How speakers

represent the world:

Exploring experiential
meanings
FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
2nd Semester, 16-17
NORSU-Guihulngan Campus
Prepared by: GLENDA S. PASINABO
Graduate School
Patterns of Experience in the clause…

Conjunction Groups
 Language System

1. PROCESS
realised by a verbal group
(see page 50)
2. PARTICIPANTS
realised by nominal groups or
prepositional phrases
 Language System

3. CIRCUMSTANCES
realised by adverbial groups,
prepositional phrases and, occasionally,
by nominal groups functioning as if
they were adverbs (the whys and whens
and wherefores)
(see page 63-64)
 Language System

4. CONJUNCTION GROUPS
linking mechanisms ready to help join
the various systems (clauses) together in
a variety of logical relationships
Metalanguage for discussing language as
experience…

PARTICIPANT can be further described in

terms of:
Participant Roles
– such as ACTOR, AGENT, GOAL,
CARRIER, SAYER
(see pages 52-59)
Metalanguage for discussing language as
experience…

PROCESS is divided into three (3) basic types:

a. Material
b. Relational
c. Projecting
 Packaging Experience

You want to draw someone’s attention to the

fact that a certain shop closes at six o’clock:

The shop closes at six.

Participant Process Circumstance
 Packaging Experience

But you don’t have to present closing as a

Process; you could say:

The shop’s closing time is at six.

Participant Process Participant

 Packaging Experience

You might want to talk about the sun setting.

You could express the setting as a Process:

The sun is setting.

Participant Process
 Packaging Experience

However, you could also talk about the sun

setting in terms of the sun’s location. In other
words, you could express the setting as
Circumstance.

The sun is on the horizon.

Participant Process Circumstance
 Packaging Experience

You might want to treat this event as a thing

(Participant) rather than a Process, as in:

The sunset ‘s blinding me.

Participant Process Participant
Clause constituency in the experiential
function…
Participant + Process
The chair collapsed.
The water evaporated.
The horse bolted.
He sneezed.
The President arrived.
The truth will be revealed.
Clause constituency in the experiential
function…

Participant + Process + Participant

The water damaged the carpet.
The horse kicked him.
She remembered his name.
The Premier congratulated them.
Clause constituency in the experiential
function…

Participant + Process + Circumstance

The chair collapsed under him.
The President arrived by train.
The judicial system works slowly.
Winter might come as early as last year.
Clause constituency in the experiential
function…

Participant + Process + Participant + Circumstance

The dog bit him on the ankle.

I thanked her warmly.
Clause constituency in the experiential
function…

Some clauses have only one constituent,

the obligatory Process. Reminding
ourselves about the rank scale, we find
something interesting about the
following examples.
Clause constituency in the experiential
function…

Process
Stop!
Hide!
Run!
In each case, we have a clause complex made
up of one clause, which in turn is made up of
one group, which consists of one word, which
comprises one morpheme.
Clause constituency in the experiential
function…
Some clauses project another clause:
Participant + Process + Projected clause
She remembered that it was his birthday.
Chris said the VCR wasn’t working.

Participant + Process + Participant + Projected clause

The manager told the staff that the company
was now making
a profit.
 Clauses as Processes

PROCESSES
are expressions of happening, doing,
being, saying and thinking

realised in the grammar by means of a

verbal group of words with a class verb
word as the head or nucleus of the group
 Clauses as Processes

Example:
Verbal groups with “jump” as head

- jump - ought to jump

- will jump - can jump
- might be about to jump
 Three Process Types

1. DOING WORDS
describe actions and happenings in the
outside
 Three Process Types

The doing words can be subdivided into:

a.) Processes like arrived, collapsed, works,

bolted, and bit that encode experiences in the
external, material world. These are to do with
doing and happening and are known as
MATERIAL processes.
 Three Process Types

b.) Processes like sneezed, watched, sang that

encode physiological or psychological
behaviour (often the doing equivalent of a
mental or even a verbal process). They lie
somewhere between material and mental or
verbal processes and are known as
BEHAVIOURAL processes.
 Three Process Types

2. THINKING, FEELING OR SAYING

WORDS (Projecting Verbs)
these words are more to do with the
inner world of cognition, perception,
emotion and desire and have the
potential for protecting our inner world
as thought, or speech so that it can be
apprehended by others.
 Three Process Types

The Projecting Verbs can be subdivided into:

a.) Processes like enjoyed, remembered and

overheard that encode experiences in the inner
world of consciousness. These are to do with
thinking, wanting, perceiving and emoting and
are known as MENTAL processes.
 Three Process Types

b.) Processes like told and said that encode the

experiences of bringing the inner world outside
by speaking. These are to do with saying and
asking, and are known as VERBAL processes.
 Three Process Types

1. BEING WORDS
can be subdivided into:

a.) Processes like are, was, were, the

function of which is to set up the existence
of a sole Participant. These processes are
almost always preceded by there. They are
known as EXISTENTIAL processes.
 Three Process Types

b.) Processes like are, was, were, seemed,

have, became, felt, belongs to, the function of
which is to encode relationships of being and
having between two Participants. This group,
known as RELATIONAL processes, has to do
with the attributes of class membership or with
specific identity.
 Three Process Types

*These relational processes can then be further

subdivided:
a.) Relational Attributive
those whose function is to ascribe
b.) Relational Identifying
those whose function is to identify
 Three Process Types

Differences:
a.) wording of clauses (Material)

ex: He is building a house. (at present)

He builds houses. (for a living)
 Three Process Types

Differences:
b.) way a particular verb is functioning in a
particular clause
ex: the English verb “feel” can function as
a material, a mental or a relational process
depending on its relationship with the other
elements in the clause or clause complex
 Three Process Types

I felt the wood and decided material process

it needing more sanding. (doing)

I felt that I was a Mental process

crossroads in my life. (thinking)

Relational process
I felt tired. (a kind of being)
*Each process type has its own set of
participant roles. This means that once the
process type has been identified, the
function labels for the participant roles fall
into place easily.
*Moreover, the function labels for
participants in each process are fairly
transparent:
-When the process is material, the Doer is

known as Actor.
-When mental, the Doer is Senser.

-When behavioural, the doer is behaver.

 Process types and participant roles

MATERIAL PROCESSES
- construe doing
- they answer the questions:
a. What did X do? or
b. What happened?
 Process types and participant roles

Potential participant roles are:

a.) Actor (or doer of the process)
b.) Goal (or thing affected by the process)
c.) Range (or thing unaffected by the
process)
d.) Beneficiary of the process
 Process types and participant roles

BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES
- construe physiological or psychological
behaviour
- the main Participant, the behaver, is
generally a conscious being and, if it is
not, the clause is considered to be
personification.
 Process types and participant roles

MENTAL PROCESSES
- encode the inner world of cognition,
perception, inclination or liking/disliking
(known as affect)
 Process types and participant roles

Potential participant roles are:

a.) Senser (or doer of the process which
must be realised by a human or at least
conscious participant)
b.) Phenomenon (realised by a nominal
group or embedded clause summing up
what is thought, wanted, perceived or
liked/disliked.
 Process types and participant roles

VERBAL PROCESSES
- construe saying

Potential participant roles are:

a.) Sayer (doer of the process)
b.) Receiver (addressee of the speech)
Process types and participant roles

c.) Target (the participant which is the

object of the talk)
d.) Verbiage (which corresponds to
phenomenon in a mental process and
sums up what is said in one nominal
group or embedded clause)
 Process types and participant roles

EXISTENTIAL PROCESSES
- construe being as simple existence
- there is only one participant known as
EXISTENT
- typically preceded by there and occur at
the beginning of a text or where the text is
moving into a new phase
 Thank you!

“Give a man a fish and you feed

him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for
a lifetime.”

- Maimonides