

certain extent, these verbs present characteristics of material processes, since speaking is a form of action, and of mental processes, as verbalised thoughts can be considered inner speech The example below contains a verbal process and its elements:

Example: Thomas said „Let‟s go to the amusement park this evening!‟

Thomas said „Let‟s go to the amusement park this evening!‟

In this example, Tomas is the Sayer, the past tense form of the verb say, said is the

verbal process itself, and ‗Let‘s go to the amusement park this evening!‘ is the

actual verbalisation, in direct speech classed as Quoted

When the verbalisation is reproduced in reported speech, it bears the

self-explanatory title of Reported There are different possibilities of ordering the

elements within a verbal process clause, especially in the direct speech form Moreover, when analysing this type of process, the direct and/or reported speech can be also analysed as a separate clause (which it is, technically)

A third participant in Verbal process clauses is the Receiver, which could be described as the verbal process equivalent of Beneficiary in material clauses In the

example below, me is the receiver:

Example: Salim told me that they are closing down the dolphinarium

Salim told me that they are closing down

the dolphinarium

Sayer Pro: Verbal Receiver Reported

The most common verb in this process is say, but other verbs such as ask, tell, mumble, repeat or verbs conveying an illocutionary force, as speech act theorists call them, such as beg, challenge, promise, grumble, agree, report, also realise

verbal processes

Finally, two other potential participants are Verbiage and Target The first is used

to label items in a sentence that do not correspond to a quotation or a report of somebody‘s words, but rather refer ―to what is said by classifying it in terms of its character as an expression‖ or ―a clause that is not a projection of speech or thought‖ (Bloor & Bloor, 2004, 125):

Example: I told her the truth

Example: He told me what I wanted to know

Sayer Pro: Verbal Receiver Verbiage

In the examples above, the parts in italics express the Verbiage Target is a rather

secondary participant and refers to the person or thing ―targeted by the process‖

(Halliday, 2004) Lexical verbs such as describe, explain, praise, criticise, flatter, blame, condemn, castigate, can be followed by a Target:

Example: Former party officals criticized party leadership

Former party officials criticized party leadership

2.3.2.5 Behavioural Process

Behavioral processes are processes of physiological and psychological behavior, and they are on the borderline between material and mental processes Behavioral processes ―represent outer manifestations of inner workings, the acting out of processes of consciousness and physiological states‖ (Halliday 1994: 107) Behavioral processes are the least salient of Halliday‘s six process types, and the boundaries of behavioral processes are indefinite The participant who is behaving

is called Behaver Like the Senser, Behaver is usually a conscious being, but the process is more like one of doing, as in material processes

Example: Linda is crying

Some other examples of behavioral processes are sit, dance, sing, lie down near material processes, think, watch, look, listen, near mental processes, talk, gossip, grumble, chatter near verbal processes, smile, laugh, cry, frown physiological processes expressing states of consciousness, sleep, breathe, cough, yawn other physiological processes (Halliday 1994: 139 )

Halliday (1994:139) states that the boundaries of behavioural process are indeterminate; but they can be recognized from the following kinds as typical:

1 (near mental) process of consciousness represented as forms of behaviour, e.g look, watch, stare, listen, think, worry, dream

2 (near verbal) verbal process as behaviour, e.g chatter, grumble, talk

3 Physiological processes, e.g cry, laugh, smile, flown, sigh, snarl, whine,breathe, cough, faint, shit, yawn, sleep

4 (near material) bodily postures and pastime, e.g sing, dance, lie (down), sit (up, down)

2.3.2.6 Existential Process

The last remaining process type is called existential These processes are processes

of existing and happening, as in ―There was a little house on the big prairie,‖ ―There isn‘t enough space,‖ or ―Has there been any problem?‖ Existential sentences typically have the verb be, and the word there is necessary as a Subject although it has no representational function The object or event that is being said to exist is

called Existent An Existent can be any kind of phenomenon, such as a thing, person, object, institution or abstraction, action, or event Existentials are

represented as follows

Example: There‘s a unicorn in the garden

Existential Process Existent Circumstance: Place

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Subjects

This study focuses on Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margarett

Mitchell rather than other chapters of the novel The reason for this choice is that the description of the main character Scarlett and four other characters in the chapter is perfect for a transitivity analysis

The subjects of this research were 395 clauses carefully selected from Chapter 2 The characterisation of the characters in the chapter is mainly based on these clauses The clauses were analyzed through Transitivity System in terms of six process types: Material, Mental, Relational, Verbal, Behavioural and Existential

3.2 Instruments

The main methods employed in this study are descriptive, analytic and statistical First, it is descriptive because we need to establish a common theoretical framework; and in order to understand and use this framework effectively; we have to describe it in details by either re-examining the existing concepts or, in case of developing the new ones

Second, the analytic method is also chosen in the research because our study is concerned mainly with analyzing clauses in terms of Transitivity System in the light of Systemic Funtional Grammar The procedure for data analysis was as follows: having typed the identified clauses associated with each character in Microsoft Word, a transitivity analysis of the transitivity patterns was done in order

to identify the transitivity patterns in the process-types in which a character is inscribed In so doing, research question one and two were answered

Last but not least, statistical method is applied to find out what process types are used more dominantly in order to highlight what motivated Margaret Mitchell to choose certain types of process rather than others and show the significance of the identified transitivity patterns in the characterisation of each character in the chapter

After the proposal with draft outline having been approved, I had a close reading

of the story and then the chosen chapter to get the main message conveyed by the author The chapter taken from the novel were broken into clause complexes, which were divided into clauses later On the basis of this, I was able to make a provisional analysis

The data analysis mainly drew on Halliday's theories of transitivity patterns attributed to characters in the fiction Specifically the procedure for data analysis was as follows: typing of the identified clauses associated with each process and each character, and performing of a transitivity analysis of the transitivity patterns

in order to identify the transitivity patterns in the process-types in which a character

is inscribed Thereafter, descriptive statistics, including frequency counts computed into percentage distribution were employed to support the qualitative discussion The process types are looked into and focused on are Material , Mental , Relational, Verbal, Behavioural and Existential processes

The process type in each clause was identified and labeled A detailed analysis and statistics were undertaken to identify the process types for each character to hightlight what motivated Margaret Mitchell to choose certain types of process rather than others and show the significance of this choice to the characterisation of

each character in Chapter 2 In order to perform these activities, this second stage was a long process to classify all the needed data and took more than four months

The last stage started from early September to early November for analyzing and discussed the results from data collection This was also the time when the thesis was completed both in form and content

3.4 Statistical Analysis

The study aims at describing, analysing and producing statistics on the process

types used in 395 clauses in Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the Wind" in the

light of Systemic Functional Grammar The process of analysing the data of these

395 clauses is realized in terms of Transitivity System The collected data of clauses are first computed and analyzed by statistical procedures to find the answers to the question of the investigation about the number of processes of Transitivity System

In terms of Transitivity, to assess what kinds of process occur frequently, percentages of each process appearing in these clauses are calculated Based on the results, with the highest percentages of certain processes, it is estimated there is a dominant tendency of using certain proceses employed in depicting the characters

After that, some comparison and conclusions are drawn through statistical percentages for each process of the characters

3.5 Summary

To sum up, this chapter provides details of the methodology used to collect and analyse data in a quest to answer the research questions raised in Chapter One of this study

The chapter looks at the subjects, instruments, procedures, stastistical analysis of

types used in Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margarett Mitchell in

the light of Systemic Functional Grammar in terms of Transitivity System

The next chapter presents the research findings regarding the process types used in Chapter 2 and the significance of those processes in the characterisation of the five characters in the chapter

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF PROCESS TYPES

OF TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM USED IN CHAPTER 2

OF THE NOVEL "GONE WITH THE WIND"

4.1 Process Types of Transitivity used in Chapter 2 of the novel "Gone with the Wind"

The analysis of the 395 clauses shows that the processes used in this chapter are typically of three major types: material, relational and mental The results are summarized in the following table

(in number)

Rate of Occurrence

She went back to her chair like a sleepwalker

Actor Pro: Material Circumstance

Example: and her heart swelled up with misery,

And her heart swelled up with misery,

Cir Actor Pro: Material Circumstance

Example: Scarlett turned away from Mammy with studied nonchalance

Scarlett turned away from Mammy with studied

nonchalance

Actor Pro: Material Circumstance

Example: Her father had ridden over to Twelve Oaks, the Wilkes plantation,

Her father had ridden over to Twelve Oaks, the Wilkes

plantation,

Example: The delay would give her time to quiet her breathing and calm her face

The

delay

would give Her time to quiet her breathing and

calm her face

Actor Pro: Material Recipient Goal Cir

Example: as she always did from County gossip,

Example: Gerald took her arm and passed it through his

Gerald took her arm and passed it through his

Example: Scarlett blew her nose on her torn handkerchief,

Scarlett blew her nose on her torn handkerchief

Example: and they started up the dark drive arm in arm, the horse following slowly

And They started up the dark drive arm in arm, the

horse following slowly

Example: Mammy would certainly come in search of her

Here are some of the examples in the passive

Example: and then Scarlett would be forced to reveal everything to her mother, or think up some plausible lie

and

then

Scarlett would

be

forced to reveal everything to her mother or think

up some plausible lie

Example: Her voice was raised questioningly,

Example: His thickset torso was supported by short sturdy legs, always incased in the finest leather boots procurable and always planted wide apart like a swaggering small boy‘s