Transitivity

Clause as Representation

A.  Characterization of  Transitivity

The system of transitivity belongs to the experiential metafunction and is the overall grammatical resource for construing go on. It contrues this flux of experience as quanta of change. These are represented as a configuration of a process, a participants involved in it, and attendant circumstance.

Example:  A kite       is flying   in the sky

     Participant    process       circumstance

Participant (actor: a kite), a process (process: is flying) and a circumstance (location: in the sky)

Process type is the resource for sorting out our experience off all kind of events into a small number of type. Process type consist of process types in English and process types and nuclear participant.

 

Process type in English

Process type	subcategory	Example clause(process in bold)
Material Mental Relational Behavioural Verbal Existential	Event (i.e happening) Action (i.e doing) Perception Cognition Affection Attributive Identifying	The sugar dissolved She stirred the coffee She saw the car She forget his name/his name escaped her She liked his music/his music pleased her Maggie was strong Maggie was our leader She laughed She replied There was once a beautiful princess

Process types and nuclear participants

Process type	Nuclear participants	Example clause(process in bold)
Material Mental Relational    : Attributive                      : Identifying Behavioural Verbal Existential	Actor, Goal Senser, Phenomenon Carrier, Attribute Token, Value Behaver Sayer Existent	She made the coffee She saw the car Maggie was strong Maggie was our leader She laughed She replied There  was a beautiful princess

1.    Material clause

Material clauses construe doing and happenings. The one inherent participant is the Actor – the one doing the material deed. A goal – a participant impacted by a doing (the one done to/with) and sometimes a Beneficiary – a participant benefiting from the doing (the one given to are done far).

Example:  She    built     the house   for the kids

                           Actor   process   goal              Beneficiary

2.    Mental Clause

Mental clauses construe a person involved in conscious process, including process of perception, cognition and affection. The one inherent participant is the senser – the participant sensing (involved in conscious processing. This participant is endowed with consciousness nominal group serving as senser which denote non – conscious entities have to be construed metaphorically as personified. The phenomenon being sensed and may represent the content of sensing.

Example: Mary    liked               the gift

                                 Senser     mental process    henomenon

3.    Relational Clause

Relational clauses construe being and do this in two different modes – attribution and identification.These two types of this process have different sets of participants roles: attributive clauses with Carrier attribute, and identifying clauses

a)    Attributive clauses with Carrier + attribute

     Example: My brother    is   tall

                      Carrier                       attribute

b)   Identifying clauses with token + value

Example: 

      He          is      the villain

              Token                  value

             

      The Villain   is      him        

Value                          Token                                  

                                  

4.    Behavioural Clause

They are expressed by verbs such as look, watch, stare, listen, think, worry, dream, sing, dance and etc. As distinct from other groups, only one participant is required, the person doing the laughing, smiling. This participant is termed the behavor, a conscious being like the senser but the process is more like one of “doing”.

Example:   She          laughed

                       Behavior    Behavioral process

5.    Verbal Clause

Verbal Clauses represent processes of ‘saying’: but this category includes not only the different modes of saying (asking, commanding, offering, stating) but also semiotic processes that are not necessarily verbal (showing, indicating).

The participants are:

·      Sayer             : The central participant (addresser)

·      Receiver        : The person it is said to (target)

·      Verbiage       : The content of what is said or indicated

Example:  She   told                me         a strange story

      Sayer   verbal process   receiver   verbiage

6.    Existential clause

Existential clause resemble relational clause in that they construe a participant involved in a process of being. These represent that something exists or happens. In these cases what we are doing is affirming the existence of something or someone. As with behavioral verbs there is only one participant here.

Example:  All around them    was                      a silence

                                  Location                      process: existential   existent