TRANSITIVITY AND PROCESS TYPES Lesson Three The transitivity

TRANSITIVITY AND PROCESS TYPES Lesson Three

The transitivity system is that system of grammar in and by which speakers/writers realize ideational meaning, in and by which they encode their experiences of the world around them. Participants – Processes – Circumstances Endless possibilities and choices.

Participants – Process – Circumstances Participants can be animate or inanimate. They can be the subject, object, indirect object. Circumstances tell us about location, manner, cause, etc. Processes – represented by verbs

Circumstances Police shoot 11 dead in Salisbury riot. The USA, unlike Italy, is a federation of states. Many people survived thanks to the courage of the firefighters. Morgana waited on line with David for hours. She was travelling as a tourist. Rooney scored a goal in both games.

Examples ‘I know’ – one participant, one process ‘I made her take a train’ – three participants, two processes ‘Martin quickly shook hands with John outside the railway station’ – two participants, one process, two circumstances

Process Types Process types tell us what kind of action is going on, or if any action is going on. Material processes Mental processes Relational processes Verbal processes Behavioural processes Existential processes

Material processes construct what is happening or being done in the world What did X do?

Mental processes construct what takes place in the inner world. Eg. ‘She cares’. So thinking, feeling, liking, seeing, hearing, etc. ‘I hate spinach’ ‘They heard the sirens’ ‘The thought it was true’

Relational processes Meanings of being, essentially the verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to have’. But also eg. become, appear, seem, … ‘She’s my best friend’ ‘The hotel has a swimming pool’ ‘The traffic is heavy at 5. 00 pm’ ‘He’s become intolerable’ ‘It seems to be the case’

Text of relational processes

Identifying and attributive Identifying relational processes x = y and y = x eg. ‘The woman in the red dress is the Dean of the Faculty’ Attributive relational processes ‘The Dean of the Faculty is an excellent piano player’

Process types Diana gave some blood (material) Diana thought she should give blood (mental) Diana is a blood donor (relational) Diana said that giving blood was easy (verbal) Diana dreamt of giving blood (behavioural) There is a reward for giving blood (existential)

Identify the process types Diana went to New York. There were huge lines of people at the Red Cross Centre. She felt lonely. Diana donated blood. Her blood was tested immediately. Diana was one of thousands of donors. I heard an ambulance in the street. I told the driver to hurry. I watched the doctor perfrom

Units of meaning (Sinclair) We do not interpret word for word but unit for unit. “What do you mean you haven’t time!” Lexical chunks “How are you? ” “Thanks a million”