Transcript Experiential meanings

Experiential meanings
Language as representation:
transitivity
• meanings are encoded in clauses because
of the way different types of processes
are represented in language
Three key components of processes:
• The PROCESS
• The PARTICIPANTS
• The CIRCUMSTANCES
1. The process itself, typically realised
grammatically as the verb phrase.
For example: hit, sees, broke.
2. The participant(s) associated with the
process, typically realised grammatically
by the noun phrase.
For example: John, she, the vase.
3. The circumstances associated with the
process, typically realised grammatically
by the prepositional and adverb phrases.
For example, in the room, at breakfast,
over the wall.
Six types of processes:
1. Material
2. Mental
3. Behavioural
4. Verbal
5. Relational
6. Existential
Material Processes
1. Material processes are those
concerned with doing, and happen in the
physical world. In this process, there is
always an actor or actors, and usually,
though not always, a goal.
For example;
(1) John
hit
the ball.
Actor
Process
Goal
(2) The vase
Goal
broke.
Process
Mental Processes
2. Mental processes are those concerned with
sensing.
mental processes are concerned with
consciousness, involving:
cognition (encoded in words such as
understanding),
reaction (such as despising)
perception (such as tasting).
(3) Lucy puzzled over
(cognition)
Senser
Process
(4) Harry can’t stand
(reaction)
Senser
Process
(5) Cathie saw
(perception)
Senser
Process
the problem
Phenomenon
Fish
Phenomenon
the dress
Phenomenon
4 types of mental process:
• Emotion
• Cognition
• Perception
• Desideration
She
I
I
hated
liked
appreciate
Senser Mental:emotion
him
most music
you keeping quiet
Phenomenon
You
No one
She
can imagine
would choose
never discovered
his reaction
such a colour
his address
Senser
Mental:cognition
Phenomenon
He
He
Lucy
could not see
heard
felt
anything
a faint sound
hot
Senser
Mental:perception
phenomenon
I
You
don’t want
may crave
any trouble
a drink
Senser
mental:desideration
phenomenon
Bevavioural processes
3. Behavioural processes are those which
embody physiological actions such as breathe
and sneeze.
They can also be expressed as states of
consciousness as in cry or laugh, or processes
of consciousness as forms of behaviour, such as
dream, or worry.
The participant in behavioural processes is the
Behaver, the conscious entity who is behaving:
(6) She
gasped
at the sight.
Behaver
Process
Circumstance
(7) Joan
laughed
at the clown.
Behaver
(8) The dog
Behaver
Process
Circumstance
barked.
Process
Verbal Processes
4. Verbal processes are processes of saying.
The participant roles associated with this
process are the Sayer, who is the producer of
speech, the Receiver, who is the entity to which
the speech is addressed, and the Verbiage,
which is what gets said.
For example:
(9) John
told
Sayer
Process
(10) The Judge
Sayer
the joke
to his friends.
Verbiage
Receiver(s).
announced
the sentence
Process
Verbiage
to the court.
Receiver
Verbal process may be directed at, rather
than addressed to, another participant:
TARGET
a) Need not be human
b) Person to whom message is addressed,
may be different from entity at which it
is directed
The report sharply criticises Lily’s quality-
control procedures
Lily’s quality-control procedures
Target
She keeps rubbishing me to the other
people in the house.
‘Me’ target
‘the other people in the house’ receiver
Relational Processes
5. Relational processes are those which are to do with
‘being’, in the specific sense of establishing a relationship
between two entities. The process is almost always
taken from forms of the verb be (or a very small number
of similar verbs such as seem or become), and the
participant roles those of the Identifier and identified.
(11) The show
Carrier
is
on all evening.
Process
Attribute
(12) Catherine’s car is
Carrier
(13) Harry’s dog
Carrier
a Volvo.
Process
Attribute
was
in the park.
Process
Attribute
Existential Processes
6. Existential processes assert that something exists or happens.
Typically, they include the word there as a dummy subject, as in:
There has been a theft or Has there been a fight?
Normally only one participant role, realised in the examples as a theft and
a fight.
Existential processes take us back to material ones, in that both can
answer a question such as what happened?
In a material process, an actor and a goal would be identified, with the
participant role replaced by a process.
There has been a theft: John stole - In the existential version, the actor
and goal disappear, to be replaced by the Existent.
a) POLICE SHOOT 11 DEAD IN SALIBURY RIOT
Riot police shot and killed 11 African
demonstrators.
(The Guardian, p.1)
b) RIOTING BLACKS SHOT DEAD BY POLICE
Eleven Africans were shot dead and 15 wounded
when Rhodesian police opened fire on a rioting
crowd.
(The Times, p1)
RIOTING BLACKS SHOT DEAD
Goal
Process
BY POLICE
Actor
Eleven Africans
Goal
were shot dead and 15 wounded
Process
when Rhodesian police opened fire on a rioting crowd
Actor
a) POLICE SHOT BRAZILIAN EIGHT TIMES
The man mistaken for a suicide bomber by police was shot
eight times, an inquest into his death has heard.
(BBC News On-Line 25 July 2005).
b) SHOT MAN WAS NOT BOMBER – POLICE
The man shot dead in Stockwell tube station yesterday was
not connected to the attempted bombings of London on
July 21, police said tonight.
(The Guardian On-Line 23 July 2005).
POLICE
SHOT
BRAZILIAN
Actor
Process
Goal
EIGHT TIMES
The man mistaken for a suicide bomber
Goal
by police
Actor
was shot eight times,
Process: material
an inquest into his death
Receiver
Has heard
SHOT MAN
Verbiage
POLICE
Sayer
WAS
NOT BOMBER –
The man shot dead in Stockwell tube station
yesterday was not connected to the
attempted bombings of London on July 21,
Verbiage
police said tonight.
Sayer
POLICE
Actor
SHOOT
Process
11 DEAD IN RIOT
Goal
Riot police
shot and killed
Actor
Process
11 African demonstrators
Goal
Nominal Groups
• Name and describe people, places and
things and events, typically (but not
always) realised by the participant roles in
a clause.
• The choices in nominal groups contribute
to the experiential meanings in a text.
• A nominal group consists of a main noun or
‘head’ word and has the potential to be
expanded by adding information before the head
word (premodification) and after it
(postmodification).
For example:
My dog loved those bones.
My dog loved those three smelly lamb bones
from the butcher shop.
Those three smelly lamb
Premodifier
bones
Head
From the butcher’s shop
Postmodifier