Linguistic features of experiential meaning in “the call of wild” by jack london

The data of the study is the clausescontaining material and mental processes in the novel “The Call of Wild”.The finding shows that material processes are used in both transitive andintr

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

PHẠM THỊ THANH TRÀ

ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGÔN NGỮ HỌC CỦA NGHĨA KINH NGHIỆM TRONG TÁC PHẨM “TIẾNG GỌI NƠI HOANG DÔ CỦA TÁC GIẢ JACK

LONDON

Chuyên ngành

Mã số

: Ngôn ngữ Anh :8220201

Người hướng dẫn: PGS TS PHAN VĂN HÒA

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I totally assure that the thesis “Linguistic Features of ExperientialMeaning in “The Call of Wild” by Jack London” is my own work for thepurpose of graduating the MA course of English Linguistics

The content of this thesis has not been published or written by anyother authors except for some references which are used in this thesis

The thesis has not been submitted for any degree or diploma in anyuniversity

Quy Nhon, July, 2019

PHAM THI THANH TRA

Second, I owe an unpaid debt to all the qualified and experiencedteachers who helped me broaden my knowledge about English Linguisticsand my friendly classmates who gave me unforgettable memories during thetwo-year master course.

Last but not least, I am extremely thankful to my parents, my relatives,and my close friends who gave me not only material but also spirit supports inthe past two years of pursuing this MA course

ABSTRACT

The thesis offers an investigation of the linguistic features in the novel

“The Call of Wild” by Jack London from Halliday’s functional linguisticview The aim of this thesis is to find out the syntactic patterns of material andmental processes, the most popular processes in this novel, together with theactivities of verbs as human’s experiential expressions From that, howprocesses, especially material and mental processes, make a contribution toimparting the content successfully to readers can be revealed The study iscarried out with a combination of different research methods – descriptive,quantitative, and qualitative methods The data of the study is the clausescontaining material and mental processes in the novel “The Call of Wild”.The finding shows that material processes are used in both transitive andintransitive with two kinds of verbs – creative and transformative verbs, inwhich the second kind is present in the novel more frequently than the firstkind Each kind of verbs is included in different syntactic patterns ofexpressions of material processes Participants attaching with materialprocesses of creative verbs are Actor, Goal, and Client while Actor, Goal,Scope, Recipient, Attribute are participants with the other kind of verbs ofmaterial processes Mental processes are used with four kinds of verbs –perceptive, cognitive, desiderative, and emotive verbs Mental processestogether with participants Senser and Phenomenon are used in two structures

“Like” type and “Please” type in which the “Like” type is much more popularthan the other The presence of processes in transitivity system, especiallymaterial and mental processes play an important role in building the image ofcharacters, imparting the content of the novel naturally and deeply to readers

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Language plays an essential role in human life because it is considered

as a useful tool to help people express what they think and what they want toconvey to others in terms of spoken and written forms It is due to language’stremendous importance that scientists carry out much investigation in theaspects of language, one of which is grammar At first, linguistics seems tohave paid much attention to traditional grammar which focuses on morpheme,phonemes, words, and phrases However, usage of traditional grammar toanalyze a clause, a sentence, or a text separates grammar from discourse Inother words, the relationship between grammar and discourse is obviously leftout This problem results in the birth of Functional Grammar which isdeveloped by many linguistics, especially Halliday (2014) The presence ofFunctional Grammar facilitates analysis of discourse and understanding of itsmeaning According to Halliday (2014), grammatical function is classifiedinto three broad metafunctions, which are experiential, interpersonal, andtextual Each of them addresses an aspect of the world, but the combination ofthe three metafunctions makes a great contribution to the meaning of adiscourse Experiential meaning seems to be taken into consideration when atext is analyzed Experiential meaning is shown through the system oftransitivity including six kinds of processes – material process, mentalprocess, behavioural process, relational process, verbal process, andexistential process Here are some examples of material process and mentalprocess

Senser Mental pro Phenomenon

Actor Material pro Goal

The gift pleased Mary.Phenomenon Mental pro Senser

(Halliday, 2014)

ơThe ball was kicked by me.Goal Material pro Actor

(Hoang Van Van, 2006)From the samples above, it can be seen that syntactic features of twosamples of mental process are completely different; the first one is “Senser –Mental process – Phenomenon”, and the second one is “Phenomenon –Mental process – Senser” The differences in terms of syntax are also found intwo samples of material process: “Actor – Material process – Goal” and

“Goal – Material process – Actor” From things drawn from the samplesabove, I have a desire of having a deeper look into syntactic features ofexpressions of processes to get more knowledge about

the differences

mentioned above

To do a research about what is mentioned above successfully, choosing

a suitable data is one of the most important things After carefulconsideration, the novel “The Call of Wild” by Jack London will be chosen as

a source of data for the research This novel, one of the most popular workwhich brings the fame and success to Jack London, is about not only the dogshedding the veneer of civilization and leading the wild by its primordialinstinct and accumulated experience but also the great love between the dogand its owners To the best of my knowledge, the narrative novel hasn’t beeninvestigated in the aspect of syntactic features of expressions of material

processes and mental processes; therefore, my decision is choosing the novel

“The Call of Wild” by Jack London to be a source of data in this M.A thesis

From all the reasons above, I would like to carry out a research with thetitle “Linguistic Features of Experiential Meaning in “The Call of Wild” byJack London” for my master thesis, basing on the framework of FunctionalGrammar by Halliday (2014)

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims

This study aims to investigate the features (focusing on sentencepatterns) of expressions of material and mental processes in transitivitysystem in the novel “The Call of Wild” by Jack London, especially from that,the research will investigate the activities of verbs as human’s experientialexpressions, which contributes to the successful communication of the majormessage of the novel the writer has an intention to convey to readers

1.2.2 Objectives

With a view to achieving the stated aims, the following objectives will

be fulfilled amply First, the researcher will find out the frequency of materialand mental processes in the novel “The Call of Wild” and analyze them Thenext one is giving some discussions from the findings in terms of transitivitysystem

1.3 Scope of the study

In view of the limited time, the research cannot deal with all kinds ofprocesses in transitivity system Besides, after analyzing data, it is found thatmaterial and mental processes are two processes which are used with thehighest frequencies (This is clearly demonstrated in Research Methodology)

Therefore, the research investigates syntactic features of the transitivityexpressions in material and mental processes The data is collected from thenovel mentioned ranging from chapter I to chapter VII Moreover, embeddedclauses are considered as a constituent of a unit of text analysis to facilitateanalysis of data

2) What are features of the transitivity expressions in mental processes

in the novel “The Call of Wild” by Jack London in terms of functional

analysis?

1.5 Significance of the study

The significance of the M.A thesis “Linguistic Features of ExperientialMeaning in “The Call of Wild” by Jack London” is listed out below

 It improves the understanding of using the transitivity

expressions in material and mental processes

 It helps readers get a better understanding of the novel’s messagethrough syntactic features in transitivity of material and mental processes

1.5 Organization of the study

Chapter 1: Introduction

The rationale, the aims, research questions, the scope, and the design ofthe study are included in this chapter The reasons of choosing the topic of theresearch are clearly demonstrated

Chapter 2: Literature review

This chapter is divided to two subparts – previous studies andtheoretical background The first part is a brief review of previous studieswhich are relevant to this research while the second part provides theknowledge of theoretical framework used to conduct the research

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter presents research method, research procedures, the ways

to collect and analyze data

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion

The results from the data analysis are presented in this chapter, and thediscussions about the results are made

Chapter 5: Conclusion and implications

This chapter gives the summary of the content of the study, drawconclusions and implication Recommendations for further research are alsodemonstrated

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter includes two parts: The previous studies and theoreticalbackground A review of previous studies in both English and Vietnameseresearches is presented at the beginning of this chapter After that, Halliday(2014)’s theoretical background is clearly demonstrated as a basic framework

of the research

2.1 The previous studies

Functional Grammar has been one of the most important aspects that

draw much attention from linguistics up to now In the book Halliday's

Introduction to Functional Grammar (Halliday, 2014), Functional Grammar,

or systematic functional linguistic, is considered as a tool to make meaning.Halliday (2014, p i) “explains the principles of systemic functional grammar,enabling the reader to understand and apply them in any context” This book

is considered as “the standard reference text for systemic functionallinguistics and an ideal introduction for students and scholars interested in therelation between grammar, meaning and discourse” (Halliday, 2014, p i).Finch (2000, p 191) acknowledges Halliday’s Functional Grammar as “themost widely employed methodology for analyzing texts” Thompson (1996, p.vii) describes “the theoretical and practical aspects of the FunctionalGrammar model in as accessible a way as possible” in order to “set out the

approach from the point of view of readers who are not familiar with this way

of looking at language and who may indeed, have little background inlinguistic analysis generally.” Lock (1996, p 17) shares the same idea withFinch (2000), Thompson (1996), and Halliday (2014) about the role ofFunctional Grammar in linguistics “Functional analysis tends to view

“begin to analyze and explain how meanings are made in everyday linguisticinteractions” He also emphasizes the important role of functional grammar

“The systemic approach is increasingly being recognized as providing a veryuseful descriptive and interpretive framework for viewing language as astrategic, meaning-making resource.” (Eggins, 1994, p 1) Bloor and Bloor(1995) also publish a book about systemic functional grammar which isviewed as a guidebook of analysis of English texts from the perspective ofFunctional Grammar Zhiwen Feng (2013, p 86) makes a research aboutFunctional Grammar to “help EFL teachers have an overall understanding ofthe theory and key concepts of functional grammar as well as the positive rolefunctional grammar plays in school contexts.” In this research, Zhiwen Feng(2013) mentions Martin, Matthiessen and Painter (1997)’s the point of viewabout functional grammar

Similarly, Martin, Matthiessen and Painter (1997) define functional grammar

as a way of looking at grammar in terms of how grammar is used In the field

of linguistics, formal grammar, which is an alternative to functional grammar,

is concerned with the ways our genes constrain the shape of our grammar, and thus constrain what a person can and cannot say (Zhiwen Feng, 2013, p 87)

Vietnamese researchers have carried out many studies in the field ofFunctional Grammar A thesis with the title “An Investigation into LinguisticFeatures of Goal and Range in Material Processes in English and Vietnamese”was conducted by Phan Duc Vy An (2011). This thesis compares andcontrasts the functions of Goal and Range in material processes in bothVietnamese and English Le Thi Thuy Diem (2016) investigates theExperiential Meaning in the Short Story “The Last Leaf” as her M.A thesis in

2016 at Quy Nhon University Her thesis points out “how theTRANSITIVITY system helps us understand the experiential meaning” in thiswork, which helps readers “know exactly how the writer states his experience

in the world” (Le Thi Thuy Diem, 2016, pp 3,4) Dang Thi Cam Ngoc (2015)carries a research to find out the differences and similarities in materialprocesses in the work “Perfect Spy” by Larry Berman in English andVietnamese, drawing some useful implications for teachers and students in theaspects of not only functional grammar but also translation Anothersignificant contrastive study in Functional Grammar is carried out by NguyenThi Tu Trinh, Phan Van Hoa, and Tran Huu Phuc (2018) This study “makes acomparison of English ideational metaphor’s patterns with those ofVietnamese ideational metaphor” to “help us understand more ideationalmetaphors well as set a more standard form of behavioral clauses analysis”with the data taken from 165 behavioral clauses in 9 short stories and novels

in English and Vietnamese from the 19th

In spite of many studies conducted in the perspective of FunctionalGrammar, the research “Linguistic Features of Experiential Meaning in “TheCall of Wild” by Jack London” has not been undertaken yet; therefore, Iwould like to make a minor contribution to the great researching world ofFunctional Grammar by doing this research as my M.A thesis

(i) The Theme functions in the structure of the clause as a message A clause has Meaning as a message, a quantum of information; the Theme is the point of

departure for the message It is the element the speaker selects for ‘grounding’ what he is going on to say.

(ii) The Subject functions in the structure of the clause as an exchange A clause has Meaning as an exchange, a transaction between speaker and listener; the Subject is the warranty of the exchange It is the element the speaker makes responsible for the validity of what he is saying.

(iii)The Actor functions in the structure of the clause as representation A clause has meaning as a representation of some process in ongoing human experience; the Actor is the active participant in that process It is the element the speaker portrays as the one that does the deed (Halliday, 2014, p 83)

2.2.1.2 Clause complex

Halliday (2014) states that a sentence is built up from a head clausemodified by other clause – a clause complex In other words, a clausecomplex includes a clause working by itself or a combination of clauses inwhich the Head clause is modified by the others by coordinations According

to Halliday (2004), there are two ways to analyze the relationship betweenclauses in a sentence: Taxis (degree of interdependency) and the logico-semantic relation

 Taxis (degree of interdependency)

According to Halliday (2014), all clauses joined in sentences are

“interdependent: that is the meaning of relational structure – one unit isinterdependent on another unit.” Therefore, degree of interdependencyincludes some clauses with equal status and independence from each other.Degree of interdependency is divided into two different degrees, which are

“parataxis (equal status) and hypotaxis (unequal status)”

Hypotaxis is the relation between a dependent element and its dominant, the element on which it is dependent Contrasting with this is parataxis, which is the relation between two like elements of equal status, one initiating and the other continuing (Halliday, 2014, p 440)

From the definitions of hypotaxis and parataxis above, it is can bedrawn that parataxis comprises clauses of equal status while in hypotaxis, oneclause is dominant (a head) and other clauses are dependent on the head Adouble dash is used to separate one clause from another, as in followingexamples

Her voice is very beautiful || but her performance is not skillful at all.|||

(Parataxis)She did not go to school yesterday || because she had a headache |||

(Hypotaxis)

embeddedclauses Sinnemaki (2003) states Halliday’s point of

view about the

difference between hypotaxis and embedded clauses He states that

hypotaxis shows the interdependency relationship between clauses whichare not a constituent of another while embedded clauses are in

nominalizing phrases which are considered as a part of another clause.Therefore, embedded clauses do not create clause complexes Embedded

clauses are marked with ([[ ]]) as the following examples.

I saw the car [[that Jeff wrecked.]]

It is obvious [[that Jeff wrecked the car.]]

 Lexico-semantic relation.

Expansion and Projection are two kinds of relationship in semantic relation Halliday (2014, p 443) defines expansion as “thesecondary clause expands the primary clause, by (a) elaborating it, (b)extending it or (c) enhancing it” whereas projection is “the secondary clause

lexico-is projected through the primary clause, which states it as (a) a locution or (b)

an idea.” For example:

The factory in the area is adding poisonous pollutants into the river, ||which damages our environment seriously |||

(Expansion)

She said to the little girl, || “You shouldn’t play with the matches.” |||

(Projection)

2.2.2 Classes and functions

In the aspects of constructing an abstract model of the system oflanguage, the form of the words or language used in the text or in the speech

is unlikely to completely show the meaning of these words in the certainsituation in reality Halliday (2014) mentions a term of the form of thelanguage in traditional grammar – it is “Class” or “part of speech”

A class is a set of items that are in some respect alike (cf Halliday, 1963c) The most familiar, in our traditional grammar, are classes of words: verb, noun, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction (and sometimes also interjection), in the usual list (Halliday, 2014, p 74)

Halliday (2014, p 75) states that a general definition of each class

“would involve both grammatical and semantic considerations” because “aword will typically be like one word in one respect and like a different word

in another.” For example, “lower” is an adjective in comparative in thesentence “This mountain is lower than that one.” But “lower” is a verb withdifferent meaning in the sentence “He lowers his voice.” Therefore, it isobvious that the idea of Halliday about the class which contains bothgrammatical and sematic meaning is reasonable and useful for using andanalyzing languages

According to Halliday (2014, p 76), each word can be present in thedictionary together with its class or part of speech But the dictionary is out ofcontext, so “the class label does not show what part the item is playing in anyactual structure.” It is for this reason that the term “function” is indicated byHalliday He states that “the functional categories provide an interpretation ofgrammatical structure in terms of the overall meaning potential of thelanguage.”

Table 2.1 Function structure of clause with syntagm of classes

realizing functions (Halliday, 2014, p 76)

our daily deeds as must an actual South African reality that for a ordinary South produce glorious life for all.

Africans [function] Actor Process Goal

In terms of traditional grammar, the sentence above can be analyzedinto two nominal groups, and verbal group while in terms of function, “thefunctional labels could be further elaborated to show what kind of Process,what kind of Goal,…” (Halliday, 2014, p 76) However, elements of asentence can have more than one function, leading to the term

“Metafunctions” presented later

2.2.3 Actor, Subject, and Theme

According to Halliday (2014, p.79), “Subject” is “the label for agrammatical function of some kind”, but it is difficult to define what it is and

“find in the grammatical tradition a definitive account of what the role ofSubject means” However, together with the development of linguistics ingeneral and Functional grammar in particular, there are three significantdefinitions of the term “Subject”

(i) that which is the concern of the message

(ii) that of which something is being predicated (i.e on which rests the truth of the argument)

(iii) the doer of the action

Hence there are three kinds of Subject corresponding with eachdefinition of the term “Subject”: (i) psychological Subject, (ii) grammaticalSubject, and (iii) logical Subject

However, with the variation of language, the order of elements can bechanged such as in active or passive voice, psychological Subject,grammatical Subject, and logical Subject are no longer three notions of oneterm “Subject” any more Instead, they become three separate terms as below

In certain situations, Theme, Subject, and Actor can be conflated

or separated as in following examples

Theme = Subject = Actor

Theme = Actor Subject

The functions of Theme, Subject, and Actor show three lines ofmeaning in the clause: clause as a message, clause as an exchange, and clause

as representation According to Halliday (2014, p 84), “these three kinds ofmeaning run throughout the whole of language, and in a fundamental respectthey determine the way that language has evolved.” Three kinds of meaningare demonstrated in systematic accounts of grammar known as

“metafunctions” mentioned in the following part

Table 2.2 Three lines of meaning in the clause (Halliday, 2014, p 83)

2.2.4 The three metafunctions

Language is used to express what people want to convey to others indaily life; therefore, language is regarded as a resource of making meaning inwhich a clause is a basic unit used to describe the meaning Thanks tolanguage, the happening events, the participants, and surrounding

circumstances in a talk can be unfolded to listeners To understand deeply theway language works as well as messages imparted through written or spokenlanguage, a tool of analyzing language in use is required Halliday’sFunctional Grammar is considered as a useful and efficient tool to analyzetexts The theory of Halliday is acknowledged as “the most widely employedmethodology for analyzing texts” (Finch, 2000, p 191) Halliday uses theterm “Metafunctions” to explain the functions of language

Halliday (2014) divides metafunctions of language into three categories

- experiential function, interpersonal function, and textual function

 The EXPERIENTIAL function is used to reflect human experienceabout both the outer world and the inner world and to depict things and phenomenacontained in the world

 The INTERPERSONAL function is used to enable people to getinvolved in communicative acts, which establishes the relationship between peopleand language, and helps them to use language to express their own points of view

Figure 2.1 The spectrums of Metafunctions (Yaqub, Azhar, & Kakepoto,

2017)

2.2.5 The grammar of experiential meaning: Transitivity

When researching Functional Grammar, Halliday builds transitivitysystem which is served as an encoder of the experiential reality includingactions in the real world and inner world, relations, participants, andcircumstances which contribute to the content of a spoken or written text, sotransitivity system affects “not only the verb serving as process but alsoparticipants and circumstances” (Halliday, 2014, p 227)

Transitivity system belongs to experiential metafunction and is used toanalyze the field of the situation as mentioned in 2.2.2 According toHalliday’s theory, thanks to applying the transitivity system to analyze adiscourse or a text, the way actions are performed and the way speakers/writers use language to express their experience of the world surroundingthem and their consciousness are clearly described, showing what is beingtalked about in the discourse or the text so that the experiential meaning can

be imparted to addressees

The experiential meaning of a text is shown by the system of

transitivity including processes, participants, and circumstances

(i) a process unfolding through time

(ii) the participants involved in the process

(iii) circumstances associated with the process

(Halliday, 2014, p 220)Three constituents mentioned above in the transitivity system describewhat happens in reality in a clause using linguistic structures In terms oftraditional grammar, the parts of speech or the word classes such as nouns,verbs, prepositions, or adverbs are utilized to express the outer world.However, in Functional grammar, Halliday introduces different types ofelements which are typically realised by the groups/ phrases

Table 2.3 Typical experiential functions of group and phrase classes

(Halliday, 2014, p 222)

Type of element Typically realized by

(i) process Verbal group

(ii) participant Nominal group

(iii) circumstance Adverbial group or prepositional phrase

According to Halliday, the term “process” is used to present what kind

of event or state (doing or happening, saying or sensing, being or having) isbeing described in a clause in a text or discourse From the Table 2.3 above, itcan be seen that process is realized by Verbal process; that is to say, verbs areused to show processes in experiential meaning Besides, in a language, thereare many different kinds of verbs; some verbs are used to describe doing orhappening in the real world while other verbs show saying, sensing, being,existing, or behaving in the inner world of consciousness Therefore, eachkind of verbs denotes a distinct kind of processes; consequently, processes in

the transitivity system are categorized into six kinds – material, mental,behavior, verbal, relational, and existential processes The combination of sixprocesses will assist readers/ listeners to get the better understanding of thecontent of a text in written or spoken forms

Participants are entities which are involved in the process, typicallyrealized by nominal groups Each process has its own participants; eachparticipant belongs to different processes Basing on types of processes,participants can do the actions or be affected by the actions; participants canalso be the ones who perceive, know, like… or be sensed; participants can beendowed with the consciousness of humans Therefore, types of processes arethe factor that decides their own participants

Circumstance is an element in the transitivity system that expand thebasic clauses including processes and participants by adding to the clausessome details such as Extent, Location, Manner, Cause, Contingency,Accompaniment, Role, Matter, and Angle Circumstantial elements aretypically realized by adverbial groups or preposition phrases as shown inTable 2.3

Halliday (2014) reports that among three elements mentioned above(process, participant, and circumstance), process plays the most important role

in the clause – the central of the clause Meanwhile, participant has a closerelationship with the process which is involved in or affected by the process

In contrast, circumstances “occur freely in all types of process” (p 310); inother words, they are not involved or affected by the process but givetemporal or spatial information to the process In short, although each elementhas its own function in a clause, the combination of these elements intransitivity system makes a great contribution to describing the clause asrepresentation

2.2.5.1 Processes

As mentioned above, there are six kinds of processes – materialprocess, mental process, behavioral process, relational process, verbalprocess, and existential process in the transitivity system Each kind ofprocess with its own functions and participants is clearly represented in thefollowing parts

 Material process

According to Halliday, material process is the process of doing,showing actions and event in the world Material process is made up ofparticipants which are Actor (performing the action), Goal (affected by theaction), Scope (unaffected by the process), Attribute (resultant qualitativestate of the Actor or Goal after the completion of the process) and Beneficiary(benefiting from the process) Beneficiary is divided into two subtypes –Recipient (one that goods are given to) and Client (one that services are donefor) Following are some examples

Her boyfriend gave a bunch of flowers to her

Halliday also classifies material clauses into intransitive and transitiveclauses Intransitive material clauses represent a happening and contain oneparticipant Actor which “brings about the unfolding of the process throughtime, leading to an outcome” which “may be confined to the Actor itself”(Halliday, 2014, p 248) In contrast, material clauses in which “the unfolding

of the process may extend to another participant, the Goal,” and represent adoing are called Transitive The following examples are an ‘intransitive’material clause (a) and a ‘transitive’ material clause (b)

a) The sun rises

Actor Process

b) The dog hit that old car

Halliday (2014, p 228) considers “the nature of the outcome affectingthe Actor of an ‘intransitive’ clause and the Goal of a ‘transitive’ one” as ageneral criterion to “recognizing more delicate subtypes of ‘material’ clauses”– creative and transformative clauses The first one is involved in theexistence of Actors or Goal as the same time the processes unfold while in theother one, the unfolding of the processes leads to the transformation of pre-existing Actors or Goals So it can be understood that in creative materialclause, the process is used to introduce the existence or appearance of theactor or goal while the changes of the actor or the goal which are alreadyexisted are showed by the material process in the transformative clause Table2.4 below is the full explanation about creative and transformative clauses

Table 2.4 Type of doing: ‘creative’/‘transformative’ (Halliday, 2014, p 230)

intransitive transitive intransitive transitive

what What What What What happened?–

happened? happened? happened? – happened?– The pressure broke the

– The pressureThe rocks broke rocks (into small Rocks formed rocks (into small pieces) pieces).

formed What What happened?– She

happened?– chased him (away).

He ran (away).

what What What What happened What happened to

happened happened to happened to the rocks? – The rocks? – The

to X? rocks? – to rocks? – They broke (into pressure broke them

They *The pressure small pieces) (into small pieces).

formed formed them.

what did X What did the What did the pressure

do? pressure do?– do?–It broke the rocks

It formed (into pieces).

rocks What did he do? What did she do? – She

– He ran (away) chased him what did X What did the What did the pressure

rocks? – It broke them (into formed them pieces).

What did she do to

him? – She chased him (away).

Halliday (2014, p 232) claims that “The outcome of the transformation

is an (1) elaboration, (2) extension or (3) enhancement of the Actor(‘intransitive’) or Goal (‘transitive’)” From the types of material clauses,

Creative General appear, emerge; occur,

happen, take place develop, form, grow, produce

create, make, prepare

compose, design, draft, draw, forge, paint, sketch, write; bake, brew, cook; knit, sow, weave; dig, drill; found, establish; open, set up

Transfor- Elabora- State burn, singe, boil, fry, bake, dissolve, cool, freeze,

mative ting warm, heat, melt, liquefy, pulverize, vaporize,

harden, soften Make- blow up, break, burst, chip, collapse, crack, crash,

up explode, shatter, tear; mend, heal

erupt crush, demolish, destroy,

damage, mash, smash, squash, wreck

chop, cut, mow, prune, slice, trim [intransitive:

‘easily’]

axe, hack, harpoon, knife, pierce, prick, spear, skewer, stab, sting

Surface polish, rub, dust, scratch, wipe [intransitive: ‘easily’]

brush, lick, rake, scrape,

shave, sweep Size compress, decompress, enlarge, extend, expand,

grow, stretch, reduce, shrink, shrivel

Shape form, shape; arch, bend, coil, contort, curl, uncurl,

curve, deform, distort, fashion, flatten, fold, unfold,

stretch, squash, twist

Age age, ripen, mature, modernize

Amount increase, reduce; strengthen, weaken

Color colour; blacken, whiten; darken, brighten, fade;

solarize

blush, redden, yellow,

pale

Light twinkle; glimmer,

glisten, glitter, gleam,

glow, flash, flicker,

sparkle, shimmer

Shine

light, illuminate Sound boom, rumble, rustle,

roar, thunder, peal

chime, toll, sound, ring

Exterior peel, skin, peel [intransitive: ‘easily’]

(cover) bark, husk, pare, scalp,

shuck cover, strip, uncover, remove, drape, paper, plate, roof, unroof,wall- paper, shroud, wrap,

clothe, attire, dress, strip, undress, robe, disrobe

coat; butter, enamel, gild, grease, lacquer, paint, pave, plaster, stucco, tar, varnish, veneer, whitewash Interior gut, disembowel, dress, pit contact hit, strike; bump; knock,

tap; punch, slap, spank; elbow; kick; belt, cane, shoot, stone, whip

Aperture Open, close, shut

Opera- run, operate, work; ride, drive, fly, sail [but also as

tion motion]

captain, command, rule, govern; bring up, nurse, mother

ing -ion bequeath, will, leave,

donate, grant, award; cable, fax, post, mail, e- mail, hand; deliver, send; lend, lease, loan; deny (sb sth; sth to sb)

hire, rent, sell

feed, serve, supply, provide, present, furnish (sb with sth; sth to sb)

deprive, dispossess, divest, rob, strip, cheat (sb of sth); acquire, get, take, grab, steal,

pilfer, buy, borrow, hire,

rent (sth from sb) Accom- join, meet; assemble, accumulate, collect, cluster, pani- crowd, flock, herd; separate; disassemble, disband, ment disperse, scatter, spread

Enhanc- Motion: bounce, gyrate, rock, shake, tremble, spin, swing,

ing manner wave; walk, amble, limp, trot, run, jog, gallop, jump,

march, stroll; roll, slide; drive, fly, sail Motion: come, go bring, take place approach, arrive, reach,

return; depart, leave;

circle, cross, encircle, surround, exit, traverse;

enter, escape; follow, tail, precede; pass, overtake; land, take off down, drop, fall/fell, rise/raise; capsize, overturn, tilt, tip, topple, upset

Verb groups listed in Table 2.5 creates different syntactic features of transitivity expressions of material processes as the Table 2.6 below

Table 2.6 Type of doing and additional participants in ‘material’ clauses

n They played. +Attribute (resultative):

+Scope (process): They washed the plates clean They played a game of tennis +Role (product):

+Scope (entity): They cut it into cubes.

They played the piano.

She crossed the room She threw it across the room.

 Mental process

Conscious sensing like thinking, loving, wanting, hoping are

demonstrated by mental process Senser and phenomenon are two participants

of mental process There are four kinds of mental process: cognitive,perceptive, affective, and desiderative

+ Cognitive: showing thinking, denoted by some verbs such as “think”,

“believe”, “understand”, “know”, “convince”, and so on

+ Perceptive: showing sensing, denoted by some verbs such as “see”,

“hear”, “smell”, “taste”, and so on

+ Emotive: showing emotive, denoted by some verbs such as “like”,

“love”, “hate”, “detest”, “interest”, “please”, and so on

+Desiderative: showing desiring, denoted by some verbs such as

“want”, “wish”, “would like”, “desire”, “hope”, and so on

According to Halliday’s Functional Grammar theory, verbs showingmental processes are categorized into two subtypes “Like” type and “Please”type “Like” type and “Please” type present mental processes with diferentsyntactic patterns

“Like” type: Senser + Mental Process + Phenomenon

“Please” type: Phenomenon + Mental Process + Senser

Here are some examples:

Senser Mental pro Phenomenon

The gift pleased Mary.Phenomenon Mental pro Senser

(Halliday, 2014, p 248)Verb groups in mental processes are summarized as in Table 2.7

Table 2.7 Examples of verbs serving as Process in mental clauses

(Halliday, 2014, p 257)

perceptive perceive, sense; see, notice, glimpse; (assail)

hear, overhear; feel; taste; smell

cognitive think, believe, suppose, expect, strike, occur to, convince;

consider, know; understand, realize, remind, escape; puzzle, intrigue, appreciate; imagine, dream, pretend; surprise

guess, wonder, reckon, conjecture, hypothesize; doubt; remember, recall, forget; fear (think fearfully)

desiderative want, wish, would like, desire; hope (tempt)

(for), long for, yearn for; intend, plan;

decide, resolve, determine; agree, comply, refuse

emotive like, fancy, love, adore, dislike, hate, allure, attract, please, displease,

detest, despise, loathe, abhor; rejoice, disgust, offend, repel, revolt; exult, grieve, mourn, bemoan, bewail, gladden, delight, gratify, sadden, regret, deplore; fear, dread; enjoy, depress, pain; alarm, startle, relish, marvel frighten, scare, horrify, shock,

comfort, reassure, encourage; amuse, entertain, divert, interest, fascinate, bore, weary, worry

No matter mental processes are shown in “Like” type or “Please” type,Senser and Phenomenon are two core participants of the kinds of process.Senser that knows, likes, perceives… can be everything attached withconsciousness; hence, sensers can range from humans, animals to inanimatethings Phenomenon can be a thing, an act or a fact This leads to theconclusion that a wide variety of units can be in the role of Sensers andPhenomenon The following are some examples

The dogs and cats understood their master’s words

Senser (Animals) Mental pro: cognitive Phenomenon ( a thing)

Senser (Humans) Mental pro: perceptive Phenomenon (an act)

Senser (inanimate) Mental pro: perceptive Phenomenon (a fact)

 Behaviorial process

Behaviorial processes “are processes of (typically human)

physiological and psychological behaviour, like breathing, coughing, smiling,dreaming and staring” (Halliday, 2014, p 301) denoted by some verbs such as

“breathe, sneeze, cough, hiccup, burp, vomit, faint, look, watch, stare…” Healso states that these processes have “the least distinct of all the six processtypes because they have no clearly defined characteristics of their own” (p.301) and they are in the boundary between material and mental processes,resulting from the fact that “the participant who is ‘behaving’, labeledBehaver, is typically a conscious being, like the Senser; the Process isgrammatically more like one of ‘doing’

+ Sayer is the doer of the process

+ Receiver is the one to whom the saying is directed.

+Verbiage is what is said

+ Target “occurs only in a subtype of ‘verbal’ clauses; this functionconstrues the entity that is targeted by the process of saying, which may be a

person, an object or an abstraction; e.g.” (Halliday, 2014, p 306)

Relational processes are the processes of being, becoming, in which aparticipant is characterized, identified, or situated circumstantially There arethere subtypes of relational process – Intensive, Circumstance, Possessive,each of which has two modes – Attributive and Identifying The categories ofrelational processes are shown in Table 2.8 below

Table 2.8 The principal categories of ‘relational’ clause (Halliday, 2014, p 265)

‘a is an attribute of x’ ‘a is the identity of x’

(1) intensive Sarah is wise Sarah is the leader;

‘x is a’ the leader is Sarah

(2) possessive Peter has a piano The piano is Peter’s;

‘x has a’ Peter’s is the piano

(3) circumstantial the fair is on a Tuesday Tomorrow is the 10th;

‘x is at a’ the 10th is tomorrow

The participants of relational process consist of carrier and attribute,identified/ identifier and token/value

Identified/ Token Relational process Identifier/ Value

 Existential process

Existential processes “represent that something exists or happens”.Existential process comprises only one participant labeled Existent and one ortwo circumstantial elements

Existential pro Existent Circumstance

All types of the processes are summarized in the following table

Table 2.9 Process types, their meaning and participants

(Halliday, 2014, p 311)

2.2.5.2 Circumstances

Circumstance (circumstantial element) is the third component of theclause in the transitivity system They stand freely in six kinds of processes