Transitivity is a fundamental concept in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) that enables speakers to describe events, actions, and states of being. It provides a systematic approach to understanding how language represents the world through processes and participant roles. In the context of the Cardiff Grammar (CG), transitivity is explored with a focus on its semantic and syntactic functions, reflecting both social and cognitive perspectives on language use (Neale, 2017).
Transitivity is a fundamental concept in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) that enables speakers to describe events, actions, and states of being. It provides a systematic approach to understanding how language represents the world through processes and participant roles. In the context of the Cardiff Grammar (CG), transitivity is explored with a focus on its semantic and syntactic functions, reflecting both social and cognitive perspectives on language use (Neale, 2017).
The Cardiff Grammar model has its roots in the work of linguists like M.A.K. Halliday, who initially developed the concept of transitivity within the SFL framework. Over time, the model has evolved to incorporate insights from various scholars, particularly Robin Fawcett, whose contributions have significantly shaped the current understanding of transitivity in the CG framework.
The Cardiff Grammar identifies several main process types, each with distinct participant roles:
Encompassing material and social actions.
Including attributive, locational, directional, possessive, and matching processes.
Covering emotion, perception, and cognition.
Addressing the influence exerted over events or actions.
Relating one event to another.
Describing environmental actions or states.
Each process type involves specific participant roles that help to delineate the semantic functions within a clause. These roles include:
The doer of the action.
The entity affected by the action.
The entity brought into existence by the action.
The entity being described or located.
The quality or characteristic assigned to the Carrier.
The place or time where the entity is located.
The endpoint of the movement.
The starting point of the movement.
The route of the movement.
The entity possessed by the Carrier.
The entity to which the Carrier is compared.
The experiencer of the emotion.
The cause of the emotion, perception, or cognition.
The entity perceiving.
The thinker or knower.
The scope or extent of the action.
The way in which the action is performed.
The initiating event in event-relating processes.
The resulting event in event-relating processes.
The Cardiff Grammar model of transitivity not only aids in the analysis of language but also offers a robust framework for language generation, making it applicable in both descriptive and practical linguistic contexts. By understanding the various process types and participant roles, linguists can better comprehend how language users convey and interpret meaning.
Neale, A. (2017). Transitivity in the Cardiff Grammar. In T. Bartlett & G. O'Grady (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315413891