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Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary

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Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar

Noriko Iwamoto

M.A.K.Halliday 
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Key words : functional grammar ; transitivity ; stylistics ; narrative ;

gender

+. Introduction
This article explores the relationship between linguistic structures
and socially constructed meaning in a narrative text. By
employing Halliday’s transitivity framework, the article attempts
῍ῌ

to reveal the ideology and power relations that underpin a

literary text from a semantico-grammatical point of view. This
study seeks common ground where systemic grammar and
narrative, which have long been considered separate disciplines,
can meet.

+. + Narrative as a linguistically constructed world

We humans beings often put our experiences and thoughts into
stories. Narrative refers to storytelling, both written and spoken,
including oral narrative. A narrative constructs a world using
various linguistic resources. A narrative is a microcosm of how
people act, feel, and think, and what they value as an individual
or as a member of a community or institution. There are various
methods for, and theories of, narrative analysis and its
presentation. One of the most widely adopted is that of Labov and
Waletsky ῌ+301῍, who presented structural stages for narrative
analysis that have been widely accepted. The stages are : +.
Abstract, ,. Orientation, -. Complicating Action, .. Evaluation, /.
Results / Resolution, /. Coda ῌLabov and Waletsky +301῍. ,῍ It is
important to note the ways in which the structural stages of a
narrative can be ordered, controlled, and even manipulated in
order to encode ideological assumptions, and also to get across
some ideas. This is especially true of the evaluation stage ῌwhich
is a sort of representation῍ of narrative, where many linguistic
devices can be used. In this way, “the ability to narrate has to be
seen as a creative artifact and therefore not necessarily a
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

representation…of actual events” ῌDavies ,**/ : 33῍.

Critical discourse analysis ῌCDA῍, a politicized school of
discourse analysis, attempts to uncover the underlying ideology
or worldview of the text under consideration. For example,
Fairclough ῌ+323, +33/῍, Fowler ῌ+311, +320῍, and Fowler, Hodge,
Kress, and Trew ῌ+313῍ adopt various linguistic analyses,
including transitivity and modality, to uncover ideas and
evaluation in newspapers, advertisements, narratives, and other
texts and to reveal that they are not objective retellings of what
actually happened or occurring events, but socially and
ideologically situated retellings. By extension, Bell ῌ,***῍ makes
significant points about the ways that institutional structure
influences discourse type. As such, narrative research should be
interdisciplinary, blurring and crossing boundaries of linguistic
and social studies and literary pursuit.

One of the regrettable points about the critical discourse analysis

tradition is that they seem to have given the impression that their
approach has been focused on foregrounding examples of
linguistic and stylistic deviance. An important point this article
hopes to make is that linguistic, stylistic, or interdisciplinary
analysis of a text should not always be oriented towards
uncovering examples of deviant linguistic patterns ; it can be used
beneficially for clarifying characteristics and meanings in any
text ῎ whether conventional or nonconventional features ῎
including literary and nonliterary ones.
῍ῌ

+. ,. Pioneering linguistic and stylistic analyses of literary texts

This section introduces some of the previous literature that
illustrates how power relations and conventional or
nonconventional attitudes towards life are reflected in language
patterns.
As a groundbreaking example of nonstandard usage of
language expressing a worldview, Halliday’s article ῌ+31+῍
“Linguistic function and literary style: An inquiry into the
language of William Golding’s The Inheritors” is an influential one.
In this work Halliday discusses the patterns of transitivity,
including what processes, participants, and circumstances ῌthese
terms are explained in section ,. +.῍ occur in the clause or
sentence. He proceeds to illustrate how they are used by Golding
to imply “cognitive limitation,” a decreased sense of causation and
an incomplete recognition of how human beings can control the
world, as experienced by the main character, Lok, a Neanderthal
man whose world is being taken control of by the people of a
more “advanced” world. Also, there is Kennedy’s ῌ+32,῍ analysis
of a scene from Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent. Kennedy
analyzes the verbs used, examining why the sequential murder
scene in the story stylistically gives the impression of distance
and detachment, as if the murderer were not responsible for what
she was doing. In the same article Kennedy also analyzes Joyce’s
“Two Gallants” from the collection Dubliners, clarifying the power
relationship between the two men using some elements of
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

systemic functional grammar. There is Burton’s ῌ+32,῍ feminist

stylistic analysis of a sequence from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.
Burton reveals an unequal power relationship between the
medical staff ῌthe doctor and a nurse῍ and a female patient, and
thus demonstrates that the helpless patient could not influence
anything in regard to communication and other things going on
in the hospital, while the doctor and the nurse actively influenced
what was happening. Similar to this is Kies’s ῌ+33,῍ “The uses of
passivity: Suppressing agency in Nineteen eighty-four,” which
analyzes the main linguistic features of George Orwell’s
masterpiece. Kies’s analysis reveals how the actions and thoughts
of a man in a totalitarian state are rendered passive and helpless
by the power of the state. Robson and Stockwell ῌ,**/῍ introduce
lexical and discoursal patterns and other linguistic devices
employed in writings for women, including cooking recipes.

,. Transitivity theory
Halliday’s transitivity theory provides a useful linguistic
framework for uncovering the main linguistic features of a
certain literary discourse. The analysis of transitivity and its
application to literary discourse in this article basically follows
Halliday’s theoretical framework. This section introduces the
theory, and section . has to do with the application of transitivity
to its use in literary discourse.
 ῌῌ

,. +. Transitivity as an ideational function of language-῍

In Halliday’s terms, transitivity is a part of the ideational function
of the clause. .῍ The ideational function of the clause is concerned
with the “transmission of ideas.” Its function is that of
“representing ‘processes’ or ‘experiences’: actions, events, processes
of consciousness and relations” ῌ+32/ : /-῍. The term “process” is
used in an…extended sense, “to cover all phenomena…and
anything that can be expressed by a verb : event, whether
physical or not, state, or relation” ῌHalliday +310 : +/3῍. Halliday
further notes that the “processes” expressed through language are
the product of our conception of the world or point of view. He
notes :

Our most powerful conception of reality is that it consists

of “goings-on” : of doing, happening, feeling, being. These
goings-on are sorted out in the semantic system of the
language, and expressed through the grammar of the
clause… ῌT῍ he clause evolved simultaneously in another
grammatical function expressing the reflective, experiential
aspect of meaning. This…is the system of TRANSITIVITY.
Transitivity specifies the different types of process that are
recognized in the language, and the structures by which
they are expressed ῌHalliday +32/ : +*+῍.

The semantic processes expressed by clauses have potentially

three components, as follows :
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῌ῍

ῌ+῍ the process itself, which will be expressed by the verb

phrase in a clause.
ῌ,῍ the participants in the clause, which refer to the roles
of entities that are 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 ῌHalliday +310 : +0*῍. The participant entities
are normally realized by noun phrases in the clause.
ῌ-῍ the circumstances associated with the process, which
are typically expressed by adverbial and prepositional
phrases. ῌHalliday +32/ : +*+ῌ+*,῍

Transitivity is an important semantic concept in the analysis of

representation of reality, in that transitivity enables us to analyze
and represent the same event and situation in different ways. The
transitivity patterns can also indicate the certain mind-set or
worldview “framed by the authorial ideology” ῌFowler +320 : +-2῍
in literary texts.

,. ,. The relevance of the transitivity framework to the analysis

of literary discourse
Transitivity has been a popular part of the analytic tool in the
school of critical discourse analysis. The transitivity model
ῌ῍

provides a means of discovering how certain linguistic structures

of a text encode the particular worldview or ideological stance of
a reader/speaker. As Fowler notes :

Linguistic codes do not reflect reality neutrally; they

interpret, organize, and classify the subjects of discourse.
They embody theories of how the world is arranged:
world-views or ideologies ῌ+320 : ,1῍.

Thus, selection from the transitivity system can suggest different

mind-sets or worldviews, including a traditional or an unusual
mind-set reflected in language.

The first principle of a transitivity analysis is to uncover the

principle “who or what does what to whom or what?” Put simply,
transitivity refers to the relationship between the action of an
Actor and its effect upon the Goal ῌthe terms Actor and Goal are
explained in section ,. -. +. +῍./῍ However, unlike traditional
grammar, and following Halliday’s tradition, the term transitivity
is used here more as a semantic concept than simply as a
syntactic description. In traditional grammar, transitivity is
purely a syntactic description; it is based on whether a verb takes
an Object or not. The former is called a transitive verb while the
latter is an intransitive verb. 0῍ Nevertheless, in any analysis of
transitivity based on the semantic description rather than a
purely syntactic one, as Halliday notes, one of the important
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῌ῍

questions is whether there is an implication of an animate

individual ῌActor/Agent῍ intentionally doing the action to
another entity ῌGoal῍.

Transitivity patterns are also subject to social and cultural factors

as well as any individual mind-set. Different social structures and
value systems require different patterns of transitivity. In order to
get a picture of what is happening from the viewpoint of one’s
subjective reality involved in the story, the following process is
helpful.

ῌ+῍ Isolate the process per se, and determine which

participant ῌwho or what῍ is doing each process ;
ῌ,῍ Determine what sorts of process they are, and which
participant is engaged in which type of process ;
ῌ-῍ Determine who or what is affected or seems to be
affected by each of these processes.
ῌcf. Burton +32, : ,*,῍

I shall now systematize the transitivity model to make it relevant

to my analysis. I first introduce major process types and their
subclassifications, then the participant roles that are directly
involved in the processes.
῍ῌ

,. -. Transitivity model
,. -. +. Types of processes
Transitivity processes can be classified into material, relational,
mental, verbal, behavioral, and existential processes, according to
whether they represent processes of doing, being, sensing, saying,
behaving, or existing, respectively. The following sections account
for these major processes realized in the transitivity system, and
the participant roles that are involved in the processes.

,. -. +. +. Material processes
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 ῌwhether 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, 1῍
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.

The following examples illustrate these constructions :

Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

ῌ+῍ John kicked the ball.

Actor Process : material Goal

ῌ,῍ John hit the man very hard.

Actor Process : material Goal Circumstance : Manner

ῌ-῍ The boat sailed in the bay.

Actor Process : material Circumstance : Place

Of course, it is possible to reverse ActorῌGoal in a passive form,

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

ῌ,῍ῌ The man was hit by John.

Goal Process : material Actor

Material processes can be further subclassified according to

whether the process is performed intentionally or spontaneously
and whether by an animate Actor or inanimate Actor ῌfor details
see, for example, Berry +311a, Halliday +310῍.2῍

Ergative analysis
The standard analysis of transitivity may well be expanded to
involve the supplementary analysis of ergative analysis. Halliday
holds that “all transitivity systems, in all languages, are some
῍ῌ

blend of these two semantic models of processes, the transitive

and ergative” ῌ+33. : +01῍. In the same way, Davidse ῌ+33, : +*1῍
says that the grammar of material processes is “Janus-headed,”
that is, it is regulated by the two distinct systems of transitivity
and ergativity.
In the transitivity model, the central participant roles are Actor
and Goal, and the interest is on whether or not the process is
directed by the Actor towards a Goal, as in “John kicked the ball.”
According to this, in the transitivity model, “the window” in the
sentence “The window broke” is labeled as an Actor although
semantically it is an affected participant or an enforced actor,
which may be a little problematic labeling. Ergative interpretation
provides a solution on this point.
While the transitivity system realizes a process and extension
model ῌHalliday +33. : +0,ῌ-῍ and is Actor-centered, the ergative
system is Goal-centered ῌcf. Davidse +33, : ++-, ++/ ; Fawcett +32* :
+.*῍. Goal is called Medium in ergative analysis. The central
participant roles of the ergative system are Medium and Agent or
Causer. A Medium is “the entity through which the process comes
into existence,” as its name suggests ῌHalliday +33.: +0-῍. Halliday
defines the concept of Medium in the following terms :

… ῌT῍ he Medium is the nodal participant throughout the

system. It is not the doer, nor the causer, but the one that is
critically involved, in some way or other according to the
particular nature of the process. ῌHalliday +33. : +0/῍
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

The Process and the Medium together form the nucleus of

an English clause. ῌHalliday +33. : +0.῍

Davidse ῌ+33, : +-,῍ slightly expands the definition of Medium to

“the generalized single participant which has neither true agency
nor real affectedness associated with it.” As such, Medium is
equivalent to the Actor in an intransitive ῌi. e., non-Goal-directed῍
sentence and the Goal in a transitive sentence. The Agent is
equivalent to the Actor in Goal-directed material processes.
Ergative analysis is a beneficial supplement, providing an extra
stratum or rank to the standard interpretation of transitivity
analysis that will be adequate for most purposes. The following is
a double analysis of example sentences to illustrate how the
ῌstandard῍ transitive and the ergative interpretations interrelate
with each other.

ῌ.῍ The recruits marched.

Transitive analysis : Actor Process : material
Ergative analysis : Medium Process : material

“The recruits marched” because they were made to do so by the

general, thus “the recruits” will be an enforced Actor or Medium
but not an Agent. In transitive analysis another participant
function, Initiator must be introduced to account for the
executive role. Thus, the participant roles of each analysis will be
as follows.
῍ῌ

ῌ/῍ The general marched the recruits.

Transitive analysis : Initiator Process : material Actor
Ergative analysis : Agent Process : material Medium

Here is another example, “I broke the window,” and “The window

broke,” which is analyzed as follows in each interpretation.

ῌ0῍ I broke the window.

Standard analysis : Actor Process : material Goal
Ergative analysis : Agent Process : material Medium

ῌ1῍ The window broke.

Standard analysis : Actor Process : material
Ergative analysis : Medium Process : material

,. -. +. ,. Relational processes : from Action to Being

Relational processes are concerned with the process of being in
the world of abstract relations. Normally, an abstract relationship
that exists between two participants associated with the process
is considered, but unlike the case of material process, a participant
does not affect the other participant in a physical sense. Examples
are “John is talented,” and “John is the leader.”

The types of relational process are quite complex and

controversial ῌfor example, see Eggins +33. : ,//῍. For the present
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

analysis, it is sufficient to identify the following two principal

process types : the attributive mode in intensive processes and the
identifying mode in intensive processes. Intensive, being one of
the three main relational types ῌi. e., Intensive, Circumstantial,
and Possessive῍, expresses an “x is y” relationship, while
Circumstantial denotes an “x is at y” relationship, and Possessive,
an “x has y” relationship. Each of the three types can appear in
two distinct modes :

Attributive : “y is an attribute of x”
Identifying : “y is the identity of x”

Since only the attributive mode and the identifying mode in

intensive processes are of particular relevance to the present
study, a detailed explanation of the other types ῌCircumstantial
and Possessive῍ is unnecessary here.

,. -. +. ,. +. Intensive attributive processes

The intensive attributive process basically suggests the
relationship of “x carries the attribute y,” where a quality,
classification, or adjective ῌAttribute῍ is assigned to a
participant ῌCarrier῍. The relationship between the Attribute and
the Carrier is commonly expressed by the verb be. The Carrier is
always realized by a noun or a nominal phrase, and the Attribute
by an adjective or a nominal phrase, for example :
῍ῌ

ῌ2῍ John is talented.

Carrier Process : relational Attribute

ῌ3῍ John is a talented boy.

Carrier Process : relational Attribute

Although the most typical intensive verb is be in English, various

intensive attributive synonyms are possible, as the following
examples illustrate :

She kept quiet. They seemed terrified.

He looked puzzled. He became ill.
She turned angry. It seemed perfect.

The copular verbs in parenthetic phrases can be omitted, such as

in the text shown in section -ῌ., “Claire, ῌbeing῍ pale from
England…” One of the important characteristics of the intensive
attributive process is that it cannot be passivized; the Subject
commonly coincides with the Carrier, and rarely with the
Attribute. The reason why an attributive clause is not reversible
in this way is that the intensive attributive mode virtually
involves “only one independent nominal participant, the Carrier,
with the Attribute functioning to encode the ascription assigned
to the Carrier” ῌfor more, see Eggins +33. : ,/1῍. For example, it is
impossible to reverse the following intensive attributive sentence,
“She became sad,” to make ῌ“Sad was become by her.” However,
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῌῌ

there seem to be some exceptions, particularly when the relational

process is analyzed in combination with the material process ῌsee
Fawcett +321 regarding the double roles of Agent-Carrier῍.

,. -. +. ,. ,. Intensive identifying processes

The intensive identifying process in relational processes differs
from the intensive attributive process in both semantic and
grammatical senses. In a semantic sense, an identifying process is
not concerned with “ascribing or classifying, but defining.” So the
intensive identifying process can be characterized as “x serves to
define the identity of y” ῌEggins +33. : ,/2῍, as in “John is the
president.”

In a grammatical sense, unlike the attributive process, which

includes only one independent participant ῌCarrier῍, the
identifying process contains two independent participants: a
Token that is a holder, form, or occupant that stands to be
defined, and a Value that defines the Token by giving the Token
“meaning, referent, function, status, or role” ῌHalliday +32/ : ++/῍.
Both the Token and the Value are expressed by nominal phrases.
The identifying process is reversible, because the identifying
process involves two independent nominal participants, unlike the
attributive process, which contains only one autonomous
participant ῌthe Carrier῍. For example :
ῌ῍

ῌ+*῍ John is the president.ῌ

Token Process : relational Value

The president is John.

Value Process : relational Token

Normally, a semantic judgment will suggest which part of the

sentence is Token or Value. A useful test to distinguish these two
may be :

Token will always be Subject in an active clause

Value will always be Subject in a passive clause
ῌEggins +33. : ,0*῍

The commonest intensive identifying verb is be, but other

synonymous intensive verbs exist, such as stand for, make, mean,
or express.

,. -. +. -. Mental processes
Mental processes encode the meanings of feeling or thinking.
They differ from material processes, which express concrete,
physical processes of doing. Mental processes are “internalized”
processes, in contrast to the “externalized” processes of doing and
speaking ῌSimpson +33- : 3+῍. Unlike the case of material process,
it is odd to ask “What did X do to Y?” in mental process.
Grammatically, all mental processes involve two participants:
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῌ῍

Senser ῌthe conscious being who is involved in a mental process

by feeling, thinking, or perceiving῍ and Phenomenon ῌthat which
is felt, thought, or perceived by the conscious Senser῍ ῌEggins
+33.: ,.,ῌ-; Halliday +33.: ++1῍. Mental process verbs can be
subcategorized into three types: Cognition ῌverbs of thinking,
knowing, understanding῍, Affection ῌverbs of liking, loving,
fearing, hating῍, and Perception ῌverbs of seeing, hearing῍
ῌHalliday +33. : ++2῍. Examples of each type are as follows.

Cognition : ῌ++῍ I don’t understand his theory.

Senser Process : mental Phenomenon

Affection : ῌ+,῍ I fear the coming war.

Senser Process : mental Phenomenon

Perception : ῌ+-῍ I heard the music

Senser Process : mental Phenomenon

in the basement.
Circumstance : Place

The participant roles of Senser and Phenomenon are sometimes

inadequate; as previously mentioned, the presence of Actor/Agent
and Goal / Affected / Medium are “relevant across all three major
process-types, including mental processes” ῌFawcett +321 : +-+῍.
For example, “John” in “John saw the picture” and “John looked at
῍ῌ

the picture” exhibit different meanings ; while John in the former

may be purely a Senser ῌi. e., “the picture came into John’s
view”῍, “John” in the latter example occupies the double role of
Agent-Senser, in the sense that “John” consciously looked at the
picture. As a result, the presence of the double roles of
Agent-Senser ῌe. g., “II’m thinking about getting a new car”῍ and
Affected-Senser ῌe.g., “II was frightened by the ghost”῍ should be
recognized.

,. -. +. .. Verbal processes
A verbal process is the process of saying, and it exists on the
borderline between mental and relational processes. Just like
saying and meaning, the verbal process expresses the relationship
between ideas constructed in human consciousness and the ideas
enacted in the form of language ῌHalliday +33. : +*1῍. Examples of
verbal processes are “I said I am happy” and “The chairperson
calls for the meeting.” Note that “saying” is used in an extended
sense and the “speaker” need not be a conscious being ῌunlike a
Senser in mental process῍, hence a verbal process includes any
kind of exchange of meaning, such as “The booklet tells you how
to find a job” or “The clock says it is ten.” The participant who is
speaking is called Sayer, the addressee to whom the process is
directed is Target, and what is said is Verbiage, for example :

ῌ+.῍ The committee announced that the new bill will be passed.
Sayer Process : verbal Verbiage
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

ῌ+/῍ I told her how to play the piano.

Sayer Process : verbal Target Verbiage

The element “what is said” may be either directly quoted or

indirectly reported. Disregarding clause complexity, or rankshift,
as Halliday says ῌ+33.: +.*῍, I shall simplify the labeling as
follows, as this will suffice for our present analysis.

ῌ+0῍ He said “I’m tired.”

Sayer Process : verbal Verbiage

ῌ+1῍ He said he was tired.

Sayer Process : verbal Verbiage

,. -. +. /. Behavioral processes
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” ῌHalliday
+33. : +*1῍. 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.
῍ῌ

For example:

ῌ+2῍ John is crying.

Behaver Process : behavioral

Some other examples of behavioral processes are sit, dance, sing,

lie ῌdown῍ ῌnear material processes῍, think, watch, look, listen
ῌnear mental processes῍, talk, gossip, grumble, chatter ῌnear verbal
processes῍, smile, laugh, cry, frown ῌphysiological processes
expressing states of consciousness῍, sleep, breathe, cough, yawn
ῌother physiological processes῍ ῌHalliday +33. : +-3῍.

,. -. +. 0. Existential processes
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.

ῌ+3῍ There was a little house on the big prairie.

Process : existential Existent Circumstance : Place
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

Since no existential process example appears in the text

considered in this article, no further explanation is needed.

So far we have seen the patterns of ideational realization from a

semantico-grammatical perspective: i. e., the structural and
semantic relationship within a sentence. However, the structural
realization is not the only way of realizing ideation. Martin says
that ideational contents ῌi. e., those expressed by transitivity
patterns῍ can be “realized by lexical items rather than structures”
ῌMartin +33, : ,11ῌ2 ; also Berry +311b : 0, ; Fawcett +32* : +/-, ,+2῍.
In some cases “the ideational content is densely packed in
nominal construction” ῌHalliday +33.: -/,῍. For example, a
sentence “the viaducts were constructed of masonry and had
numerous arches in them” can be paraphrased nominally as
“masonry viaducts of numerous arches” ῌHalliday +33. : -/+ῌ,῍. It
will not be necessary to provide a complex, detailed analysis of
this here. Suffice it to say that ideational content is realized in
lexis as well as in grammatical relations.

In a simplest sense, there are two types of vocabulary : objective

and subjective, although their boundary is not always clear-cut.
Unlike those words that express an objective quality of a thing or
situation, such as red, yellow, striped, shiny, windy, there are words
that denote the speaker’s subjective attitude towards a thing or
situation, or those that may arouse a particular image in a reader/
 ῍ῌ

hearer. Examples are lovely, attractive, fantastic, successful,

valuable, meaningless. Halliday terms the latter type of vocabulary
Attitudinal Epithets, and they represent an “interpersonal
element” ῌsee footnote -῍, serving an “attitudinal function”
ῌHalliday +33. : +2.῍ in addition to the ideational function. These
terms may also be called emotive terms; there are both positive
and negative emotive terms. Most of them are adjectives, but
adverbs and nouns engender the same effects too ῌe.g., beautifully,
ruefully, superficially poverty, illness, success, inspiration, etc.῍.
They are associated with certain images such as those of
weakness and rough life or just the opposite, some of which are
exploited in the text to be analyzed in section ., to create a
certain impact and effect in narrative discourse.

Some elements in the transitivity resources discussed so far,

which include some process types and participant roles, are fully
employed in the description of main characters and to maintain
and enhance a certain flow of discourse, as we shall see in section
..

-. Carter’s analysis of literary text

Now let us turn to a text analysis presented by R. Carter. Before
conducting his analysis of actual text, he touches on a few
concerns regarding the function of language in text. He maintains
that, firstly, “language is not a neutral entity,” and he challenges
those who say that language is simply a neutral entity to convey
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

ideas. Like Halliday and other linguistic functionalists, he says

that “language always relates to specific texts and contexts and
usually to a context determined by social and sociocultural
factors.” Secondly, he points out that language use is not
independent “from the power of those who use it or control its
use or enforce its use on others” ῌCarter +331 : +,῍. These remarks
of his may sound extreme ῌnot unusual for critical discourse
analysts῍, but they have some truth in them. Acting on these
views on language, Carter analyzes a text extracted from a story
in a women’s magazine. He argues that it is interesting to note the
ways in which different patterns of language are related to the
two main characters.

It had been so different three years ago, the night she’d met
Stefan de Vaux. There’d been a party. Bella always threw a
party when she sold a picture because poverty, she
explained, was a great inspiration. She’d been wearing a
brilliant blue caftan, her fair hair twisted on top of her
head, the severity of it accenting her high cheekbones, the
little jade Buddha gleaming on its silver chain round her
neck.
Claire, pale from England and the illness that had allowed
her to come to Tangier to recuperate, had been passed from
guest to guest῎“Ah, you’re Bella’s cousin”῎like a plate of
canapés, she thought ruefully, attractive but unexciting.
Until Stefan de Vaux had taken her out onto the balcony
῍ῌ

and kissed her.

“Well?” he’d said softly, in his lightly accented voice,
letting her go at last, and she had just stood there, staring
at him, at his lean, outrageously handsome face, his
laughing mouth, amber brown eyes. “Angry? Pleased?
Shocked?” And she’d blushed furiously, feeling all three.
ῌMy Weekly, + March +321, cited in Carter +331 : +,῍

It can be said that the plot of this story in a way represents that
of the Cinderella story or is typical of the traditional success story
of a female character. The Cinderella story goes that a girl named
Cinderella was exploited and humiliated as a servant by her
stepmother and stepsisters in a rich family. But she receives
magical help from a fairy godmother to attend a royal ball, where
she meets a handsome prince and attracts his attention, which
brings triumphant rewards for her sufferings.
With regard to the language used, Carter argues that the
transitive verbs are associated with male actions, e.g., “he ῌhad῍
taken her out onto the balcony,” “he kissed her,” “he let her go.”
By contrast, the intransitive verbs are associated with female
actions, e. g., Claire “just stood there” and “blushed.” As examples
of the most frequent intransitive verbs used in this sort of
context, Carter lists smile, blush, stare, moan, and sigh. While
Stefan de Vaux “takes actions and initiatives,” Claire “has things
done to her and is cast in a passive and helpless role” such as
being “passed from guest to guest.” Carter says “the syntactic
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

choices here encode a conventional gender positioning of men and

women, one frequently patterned in romances and stories in
similar genres.” He defines this language use as “the language of
conquest and ownership” and the female character “doesn’t resist
the invasion, at least as long as he has title or money or a name
like Stefan de Vaux” ῌCarter +331 : +-῍.3῍

.. Application of transitivity theory to the literary text:

Expanding Carter’s analysis
Carter’s analysis of the behavior and action of the two main
characters is sound but is mostly restricted to the use of verbs
and whether they are transitive or intransitive. By using
Halliday’s transitivity framework based on meaning, a more
detailed account can be made concerning the type of processes by
which each of the two main characters is depicted. The following
is a portion of the text, which I have analyzed semantically on the
basis of Halliday’s transitivity framework, with participant
functions and process types given within square brackets. The
second and third paragraphs are chosen because they illustrate
the state of, and the interaction between, the two main characters
well. Elements added to aid the understanding of the reader are
given within round brackets.

Claire ῌCarrier῍, ῌbeing῍ ῌProcess: relational, intensive῍

pale ῌAttribute῍ from England ῌCircumstance : Place῍ and
the illness ῌActor: nonintentional῍ that had allowed
ῌῌ

ῌProcess : material῍ her ῌGoal / Medium / Actor῍+*῍ to come

to Tangier to recuperate, ῌClaire῍ ῌGoal/Medium῍ had
been passed ῌProcess: material῍ from guest to guest
ῌCircumstance: Manner῍ ῎ “Ah, you ῌToken῍’ re ῌProcess :
relational῍ Bella’s cousin ῌValue῍”῎like a plate of canapés
ῌCircumstance: Manner῍, she ῌSenser῍ thought ῌProcess:
mental, Cognition῍ ruefully ῌCircumstance: Manner῍,
attractive but unexciting ῌAttribute῍. Until Stefan de Vaux
ῌInitiator/Agent῍ had taken ῌProcess: material῍ her ῌGoal/
Medium῍ out onto the balcony ῌCircumstance: Place῍ and
ῌStefan de Vaux῍ ῌAgent῍ kissed ῌProcess: material῍ her
ῌGoal/Medium῍.
“Well?” ῌVerbiage῍ he ῌSayer῍’ d said ῌProcess : verbal῍
softly ῌCircumstance: Manner῍, in his lightly accented
voice ῌCircumstance: Manner῍, ῌStefan de Vaux῍ ῌInitiator/
Agent῍ letting ῌProcess: material῍ her ῌGoal/Medium/
Actor῍++῍ go ῌProcess: material῍ at last ῌCircumstance:
Manner῍, and she ῌBehaver῍ had just ῌCircumstance:
Manner῍ stood ῌProcess: behavioral῍ there ῌCircumstance:
Place῍, staring ῌProcess: behavioral῍ at him, at his lean,
outrageously handsome face, his laughing mouth, amber
brown eyes ῌCircumstance: Place, Motion to῍. “ῌAre
ῌProcess: relational, intensive῍ you ῌCarrier῍῍ Angry?
ῌAttribute῍ ῌAre you ῌSenser῍῍ Pleased? ῌProcess: mental,
Affection῍ Shocked? ῌProcess : mental, Affection῍” And she
ῌBehaver῍’d blushed ῌProcess: behavioral῍ furiously
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῌ῍

ῌCircumstance: Manner῍, feeling ῌProcess: mental,

Perception῍ all three ῌPhenomenon῍.

The table below systematizes the occurrence of each participant

Table + : The occurrence of participant functions of each character

Stefan de Vaux Claire

Initiator/Agent in material processes
- *
ῌGoal-directed῍
Actor/Medium in material processes
* +
ῌnon-Goal-directed῍
Goal/Medium in material processes * /
Sayer in verbal processes + *
Senser in mental processes * .
Behaver in behavioral processes * -

Carrier/Token in relational processes * -

function of Stefan de Vaux and Claire.

The statistical analysis clearly shows that Stefan de Vaux is
involved in material processes mainly as an Initiator or an Agent
in a Goal-directed material process, who affects and takes control
of what is happening, e.g., “letting her go at last.” He also acts as a
Sayer in verbal process, a participant who voices and can
influence others, e. g., “‘Well?’ he’d said softly, in his lightly
accented voice.” By contrast, Claire is mainly associated with
Goal / Medium in material processes, e. g., “passed from guest to
guest,” Senser in mental processes, e.g., “feeling all three,” Behaver
in behavioral processes, e. g., “just stood there, staring at him…”
and “blushed furiously,” and Carrier or Token in relational
῍ῌ

processes, e. g., ῌbeing῍ “pale from England,” “you’re Bella’s

cousin,” and ῌAre you῍ “Angry?”, or an Actor in a non-Goal-
directed material process, that is, Medium ῌsee footnote +*῍, e. g.,
“to come to recuperate.” These processes that Claire is involved in
are mostly processes that are internalized and passivized and do
not affect external events or other participants ῌat least not
externally῍. A reversal of the conventional gender roles would
produce a sentence like “Claire ῌInitiator/Agent῍ had taken
ῌProcess: material῍ him ῌGoal/Medium῍ out onto the balcony
ῌCircumstance : Place῍.” Sentences of this sort are rarely found in
such romantic fiction as this story, however.
Lexical choice also contributes to the discoursal flow. Emotive
terms expressing weakness and femininity are associated with
female characters ῌe. g., poverty, pale from England, the illness,
recuperate, ruefully, attractive but unexciting῍. The first phrase that
introduces Claire especially symbolizes her weak, passive, and
socially lower status ; “Claire, pale from England and the illness
that had allowed her to come to Tangier to recuperate, had been
passed from guest to guest.” The sentence suggests that, if she
hadn’t fallen ill she would not even have been allowed to take
time to recover from her tough life. Usually, the Subject of a
causative sentence such as this, is an element stronger than the
Object, e.g., The employer allowed the employee to take the day off.
But here the Subject ῌCauser/Initiator῍ is illness, which itself
projects an image of weakness, and it suggests Claire’s very
oppressed status, which may attract a reader’s sympathy. By
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

contrast, as the name Stefan de Vaux and the expression

outrageously handsome face, suggest, the male character is depicted
as an ideal model of status and power. So the contrast between
the two main characters portrays the gender relations and
ideologies that society stereotypically presents, constructs, and
reproduces. Furthermore, the adoption of some French-sounding
or French-origin words, not purely English words, such as Bella
and Stefan de Vaux
Vaux, adds to the story some noble connotations
associated with the romantic dreams female readers may cherish.
Also, setting this story in Tangier reflects a longing for a paradise
in a far-off foreign country. Tangier in Morocco is at the
crossroads of European, African, and Islam civilizations, where the
Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean. Tangier is a famous
resort area where the sun shines down on a magnificent bay
below lush green hills. Claire, who was introduced as “pale from
England,” at the outset, is portrayed as being plunged into a
dream world in a faraway foreign country, in a way that awakens
subconscious associations with the Cinderella story.

/. Conclusion
This article aims at investigating the relationship between
linguistic structures and socially constructed meaning in a
narrative text. As I hope it has shown, by using some process
types ῌe. g., material process, mental process῍ and participant
functions ῌe. g., Actor/Agent, Senser, Carrier῍ in Halliday’s
transitivity theory, certain patterns can be isolated within a text
῍ῌ

so as to offer an objective linguistic foundation for interpreting

the text. All of the transitivity resources discussed in this article,
including some process types and lexis associated with the
description of the main characters, can be exploited by the author
in order to maintain and enhance a flow of discourse that
represents participants interacting in a stereotypical portrayal of
gender relations.

One may ask whether the author of the text considered was
aware of the linguistic functions and terms discussed in this
paper, in order to consciously create the discoursal flow reflecting
power relations. Probably not. The linguistic choices for
describing each character in the text may not necessarily have
been made because of conscious grammatical use by the author,
but rather because the “semantic pressure” ῌHalliday +33. : xxiv῍
from the discourse for creating romance stories like the one
reflecting conventional gender relations partially seen in this
article, favored the selection of certain grammatical and process
patterns for each character in the story. The significance of the
semantico-grammatical choices for romance stories is the choice
of one form over another, and not that given meanings inhere in
given structures.

As I said at the start, I hope that this study will contribute

towards an understanding of how linguistic and stylistic analysis
of a text can be used extensively to clarify features and meanings
Stylistic and Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text Using Systemic Functional Grammar ῍ῌ

in any text ῎ whether they are conventional or nonconventional

patterns in illustrating participants and events in the story. The
analytical method can be used successfully in either literary texts
ῌincluding personal narratives or diaries῍ or nonliterary texts
ῌincluding newspaper reports or articles or advertisements῍.

Notes

+῍ I would like to express my gratitude to Edmund Skrzypczak for proofreading an

earlier version of this paper and giving me helpful suggestions.

,῍ Abstracts are summaries of the entire narrative at its beginning, Orientations are

accounts that give the setting or context of a narrative, Complicating Actions are

specific events that actually take place, Evaluations are accounts that tell the

listener or reader what to think about a person, thing, place, event, or the entire

experience described in a narrative, Resolutions are reports as to what finally

happened, and Codas are formal endings of a narrative. Of these, Orientations,

Complicating Actions, and Evaluations are essential elements in narrative telling.

Labov and Waletsky claim that stories of personal experience make the simplest, but

most basic, narrative structures ῌsee Labov and Waletsky +301 for details῍.

-῍ The ideational function is one of the three metafunctions that together characterize

the passage of discourse in systemic functional linguistics. They are the ideational

ῌwhat is going on῍, the interpersonal ῌwho are taking part῍, and the textual ῌhow

the message is structured῍ functions.

.῍ Systemic grammarians use the term clause for sentence.

/῍ Notes on technical terms:

Actor/Agent : These terms are used almost synonymously at least for the purpose

of this paper. In Halliday’s functional grammar Agent, which appears in ergative

interpretation ῌsee section ,. -. +. +.῍, can be understood as a subtype of Actor ; Actor

is a doer in a broad sense while Agent is an entity whose action is particularly

targeted at a Goal, e.g., John kicked a ball.

῍ῌ

Goal/Patient/Affected : These terms are also used by different writers in the field

to cover much the same meaning. This paper mostly uses the term Goal, following

Halliday’s terminology. In the sentence John kicked a ball,

ball a ball can be a Goal /

Patient/Affected/Medium. In We lost in a close game, we is a Medium in an ergative

interpretation.

0῍ In traditional grammar, a transitive verb is one that requires an Object to be

completed. The sentence John kicked a ball has the transitive verb kick. Intransitive

verb does not require an Object. Thus, Time flies like an arrow contains the

intransitive verb flies.

1῍ Systemic grammarians use the term group for phrase although they are not

synonymous in a strict sense.

2῍ The process performed by an animate Actor is called Action process ῌe. g., John

opened the door, The boy fell over, while an inanimate Actor is referred to as Event

process ῌe.g., The car backfired῍. Action process can be further divided into Intention

Process, in which the animate Actor performs intentionally ῌe. g., John opened the

door῍, and Supervention Process, in which the process just happens to the Actor

without his or her intention ῌe.g., The boy fell over῍.

3῍ The existence of de in a name traditionally suggests that he ῌshe῍ is from a

prestigious family in Europe.

+*῍ In this sentence, “her” ῌClaire῍ has several roles. As an Object of “allowed,” it has

the roles Goal / Medium. As a Subject ῌdoer῍ of “come to Tangier to recuperate,”

Claire has the roles Actor/Medium.

++῍ In this sentence also, “her” ῌClaire῍ has several roles. As an Object of “let,” it has

the roles Goal / Medium. As a Subject ῌdoer῍ of “go,” Claire has the roles Actor /

Medium.

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