TRANSITIVITY

Functional Grammar

Dinda Ayu
Suhartinah
Ghea Hafiizha Nazmi
Hilmy Nurul Huda
Riska Lestari
Sofiyatul Inayah
4 C English Department

A. What is Transitivity?
Our experience of reality is
captured in terms of process.
These processes constitute the
transitivity system of language,
which belongs to experiential
meaning.
Transitivity is the resource for
construing our experience, and
this done in term of process.
It explores how language contrues
our experience of the world

 In analyzing a clause, traditional

grammar uses terms such as subject,
object, verb and so on.
For example:
Wellington [Subject] defeated [Verb]
Napoleon [Object] at Waterloo
[Adverbial].
Functional grammar adds to this by
using descriptions which relate the
grammar more closely to the world it
describes.
For example:
Wellington [Participant] defeated

Three main components in

English clause:
Participant (Entitles involved in
process)
Processes (Kind of event is being
described)
Circumstances (specifying the when,
where, why and how of the process)
In Transitivity, we will focuses on
participants and processes

B. Types of Processes
Material
Mental

Attributive

Relational
Identifying

Behavioural
Verbal
Existential

Main
Processes in
Transitivity

1. Material Process (doing)

Physical actions in the real world.
Kick, run, paint, repair, send, burn,
etc.
General meaning: Doing or
happening
Participants:
Actor: who does the action
Goal: who is affected by the
action
Recipient/Scope: who is receives
something

Example of Material
Process:

2. Mental Process(experiencing or sensing)

Processes or perception, cognition,

affection
See, hear, know, like etc.
General meaning: Sensing, seeing,
wanting, feeling, thinking
Participants:
Senser: who does the mental
action
Phenomenon: the thing that is
perceived, thought, appreciated.

Example of Mental Process

3. Attributive Process(describing)

Use this process when we want to

describe someone or something.
Be, have, become etc.
General meaning: Attributing
Participants:
Carrier: An entity being
described
Attribute: the description of the
entity

Example of Attributive
process
Chris (carrier) is (process) nice
(attribute)
John (carrier) is (process) tall
(attribute)
It can not be Nice is Chris
because its meaning is non-sense.

4. Identifying Process(identifying)

Use this process to identify aspects

about someone or something.
Be, have, become etc.
General meaning: Identifying
Participants:
Token: an entity being equated
with another
Value: the other description

Example of Identifying
process
Chris (token) is (process) the
teacher (value)
John (token) is (process) the
doctor (value)
It can be reversed into The
teacher (value) is Chris
(Token).

5. Behavioural Process (behaving)

To talk about a behaviour that

someone or something is
displaying.
Laugh, talk, cry, breath, smile etc.
General meaning: Behaving
Participants:
Behaver: who does the
behaviour action

Example of Behavioural
process
Jane (behaver) cries (process)
in the library (circumstance).

6. Verbal Process (saying)

Process of communication.
Say, tell, warn, argue, ask etc.
General meaning: Saying
Participants:
Sayer: the one who
communicates
Addressee/Receiver: the one
receiving the message
Verbiage: what they say

Example of Verbal process

7. Existential Process (existing)

To talk about someone or
something existing.
There is, is, are, etc.
General meaning: Existing
Participants:
Existent: The one who exists.

Example of Existential
process
There is a man (existent) in the
shop (circumstances)
The girls in that park (existent)
are (process) Japanese.

Thank you!