Page 245 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

TRANSITIVITY

The message | amazed | me
phenomenon| process | senser
Quite commonly, the phenomenon will not be realised in the surface
structure of the clause, but there may be some reference to the
CIRCUMSTANCES of the action:
The doctor | thought | hard
senser | process | circumstance
Mary | understood | immediately
senser | process | circumstance
Verbal processes are processes of saying, though this comes in many
forms (‘suggest’, ‘promise’, ‘inquire’, ‘tell’, ‘inform’). Typical partici-
pant roles are SAYER, VERBIAGE and RECIPIENT. Thus:

I | said | it was time to leave
sayer | process | verbiage

I | told | him | it was time to leave
sayer | process | recipient | verbiage

Relational processes in their simplest form involve some entity that is
identified by reference to some attribute. The process may be realised
by verbs such as ‘become’, ‘seem’, ‘be’, ‘have’; and typical roles are
IDENTIFIER and IDENTIFIED.
The sky | is | blue
identified | process | identifier

Other important roles are those of POSSESSOR and POS-
SESSED:
He | had | no money
possessor | process | possessed

Any event or relationship in the ‘real world’ is filtered through and
given linguistic shape by means of one or another of the types of
process outlined above. Transitivity relations, therefore, go to the heart
of the linguistic construction and mediation of experience. And the
patterning of transitivity choices in any one text can reveal crucial
predispositions towards the construction of experience along certain
lines rather than others. Analysis of transitivity, therefore, makes

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