HỌ C VIỆ N KHOA HỌ C QUÂ N SỰ

TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF A PIECE OF NEWS

Họ và tên: Vũ Thế Dương

Môn học: Ngữ phá p chứ c nă ng
Ngày nộp: 5/8/2022
Lớp: CH11NA
Môn học: Ngữ phá p chứ c nă ng
Lớp: CH11NA Hệ: 7

TIỂU LUẬN
Ngày nộp: 5/8/2022

Hệ: 7
Cán bộ chấm thi Số phách
(Ký ghi rõ họ tên)
CBCT số 1 CBCT số
1

Điểm Số phách
Bằng số Bằng chữ
 INTRODUCTION

As of date, systemic functional linguistics has expanded into a theory

that informs many branches of applied linguistics, including educational
linguistics, studies of multimodality, and critical discourse analysis. While it
has been most infuential in the domain of educational linguistics, the
systemic functional linguistics approach to discourse analysis has also
gained ground in recent years, with works from researchers such as
Yaghoobi (2009) and Nguyen (2012). Their approach to discourse analysis,
known as transitivity analysis, look at a text not only from its structure, but
also its social contexts, which allow a researcher to better understand the
intentions and ideology of the author. So what is systemic functional
linguistics? And how can transitivity analysis achieve what stated above?
This short essay will try to generalize the concept of systemic functional
linguistics and transitivity, and do a transitivity analysis of a piece of news
to illustrate its practical use.

2
 1. Systemic functional linguistics

a. The definition of systemic functional linguistics

Systemic functional linguistics (SFL), a term first coined by Michael

Alexander Kirkwood Halliday, is an approach to linguistics that regards
language as a social semiotic system. Different from other approaches to
linguistic which tend to focus on the structure (the syntagmatic axis),
Halliday’s view is that language is above all a system, or a set of choices (the
paradigmatic axis). Furthermore, language must evolve to serve its
functions which are in close relation to human society, hence the word
‘functional’. (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014)

b. The metafunctions of language

In his pursuit of a linguistic theory and description that is appliable to

any context of human language, Halliday (2014) arrived at a set of
principles, which allow SFL to map any language variety using its
representation tool of a ‘system network’. Among these principles, one
depicts that all languages involve three simultaneously generated
metafunctions, which are:

- Ideational (experiential) metafunction (clause as representation)

construes experience of our outer and inner reality as well as logical
relations between phenomena. This is realized through the use of the
transitivity system.

- Interpersonal metafunction (clause as exchange) enacts social

relations, creates and maintains interpersonal relations, made possible with
the mood system.

- Textual metafunction (clause as message) weaves together these

two functions above to create text, a coherent flow of discourse, following
the thematic structure.

3
 c. The transitivity system

According to Halliday (2014), transitivity is the principle grammatical

system of experiential metafunction. The three main components of
transitivity system are process, participant, and circumstance. Transitivity
specified the different types of processes that are recognized in the
language and the structures by which they are expressed. Halliday divided
them into 6 types of processes: material, mental, relational, behavioural,
verbal, and existential.

- Material process: Material processes indicate activities or events,

which happen in the outside world of human beings. This process refers to
physical experience of human beings. Halliday states that material
processes are processes of ‘doing’. They express the notion that some entity
‘does’ something – which may be done ‘to’ some other entity. So, clauses
with a material process obligatorily have a doing (process), a doer
(participant 1) and an entity to which the process is extended or directed
(participant 2).

- Mental process: Mental processes refer to verbs indicating

perception, cognition, affection, and desire. It enables language users to
express opinion, thoughts and tastes that help to identify their definitions of
reality. This process type tends to be realized through the use of verbs like
think, know, feel, smell, hear, see, want, like, hate, please, repel, admire,
enjoy, fear. Mental processes differ from material ones in as much as the
latter are physical, moving, doings. Semantically, a mental process involves
sense, which is inside the human or conscious being. Mental process is
related to psychological matters. The participant that is related to the sense
must be a conscious or human being. The person in whose mind the mental
process occurs is not really ‘acting’.

4
 - Relational process: Relational process construes being and relation
among entities through identification, attribution, and possession. The
process occurs outside and inside human being. Relational processes are
typically realized by the verb ‘be’ or some verbs of the same class. Halliday
states that relational process is divided into two modes: identifying process
and attributive process.

+) Indentifying processes are the processes which assign an identity.

It means that one entity is being used to identify another: ‘x is identified by
a’, or ‘a serves to define the identity of x’. Structurally, the x-element is
labeled as identified, which is to be identified, and the a-element is labeled
as identifier, which serves an identity. This mode is realized by the verbs:
‘be’ (is, am, are, was, were…), become, etc.

+) Attributive processes are the processes which assign a quality. ‘a is

an attribute of x’. Other words, in this mode an entity has some quality
ascribed or attributed to it. This type is realized by the verbs: sound, look,
play, cost, have, get, seem, etc.

- Behavioural process: Behavioural processes are processes of

physiological and psychological behaviour, like breathing, dreaming,
snoring, smiling, hiccupping, looking, watching, listening, and pondering.
They are the least distinct of all the six process types because they have no
clearly defined characteristics of their own; rather, they are partly like the
material and partly like the mental. Other words this type is the grey area
between material and mental processes. Typically, behavioural processes
have only one participant who is ‘behaving’: that is the human who is
typically conscious being.

- Verbal process: Speaking is certainly a kind of action, and to some

extent it would not be unreasonable to treat it as material process. On the
other hand, it has some features of mental process, especially if we believe

5
that verbalization of thoughts is a kind of inner speech. A case can be made
for creating a new category of process: verbal processes – verbs of ‘saying’.
Specifically, the process includes that of saying, commanding, asking, and
offering.

- Existential process: Existential processes are processes of existence.

These represent that something exists or happens. The existential
processes are normally recognizable because it is signaled by ‘there’. The
word ‘there’ is needed as subject, but it has no experiential meaning in a
sense, its function is to avoid the need for, or the possibility of, a second
participant in the clause, because there is only one participant inside.

For each type of processes, there are certain brandings for its
participants. For example, Material process has Actor and Goal as its
participants, while Mental process has Senser and Phenomenon.
Understanding these types of processes is crucial, as they are essential for
conducting a transitivity analysis.

d. Transitivity analysis

Transitivity analysis in one of the many applications of SFL. Through

its use, researchers can unveil certain meanings within a text that may be
implicit to readers. The goal of a transitivity analysis is to clarify the link
between meanings and wordings, which concern the organization of
linguistic features in a text.

As a prime example for transitivity analysis, Halliday’s study of

William Golding’s The Inheritors (1971) set the precedent for many following
critical discourse analyses. In the words of Carter and Stockwell (2008),

Halliday’s work is “one of the groundbreaking analysis in stylistics”.

Following the use of transitivity analysis piorneered by Halliday, Yaghoobi
(2009) conduct a critical discourse analysis on news structures. The
analytical works of Halliday and Yaghoobi, as well as many other

6
researchers, show c (Trung, 2022)oncrete evidents as to how the system of
transitivity can deliver the meaning and ideology of a text. (Nguyen, 2012)

2. Transitivity analysis of a piece of news

a. Data collection

The piece of news chosen for analyzing is titled ‘Vietnamese in

Europe suffer from blistering temperature’, written by Duc Trung and
posted on the e-newspaper Vnexpress on the 22nd of July 2022. This certain
text was selected for its updated information, and its length and simplicity.
The text was dissected into sentences and clauses, each clause then had its
process, participant and circumstance specified. The types of processes of
the clauses were also clarified.

b. Findings and discussion

The total of sentences extracted from the text are 32, which are
divided into 64 clauses. The types of processes and their corresponding
appearance times are shown in the table below:

Material Mental Verbial Relational Existential Behavioural

Frequency 27 5 15 15 2 0

Percentage 42.3% 7.8% 23.4% 23.4% 3.1% 0%

Table 1. Frequency and percentage of each type of processes

From the table above, it can be seen that material processes appear
the most frequently with 27 instances, accounting for 42.3 percents of the
number of processes within the text. This is followed by verbial and
relational processes, each with 15 occurances, contributing a total of 46.8
percents of the processes in the text, or 23.4 percents for each type. Mental
and existential processes appear 5 and 2 times respectively, with mental
processes hold 7.8 percents and existential processes take 3.1 percents of

7
the sum of process appearances. Of the 64 processes in the text, behavioural
process is the only process type missing.

As shown, material process is the most common within the text. As

this news is about a certain event happening in the real world, or to be
more precise, the heat wave occurring in Europe. However, most of the
material processes happen in clauses which have the role of a verbiage for
the verbial processes. In fact, the same thing can be said for other processes
as well, except for, of course, Verbial process. Although verbial process may
appear less frequently then material process, it still shares the position of
the second most occurred with relational process. And throughout the text,
verbial process actually takes the center role as other types of processes
mostly happen in direct quotes. The Speakers for these verbial processes
are either individuals (Thanh Tu, Quynh Anh, Marc, Sam,…) or
organizations (The Met Office, The ministry of Health, World Meteorological
Organization spokesman Clare Nullis,…), but never the author. It can be
deducted from this that the writer wants to give a report on the event
without adding his own comments. Since the heat wave is actually
occurring in Europe, using verbial process to share with the readers what
the people experiencing the heat wave have to say give a more authentic
view of the situation. Furthermore, the author includes both the locals and
the foreigners, Vietnamese people living in Europe, as Speakers for verbial
processes, this allows for a more comprehensive outlook on the extreme
weather situation in Europe.

For the material processes, the participants include the European

infrastructures such as ‘some roads and train routes’, ‘rails’, ‘buildings’,
‘offices’, ‘public transport’, ‘house in Britain’. For these parts, the author
wants to point out how the Europen infrastructures are not built for
endurance against high temperature, and fail to endure the sweltering

8
weather. The verbs used for material processes are either linked to
destruction, for example: ‘deform’, ‘melt’, to prove they are not suited for
withstanding hot weather; or fitted for description like ‘have’, ‘be
constructed’. In the second case, the process ‘do not have’ repeats quite
often, and always goes with the Goal ‘air conditioning’, to show that many
buildings in Europe are not equipped with air conditioners. Furthermore,
the circumstances also show the reasons why the heat wave affects Europe
so severely: ‘to withstand a maximum temperature of 27 degrees Celsius’,
‘with materials primarily meant to retain heat to make winters bearable’,
‘because of their use of traditional materials and architecture’. Besides
being European infrastructures, the Actors are also people (Thanh Tu, Duc
Thanh, Sam, indigenous people,…), who are the Speakers for the verbial
processes, as they shared their experience coping with the heat wave. To
add, some material processes are used to convey the governments’ efforts
in dealing with the heat wave: processes like ‘issue’ or ‘deploy’ go with
participants such as ‘the U.K.’, ‘over 600 troops from the military's
emergency response force’.

Of the 15 relational processes, 12 are attributive processes and the

rest are identifying processes. For the attributive processes, the Carriers are
usually ‘the temperature’, or ‘the weather’, and combining with them are
Attributes such as ‘unbearable’, ‘hot’, ‘exessive’, ‘high’. The only instance the
weather is described as ‘bearable’ is during the interviews with people from
Vietnam. This combined with the large number of attributive processes
shows the author’s need to describe the current heat wave in Europe,
through the lens of both locals and foreigners. There are also some
attributive processes with the aim of highlighting climate change, with
Carriers being ‘summer’, ‘heat wave’ and Attributes being ‘shorter’, ‘more
common’.

9
10
 CONCLUSION

Through this short analysis of a piece of news, it can be seen how

transitivity analysis can be utilized to to deduct the author’s intentions and
ideas by the way of looking for patterns and repetitions in types of
processes, as well as the processes and participants used. From this short
text, readers can realize the severity of the heat wave occurring in Europe,
and how its affects not only the people but also the European
infrastructures. The conclusion from all these facts paints a grim picture for
the future, as the negative effects of climate change, which has been warned
again and again, come sooner then anyone could imagine. This calls for
urgent solutions from the governments to reduce the harm climate change
can cause.

11
 REFERENCES
Carter, R., & Stockwell, P. (2008). The Language and Literature Reader.
London: Routledge.
Halliday, A. K. (1971). Linguistic Function and Literary Style: An inquiry
into the Language of Walliam Golding's the Inheritors. In S. Chat,
Literary Style: A Symposium (pp. 330-368). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Halliday, M. A., & Matthiessen, C. M. (2014). An Introduction to Functional
Grammar (4th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Nguyen, H. T. (2012). Transitivity Analysis of Heroic Mother by Hoa Pham.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(4), 85-100.
Trung, D. (2022, July 22). VNExpress International. Retrieved from
Vnexpress: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/trend/vietnamese-in-
europe-suffer-from-blistering-temperatures-4490826.html
Yaghoobi, M. (2009). A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Selected Iranian
and American Printed Media on the Representation of Hizbullah-
Isreal War. Journal of International Communication, 21.

12
 APPENDIX

Data collected from the newspaper

N
Clauses Processes Types
o.
1a Thanh Tu struggles to cope with the brutal heat wave Europe is going through, struggles material
1b especially since his house in Britain, like most others, has no air conditioning. has material
2a the seven-year London resident says. says verbial
2b I have to buy more fans buy material
2c because they don't often sell air conditionings in the U.K. sell material
2d And if I do have air conditioning, have material
2e using it too much will send my electricity bill skyrocketing," send material
3 The heat wave has engulfed several European countries. engulfed material
4a The Met Office, the national weather service, said said verbial
Britain recorded 40.2 degrees Celsius on Tuesday (local time), crushing the previous record of 38.7 degrees
4b recorded material
Celsius set in 2019.
5 The U.K. issued its first ever red extreme heat warning Monday. issued material
be closed
6a Some roads and train routes had to be closed down material
down
6b because the extreme temperatures melted asphalt melted material
6c and deformed rails. deformed material
In a temperate country like the U.K., public transport is often designed to withstand a maximum temperature of
7 is designed material
27 degrees Celsius.
8 Besides, buildings are constructed with materials primarily meant to retain heat to make winters bearable are material
 constructed
attributi
9a As a result, it is unbearable indoors, is
ve
9b Tu points out points out verbial
Countries in southwestern Europe are experiencing
are
10 their second heat wave of the summer, with temperatures reaching "inferno" levels and sparking material
experiencing
wildfires.
11
Many indigenous people in the U.K. and France say says verbial
a
11 identifyi
it is the first time in their lives is
b ng
11
that they have experienced such a severe heat wave experienced material
c
12
Marc, a 27-year-old office worker in the French capital told VnExpress Tuesday. told verbial
a
12 attributi
The temperature in Paris is now over 40 degrees Celsius, is
b ve
13
Most offices in Paris do not have air conditioning, do not have material
a
13
he points out points out verbial
b
14 France is experiencing an exceptional heat wave, with 15 departments under red heat alert. experiencing material
15
Marc says. says verbial
a
15 attributi
The temperature is so high that the more you turn on the fan, the hotter it gets, is
b ve
16 In Spain, the prolonged heat wave has set off forest wildfires on an unprecedented scale. has set off material
17
Duc Thanh, a Vietnamese student in Madrid, describes the sweltering weather: describes verbial
a
2
17 attributi
It's extremely hot as if I am standing next to an open stove. is
b ve
17
"Because they live in a temperate country, live material
c
17
Spaniards do not have air conditioning do not have material
d
17
and instead rely on fans, rely material
e
17 attributi
and so it is very hot both at home and on roads." is
f ve
Over 600 troops from the military's emergency response force have been
18 material
been deployed to help firefighters and rangers combat the dozens of wildfires that are raging across the country. deployed
19
The Ministry of Health has warned warned verbial
a
19
that the severe heat could have a negative impact on people’s health. have material
b
20
Sam, 28, of Madrid says says verbial
a
20 has never
he has never seen such widespread wildfires in the country, making the air even hotter and sultrier. mental
b seen
21 attributi
For Vietnamese living in Europe, the heat wave is "bearable" is
a ve
21 attributi
since they are used to hot and humid weather back home. are
b ve
22 While Marc, a native of Paris, feels the heat is excessive day and night, feels mental
23
Quynh Anh says says verbial
a
23 attributi
evenings in the French city are still "cool, sometimes cold." are
b ve

3
24 Both locals and Vietnamese however raise concerns about the increasingly severe effects of climate change. raise mental
25
Dinh Thi Minh Chau, who is studying for a master's degree in political science in Vienna, Austria, says says verbial
a
25 attributi
In the past summer was usually shorter than winter, was
b ve
26 identifyi
The current climate change means means
a ng
26 buildings in Austria, and throughout Europe, are unsuited attributi
are
b to the current high temperatures because of their use of traditional materials and architecture. ve
attributi
27 According to scientists, heat waves are becoming more common as a result of climate change. are becoming
ve
28 World Meteorological Organization spokesman Clare Nullis said at a press briefing on July 12 in Geneva,
said verbial
a Switzerland.
28
We do expect it to worsen, expect mental
b
29 existenti
"Accompanying this heat is drought. is
a al
29
We have got very, very dry soils at the moment." have got material
b
30
In a report in July, the European Commission's joint research center said said verbial
a
30 46 percent of the E.U.'s territory is under warnings, with 11 percent at alert levels, with crops already attributi
is
b suffering from the lack of water. ve
31
Spain is known as a "warm and sunny" country, according to Sam, is known mental
a
31 is not to be identifyi
but the extreme heat that occurs more frequently each year is not to be taken lightly.
b taken ng
32
He added added verbial
a

4
32
"Climate change has a huge negative impact on us; has material
b
32 existenti
there's no way to prevent similar heatwaves in the future is
c al
32
unless we act quickly." act material
d