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The Six Processes in Halliday's Approach To Transitivity: Some Notes and Further Observations On The Above Table
The Six Processes in Halliday's Approach To Transitivity: Some Notes and Further Observations On The Above Table
Transitivity
The six processes involved in Halliday's approach to transitivity are best illustrated in
Table 5(27) from the third edition, which is reproduced with a slight modification
below: the round brackets indicate that the second participant which they enclose is
optional.1
Table 8.7
Process type
Category meaning
material
action
event
'doing'
behavioural
Participants,
directly involved
Participants,
obliquely involved
Actor, (Goal)
Recipient, Client;
Scope; Initiator;
Attribute
'behaving'
Behaver
Behaviour
mental:
perception
affect
cognition
'sensing'
'sensing'
'feeling'
'thinking'
Senser, Phenomenon
verbal
'saying'
Sayer, Target/Recipient
Receiver, Verbiage
relational:
'attributing'
attribution
'attributing'
identification
'identifying'
Token, Value
Carrier, Attribute
Identified, Identifier
Attributor,
Beneficiary,
Assigner
existential
Existent
'doing'
'happening'
'existing'
Page Index
Note on learning the above table For the sake of simplicity, you may want to
concentrate on the first column initially, followed by the second (which in a way
explains the first), then the third. You should go to the fourth column only when you
are clear about the two earlier columns.
The passive voice, as you know, may also give rise to the stylistically interesting
phenomenon of agent deletion, where the actor or First Participant is not indicated,
as in the clause 'the ghost has been seen', which does not indicate who has or have
seen the ghost.
Table 8.8
a) Active Voice
the boy
saw
Participant[1] Process
Subject
b) Passive Voice
the ghost
the ghost
was seen
by the boy
Participant[2
]
Participant[2
]
Process
Participant[1]
Predicator Complement
Subject
Predicator
Adjunct
Page Index
the target of the mental activity indicated by the verb is either implicit, or
mentioned in the adjunct that follows the verb.
Thus if a verb that describes sensing, feeling or thought is transitive, there is a very
good likelihood that it is a mental, and not a behavioural process verb.
Page Index
Notes
1. The final column in the corresponding Tables 5(7) and 5(6) from the earlier editions of Halliday's Introduction is
not found, and is added from the third edition to the above table . Although there are some difficulties in the first
edition on whether the attribute in attributive relational processes is a participant, Halliday does appear to regard it
as such in the second and third editions. Back to earlier position..
2. With regard to material processes, cf. the examples 'the lions sprang' and `the lion caught the tourist' found in
Halliday's book. Both of them are material process clauses; but the former has one participant, whilst the latter has
two. Back to earlier position..