 Transitivity is purely a syntactic description; it

is based on whether a verb takes an Object or

not.
 If a verb takes an object ,it is transitive ,
while,
a verb ,not carrying an object is intransitive.
 1.theme
is the grammar of
discourse
 2. mood is the grammar of
speech function
 3.Transitivity is the grammar
of experience .
Grammatical transitivity - concerned with the
relations between elements in a clause

I walked INTRANSITIVE CLAUSE

I walked the dog TRANSITIVE CLAUSE

In traditional grammar:

I walked the dog

SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

In systemic functional grammar:

I walked the dog

PARTICIPANT PROCESS PARTICIPANT
 Transitivity is a semantic process in the
analysis of representation of reality.
 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”
 According to Halliday ,there
are three major functions of
language .
1. Ideational
2. Textual
3. interpersonal
 Theideational function is the
use of language to express
content(speaker‟s attitude
towards the world) and to
communicate information
 Thetextual function is the
use of language to signify
discourse.( how the speaker
or a writer constructs a text
)
 Interpersonal
function is the
use of language to establish
and maintain social relations.
 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) .
 all phenomena…and
 anything that can be expressed by a verb :
event, whether physical or not, state, or
relation,
 the “processes” expressed through language
are product of our conception of the world or
point of view.
 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…
 Transitivity specifies the different types of
process that are recognized in the language,
and the structures by which they are
expressed.
 The task of transitivity analysis, is to discover
the relation between meanings and wordings
that accounts for the organization of
linguistic features in a text.
The semantic processes expressed by clauses
have potentially three components
1.the process itself, which will be expressed
by the verb phrase in a clause.
2.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 participant entities are normally realized
by noun phrases in the clause.
3. the circumstances associated with the
process, which are typically expressed by
adverbial and prepositional phrases.
 The transitivity model provides a means of
discovering how certain linguistic structures
of a text encode the particular worldview or
ideological stance of a reader/speaker.
 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.
 to uncover the principle

“who or what
does what
to whom or
what?”
 The action of an ACTOR

and

 It effects upon the GOAL

 transitivity is purely a syntactic description; it
is based on whether a verb takes an Object or
not.
 If a verb takes object , it is called Transitive.

 If it does not take an object it is intransitive.

 The analysis is purely semantic ,rather than
the syntactic one .

 An important question is whether there is an

implication of an animate individual
Actor/Agent intentionally doing the action to
another entity Goal.
 social and cultural factors

 as well as any individual mind-set.

 Different social structures and value systems

require different patterns of transitivity.
 Three things are to be found out :
1. Isolate the process per se, and determine
which participant who or what is doing each
process ;
2.Determine what sorts of process they
are, and which participant is engaged in
which type of process ;
3. Determine who or what is affected or
seems to be affected by each of these
processes.
 Transitivity processes can be classified into :
1. Material (doing){ kick ,run ,paint ,send}
2. Relational (being or becoming) {be ,have
,become}
3. Mental (sensing){see,hear,know ,like}
4. Verbal (saying){say ,tell
,warn,argue,ask}
5. Behavioral (behaving){laugh,talk ,cry,breath}
6. Existential (existing){there is…………….}
 Material processes are processes of doing in
the physical world.

 Two inherent participants are Actor and Goal

,the first being an obligatory element and
expresses the doer of the process , and later
being an optional element and expresses the
person or entity affected by the process
 Material Processes: physical actions in the
real world and their Participants:
 - Actor: the one who does the action
 - Goal: The one who is affected by the action
 - Recipient: the one who receives something
 - Beneficiary: the one for whom something is
done
 John drove Mary home
 Actor Process Goal Circ: destination
 Mary was driven home by John
 Goal Process Circ: destination Actor
 John gave Mary a book
 Actor Process Recipient Goal
 John built Mary a house
 Actor Process Beneficiary Goal
 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, but as either adverbial
phrases or prepositional phrases, and so is
subsidiary in status to the process.
 Circumstance expresses supplementary
information, such as
place, time, extent, matter, manner, duration,
condition, means, etc.
 John(actor) kicked (process :material) the
ball.(goal )

 , John(actor) hit(process:material) the man

(Goal) very hard.circumstance :manner)
 The boat (actor) sailed(process :material) in
the bay.(circumstance :place )
 Of course, it is possible to reverse Actor/Goal
in a passive form, placing a Goal at an initial
position and Actor at the end of the sentence,
such as :

 The man was hit by John.

 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.
 John is talented
&
 John is the leader

 But to define relational processes is not so

easy.
 relational process are quite complex and
controversial
In systemic functional grammar:

I walked the dog

PARTICIPANT PROCESS PARTICIPANT

(ACTOR) (MATERIAL P) (GOAL)

The student wrote the essay

(ACTOR) (MATERIAL P) (GOAL)
Other examples, other processes

The student wrote the essay

(ACTOR) (MATERIAL P) (GOAL)

The student argued the case that ….

(SAYER) (VERBAL P) (VERBIAGE)

The lecturer appreciated the essay

(SENSER) (MENTAL P) (PHENOMENON)

*The essay impresssed the lecturer

(PHENOMENON) (MENTAL P) (SENSER)
 Halliday:
The system of transitivity in
language is concerned with
representing patterns of experience,
“of goings on” and “happenings” in the
world….It construes the world into a
manageable set of PROCESS types and
of PARTICIPANTS
 PROCESS

PARTICIPANT Material
PARTICIPANT
Verbal
Mental etc.

The student wrote the essay

The student argued the case that
….
The lecturer appreciated the essay
 Mental Processes: processes of
perception, cognition, affection
 - Senser: the one who does the mental
action
 - Phenomenon: The thing that is
perceived, thought, appreciated
Mental Processes: processes of sensing

 1. Perception (seeing, hearing, etc.)

 2. Affection (liking, fearing, etc.)
 3. Cognition
(thinking, knowing, understanding, etc
.)
 John saw Mary
 Senser Process
Phenomenon{perception}
 John thought that Mary was coming
 Senser Process
Phenomenon{cognition}
 That he was tall pleased Mary
 Phenomenon Process Senser{emotion}
 Verbal Processes: processes of
communication:
 - Sayer: the one who communicates
 - Addressee: the one receiving the
message
 - Verbiage: What they say
 John said that he was tired
 Sayer Process Verbiage
 John told Mary to go
 Sayer Process Addressee Verbiage
 John was told to go by Mary
 Addressee Process Verbiage Sayer
 Relational Processes: expressing
possession, equivalence, attributes...
 - Carrier: An entity being described
 - Attribute: The description of the
entity
 John is tall
 Carrier Process Attribute
 - Possessor: the one owning or containing
something
 - Possessed: the thing owned or contained.
 John owns a Mercedes
 Possessor Process Possession
 - Token: an entity being equated with
another
 - Value: the other description.
 John is the president
 Token Process Value
 As a rule of thumb, a behavioral
process verb is
 a. Intransitive (it has only one
participant) and
 b.Indicates an activity in which
both the physical and mental
aspects are inseparable and
indispensable to it.
 In this process, there is only one participant,
namely: behaver (the agent who behaves),
example:

 Buff neither laughs ,nor smiles.

 Behaver (process)
 These processes represent that something
exists or happens.
 These clauses typically have the verb be, or
some other verb expressing existence, such
as exist, arise, followed by a nominal group
functioning as Existent (a thing which exists
in the process)
 There was a storm

 {was} process

 {a storm} existent
1. Jack and jill went up the hill ,to fetch a pail
of water .
2. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him
next time
3. Spurs played Liverpool. They beat them
4. The cops chased the robbers. They caught
them
 Circumstances: any kind of contingent fact or
subsidiary
 situation which is associated with the process
or the main
 situation
 – The museum is round the corner
 – Do it gently.
 – He watered the garden with a hose
 – I left because I was tired.