TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM: THE GRAMMAR OF EXPERIENTIAL

MEANING (IDEATIONAL MEANING)

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THE CLAUSE AS REPRESENTATION

In transitivity system (ideational meaning), clause isviewed as meaning to

represent experiences.

System of Transitivity
Experientially clauses constitute the means to actualize laguage users’
experiences to the events occuring around them.

The experiences are represented into processes.

There are three semantic categories which explain way how phenomena of the
real world are represented as a linguistic structures.
These are:
 Circumstances ----- represented by adverb or preposition/prepositional phrase.
We are home, Are you in? At home, on time.---Adv
Processes ----------- represented by verb---V
Participants --------- represented by noun—S,O
CIRCUMSTANCE
Circumstances answer such questions as when, where, why, how, how many
and as what. They realise meanings about:
 Time (temporal): tells when and is probed by when? how often? How long?
e.g. He goes to church every Sunday.
 Place (spatial) tells where and is probed by where? how far?
e.g. He goes to church every Sunday.
 Manner: tells how
# Means: tells by what means and is probed by what with?
e.g. He goes to cruch every Sunday by taxi.
# Quality: tells how and is probed by how?
e.g. He loved her madly,
deeply, truly!
# Comparison: tells like what and is probed by what like?
e.g. He was jumping around like a monkey on a roof.
 Cause: tells why
 # Reason: tells what clauses the Process and is probed by why? or how?
e.g. The sheep died of thirst.
# Purpose: tells the purpose and is probed by what for?
e.g. He went to the shop for cigarettes.
# Behalf (kepentingan): tells for whose sake and is probed by for whom?
e.g. He went to the shop for his mother.
 Accompaniment: tells with(out) who or what and is probed by who or
whatelse?
e.g. I left work without my briefcase.
 Matter(hal): tells about what or with reference to what and is probed by what
about?
e.g. This book is talking about functional grammar.
 Role: tells what as and is probed by as what?
e.g. He lived a quiet life as a beekeeper.

PROCESSES
Processes are central to TRANSITIVITY.
Processes are realised by verbs.
Different kinds of goings on involve different kinds of Participants in varying
Circumstances.
There are seven different Process types identified by Halliday:
1. Material ------------ doing/happening
2. Behavioural ------- behaving
3. Mental -------------- sensing
4. Verbal -------------- saying
5. Relational --------- being
6. Existential --------- existing
7. Meteorological --- weathering

Non-Relational Processes: Processes of Doing

Material Processes
Material Processes are Processes of material doing (usually concrete/tangible
action) or happening.
Process of doing realised by verbs indicating physical action.
Note1: Basic meaning (semantic definition) of material process is that some
entity does something, undertakes some action.
Note 2: identification for material process is that it can be probed by asking:
what did X do? Nisa has written sentences
What did Diana do? Diana went to Jakarta
What has Doni done? Doni has donatedblood three times.
The following clauses are not material process, because it is not possible to
probe them in this way.
# There was incentive to donate blood.
# Diana is a blood donor.
So,material process is process about doing, about action. Action involves actor
or participant. Participant is realized by nominal group. Clauses with a Material
Process obligatorily have a doing (Process) and a doer (Participant).

The fuel ignites

The fuel ignites
Participant process

The youngster wiggled in his heart

The youngster wiggled in his heart
Participant:actor Process: material Circumstance: place

Actor
The participant of the clause who does/performs the action is the Actor.
Goal
Participant at whom/which the process is directed, to whom the action is
extended is the Goal.
Note 3: identification for goal is as follows:
What did X do (to Y)?

The exhausted bushwalker dropped his pack.

The exhausted bushwalker dropped his pack
Participant: actor Process: material goal

The youngster wiggled his loose tooth

The youngster wiggled his loose tooth
Participant: actor Process: material goal
Handoko wrote a poem
Handoko wrote a poem
Participant: actor Process: material goal

Practice
1. Kania dismissed Wawan.
2. The runner tripped
3. Ana was called by Dona last night
4. The gun was discharged
5. Jaki and Jajang went up the hill to fetch a pail of water
6. Jaki fell down and broke his crown and Jajang came tumbling after

Goal vs range
Consider the following clauses: they transfused
They did the transfusion (range) ---→ what did they do to the transfusion? (X)
They transfused the blood (goal) ---→ what did they do to the blood? (√)
Halliday suggests that range specifies one of two things:
1. It is a restatement or continuation of the process itself
2. It expresses the extent or ‘range’ of the process

Example of range
1. Expressing the process itself
They ran the race. They race
2. Cognate object (in traditional grammar).
Do a dance, sing a song
Here the object of the verb is derived from the verbal meaning itself and we
can subtitute just one verbal element: dance, sing.
3. Expressing the domain or extent of the process they’re playing a ball
They were playing tennis/ a game. They are playing football
Tennis, a game are not autonomous participants since these games do not
exist without the playing.
4. Dummy verbs
She gave me a smile she smiled at me
He made a mistake
I have a bath
They take a look
Those verbs are emptied of their content, and the meaning expressed through
the nominal range constituent.

Halliday lists a number of tests to identify a range. They are as follows:

1. A range can’t be probed with what did X do to Y, whereas goal can.
2. A range cannot be a personal pronoun.
3. A range cannot usually be modified by possessive(e.g. Just give me your
whistle).
4. A range is less likely to become subject than goal.
5. A range can often be realized as a prepositional phrase:
He plays the piano beautifully ---- he plays beautifully on the piano
He does great whistles ---- he does great at whistling
6. A range using dummy verbs can be collapsed into one verb:
Give a whistle --- whistle
Do a dance --- dance
Give a lecture --- lecture

# To emphasize the distinction of goal and range

Range Goal
Shoot a gun Shoot a Kangaroo
Kick a goal Kick the dog
Serve dinner Serve the ball
Give a smile Give a present
Make a mistake Make a cake
Take a bath Take a biscuit

Beneficiary
Participant which benefit from the process are called beneficiary.
In Switzerland they give you a cognac.
They gave blood to my daughter.

There are two kinds of beneficiary:

1. Recipient --- the one to whom something is given
2. Client --- the one for whom something is done
V + to : give, lend, offer, pass, post, promise, read, sell, send, show
V + for : book, bring, buy, cook, find, get, keep, make, pour, save

Example:
They give youa cognac ---- recipient
Mary cooked themdinner ---- client

Causative construction
Agent
Agent is the one who initiates the action, the one who makes
something happen.
He made his girlfriend carry the bomb onto the plane.
He made his carry the bomb onto the
 girlfriend plane
Agent Pr: Actor Pr: goal Cir:
causative material location

Behavioural Processes
Behavioural Processes are Processes of physiological and psychological
behavior, like breathing, dreaming, snoring, smiling, hiccuping, looking,
watching, listening, and pondering.

There is one obligatory Participant: the Behaver. The behaver is a conscious

being. The Process is doing, not sensing.

She lives in the fast lane

She lives in the fast lane
behaver Process: behavioural circumstance

He snores loudly
He snores loudly
behaver behavioural circumstance

Note 4: behaviourals can contain a second participant that is like a range: a

restatement of the process. This participant is called the behaviour.

Example:
He smiled a broad smile.
He smiled a broad smile
Behaver Pr: behavioural behaviour

If there is another participant which is not a restatement of the process, it is

called a phenomenon.

Example:
Nanda sniffed the soup.
Nanda sniffed the soup
Behaver Pr: behavioural phenomenon

Practice
She sighed with dispair
They laughed at the girl’s stupidity