Ideational Language Analysis

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AS I pointed out so far, it is possible to account for different modes of STR through different processes of the transitivity system taken place in the clauses as ‘representation’ within the ‘ideational’ function of language. If the ‘interpersonal’ function paves the way, as we saw farther earlier, the communication between the speaker/narrator and audience/reader through the ‘spatio-temporal’ and ‘psychological’ planes of POV by means of ‘deixis’ and ‘modality’ system, respectively, the ‘ideational’ function of language, which is fundamentally concerned with the way in which the meaning may be represented at yhr ‘discourse/text’ level of narrative text, is carried out through different ‘processes’ within the transitivity system which is itself …show more content…

These goings-on are sorted out in the semantic system of the language and expressed through the grammar of the clause” (p.101). In this grammar, Halliday divides processes into six ones: ‘material’ (p.102), ‘mental’ (p.106), ‘relational’ (p.112), ‘behavioral’ (p.128), ‘verbal’ (p.129), and ‘existential’ (p.13). It seems that modes of STR can be closely related with the ‘mental’ and ‘verbal’ processes in that it is with these two processes that the ‘speech’ and ‘thought’ activities are taken place.
According to Halliday (1985/1994), a semantic process represented by a clause has three components: (1) the process itself, (2) the participants in the process, and (3) the circumstances associated with the process (p. 101). The first is expressed by a verbal group; the second realized by the nominal groups, and the third expressed by the adverbial and prepositional groups (p. 102). Now, these processes may represent different kinds of actions and events.

Material Processes
The material process entails the action and events as taken place in an external reality. It is comprised of Actor, Process, and Goal as an example (1) from TTL shows:
(1) She went from the dining-room, holding James by the hand.
Actor Process Goal
She went from the dining-room
She (was) holding by the hand
Table: Material …show more content…

Also, the ‘action’ processes can be further subdivided into ‘intention’ if the process did voluntarily, and ‘super-intention’, if the action taken place by themselves. Due to the fact that STR is mostly concerned with the verbal and mental processes, I should like to take them much more into account.
Verbal Processes
These are processes of ‘saying’. The participant roles are ‘Sayer’ and ‘Target’. Further, Halliday calls the ‘Sayer’ and the ‘Process’, the ‘Reporting’ and ‘Reported’, respectively. In this sense, verbal processes can overlap ‘DS’ as in:
(1) “Perhaps it will be fine tomorrow,” she said.
Process/Reported Sayer/Reporting
“Perhaps it will be fine tomorrow,” she

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