2.10 System
Language consists of a network of interlocking grammatical systems. These systems afford choices that enable language users to make the four lines of meaning described above. Specifically, the experiential meaning is realized through the system of transitivity, the logical meaning through the systems of clause complexing, the interpersonal meaning through the systems of Mood and appraisal, and the textual meaning through the system of Theme and Rheme. Each of these systems and associated terminology are introduced below.
2.10.1 Transitivity
Human experience consists of a flow of events, and these events are chunked by the grammatical system of transitivity into a manageable set of process types, each with its own model for construing a particular domain of experience. Halliday and Matthiessen (2014) identified three major and three secondary process types (see Figure 2-1). The three main process types are material, mental, and relational. The three secondary process types are behavioral, verbal, and existential. By examining the transitivity patterns in a text, we can reveal the content of the text.
Figure 2-1 Types of Process in English (reproduced from Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014, p. 216)
Material process. The material process, realized in doing verbs (e.g., run, produce, open, bounce, drop, spread), is concerned with the doing and happening in the physical world. It expresses the notion that some entity does something, which may be done to some other entity. This means one or more participants are usually directly involved in this process, each assuming a different functional role, such as actor, goal, recipient, scope, client, or range. Circumstantial elements such as time, space, manner, source, and cause may be used to augment a clause, as the process typically unfolds in some manner, for some reason, under some condition, from some source, through time, and in space. For example, the four clauses — Michelle gave Barak a basketball on Valentine's Day. They crossed the hallway and poured themselves a cup of tea before playing a game of basketball. — can be analyzed as follows:
| Michelle | gave | Barak | a basketball | on Valentine's Day. | |
| Participant | Process | Participant | Participant | Circumstance | |
| (actor) | (material) | (recipient) | (goal) | (time) | |
| They | crossed | the hallway | |||
| Participant | Process | Participant | |||
| (actor) | (material) | (scope) | |||
| and | poured | themselves | a cup of tea | ||
| Process | Participant | Participant | |||
| (material) | (client) | (goal) | |||
| before | playing | a game of | |||
| basketball. | |||||
| Process | Participant | ||||
| (material) | (range) |
Mental process. The mental process, realized in sensing, feeling, and thinking verbs (e.g., notice, think, want, decide, enjoy, grieve, taste, smell, attract, encourage, remind, surprise), is about the world of our own consciousness. It is concerned with perception (e.g., seeing, hearing), affection (e.g., fearing, liking), and cognition (e.g., thinking, knowing, believing, remembering, understanding, learning). Two participants are typically involved in the process, one called senser (i.e., the conscious being that sees, feels, and thinks) and the other called phenomenon (i.e., that which is seen, felt, and thought). The two clauses — Barak liked the gift from Michelle. The gift from Michelle pleased Barak. — can be analyzed as follows:
| Barak | liked | the gift from Michelle. |
| Participant | Process | Participant |
| (senser) | (mental) | (phenomenon) |
| The gift from Michelle | pleased | Barak. |
| Participant | Process | Participant |
| (phenomenon) | (mental) | (senser) |
Table 2-2 System of Relational Process
Relational process. The relational process, realized in being and having verbs (e.g., be, have, cost, become, seem, lack, need, contain, belong to, deal with, depend on), deals with the world of abstract relations. It serves to characterize or to identify. There are three types of relational process —intensive, possessive, and circumstantial. The intensive relational process establishes a relationship of sameness between two entities (i.e., x is y.). The possessive relational process indicates that one entity owns another entity, as in x has y. The circumstantial relational process defines the entity in terms of location, time, and manner (e.g., x is at y.). Each of these types has two modes of realization — attributive and identifying. The attributive (i.e., y is an attribute of x.) involves two participants, carrier and attribute. The identifying (i.e., y is the identity of x.) also involves two participants, token and value. The six possible classifications of relational process in terms of types and modes are illustrated in Table 2-2.
Behavioral process. The behavioral process, realized in behaving verbs (e.g., look, watch, listen, grumble, murmur, cry, laugh, frown, sigh, breathe, sneeze, sleep, nod, sing, dance, sit), is concerned with physiological and psychological behaviors such as breathing, coughing, smiling, dreaming, and staring. It is the least distinct of the six process types in that it stands between the material and the mental processes. For example, processes of consciousness such as listen, watch, and dream border on the mental process; whereas bodily postures and pastimes such as sing, dance, and sit border on the material process. A behaving verb indicates an activity in which both the physical and mental aspects are inseparable and indispensable to it. It is usually intransitive, meaning it has only one participant, which is typically a conscious being and called behaver. The two clauses — Mary sang quietly when John was sleeping.— can be analyzed as follows:
| Mary | sang | quietly | when | John | was | sleeping. |
| Participant | Process | Circumstance | Participant | Process | ||
| (behaver) | (behavioral) | (manner) | (behaver) | (behavioral) |
Verbal process. The verbal process, realized in saying verbs, involves talking (e.g., speak, talk), quoting (e.g., say), indicating (e.g., tell, report, announce, argue, explain, promise), targeting (e.g., praise, insult, chide, flatter), and imperating (e.g., tell, ask, order, beg, implore, persuade, threaten). The participants in the verbal process are sayer (the one who speaks), receiver (the one to whom the saying is addressed), verbiage (the content of what is said or the name of the saying), and target (the entity targeted by the process of saying). The two clauses — He told the board his decision to resign and accused his best friend of bribery. — can be analyzed as follows:
| He | told | the board | his decision to resign |
| Participant | Process | Participant | Participant |
| (sayer) | (verbal) | (receiver) | (verbiage) |
| and | accused | his best friend | of bribery. |
| Process | Participant | Circumstance | |
| (verbal) | (target) | (matter) |
Existential process. The existential process, realized in the verb be or some other verbs expressing existence (e.g., exist, remain, arise, emerge, follow, ensue, sit, stand, grow, flourish, erupt, prevail), represents that something exists or happens. The thing that exists or happens is called Existent. It can be a person, an object, an institution, an abstraction, an action, or an event. The clause — There was an explosion in the hotel. — can be analyzed as follows:
| There | was | an explosion | in the hotel. |
| Process | Participant | Circumstance | |
| (existential) | (existent) | (location) |
2.10.2 Clause Complexing
Two systems of grammatical resources are available in English for systematically relating one clause to another in some logical way. One such system is called taxis, which describes the degree of interdependency between two or more clauses within a sentence. Two different degrees of interdependency are parataxis and hypotaxis. When two clauses are of equal status, that is, independent of one another (e.g., The Heats defeated the Bulls in Miami yesterday and went on to win this year's NBA championship.), they are said to be in a paratactic relationship. In such a relationship, the primary clause (The Heats defeated the Bulls in Miami yesterday) is called the initiating clause and the secondary clause (and went on to win this year's NBA championship) is called the continuing clause. The continuing clause here is similar to what is called coordinate clause in traditional grammar. It is linked to the initiating clause with a coordinating conjunction (e.g., and) or merely juxtaposed, as is the case in direct quotation (e.g., "We were here first," said Kitty.).
When two clauses are of unequal status, that is, one dependent on another (e.g., The Heats defeated the Bulls in Miami yesterday because the referee made a terrible call that favored the Heats.), they are said to be in a hypotactic relationship. In such a relationship, the primary clause (The Heats defeated the Bulls in Miami yesterday) is called the dominant (or main) clause and the secondary clause (because the referee made a terrible call that favored the Heats) is called the dependent clause. The dependent clause here is roughly equivalent to what is called subordinate clause in traditional grammar, but does not include embedded clause (that favored the Heats), as it is considered part of a noun phrase (a terrible call). Subordinate clause in traditional grammar includes relative clause (e.g., He flew to the city, where he met his wife for dinner.), adverbial clause (e.g., I loved math when I was in school.), clause projected through saying verb (e.g., He stated that the flag must come down.) and thinking verb (e.g., Ryan knew he would be late for school.), clause introduced by non-finite verb (e.g., Shaken by the earthquake, the warehouse finally collapsed last night, causing extensive damages to the machines.), and embedded clause, i.e., clause that is both dependent on and a part of another clause (e.g., He lost the book that his mom borrowed from the public library.)
All logical structures in language are either paratactic or hypotactic. A typical clause complex is a mixture of paratactic and hypotactic sequences, either of which may be inside the other, as this previous example shows:
The Heats defeated the Bulls in Miami yesterday because the referee made a terrible call that favored the Heats, and went on to win this year's NBA championship, which excited its fan base.
Another system for determining how one clause is related to another is logical-semantic relation. Two types of logical-semantic relation have been described: expansion and projection. According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2014), "Expansion relates phenomena as being of the same order of experience, while projection relates phenomena of one order of experience (the processes of saying and thinking) to phenomena of a higher order (semiotic phenomena — what people say and think)" (p. 443). In expansion, the secondary clause expands the primary clause by elaborating it (i.e., restating in other words, specifying in greater detail, commenting, exemplifying), extending it (i.e., adding some new element, giving an exception to it, or offering an alternative), or enhancing it (i.e., qualifying it with some circumstantial feature of time, place, cause or condition). In the previous example, because the referee made a terrible call that favored the Heats enhances The Heats defeated the Bulls in Miami yesterday by qualifying it with the circumstantial feature of cause, whereas and went on to win this year's NBA championship extends The Heats defeated the Bulls in Miami yesterday by adding a new element to it. In another example The Heats defeated the Bulls in Miami yesterday; they won by a very slim margin, the second clause elaborates on the first clause by specifying the win in greater detail.
Unlike expansion, which is the logical-semantics of developing on previous meanings, projection is the logical-semantics of quoting and reporting speech (locution) or thought (idea). In projection, one clause indicates that someone/something said or thought about something, and the other clause (s) in the complex then present (s) what was said (e.g., Maggie said, "I am hungry". Maggie said she was hungry.) or thought about (e.g., Maggie thought to herself, "I am hungry". Maggie thought she was hungry.). As such, projection is a useful grammatical resource for attributing words or ideas to their sources.
2.10.3 Mood
The term "Mood" (with upper case "M") refers to that part of the grammatical system which enables us to perform the various functions of human communication such as making offers, giving commands, asking questions, and issuing statements. These speech functions are accomplished through the use of imperative Mood, interrogative Mood, or declarative Mood (see Table 2-3). The type of Mood that we select often reflects and is determined by the power relationship between the parties involved in the interaction. For example, we usually request service from our close friends (e.g., college roommate) through the use of imperative Mood (e.g., Ellen, give me the towel!), but when the same demand is made of a more distant acquaintance, we tend to choose the interrogative Mood (e.g., Jane, could you give me the towel?). There is thus "a clear relationship between the social roles we play in situations, and the choices we make in the Mood system" (Eggins, 2004, p. 185). As such, Mood is a resource for enacting interpersonal meaning.
Mood consists of two parts: the subject, which is a nominal group, and the finite, which is part of a verbal group, with the remainder of the clause being called the residue. In The newly elected president would end the trade war soon after inauguration, for example, the newly elected president is the subject, would is the finite, and end the trade war soon after inauguration is the residue.
Table 2-3 Speech Functions and Mood Options
2.10.4 Appraisal
Appraisal is another system of grammatical resources for enacting interpersonal meaning (Martin & White, 2005). It enables us to express our attitudes toward people or things and indicate the strength and source of these attitudes through graduation and engagement. Martin and Rose (2003) identified three main types of attitude as affect, judgment, and appreciation, each involving positive or negative feeling. Affect construes emotion and is instantiated in the canonical grammatical frame I feel (very) …, as in I feel immensely proud/embarrassed. Judgment construes evaluation of people's character in terms of social esteem (e.g., how normal/capable/resolute) or social sanction (e.g., how truthful/ethical). Such judgment can be personal (admiration or criticism) or moral (praise or condemnation). It is instantiated in the canonical grammatical frame It was … of/for him/her to …, as in It is normal/unusual for him to come to the board meeting. Appreciation construes attitudes about things (e.g., texts, performances, natural phenomena) and is instantiated in the canonical grammatical frame I consider it …, as in I consider it interesting/boring. According to Martin (2000), judgment and appreciation might be interpreted as "institutionalizations of affect" in that judgment becomes feeling that regulates people's social behavior (i.e., what we should and should not do) and appreciation becomes feeling that manages taste (i.e., our valuation of what things are worth).
Besides attitude, another set of grammatical resources for enacting interpersonal meaning is graduation, which is concerned with gradability and realized in intensifiers (e.g., very, so, extremely), comparative and superlative (e.g., better, best, as complete as possible), attitudinal lexis (e.g., exceptional vs. good), and metaphor (ice cold vs. cold). Graduation enables us to adjust the degree of an evaluation by strengthening/weakening the force of our attitudes with respect to gradable resources (e.g., very interesting vs. somewhat interesting) or sharpening/softening the focus of our attitudes with respect to non-gradable resources (a real invention vs. an invention of sort).
The third set of grammatical resources for enacting interpersonal meaning is engagement, which is concerned with the source of attitudes, that is, who the attitudes are coming from (i.e., whose voice). At least three types of engagement resources are available in English — projection, modality, and concession, each of which is elaborated below.
Projection involves reporting (indirect) or quoting (direct) what people say, think, or feel. In FAA chief said, "Boeing 737 Max is faulty." and Coach Davis knew Aaron was a really fast runner, the source of evaluation (Boeing 737 Max is faulty and Aaron was a really fast runner) is "FAA chief" and "Coach Davis", respectively.
Modality also introduces additional voices into a text. It sets up a semantic continuum along two polarities (yes-no, positive-negative) involving modalization and modulation. Modalization concerns probability, certainty and usuality, that is, judgment about the likelihood or certainty of something happening/being or the frequency with which something happens/is. Modulation concerns obligation and inclination, that is, judgment about how obliged, willing, or committed people are to an action. Like graduation, modality helps us temper or grade what we say. It is a grammatical resource by which we communicate degrees of likelihood (e.g., probably, possibly, certainly, definitely, maybe, possible, may, will), usuality (e.g., usually, sometimes, occasionally, seldom, never), obligation (e.g., must, should, will, ought to), willingness (e.g., readily, gladly), and typicality (e.g., generally, typically), among others. When we say Beverly wrote the book, we are certain that Beverly is the author of the book. When we say Beverly might have written the book, we are not 100% sure if Beverly is the author of the book. Similarly, the sentence You must/ought to read the book is a command (or strong recommendation) that carries a higher degree of obligation than does You can read the book, which is a suggestion (or weak command) that can also be construed as a permission. In many instances, a sentence may include both modalization and modulation, as in Maybe you should finish your homework before going out, where should conveys a high degree of obligation (i.e., command) and maybe conveys a low degree of certainty.
Concession creates counter-expectancy (or surprise) through the use of concessive conjunctions (e.g., but, however, although, at least, even if) and adverbials (e.g., suddenly, still, even, only, in fact, of course, admittedly, instead, in any case, needless to say, already, finally, just). For example, in the sentence — Agassi played in the tournament, but lost. — the use of but suggests that the speaker/writer had expected Agassi to win the tournament, a positive attitude toward Agassi. Compare this with Agassi played in the tournament and lost, where no such an expectation or attitude can be inferred. In the sentence, There are only two winners in the tournament, the use of only suggests that the speaker/writer expected to see more than two winners and was surprised or disappointed at the number.
In Text 2-6 below, one college student reacted to her peer's (Samantha) reading response to weekly course readings on writing instruction in an online discussion forum:
Text 2-6
Samantha, I really resonated with your troubles teaching writing at first. It was never something I had to think about how to explicitly teach until I realized that I didn't have a clue how to do it! I, too, like writing and thought it would be a natural process for all my students. Boy, was I wrong! I think it's awesome that you talk with your students about why you are practicing that type of writing and when they might use it. Motivation is key.
The student expressed her attitudes towards Samantha's response to the course readings in words such as resonated, like, and awesome. These attitudes are amplified through choices such as really, explicitly, and Boy, was I wrong! (use of exclamation instead of statement "I was wrong"). Projections such as I think, I realized, and I thought indicate the source of attitudes. Modality choices such as had to, would, might, not, and never infuse the author's stance with regard to the obligation of her acts and certainty of her statements.
To summarize, appraisal resources enable the speaker/writer to express feelings, present perspectives, and infuse judgments, as well as amplify, moderate, and source these attitudes. They construct the speaker/writer's stance or voice and establish the tone or mood of a text. Each text marshals a distinct set of appraisal resources that forms "a prosody of attitude running through the text that swells and diminishes, in the manner of a musical prosody" (Martin & Rose, 2003, p. 54).
2.10.5 Theme and Rheme
The term "Theme" (with upper case "T") is used not in the literary sense of "plot" or "thesis", but as a linguistics construct that reveals how a clause in English is organized as a message. According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2014), Theme is "the element [within a clause] that serves as the point of departure of the message; it is that which locates and orients the clause within its context" (p. 89). The remainder of the message, the part of the clause in which Theme is developed, is called Rheme. In English, Theme typically contains familiar information, that is, information that has already been given somewhere else in the text or is familiar from the context. On the other hand, Rheme contains unfamiliar or new information, that is, information that has not been mentioned previously in the text.
Although scholars differ on just how much of what comes first in a clause counts as Theme (cf., Ghadessy, 1995 and Vande Kopple, 1994), those working within the SFL framework generally agree that Theme can be identified as the chunk up to and including the first experiential element in the clause that can be assigned a functional role (i.e., participant, process, circumstance) in transitivity analysis (Schleppegrell, 2004). Thus, as is shown in Table 2-4, different grammatical elements can serve as clause Themes. In clause #1, the Theme is a simple pronoun (He), but in clause #2 it is an expanded noun phrase (the burning of trash, the trucks that haul trash to landfills, and even the landfills themselves all). In clause #3, the Theme is a prepositional phrase (By thinking carefully and choosing wisely); and in clause #4, the Theme consists of And well, John, do you.
(1) He bounced out of bed.
(2) The burning of trash, the trucks that haul trash to landfills, and even the landfills themselves all cause air pollution.
(3) By thinking carefully and choosing wisely, industry and individuals can protect the air living things need.
(4) And well, John, do you know why?
Table 2-4 Theme and Rheme in Sample Clauses
There are three types of Themes: topical, interpersonal, and textual. The topical Theme realizes the experiential meaning, or content, of a clause. Each clause must have, and can only have, one topical Theme. Topical Themes are either "unmarked" or "marked". An "unmarked" topical Theme is one that is conflated with the grammatical subject of the clause, such as He, The burning of trash … themselves all, and you in clauses #1, #2, and #4, respectively. A marked topical Theme, such as By thinking carefully and choosing wisely in clause #3, is one that does not simultaneously serve as the grammatical subject for the clause.
The topical Theme can be preceded by other elements in the clause. These are elements that realize either interpersonal or textual meaning of a clause. Clause elements that typically serve as interpersonal Themes are modal or comment adjuncts (e.g., probably, fortunately, of course, in my opinion), vocative (e.g., John), and finite verbal operator (e.g., do, is, can, shall). Textual Themes are realized through continuatives (e.g., yes, oh, well, now) and conjunctions (e.g., and, or, but, while, since, in case, even if). In clause #4, for example, the topical Theme you is preceded by two textual Themes (conjunction: and; continuative: well) and two interpersonal Themes (vocative: John; finite verbal operator: do). The choice of what serves as the starting point for the constituent clauses of a text, thus, "reflects the range of meanings conveyed by the text as a whole, including interpersonal, textual and representational meaning" (Webster, 1995, p. 270).
Theme plays a major role in the development of text, distribution of information, and representation of experience. As Martin (1995) noted, "Theme in English means more than what the message is about and ... significant patterns of information flow through Theme in ways that are critical to an interpretation of the meaning of a text" (p. 254). Analysis of Themes can thus yield valuable information about the organization of text and help with text interpretation. The Thematic progression in Text 2-7, for example, features a zig-zagging pattern, meaning the Theme of one clause (the amount of vision, some fishes) picks up part of the Rheme (see, fishes) in a preceding clause to become the subject of subsequent discussion. Analysis of Themes also enables us to distinguish one genre from another and differentiate effective texts from less effective texts within the same genre (Fang, 2005), as texts of different genres or qualities employ Themes in different ways.
Text 2-7
Fishes have eyes that allow them to see objects and contrasts between light and dark in the water as well. The amount of vision varies greatly among fishes. Some fishes that live in areas of ocean where there is no light may have reduced, almost nonfunctional eyes. (Biggs et al., 2006, p. 796)