Process in Functional Grammar as a Comprehensive Concept, Jumino Suhadi.

PROCESS IN FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

AS A COMPREHENSIVE CONCEPT

Jumino Suhadi
Masters Program in English Literature
Islamic University of North Sumatra, Medan

Abstract

The term verb has widely been used since the beginning of
the science of language and it has been admitted as a
precise term to indicate any type of predicate in a clause.
So far, no linguists have the opinion to replace the term by
another. They generally do attempt to classify verbs
according to the syntactic as well as semantic features,
but, actually, they are trapped in accepting this
inadequate term. Consciously or unconsciously they use
the term verb not only to indicate a process of saying but
also to cover all kinds of process of human experience. So
this article is an attempt to highlight how the term process
in Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) proposed by
Halliday (1994) is admitted as a more comprehensive
concept instead of verb in traditional grammar as well as
in modern grammar.

Keywords: Systemic Functional Grammar, process, material, mental, relational,

verbal, behavioural, existential, meteorological, participant, circumstance.

INTRODUCTION
Background
The term ‘verb’ should actually be used to indicate an activity related to saying
but, in fact, traditional as well modern grammarians use the term to indicate a wide
range of activities. For instance, the verb worry is not actually verbal, but it is related
to mental activity indicating state. The verb pour is related to material activity as it
can be observed. The word pour has nothing to do at all with saying as generally
meant by the word verb. Thus, the term verb should actually be suitable for such
words as say, mention, tell, utter, ask, express, etc. which are verbal in nature.
The misconception of the term verb also happens in Indonesian Linguistics in
which what is meant by verb in English is kata kerja ‘action word’ in Bahasa
Indonesia. Such a term seems to be misleading as the word worry is not an action but

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state, and the word fall as in The clock fell is not an action but an event. Whatever the
meaning implied by those words discussed earlier must refer to process. Thus, this
study is an attempt to highlight how Halliday (1994) extensively postulated a concept
called process in his linguistic theory known as Systemic Functional Grammar.
In the analysis, this school of grammar which is developed by his followers
such as Bloor and Bloor (1995), Eggins (1994), Gerrot and Wignell (1994) will also
be referred to.

Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar

In Systemic Functional Grammar (henceforth SFG), language is interpreted as
a system of meanings, followed by forms known as lexicogrammar through which the
meanings can be realized.
Halliday (1994) explains that a language consists of a set of systems and the
speaker or the writer may choose the ways of expressing meanings. When people use
a language to express meanings, they do so in specific situations, and the form of the
language that they use is influenced by the complex elements of those situations.
Thus, it is with these ideas that Halliday means by his theory of Systemic Functional
Grammar. He claims that all adult language is organized around a small number of
functional components which correspond to the metafunctions of language which
underlie all language use and these metafunctions have a systematic relationship with
the lexicogrammar of the language.

Metafunctions of Language
Language is used in three different functions known as the three metafunctions
of language. These metafunctions are the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual.
The ideational function means that language is used to organize, understand and
express the speaker’s perceptions of the world and of his consciousness, and therefore
this function is divided into two: the experiential function and the logical function.
The experiential function is largely concerned with content or ideas which regard
clause as the representations of experience in terms of transitivity structures, which is
represented with processes and associated with participants and circumstances. The

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Process in Functional Grammar as a Comprehensive Concept, Jumino Suhadi.

logical function is concerned with the relationship between ideas, in, for instance, the
clause complex. It defines logical relation between one clause and another.
The interpersonal function means that language is used to enable the speaker to
participate in communicative acts with other people, to sake on voles and to express
and misunderstand feelings, attitude and judgments. This function involves mood
structures which express interactional meanings such as what the clause is doing, as a
verbal exchange between the encoder and the decoder.
The textual function means that language is used to relate what is said as
written to the real world and to other linguistic events. This involves the use of
language to organize the text itself in terms of theme structures which express the
organization of the message; how the clause relates the surrounding discourse and to
the context of situation in which it is being produced.
Halliday (1994) maintains that the three metafunctions of language noted above
operate simultaneously in the expression of meaning because certain aspects of the
grammar realize the ideational function, other aspects realize the interpersonal
function, and yet others realize the textual function. These functions also determine
the structural shape of the clause and have molded the shape of language and fixed the
course of its evolution and this claim is the basis of the theory of functional grammar.

DISCUSSION
Halliday (1994) notes that the first metafunction of language is the ideational
function in which clause is regarded as the representation of experience. Language
enables human beings to build a mental picture of reality, to make sense of what goes
on around them and inside them. So the clause plays a central role in this theory
because it embodies a general principle for modeling experience namely the principle
that reality is made up of process and all of them are sorted out in the grammar of the
clause. The grammatical system by which this is achieved is transitivity. The
transitivity system construes the world of experience into a manageable set of process
types. A process is associated with three components: the process itself which is
realized in verbal group, the participants involved which is realized in the nominal
group and circumstance which is realized in the adverbial or prepositional group.

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Material Process
Material process is one of the major types as it covers most of human conscious
reflection. It refers to processes of material doing which express the notion that some
entity physically does something – which may be done to some other entity (Gerrot
and Wignell, 1994:55). Material processes cover processes of doing, processes of
creating, processes of happening and abstract processes.
Process of doing occurs in the actor point of view of the dispositive type and
the actor does something to the goal so that the verbs which are generally used in this
type are those which indicate deed as in the following.
1) a. The alligator killed the frog.
Actor Material Goal

b. The bulldozer destroyed the building

Actor Material Goal

In this theory, if those active sentences are expressed in the corresponding

passive the identity of the actor and the goal is maintained as in (2).
2) a. The frog was killed by the alligator.
Goal Material Actor

b. The building was destroyed by the bulldozer.

Goal Material Actor

Some processes of doing may be intransitive and therefore they involve one
participant only, that is the actor. Such processes as go, come, walk, run, swim, etc. are
intransitive and they cannot have a second participant.
Material process may also refer to the process of creating and it obviously
expresses the notion that it must be transitive and the goal is brought about as the
result of creating such as in (3).

3) a. The villagers built a mosque.

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Actor Material Goal

The processes of this type are: make, produce, paint, decorate, construct,
establish, build, etc.
Material process of happening is also found in the dispositive. It occurs as the
result of the goal in undergoing what the actor has done to it, or something happens to
the goal after the actor did something to it. Process of happening is generally
intransitive such as in (4).
4) a. The mountain erupted.
Actor Material

b. The glass broke.

Actor Material

Material process can be an abstract process. It is unnecessarily concrete but still

treated grammatically as the type of action as in the following:
5) a. The Dean opened the meeting.
Actor Material Goal

b. The athlete broke a new record.

Actor Material Goal

Material abstract process can also be intransitive as in (6).

6) a. The two families integrated.
Actor Material

b. The complicated problem has melted.

Actor Material

Mental Process
Mental process is a process which occurs in the internal world of the mind.
There are three types of mental process: the first is that related to affection and

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reaction (feelings), the second related to cognition (thinking) and the last related to
perception (perceiving).
Mental process generally involves two participants. The first participant is
called senser and the second phenomenon.
Process of feeling refers to such verbs as enjoy, like, hate, detest, love, etc. It
may express emotion as worry, dismay, surprise, etc.
Process of thinking is associated with human cognition such as think, know,
believe, forget, remember, doubt, etc. such as in (7).
7) I believe your words.
Senser Mental Phenomenon

Some mental processes are intransitive and have one participant as in the
following:
8).
Senser Mental Process
a. The students understand
b. She realized

Relational Process
Relational process is one of the three major types of process. Relational
processes are used to relate one fragment of experience to another. They construe
relation among entities through two possible modes identification and attribution,
which can further be divided into three types: intensive, circumstantial, and
possessive.

Halliday (1994:119) gives six categories of relational process as quoted below:

Mode
Type (i) Attributive (ii) Identifying
(1) intensive Sarah is wise Tom is the leader;
The leader is Tom
(2) circumstantial The fair is on Tuesday Tomorrow is the 10th;
The 10th is tomorrow

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(3) possessive Peter has a piano The piano is Peter’s;

Peter’s is the piano

Intensive Attributive Process construes that an entity has some quality

attributed to it so that the participant which carries the quality is labeled as carrier and
the quality itself has the label called attribute. The main characteristics of this type of
process is that (1) the process refers to the ascriptive classes, (2) if the attribute is
nominal it is typically indefinite, and (3) the clause is not reversible as in the
following:
9) My brother is talkative.
My brother becomes a teacher.
My brother looks worried.
Carrier Intensive attributive Attribute

Intensive Identifying Process construes that something has an identity assigned

to it and the participant which serves as identity is labeled as identifier or token and
that which serves to define the identity is called identified or value. This type of
process may be characterized as (1) the process refers to the aquative classes such as
be, indicate, illustrate, signify, mean, comprise, imply, etc., (2) the identifier is
typically definite, and (3) the clause is reversible.
10) John is the best student.
This question constitutes the last chance.
John played the rascal.
The right one was yours
Identifier/Token Intensive Identif. Identified/Value

The above clauses may be reversed as:

11) The best student is John.
The last chance is constituted this question.
The rascal is played by John.
Yours was the right one.
Identifier/Value Intensive Identified/Token

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Identifying Process

However, the circumstance may be as the process:

11) The play lasted the whole night.
Carrier Circumstantial Attribute
attributive process

Circumstantial attributive process is similar to the intensive attributive process

but it involves concepts like location, time etc. which refer to a particular
circumstance as the participant (attribute).
12) The mowing machine is in the backyard.
The Independence Day was on Friday.
Carrier Circumstantial Attribute
attribute process

Notice that the attributes in the two clauses above consist of location spatial and
location temporal respectively.

Circumstantial identifying process, on the other hand, is also almost similar to

intensive identifying process but it is characterized by the fact that the relationship
between the identifier and the identified is expressed by a circumstance indicating
place, time or manner or by a process associated to a circumstance.
13) a. Today is the twentieth.
Token Circumstantial Value
identifying process

b. The twentieth is today.

Value Circumstantial Token
identifying process

c. The song follows the music.

Token Circumstantial Value
identifying process

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d. The music is followed by the song.

Value Circumstantial Token
identifying process

Possessive attributive process construes the relationship between two

participants in terms of ownership in which one entity possesses another. If the
possession is expressed as the attribute, it is generally in the form of a possessive
nominal group.
14) This is John’s.
Carrier Attributive Possessive
process attribute

If the possession is expressed as the process, then two possibilities may take
place, either the carrier as the possessor and the attribute as the possessed or the
carrier as the possessed and the attribute as the possessor, depending on the process
used.
15) a. John has a detective novel.
Carrier/ Possessive Attribute/
possessor attributive process possessed

b. The detective novel belongs to John.

Carrier/ Possessive Attribute/
possessed attributive process possessor

Possessive identifying process is similar to possessive attributive but this is

characterized by the possibility of the clause to be reversed as:

16) a. The house is John’s.

Token/ Identifying Value/
possessed possessor

b. John’s is the house.

Value/ Identifying Token/
possessor possessed

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Observe that the possession is expressed by the relationship between the token and the
value. The possession can also be expressed by a process as in the following:
17) a. John owns the house.
Token/ Possessive Value/
possessor identifying process possessed

b. The house is owned by John.

Value/ Possessive Token/
possessed identifying process possessor

Verbal Process
Verbal process refers to processes which carry the sense of expressing ideas in
words. However, verbal process may include those which do not require a conscious
participant. The sayer can be anything that puts out a signal. (Halliday,1994:140)
Verbal processes are intermediate between mental and material processes. Verbal
processes may be classified into several subclasses: process of saying, process of
quoting, and process of saying.

Process of Saying
Process of saying covers a large number of verbal groups such as say, speak,
tell, mention, ask, report, describe, explain, state, declare, comment, etc. But, those
processes are regarded as the process of saying when they are used with two
participants: sayer and verbiage as in the following:
18) a. He speaks French.
Sayer Verbal Verbiage

b. The announcer mentioned my name.

Sayer Verbal Verbiage

Process of Quoting
Verbal processes are called the process of quoting when they are used in the
direct speech. The wording of the sentence quoted is generally identical to the words,
which are spoken by the sayer or speaker. Direct speech is identified from its

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characteristic of using quotation marks and, therefore, the words between the
quotation marks are not treated as the verbiage but the quoted as in the following:
19) a. Marry said, “I hate this kind of food.”
Sayer Verbal Quoted

b. The jury announced, “John is defeated.”

Sayer Verbal Quoted

Process of Reporting
Verbal processes when used in the indirect speech are called processes of
reporting. In the reported speech the speaker reports the gist of what was said and the
wording is usually quite different from the original statement. The speech function in
reporting is by any means obscured but it can be made explicit by using reporting
verbs.
Reported clause can be differentiated from whether it is a reporting statement, a
question, an order or a suggestion. Observe the following:
20) a. The teacher said that every student should have a dictionary.
Sayer Verbal Reported

b. He asked her where she lives .

Sayer Verbal Receiver Reported

c. He asked the students to buy a dictionary.

Sayer Verbal Receiver Reported

Behavioral Process
Behavioral processes are processes of physical and psychological behavior, like
breathing, dreaming, snoring, smiling, hiccupping, looking, watching, listening, and
pondering (Halliday, 1994:139 and Gerot and Wignel, 1994:160). Behavioral
processes are partly like the material and partly like the mental. They generally have
only one participant called behaver which is typically a conscious being. However,

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they may also have two participants and the second participant is called range.
Observe the following:
21) a. He lives happily.
Behaver Behavioral Circumstance

b. He lives a happy life.

Behaver Behavior Range

c. She smiles nicely.

Behaver Behavior Circumstance

d. She smiles a nice smile.

Behaver Behavior Range

Existential Process
Existential process represent that something exists or happens (Halliday,
1994:142). Existential processes generally occur with the verb be and the word there
known as existential there which does not have any representational function. They
are always followed by spatial or temporal circumstance such as in the following:
22) There is a bomb in this building.
Existential Existent Circumstance

Observe that existential process has only one participant called existent, which
comes after the process. However, in some other existential processes the existent
comes first as in:
23) A ghost like creature exists in this old building.
Existent Existential Circumstance

This process type which represents happening includes: arise, occur, happen, take
place, come about, erupt, explode, prevail, etc.
24) The world war II broke out in 1942.
Existent Existential Circumstance

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Meteorological Process
Meteorological process represents the process of weathering. This process
occurs with the impersonal it, which has no representational function, but does
provide a subject, and it is followed by be and meteorological representations:
weathering and timing as in the following:
25) It is ten o’clock now.
It’s raining now.
It is Sunday.
Meteorological Circumstance

Meteorological process is a unique type in the case that it has no participant at

all. Those clauses are analyzed as consisting of a single element, the process only.

CONCLUSION
One of the metafunctions of language as proposed by Halliday (1994) is the
experiential function which means that language is used to represent human
experience in the world. In everyday life human beings talk about both the external
world such as things, events, qualities, etc. and the internal world such as thoughts,
beliefs, feelings, etc. So, language reflects human view of the world as consisting of
processes involving participants, and possibly involving circumstances. This concept
is known as transitivity in SFG.
The concept of process in this school of grammar is considered more
comprehensive than that of verb in traditional grammar in some ways. First, it refers
to a wider range of syntactic aspects as it describes the whole clause rather than just
the verb and the object. It also determines how the participants are labeled as different
type of process has different label of participants. The term process itself is so
accurate that it really reflects experiences or events in this world materially, mentally,
verbally, behaviorally, relationally, existentially or even meteorologically.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bloor, T & Bloor, M. 1995. The Functional Analysis of English. New York: Arnold.

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Downing, A. and Locke, P. 1992. A University Course in English Grammar. New

York: Prentice Hall.

Eggins, S. 1994. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Printers.

Gerot, L. and Wignell, 1994. Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sydney: Stabler
Ltd.

Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward

Arnold.

Morley, G. David. 2000. Syntax in Functional Grammar. London: Continuum.

Siewierska, Anna. 1991. Functional Grammar. New York: Routledge.

Thompson, G. 1996. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Tokyo: Arnold Ltd.

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