verbal process and its realization in the u.s. president barrack obama's victory speeches = quá trình phát ngôn và sự thể hiện của nó trong các bài diễn văn của tổng thống mỹ barrack obama

1

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

------  ------

NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN

VERBAL PROCESS AND ITS REALIZATION IN
THE U.S. PRESIDENT BARRACK OBAMA’S
VICTORY SPEECHES
(Q TRÌNH PHÁT NGƠN VÀ SỰ THỂ HIỆN CỦA NÓ
TRONG CÁC BÀI DIỄN VĂN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARRACK OBAMA)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60. 22. 15

Hanoi, July, 2010


2

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

------  ------

NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN

VERBAL PROCESS AND ITS REALIZATION IN
THE U.S. PRESIDENT BARRACK OBAMA’S
VICTORY SPEECHES
(Q TRÌNH PHÁT NGƠN VÀ SỰ THỂ HIỆN CỦA NÓ
TRONG CÁC BÀI DIỄN VĂN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARRACK OBAMA)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60. 22. 15
Supervisor : Dr. Hà Cẩm Tâm

Hanoi, July, 2010


6

NOTATIONAL CONVENTION


Tran: transitivity



Pre: predicate



Fini: Finite



Com: complement



Cir: circumstance



Adj: Adjunct



Sub: Subject



Pro: process



Mate: material


7

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages

Declaration

i

Acknowledgements

ii

Abstract

iii

Notational convention

iv

Table of content

v

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1

1. Rationale

1

2. Aims of the study

2

3. Scopes of the study

2

4. Method of study

3

5. Data collection

3

6. Design of the study

3

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

4

1. Functional Grammar

4

2. Metafunctions

6

2.1.

Ideational metafunction.

6

2.2.

Interpersonal metafunction

7

2.3.

Textual metafunction

7

3. The grammar of Experiental meaning: Transitivity

8

3.1.

Process, Participant and Circumstance.

9

3.2.

Process types

10

3.2.1. Material process

12

3.2.2. Mental process

13

3.2.3. Behavioral process

13

3.2.4. Relational process

14

3.2.5. Existential process

14

3.2.6. The circumstance

15

4. Verbal process in English

16


8

4.1.

Structure of a Verbal process

16

4.2.

Components of the Verbal process

17

4.2.1. The Process

17

4.2.2. The Sayer

18

4.2.3. The Receiver

19

4.2.4. The Verbiage

19

CHAPTER III: THE STUDY

21

1. Research questions

21

2. Research design

21

2.1.

Data collection

21

2.2.

Declarative clauses in the data

22

3. Analytical framework

26

3.1.

Process

26

3.2.

Sayer

26

3.3.

Receiver

26

3.4.

Verbiage

27

3.5.

Target

27

4. Data analysis

27

4.1.

The verb “Say”

28

4.2.

The verb “Tell”

29

4.3.

The verb “Ask”

30

4.4.

The verb “Promise”

31

4.5.

The verb “Speak”

31

4.6.

The verb “Call”

32

4.7.

The verb “Respond”

33

4.8.

The verb “Question”

33

4.9.

The verb “Wonder”

33

4.10. The verb “Agree, Disagree”

34

4.11. The verb “Offer”

34

4.12. The verb “Answer”

34

4.13. The verb “Declare”

35


9

4.14. Personal pronouns

35

CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION

37

1. Major findings.

37

2. Implications

37

3. Suggestions for further study

38

REFERENCE

I

Appendix 1

II

Appendix 2

VII


10

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Human‘s language has developed through thousands of years. From the very first
time, although in very difficult living conditions, man tried to ―invent‖ his own language to
communicate, to live and survive. Besides, man has always wanted to understand more
about the nature of language.
In their book, Thomas Bloor and Meriel Bloor (1995) once mentioned that linguists

and grammarians ―have struggled to understand more about how human language is
structured and how communication takes place‖. Grammar, among other branches of
linguistics, therefore, can be seen as the most beautiful tool to satisfy this desire.
With

the

other

three

grammatical

paradigm

such

as

traditional grammar, structural grammar, and transformational generative grammar,
functional grammar has had a significant impact on language teaching over the years.
Systemic functional grammar (SFG) or systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a model of
grammar that was developed by Michael Halliday in the 1960s. It is part of a broad social
semiotic approach to language called systemic linguistics. The term "systemic" refers to
the view of language as "a network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making
meaning"; The term "functional" indicates that the approach is concerned with meaning, as
opposed to formal grammar, which focuses on word classes such as nouns and verbs,
typically without reference beyond the individual clause.
Systemic functional grammar is concerned primarily with the choices that the
grammar makes available to speakers and writers. These choices relate speakers' and

writers' intentions to the concrete forms of a language. Traditionally the "choices" are
viewed in terms of either the content or the structure of the language used. In SFG,
language is analyzed in three different ways, or strata: phonology, lexico grammar and
semantics. SFG presents a view of language in terms of both structure (grammar) and
words (lexis). The term "lexico grammar" describes this combined approach.
Trying to incorporate meaning, function, context and grammatical categories,
functional grammar has provided the learners of language with an analytic tool of looking
at the whole text and the grammatical features which are characteristics of that kind of text.
Functional grammar has been studied by many functional grammarians like Halliday


11

(1985, 1994), Bloor (1994), Eggins (1994), Thompson (1996), Morley (1985), etc. In
Vietnamese, the first functional grammar studies that should be counted as Cao Xuân
Hạos (1991) Tiếng Việt: Sơ thảo ng pháp chức năng; Hoàng Văn Vâns (2002), Ng
pháp Tiếng Việt Vị từ hành động. These studies are the first attempts to bring the
diagram which has not yet been highlighted in Vietnamese schools closer to the
Vietnamese learners. With the same purpose, I choose functional grammar as the area of
study for my M.A thesis.
However, because of the limitation of time and resources, I am not able to cover all
aspects of functional grammar. What I would like to do is to limit myself to a sub-area of
functional grammar, the transitivity system, of which the study focuses on one of the
processes in the transitivity system of English verbal process. My thesis would like to
touch upon how verbal process operates and the its applications in spoken text – speeches
and how it helps speakers persuade the listeners. The study will use Halliday‘s functional
grammar as the theoretical framework.
2. Aims of the Study
Within the framework of an M.A thesis, the study is aimed at:


examining some of the most important issues related to verbal process.



analyzing the use of verbal process in some victory speeches of the U.S
President.


3.

offering some suggestions for learning and teaching.

Scopes of the Study
As stated in 2., the study does not cover all aspects of functional grammar but

limits itself to a sub-area of functional grammar. In particular, the study focuses on
examining verbal process in two victory speeches delivered by U.S. President Barrack
Obama.
To narrow the topic down to these two focuses, it is firstly essential to identify the
linguistic space in which verbal process in located. In this belief, the study examines in
depth the functional systemic theory and the primary concepts of systemic theory, such as
context, metafunctions, the grammar of experience and its representations in the
transitivity system. The transitivity system consists of six processes, one of which is,
according to functional linguists, verbal process. This is the first focus of the study.


12

The second focus of the study is to take a deep look on verbal process in English

and explore its usage and efficiency in persuading listeners.
4.

Method of the Study
This study is primarily concerned with analyzing verbal processes in a particular

text. In order to fulfill this aim, it uses two main methods: (i) the quantitative, which is
concerned with the description of verbal process in English, and (ii) the qualitative, which
is concerned with the realization of the process in victory speeches. Special attention will
also be paid to those which are not only formally but also semantically similar. Through
the analysis, the writer hopes to find anything different in the way the U.S. President made
speeches and how he could win the election to become the very first colored man to hold
the power.
5

Data Collection
Data for the research will be selected from different sources. All the examples for

investigation can be both in spoken and written style.
Data for analyzing verbal processes will be collected in some victory speeches of
the new U.S president Barrack Obama. Since the study is concerned with the aspect of
grammar which confines to clauses and clause complexes, examples of the whole text
seem not to be necessary.
6. Design of the Study
This study is organized around four chapters:
The first chapter – The Introduction – presents the rationale of the study, the aims
of the study, scopes of the study, methods of the study, data collection and the research
design.
Chapter two – Theoretical Background- is concerned with the theoretical
orientations of the study, systemic-functional theory, the notions of language and context,

the metafunctions of the language, the grammar of experience: transitivity, and the
different process types in the transitivity system.
Chapter three – The Study – focuses on the application of this process in a real life
text.
Chapter four – The Conclusion – provides the major findings of the thesis and
offers some implications of the study and some suggestions for further study.


13


14

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDS
This chapter will provide theoretical orientations for the study. It attempts to explore
the notions of the language and context, the functions of language, the different types of
the process, and the different types of circumstances available in a language which are
expresses in the system of transitivity.
1. Functional Grammar
Functional Grammar (FG) is a general theory of the organization of natural
language as ever developed by Simon C. Dik, M.A.K. Halliday and others. In the theory
functional notions play essential and fundamental roles at different levels of grammatical
organization. The theory is based on data and descriptions of many languages, and
therefore has a high degree of typological adequacy. FG offers a platform for both
theoretical linguists interested in representation and formalism and descriptive linguists
interested in data and analysis.
Halliday developed a theory of the fundamental functions of language, in which he
analyzed lexicogrammar into three broad metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and
textual. Each of the three metafunctions is about a different aspect of the world, and is
concerned with a different mode of meaning of clauses. The ideational metafunction is

about the natural world in the broadest sense, including our own consciousness, and is
concerned with clauses as representations. The interpersonal metafunction is about the
social world, especially the relationship between speaker and hearer, and is concerned with
clauses as exchanges. The textual metafunction is about the verbal world, especially the
flow of information in a text, and is concerned with clauses as messages.
In each metafunction an analysis of a clause gives a different kind of structure
composed from a different set of elements. In the ideational metafunction, a clause is
analyzed into Process, Participants and Circumstances, with different participant types for
different process types (as in Case Grammar). In the interpersonal metafunction, a clause is
analyzed into Mood and Residue, with the mood element further analyzed into Subject and
Finite. In the textual metafunction, a clause is analyzed into Theme and Rheme.
Systemic functional linguistics is one of several functional theories in the current
disciplines of linguistics which conceives of text as social interaction. It is thus suited not
only for increasing the interpreter‘s understanding of the language of texts to be


15

interpreted, but also for relating those texts to theirs context. Systemic functional linguists
view language as systems of meaning potential in human interaction that are realized by
various structures. The organizing concept is not a structure described by rules, but as
communicative behavior, as meaning making in a context of a culture, the behavior matrix
within which all social interactions take place. The choice to engage in a culturally
recognized social process is made at the level of genre plane . Martin (1992: 505) defines
genre as ‗a staged, goal-oriented social process‘
In addition to context of culture ( the general context that gives meaning to
culturally recognized activities), a text is produced in the specific context of situation (the
instantial situation). Choices made on the level of genre are realized by the configurations
of context-of-situation variables. In systemic theory, these variables are used to talk about
the aspects of the immediate context that are embedded in a text. These variables, or

aspects of the context of situation embedded in a text, are referred to in systemic functional
linguistics as the register plane. According to Halliday (1978), a register is a functional
variety of language. It is characterized by three functional variables field, tenor, and mode,
each of which can be specialized as follows:
+ Field of discourse: what is going on in the context, or the kind of activity (as recognized
by the culture) in which language is playing in some parts. Eggins (1994: 52) defines field
of discourse as ―what the language is being used to talk about‖. This variable includes not
only the specific topic of discourse, but also the degree of technicality or speciality on the
one hand and everyday quality on the other.
+ Tenor of discourse: negotiation of social relationships among participants in social
action, or who is taking part in the exchange, and the interacting roles of those involved in
the exchange of which the text is part.
+ Mode of discourse: the role played by language in realizing social action, including the
channel (written, spoken, written to be read aloud, etc.) and the degree to which language
constructs what is going on in the context or merely accompanies it.
In systemic function linguistics, these three variables are deemed to be the only
aspects of the context of situation of a text that are linguistically relevant. It is clear that
they are relevant to the cultural context and therefore to the question of genre, insofar as a
genre might be describe in part as the limits a culture places on the field, tenor and mode of
a text that is used to accomplish a particular social goal. Systemic theory predicts that these


16

aspects of context – field, tenor and mode – will be embedded in the text by being realized
in the semantic and grammatical structures of the text.
2. Metafunctions
According to Halliday, the three metafunctions are ideational, sometimes, treated
as separate experiential and logical components, interpersonal, and textual. These
metafunctions illustrate the polysystemic nature of language; each metafunction can be

described independently of the others as a system of choices that relate to certain aspect of
context and are realized by certain structures. Halliday (1994) sets the following
correspondences as the working hypothesis: field-ideational; tenor-interpersonal; and
mode-textual. The structural (grammatical) realizations of the multiple system are
simultaneous; i.e., independent choices made in each of the metafunctions must be realized
in overlapping grammatical structures. In other words, a single clause can be analyzed in
terms of different structures which reflect the realizations of the various kinds of meaning
simultaneously in that clause.
Newcomers to functional grammar are sometimes confused by metafunctions
because they expect them to operate independently and discretely. This is a mistaken
expectation. As Bloor stated in his book (1995: 9) that in almost any instance of language
use, all three metafunctions operate simultaneously in the expression of meaning. This is
because certain aspects of the grammar realize the ideational function, the other aspects
realize the interpersonal function, and yet others realize the textual function.
2.1. Ideational Metafunction
The ideational component on the semantic plane consists of experiential
meanings and logical meanings. Experiential meanings at the grammatical rank of the
clause are those functions that reflect or represent processes, participants, and
circumstances. In Halliday‘s analysis of English (Halliday, 1994: 106-161), experiential
meanings are accounted for in clauses by the transitivity system. The transitivity system
includes choices of process type and the configuration of possible participants, process and
circumstances which are associated with a particular process type.
Logical meanings are realized by relationship of coordination (or parataxis) and
subordination ( or hypotaxis) between clauses and other structural units, often through the
use of conjunctions, relative pronouns, ellipsis and so on. The way of analyzing the clause


17

in terms of process, participants and circumstances produces constituency structures

whereas logical meanings are associated with interdependency structures.
2.2.

Interpersonal Metafunction

The second metafunction, the interpersonal component of the semantic level, has to
do with the exchange that takes place between speaker and listener or writer and reader.
The functions within this component include giving or demanding information, expressing
intention, assessing degree of probability, expressing attitude, and so on. These functions
have more to do with social interaction than with ―content‖. In Halliday‘s analysis of
English (1994), the interpersonal component is associated with mood, modality and person.
These functions are realized in various ways, from the use of vocatives and the use of first
and second person form of identification to the use of distinctions between imperative and
indicative moods and the use of modals and negatives.
Since interpersonal meanings have to do with interaction or exchange between
people, they are most conspicuous in conversation or dialogue and least conspicuous in
formal written for a general audience. Nevertheless, language is a social behavior, and by
its very nature text is exchanged. Language can be used to exchange information or
―goods-and-services‖. Information is generally exchanged verbally, whereas goods-andservices can conclude material objects or actions that are given or demanded in the
exchange in addition to verbal responses, and thus a positive response in goods-andservices exchange may be non-verbal.
The grammar of interpersonal meanings puts the focus on the clause as a unit of
exchange structured as Subject, Predicator, Complement and Adjuncts. When these
element are used in the exchange of goods and services, the resulting structure is a
proposal.
2.3.

Textual Metafunction

The textual component consists of the enabling or text-forming functions. These
include some aspects of the cohesion, information and theme, all of which give texture to a

text. Since they are enabling functions, textual meanings are not independent of ideational
and interpersonal meanings (as well as interpersonal and textual ones) will be shaped by
textual meanings, including information structure and theme. The system of theme is
realized through a structure in which the clause falls into just two main constituents: a
Theme and a Rheme. Theme is basically what comes first in the clause and it is what is


18

being talked about, it is the point of departure for the clause as a message. According to
Halliday (1994), in spite of the fact that they are often conflated, Theme and Rheme are not
the same as Given and News in information structure. Whereas information structure is
listener-oriented, thematic structure is speaker-oriented. The following example shows the
analysis of the textual perspective. The relationship of these three functions, which are in
the discourse-semantic stratum is called ‗metafunction resonance‘ by Halliday (1994) (for
more detail, see Hasan, 1993; Hoàng Văn Vân, 2002).
In his book (1994:34), Halliday summarizes what we have discussed the three
different ways of looking at the clause as follows:
+ The Actor functions in the structure of the clause as a representation. A clause has
meaning as a representation, a construal 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.
+ The Subject functions in the structure of the clause as an exchange, a transaction between
speaker and listener; the subject is the warranty of the exchange. It is the element the
speaker makers responsible for the validity of what he is saying.
+ 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.
3. The Grammar of Experiential Meaning: Transitivity
In the previous sections, the three ways in which human beings use language have

been carefully touched upon. Since the study focuses on the clause as representation, in
this section, I shall be more concerned with the clause in its experiential function, its guise
as a way of representing patterns of experience. The clause, here again, plays a central role,
because it embodies a general principal for modeling experience.
3.1.

Process, Participant and Circumstance
Language is used to talk about the world, either the external world, things, events,

qualities, etc. or our internal world, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, etc. Our language builds up
pictures of reality, consisting of goings-on (verbs), involving things (nouns), which may
have attributes (adjectives) and which go on against background details of place, time,
manner, etc.(adverbials). These categories form the landscape of our human experience
and occur together in clauses with the essential element of the clause being the expression


19

of event, or process. According to Halliday (1994), a process consists of three
components: the process itself, participants in the process, and the circumstances
associated with the process. These provide the frame of reference for interpreting our
experience of what goes on. The table below gives an illustration of some typical functions
of groups and phrases classes.

TYPICAL FUNCTIONS OF GROUPS AND PHRASE CLASSES

Types of element

Typically realized by

The process

Verbal group

The participant

Nominal group

The circumstances

Abverbial group or prepositional phrase

The following example provides the analysis of a process in a clause:
The lion

chased

the tourist

lazily

through

the

bush
Participant

process

participant

circumstance

circumstance

Nominal group

verbal group

nominal group

adverbial group

prepositional
phrase

It can be obviously seen from the table and the example that the most typical way to
realize the Process is by the verbs. However, in some cases, the Process can also be
encoded by another constituent apart from the verbal group. This is the case of phrasal
verbs:
-

What are you looking for?

-

My mother is taking care of my boy while I am away from home.

-

I cannot give up smoking.

The clause concludes at least one Participant, which is normally realized by nominal
group although sometimes the participant is not explicitly mentioned in the clause but
understood as part of the experiential meaning. The most popular examples are in the
imperative clauses as follows:


20

-

Go away!

-

Run!

Circumstances are typical realized by adverbial groups or preposition phrase. For example:
-

Yesterday, Joe went to the cinema.

-

They hurriedly rushed out of the house.

Different from the Process and the Participant, whose presence in the clause is
obligatory, the Circumstances are often optional in the clause. However, in some cases it

may be more or less obligatory to include a circumstance in the clause:
-

The second great discovery took place at about the same time.

-

She put the lamp down on the floor.

Although the concepts of process, participant, and circumstance are semantic
categories which explain in the most general way how phenomena of the real world are,
they are not used to interpret the grammar of the clause because they are too general to
explain very much. The Process/ Participant/ Circumstance model is only a start. We shall
need to recognize functions which are more specific than these and which may differ
according to the type of process being presented. In the following section, the different
types of process that are built into the grammar of English, and the particular kinds of
participant role that are systemically associated with each are explored.
3.2.

Process Types
According to Halliday (1994), the transitivity system of English, six processes types

are recognized as material, mental, verbal, behavioural, relational, and existential. The
table below illustrates this relation clearly:
System of Transitivity (process type)


Doing
a. Material (encode experience in the real, material world).
b. Behavioral (encode physiological or psychological behavior)



Projecting
a. Mental (encode experiences in the inner world of consciousness).
b. Verbal (encode experiences of bringing the inner world outside by speaking)



Being
a. Existential (set up the existence of a sole participant)
b. Relational (encodes relations of being and having between two participants)


21

In the subsections that follow, five are presented. As verbal process is the main focus of the
thesis, it will be treated in a separate chapter.

3.2.1. Material Process
According to Thomas Bloor and Meriel Bloor (The Functional Analysis of
English): Material process are the process of doing and happening and about action. The
basic meaning of material process is that some entity does something or undertakes some
actions. A clause which reflects a material process can be read as the answer to a question,
‗what did x do?‘ where ‗do‘ is a (usually) concrete, tangible action. Material processes
have an obligatory participant, the Actor, which is the doer of the action. A second
participant, the goal of the action, is the participant in some material processes to which the
doing is done. Traditionally, the term transitive is used for verbs which required a goal

22

(whether it is made explicit in the clause or not), and intransitive is used for verbs which do
not take a goal participant. The following example provides an analysis of a clause which
reflects the material process:
She

carried

the bag

into the house

Actor

Process: material

Goal

Circumstance

They

were playing

tennis/ a game

Actor

Process: material

Range/ Range

Two other related participants are Range and Beneficiary. Range often looks like a
Goal, but differs in that it restates or extends the process itself. Range is often a cognate
accusative. Beneficiary is semantically what is traditionally called indirect object. Let us
look at the following examples:
+ Material processes with Beneficiary:
In Switzerland

They

gave

a cognac

to you

Actor

Pr: material

Goal

Recipient

+ Material Processes with Range
They

sang

a song

Actor

Process: material

Range

3.2.2 Mental Processes
While ‗material‘ clauses are concerned with our experience of the material world,
‗mental‘ clauses are concerned with our experience of the world of our own consciousness.
It may be constructed either as flowing from a person‘s consciousness or as impinging on
it; but not as a material act. Or in other words, metal processes encode meanings of
thinking or feeling.
We can recognize that these are different from material processes because it no
longer makes sense to ask ―What did x do to y?‖


23

e.g.: What did you do to the injections? I hated it.
Or

what don‘t I do to her behavior? I don‘t understand it.

With these clauses, it makes more sense to ask: ―What do you think / feel / know about x?‖
e.g.: What do you think about injections? I hate them.
Or What do you think about her letter? I don‘t understand it.
Mental processes can be divided into 3 classes.

- Cognition: verbs of thinking, knowing, understanding
e.g.: I don‘t know her name.
- Affection: verbs of liking, fearing, etc.
e.g.: I hate injections
- Perception: verbs of seeing, hearing.
e.g.: Simon heard it on the news.
3.2.3. Behavioral Process
Behavioral process is recognized at the boundary between material and mental
process. It is the process of (typically human) physiological and psychological behavior,
like breathing, coughing, smiling , dreaming and staring.
Among six processes types, behavioral processes are the least distinct because they
have no clearly defined characteristics of their own.
+ Behavioural processes with a conscious
Betty

cried

bitter tears

Behaver

Process: behavioural

Behaviour

+ Behaver with personification
The volcano

slept

Behaver

Process: behavioural (personification)

The processes discussed up to this point – material, mental, behavioral – have in
some sense all been processes of action. The remaining types are processes of being rather
than action. Existential processes, which will be discussed below, are those in which
something is simply stated to exist. Relational processes, discussed immediately below, are
those in which something is stated to exist in relation to something else.


24

3.2.4. Relational Processes
It‘s third major type of process. ―Relational‖ clauses serve to characterize and to
identify.
The process is realized by the verb be in the simple present or past and they appear
to have two inherent participants.
e.g. Every fourth African is a Nigerian.
The second participant may be a ―non-specific‖ (―indefinite‖) nominal group or it
may be a prepositional phrase.
―Relational‖ clauses have a distinct grammar of their own. They model this
experience as ―being‖ rather than as ―doing‖ or ―sensing‖.
Relational processes are a rich and varied process type in which a relationship is
established between two terms. This relationship can be one of two sub-types, attributive
or identifying. In the former sub-type, an attribute is assigned to a carrier, specifying a
quality, classification, or description of the carrier. In the latter, the emphasis is not
describing or classifying, but defining. The participants in identifying processes are called
Token and Value. In addition to the distinction between attributive and identifying subtypes, relational processes, whether attributive or identifying, can also be differentiated
into intensive, circumstantial, and possessive relational processes.

3.2.5. Existential Process
Existential processes, in contrast to relational processes, have only one participant
(not counting circumstantial elements), namely the Existent, or that participant which is
said to exist. Existential process clauses can be frequently be translated by English
existential process dummy subject ‗there‘.
3.2.6. The Circumstance
In addition to the participants, all the processes in the transitivity system may also
be accompanied by circumstantial elements, typically realized by adverbial groups
prepositional phrases and even by nominal groups. Figure 2.3 represents the range of
choices available to the speaker or writer once the choices has been made to include a
circumstantial element.
The Circumstances are identified by considering what the questions are used to
explicit them. Following are the questions that are helpful in identifying circumstances


25

together with an example of each of the nine terms of the system: Extent HOW LONG?
(duration); HOW FAR? (spatial distance),
To sum up, this chapter has mentioned some fundamental and theoretical
concepts relevant to the purposes of the study. In the chapter, the relationship between
grammar and context based on Halliday‘s model has been represented. Language can be
functionally described in terms of three metafunctions: (i) the ideational with which
language is used to represent our experience of the world, (ii) the interpersonal expressing
the meaning in which language is used to create and maintain different kinds of roles and
relationships, and (iii) the textual with which language is explored to create coherent and
cohesive texts, both spoken and written.
The chapter has also concentrated on giving an overview of the grammar of
experience: the transitivity. Every clause can be seen in the experiential function to be
made up of combinations of Participant(s) and Circumstance(s) revolving around the

obligatory process. The types of the processes in the transitivity system are also discussed
in the following chapter.
Summary of process types

Process type

Category meaning

Participants

Participants
obliquely involved

material:
action
event

‗doing‘

Actor, Goal

Recipient,
scope,

doing‘

client,
initiator,

attribute

‗‗happening‘

Behavioural

‗ behaving‘

Behaver

mental:

‗sensing‘

Senser, Phenomenon

perception

‗seeing‘

cognition

‗thinking‘

desideration

‗wanting‘

emotion

Behaviour

‗feeling‘

verbal

‗saying‘

Sayer, Target

Receiver, Verbiage

relational:

‗being‘

Carrier, Attribute

Attributor,


26

attribution

‗attributing‘

Identified, Identifier;

Beneficiary

identification

‗identifying‘

Token, Value

Assigner

‗existing‘

existential

4.

Existent

Verbal process in English
In this part, based on Halliday‘s systemic functional grammar (Halliday, 1994), an

attempt is made to look at verbal processes in English. It focuses on examining (i) the
structure of the process and (ii) the different components of the process.
4.1.

Structure of a Verbal Process
As mentioned in the preceding chapter, besides the three major processes which

are labeled as material, mental, and relational, there are three other types which can be
distinguished on the basis of the usual combination of semantic and grammatical criteria.
The most important of them is the verbal process which is located on the boundary of
mental and relational process. Let us consider the following examples:

-

They said that you were a fool.

-

She asked, ―Where are you going?‖

-

Isabella told the secret to her best friend.

-

Marcus Antonius praised Julius Caesar.

It is obviously seen from the above examples, although speaking is certainly a
kind of action, the verbs say, ask, tell, praise do not construe the material process. They do
not describe the world of psychological and behavior. On the other hand, they have some
features of mental process, especially if we assume that verbalization of thoughts is a kind
of inner speech. These verbs can be cases made for postulating a process named verbal
process. As a results, a verbal process can be defined as a process of saying. The typical
participants in the process are the Sayer, the Receiver, the Target, and the Verbiage.
A typical verbal process can be structured as follows:
Sayer + Process: verbal + (-) Target + (-) Receiver + (-) Verbiage
It must be noticed that unlike the mental process, the verbal processes do not require
conscious participants. The Sayer can be anything which puts out the signal, like the notice
or my watch in the following examples:
-

My watch says it‘s half past ten.


27

-

The notice tells you to keep quiet.

For this reason, verbal processes can be called ‗symbolic‘ processes.
4.2. Components of the Verbal Process
As mentioned in the above section, a verbal process clause can have maximally
four potential participants: the Sayer, the Receiver, the Target, and the Verbiage. Before
discussing the details of each participant, it would be helpful to look at the process first.
4.2.1.

The Process
Again, the verbal process can be defined as the process of saying. The

typical verb used to encode the process is say, but there are many others, probably the most
important of which are ask and tell:
-

‗Hold on a moment‘, said she.

-

I asked her if she had heard him.

-

He told me to go to bed early.

In fact, there are a large number of verbs that can be exploited to realize the
process, each carrying some extra element of meaning. Sometimes this meaning can relate
to the speech act realized: just as we can ask to indicate a question or tell to indicate a
command, so we can use such verbs as urge, explain, remind, challenge, beg, promise,
congratulate, grumble, agree, report to convey other subtleties of what speech act theorists
call illocutionary force:
-

She begged him not to drive so fast

-

It promised to come to class

Another kind of meaning that can be conveyed by the choice of lexical verb is a
meaning connected with the nature of the actual delivery of speech: such things as tone,
quality of voice, and volume of voice. The verbs used to encode this meaning are sneer,
mutter, lisp, growl, snarl, bark, bawl, babble on, and gasp… For example:
-

‗Fifty of us to stand off that crummy force!‘ she sneered.

-

…muttering nervously: ‗Hurry up, boys…‘

Another way of adding such extra information is by an Adjunct, as in the example

muttering nervously, where the writer conveys more than a plain use of saying could
achieve not only by choosing a non-neutral, muttering, but also by adding a Circumstantial
Adjunct nervously.
4.2.2. The Sayer


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The Sayer is the one who does the verbalization. Unlike the Senser in the
mental process, the Sayer does not have to be a conscious participant but anything that can
put out a signal. In other words, the Sayer can be human or non-human like our report or
the notice in the following examples:
-

Our report says a man was seen running from the house soon after the
shooting.

-

The notice forbids the children to use the lift alone.

The Sayer needs not to be explicitly mentioned in the cause, especially in the
passive voice:
-

I was reproached for not noticing anything.

The absence of the Sayer can also be found in the quoted verbal clause of
imperative mood:
-

He said, ‗Talk to me, please!‘

However, we can always in principle ask for the identification of the Sayer
(‗who reproached you?‘), indicating that role is inherently present in the meaning.
4.2.3. The Receiver
- Another participant that involves in the verbal and is also typical human is the Receiver.
This is the participant to whom the saying is addressed. With some verbs, the Receiver is
nearly always mentioned as in the following examples:
So

I

asked

him

a question.

Sayer

Pr: verbal

Receiver

Verbiage

- The Receiver is also the one to whom the verbal process is directed, the beneficiary of
verbal message. Besides, the Receiver may be subject in a clause which is passive:
+ We weren‘t told the truth

4.2.4. The Verbiage:
- The Verbiage is a nominalized statement of the verbal process: a noun expressing some
kind of verbal behavior (e.g.: statement, questions, answer, story)
So

I

asked

him

a question.

Sayer

Pr: verbal

Receiver

Verbiage