Transcript Clause as representation

Lecture 7
CLAUSE AS
REPRESENTATION
Clause as representation
 Metafunctions:
Ideational (construes human experience) –
Transitivity
Interpersonal (enacts human relationships) –
Mood
Textual (creates discourse) – Theme/Rheme
 Logical (links between components rather
than unit–whole)
Ideational function
 Experiential (modelling a domain of
"knowledge" – construing organic ‘wholes’)
Clause as representation
 Processes, participants, circumstances
 – setting up taxonomies of events, things and
qualities
Clause as representation
semantic
(role)
process participant(s) circumstance
lexicogram verbal
matical
group
(realization)
nominal
group
adverbial
group /
prepositional
phrase
Processes
 Michael looked at her for a moment. Then he
began to laugh. 'I'm so sorry,' said Michael,
'but it did sound comic, the way you said it!
Cheer up, there's no tragedy. I have to go to
the village this evening, and I'll fetch your
suitcase then. It'll be quite safe at the White
Lion. Did you have any lunch by the way? We
were wondering about you.
Processes
 Three questions that can be asked about any
process and the clause of which it forms a
nucleus:
1. What kind of process is it?
2. How many participants can/must be involved
in the process?
3. What roles can/must those participants play?
Processes
 material (‘doing’, ‘causing')
 behavioural (‘acting’)
 mental (‘thinking’, ‘sensing’, 'evaluating')
 verbal (‘saying’)
 relational (‘being’, ‘having’)
 existential (‘existing’, ‘appearing’)
Material processes
 Associated participants: Actor & Goal
Actor. the participant always inherent in a
material clause. The Actor can be animate
(‘action’) or inanimate (‘event’). The process it
participates in may or may not extend to
affect another participant, the Goal.
Material processes
 Actor Process
Goal
They were making supper.
 Actor Process Circumstance
The car crashed into a tree
 Goal Process Circumstance
Rome was not built in a day.
Mental processes
 Associated participants: Senser &
Phenomenon
Phenomenon. Participant role in the
transitivity structure of a mental clause: the
phenomenon sensed by the Senser. (Senser
in bold; Phenomenon in italics.)
Mental processes
 She saw them. She saw them leaving the
house.
 These people don’t understand functional
grammar.
 She recognized the dilemma she and every
teenager around her found themselves in.
 One professor felt we should get our feet dirty.
Mental processes
 Sarah fears nothing. Nothing frightens her.
 His behaviour disgusted many people. / Many
people condemned his behaviour.
Relational processes
 attributive: Associated participants: Carrier &
Attribute
 identifying: Associated participants: Token &
Value (Identified & Identifier)
 A Carrier is construed as being ascribed or
attributed to an Attribute: the relation can be
interpreted as one of class-membership – the
Carrier is construed as a member of the class
described by the Attribute.
Relational processes
Carrier
Process
Process
His clothes
are
Very
expensive
You
Are
A fool
This city
park
comes
alive
Circumstance
On Saturdays
Relational processes
 Identified
Token
Identifier
process Value
I
am
 Identifier
the villain.
Identified
Value
Process Token
The villain
is
me.
Verbal processes
 Associated participants: Sayer and Verbiage
(+ Receiver)
 She told me the story of her life.
 He couldn't say a word.
Existential processes
 Associated participant: Existent
(+Circumstance)
1. There is a fly in my soup.
Behavioural processes
 Associated participant: Behaver (+Range)
1. He was laughing.
2. They hummed a little tune.
3. We were watching the news.
Grammatical characteristics of
process types
 Material: typically occur with the
progressive in the present tense
Mental: typically occur in the simple
present tense
Relational: typically occur in the simple
present tense
Grammatical characteristics of
process types
 Halliday 138:
behavioural sharing characteristics of
material and mental
verbal sharing characteristics of mental and
relational
existential sharing characteristics of
relational and material
The Range Participant
 "the element that specifies the range or scope of
the process"
 "elaborates or enhances the process" (Martin et




al 118)
a ‘complement’ which
forms a semantic relationship with the verb
(cognate, or close in meaning)
specifies part of the process
is not affected by the process
 I gave a description of the person I saw.
(verbal process)
They speak English. (verbal process)
We played tennis the whole afternoon.
(material process)
They were singing folksongs. (behavioural)
He played the guitar. (material)
We visited the church. (material)
 ‘Circumstantial-like’:
They have walked several miles. (material)
I climbed that mountain because it was there.
(material)
They reached the North Pole. (material)
We spent the whole morning in town.
(material)
The Beneficiary (material and
verbal processes)
 The duke gave my aunt a teapot. (Recipient – 'to
whom?')
I sent a letter to everyone who lived in the
neighbourhood. (Recipient)
She did me a favour. (Client – 'for whom?')
She posted a letter for me. (Client)
They asked me a lot of questions. (Receiver – 'to
whom?')
The general shouted at them. (Receiver)
"Stay with her!" he had said to Mrs. Allen.
(Receiver)
Target (verbal processes)
 Can you describe the person you saw?
He read and criticized her novel.
Circumstances
 Location: Temporal (when?) – She’ll arrive on
Thursday.
Spatial (where?) – She lives in Birmingham.
 Extent: Temporal (for how long?) – She has lived
there for eight years.
Spatial (how far?) – It slid halfway over the floor.
 Manner (means/quality/comparison) (how?) –
Daddy went off quite happily at 7.40. He
answered with a smile.
Circumstances
 Cause: Reason (why?) – We have to be there
early as it’s Friday.
 Purpose (what for?) – He popped over for a chat.
 Behalf (who for?) – He’s doing the shopping for
me.
 Contingency (concession) – Despite his eagerness
he’s unlikely to succeed.
 Accompaniment (who/what with?) – She
returned with(out) her gun / with her friend.
Circumstances
 Role: Guise (what as?) – He returned and
remained at the hotel as an inoffensive tourist.
 Product (what into?) – The constable's
features broadened into a grin.
 Matter (what about?) – I'll wager he learns
more about you than you about him.
 Angle (from what point of view?) – To a great
mind, nothing is little.
Ergativity
 Central concepts:
Process
Medium: Participant, typically the subject of
the sentence (‘the entity through the medium
of which the process comes into existence’ –
Halliday p 164)
Agent: ‘Doer of the action’ corresponding to
Actor (‘the participant functioning as an
external cause’ – Halliday)
Range: covers all ‘object’ roles
 I opened the door. (Agent – Process – Range)
The door was opened. (Medium – Process)
The door opened. (Medium – Process)
 Oil floats on water. (Medium – Process –
Location)
The sugar dissolved. (Medium – Process)