Stylistics and Systemic

Functional Grammar
Ideational Function:
Transitivity

Lecture (5)
 01 02 03 04
Three Stylistics and
Introduction Transtivity
metafunctions SFG
 Introduction
What is Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG)?
 Systemic Functional Grammar
- Developed by Halliday.

- Relates structure (grammar) to function.

- A grammatical description that includes an explanation of the

meanings of whole messages, not just individual words.

- Equates meaning with function/ use

 Three Meta Functions

Language is organized in ways which

Ideational
indicate our experiences of the world.

Interpersonal We use language to interact with other

people; to express our own point of
view.

Textual Messages are organized in ways which

indicate how they fit with other
messages.
 Stylistics & SFG

Ideational Interpersonal

Transtivity/ Ideology Modality/ Point of view

 04
Trabstivity
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 Halliday observes transitivity as an option available within the ideational
function.
 It is concerned with the transmission of ideas, hence it is part of the
ideational function of language.
 Definition and Importance
 A useful analytic model in the analysis of any text to capture experience
in language.
 It offers an analysis of the meaning encoded in clauses and the way types
of processes are encoded in language.
 It shows how speakers encode in their language their mental picture of
reality and their experiences.
Transtivity
Definition
How meaning is presented in the
clause; how speakers encode in their
language their mental picture of
reality

Components
Process; participant(s);
circumstances

Importance
A useful analytical model in
stylistics & CDA.
4,495,301
Big numbers catch your
audience’s attention
 Components of Trasntivity Model
 There are three key Components/ elements:
1. The process represented by the verb phrase
2. The participants associated by the process; the role of persons and
objects, realized by the noun phrase.
3. The circumstances; adverbial of time, place and manner.
 There are different participant roles:
 actor
 goal
 beneficiary
 instrument
 Remember

● Process: Veral group

● Participants: Nominal group

● Circumstances: Adverbial group;

prepositional phrase
 Types of processes

Material Processes Mental Processes

Process of doing Processes of sensing
1 2

elational Processes
3 4 Verbal Processes
Processes of being
Processes of
saying
 Types of processes

Behavioural Processes Mental Processes

Process of doing Processes of sensing
5 2

elational Processes
3 4 Verbal Processes
Processes of being
Processes of
saying
 1. Material Processes
● Process of doing
● The participant roles involved

○ The Actor: an obligatory role in the process

○ A Goal: a role which may not be involved in the process

I nipped Daniel.
Actor Process Goal

The washing machine broke down.

Actor Process
 1. Material Process (contd.)
● If the process is performed by an animate actor = action process
● If the process is performed by an inanimate actor = event process
● Action processes

○ Intention processes (actor performs voluntarily)

○ Supervention ( the process just happens)

 2. Mental Processes
● The process of sensing
● They inhabit and reflect the world of consciousness.
● There are three main types of the mental process:

○ encoded in verbs such as: thinking- wondering/understanding

like-hate / hear-see
● The participants

○ The Senser : the conscious being that is sensing, that perceives things or
feelings.

○ The Phenomenon : the entity which is felt, sensed, thought about , perceived
or seen. The entity that is affected by the senser.
2. Mental Process (contd.)
Examples:
1. Mary understood the story.
Sensor Process Phenomenon (cognition)

2. John noticed the damp patch.

Sensor Process Phenomenon (perception)

3. Anil detests coffee.

Sensor Process Phenomenon (reaction)
 3. Behavioural Process

● It is an interface between material and mental processes.

● It includes a limited group of verbs.

● They represent both the activities of sensing and doing.

● They embody physiological actions like “breathe” or “cough”

●
● The sole participant is the Behaver: the conscious entity who
3. Behavioural Process (contd.)
● Examples
That student fell asleep in my lecture
Behaver Process Circumstance
She frowned at the mess
Behaver Process Circumstance

● smile/ cough/ breathe/ stare/ dream/ worry/ watch/ listen

4. Verbalization Process
● The processes of saying
● The participants involved are

○ The Sayer: the producer of speech

○ The Receiver: the entity to which the speech is addressed

○ The Verbiage: that which gets said

● Examples
Mary claimed that the story is changed
Sayer Process Verbiage
The minister announced the decision to court
Sayernn Process Verbiage Receiver
4. Verbalization Process (contd.)

● Examples

I criticized her style.

Sayer Process Verbiage

I said I won’t be late.

Sayer Process Verbiage
 5. Relational Process
● The processes of ‘being’ in a specific sense of establishing a relation ship
between two entities.
● There are three main types of relational process:

■ A relationship of equivalence
■ X is Y relationship between two entities
■ Paula’s presentation was lively
■ Joyce is the best Irish writer
 5. Relational Process(contd.)
● Circumstantial relational process

○ are where the circumstantial element becomes upgraded

to fulfill the role of a full participant in the process
○ ‘X is at/in/with/on Y’

○ The maid was in the parlour.

○ The forces of darkness are against.you

Relational Process (contd.)
● The three types of relational processes can either be of
the two modes (attributive OR identifying)

● Attributive : Carrier Attribute

● Identifying: Identified Identifier

5. Relational Process (contd.)
● Attributive
Circumstantial Possessive relational Intensive relational Modes
relational Gill has a piano Mary is wise
Bill is at home
• Entity or person described is the Carrier (the topic of the clause) Attributive
• Quality ascribed to the Carrier is the Attribute (a description or Mode
comment about the topic)

She is a wife/ a doctor Examples

Carrier Attribute

She is intelligent/ clever

Carrier Attribute
5. Relational Process (contd.)
● Identifying
Circumstantial Possessive relational Intensive relational Modes
relational Gill has a piano She is the doctor.
Bill is at home

• One role is identified through reference to another Identifying

• One entity defines the other: Identifier Mode
• Entity being defined is the Identified
• The two halves of the clause refer to the same thing
Sasha is the doctor Examples
Identified definite article Identifier
The idea sounds terrific (=is terrific)
Identified identifier
 5. Relational Process (contd.)
Identifying Attributive Type
The best Irish Writer is Joyce Paula’s presentation is Intensive
Joyce is the best Irish writer lively.
She is a wife/doctor.
She is clever.
The Alpha Romeo is Clara’s. Peter has a piano Possessive
Clara’s is the Alpha Romeo.

The maid is in the parlor. The carnival is on all day Circumstantial

In the parlor is the maid.
6. Existential Process
● The process basically asserts that something exists or
happens.
● Existential process includes the word ‘there’ + verb ‘To
be’
“There was an assault”
OR
“ Has there been a phone call?”

● The participants involved: the ‘Existent’ (realized by ‘an

assault’ and ‘a phone call’)
6. Existential Process (contd.)
● Examples

There was an assault

Process Existent

There is a sign on the road.

There is a data showin the room.

 Ergativity
● How agency and causation relate to the processes expressed by the clause. (in case of material processes)

● Defined in terms of the affected participant and the causer of the action in action clauses

● Ex. He fell( he is an affected participant)

The dog frightens me (the dog is the causer of the process)

● The choice to include or omit agency from a process constitutes an important part of message
construction.

● Example: I broke the vase (Actor, goal)

The vase broke (Medium)
The bomb exploded
 Patterns
● Passive Structure: Agent-less

○ The vase was broken

● Goal-less Patterns

○ She started forward

○ She had passed on towards the sofa

● Inanimate actors
In a nutshell
 Participant Roles
John painted the house
Actor Goal
He’s given John a present
beneficiary (recipient of an object or
service)
The ball broke the window
instrument of force
Practice!
The Secret Agents
● She started forward at once, as if she were still a loyal woman bound to that man by
an unbroken contract. Her right hand skimmed slightly the end of the table, and when
she had passed on towards the sofa the carving knife had vanished without the
slightest sound from the side of the dish. Mr Verloc heard the creaky plank in the
floor, and was content. He waited. Mrs Verloc was coming. As if the homeless soul of
Stevie had flown for shelter straight to the breast of his sister, guardian and protector,
the resemblance of her face with that of her brother grew at every step, even to the
droop of the lower lip, even to the slight divergence of the eyes. But Mr Verloc did
not see that. He was lying on his back and staring upwards. He saw partly on the
ceiling and partly on the wall the moving shadow of an arm with a clenched hand
holding a carving knife. It flickered up and down. Its movements were leisurely. They
were leisurely enough for Mr Verloc to recognise the limb and the weapon.
● They were leisurely enough for him to take in the full meaning of the portent, and to taste the
flavour of death rising in his gorge. His wife had gone raving mad— murdering mad. They were
leisurely enough for the first paralysing effect of this discovery to pass away before a resolute
determination to come out victorious from the ghastly struggle with that armed lunatic. They
were leisurely enough for Mr Verloc to elaborate a plan of defence involving a dash behind the
table, and the felling of the woman to the ground with a heavy wooden chair. But they were not
leisurely enough to allow Mr Verloc the time to move either hand or foot. The knife was already
planted in his breast. It met no resistance on its way. Hazard has such accuracies. Into that
plunging blow, delivered over the side of the couch, Mrs Verloc had put all the inheritance of her
immemorial and obscure descent, the simple ferocity of the age of caverns, and the unbalanced
nervous fury of the age of bar-rooms. Mr Verloc, the Secret Agent, turning slightly on his side
with the force of the blow, expired without stirring a limb, in the muttered sound of the word
“Don’t” by way of protest.
 Joseph Conrad’s
The Secret Agent

● Scene: The murder of Mr. Verloc

● Characters: Mr. Verloc (victim) and Mrs. Verloc (murderer)
● The first intuition:
● A. Mrs. Verloc is somehow not really responsible for what
she does, although not stated by Conrad.
● B. Mr. Verloc is aware of everything going on, yet takes no
action.
Mr. Verloc

● 13 verbs refer to him.

● 8 of the 13 describe mental processes of
perception.
● 5 processes are mostly goal-less and are
passive :They express processes over which
Verloc has no control and is submissive.
 Mr. Verloc’s Processes
Exercising no control/ add to the overall impassivity

Mr. Verloc exercises no control 3 verbs describing Verloc’s actions

add to Verloc’s overall impassivity

He was content ‘… the time to move either hand or foot’

(upon hearing the creaking plank) Goal-directed (parts of the body/ refer back to the actor
(Verloc)/ no action indicated)
Indicate that deliberate action is not realized.
He waited ‘turning slightly on his side’
(for Mrs. Verloc) Goal-less
The movement is caused by the blow of the knife and not
Verloc turning himself.
He expired ‘… without stirring a limb’
(his death is caused by Mrs. Verloc’s Goal-directed (parts of the body/refer back to the actor
attack) (Verloc)/ no action indicated)
Indicate that the deliberate action is not realized.
 Mental Processes
Processor: Verloc Processor: Verloc
Verbs: recognition & reaction Verbs: perception
Phenomena: abstract & metaphorical Emphasize the processor’s role as a passive
concepts observer of an act he can do nothing to
prevent
Elaborate a plan Hear the creaky plank
Taste the flavor of death Not see that (Mrs. Veloc’s resemblance to
Stevie)
Take in the full meaning of the portent See ‘the moving shadow of an arm

Recognize the limb and the weapon

Mrs. Verloc’s actions & Mr. Verloc’s perception of them presented indirectly

i.e. Mr. Verloc never sees his wife but makes connections between
the sights, sounds &her physical presence.
 Mr. Verloc: A Conclusion
Verloc
Verbs Is not the causer or Can’t control the situation
initiator of the action in Passive observer of his
Mental OR Intransitive
any of the processes own death

Sees all and understands Does not have time to

all but doesn’t have time transform the thoughts of
to act defense into action
 Mrs. Verloc
The doer of the act
 Distancing & Detaching Mrs. Verloc:
Actors as Parts of The Body/ Instruments &
Goal-less Verbs & Passive Structures
Example Pattern

Her right hand skimmed lightly the end of the table Actor, causer (hand)+process (action), affected (the table)

She passed on Actor (she) + process (action) goal-less

The carving knife had vanished Instrument, (knife) + process (supervention verb describing a
(we are not told that Mrs. Verloc took it) change)

An arm with a clenched hand holding a carving knife • No reference to Mrs. Verloc
• Not as physical objects but as shadows
seen by Mr. Verloc

The knife was planted • The reference to the actor/causer is

The blow was delivered removed
• The knife and the blow become the
grammatical subject

Into that plunging blow…Mrs.Verloc had put all the inheritance of The only specific reference to Mrs. Verloc as actor after she dealt
her … with the blow
 No connection Seems as if she is not
When she is the actor, between her physical in full control of her
the goal is absent actions & the mental action. As if driven by
(goal-less patterns) processes involved a force

No explicit reference
to her as a causer or Parts of her body or
actor in the steps of an instrument take on
the murder the role of the actor
Thank you