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Processes, Participants and Circumstances: The Dog Bit The Postman Yesterday

This document discusses the analysis of transitivity in clauses, which involves examining the processes, participants, and circumstances represented in a clause. It describes the main types of processes as material, mental, verbal, and relational, and outlines the typical participants involved in each type. For example, material processes involve an actor performing an action that affects a goal or recipient, mental processes involve a senser perceiving or thinking about a phenomenon, and verbal processes involve a sayer communicating a message to an addressee. The document also provides examples of how these concepts are applied in analyzing clauses.

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64 views

Processes, Participants and Circumstances: The Dog Bit The Postman Yesterday

This document discusses the analysis of transitivity in clauses, which involves examining the processes, participants, and circumstances represented in a clause. It describes the main types of processes as material, mental, verbal, and relational, and outlines the typical participants involved in each type. For example, material processes involve an actor performing an action that affects a goal or recipient, mental processes involve a senser perceiving or thinking about a phenomenon, and verbal processes involve a sayer communicating a message to an addressee. The document also provides examples of how these concepts are applied in analyzing clauses.

Uploaded by

Sello Abdi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Transitivity Analysis

Processes, Participants and Circumstances

One of the functions of a clause is to represent experience: to describe the events and
states of the real (and unreal) world. In the SFL model, a representation of experience consists
of:
1. Processes:what kind of event/state is being described.
2. Participants: the entities involved in the process, e.g., Actor,
Sayer, Senser, etc.
3. Circumstances: specifying the when, where, why and how of
the process.

The dog bit the postman yesterday


participant process participant circumstance

Types of Process

SFL typically recognises 4 main types of processes:


– Material (‘doing’ ): kick, run, paint, repair, send, burn, …
– Mental (‘experiencing’ or ‘sensing’): see, hear, know, like
– Verbal (‘saying’): say, tell, warn, argue, ask, …
– Relational (‘being’ or ‘becoming’): be, have, become, ...
Sometime also recognised:
– Behavioural (laugh, talk, cry, breath),
– Existential (‘exist’. “there is…”)

Material processes and their participants

Material Processes: physical actions in the real world.


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

Mental processes and their participants

Mental Processes: processes of perception, cognition, affection


- Senser: the one who does the mental action
- Phenomenon: The thing that is perceived, thought, appreciated

Perception: John saw Mary


Senser Process Phenomenon

Cognition: John thought that Mary was coming


Senser Process Phenomenon

Emotion: Mary liked what he liked


Senser Process Phenomenon

Verbal processes and their participants

Verbal Processes: processes of communication:


- Sayer: the one who communicates
- Addressee: the one recieving the message
- Verbiage: What they say

John told Mary to go


Sayer Process Addressee Verbiage

John was told to go by Mary


Addressee Process Verbiage Sayer

Relational processes and their participants


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
Some hints
Some rules:
1. Verbal and mental process must either have a clausal
complement (the projection):
• I say to go / I told him that he was wrong
• I felt that he should go / I like swimming in the sea
… or if no clausal projection, thew verb must allow one:
– I said something / I told him a story
2. Perceptual verbs with a non-conscious agent are not
mental, but closer to relational (assigning an attribute):
– The table feels smooth
– Something smells burnt

Circumstances
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.

Type Subtype PROBE EXAMPLE

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