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Conjunction Groups
Language System
1. PROCESS
realised by a verbal group
(see page 50)
2. PARTICIPANTS
realised by nominal groups or
prepositional phrases
Language System
3. CIRCUMSTANCES
realised by adverbial groups,
prepositional phrases and, occasionally,
by nominal groups functioning as if
they were adverbs (the whys and whens
and wherefores)
(see page 63-64)
Language System
4. CONJUNCTION GROUPS
linking mechanisms ready to help join
the various systems (clauses) together in
a variety of logical relationships
Metalanguage for discussing language as
experience…
Process
Stop!
Hide!
Run!
In each case, we have a clause complex made
up of one clause, which in turn is made up of
one group, which consists of one word, which
comprises one morpheme.
Clause constituency in the experiential
function…
Some clauses project another clause:
Participant + Process + Projected clause
She remembered that it was his birthday.
Chris said the VCR wasn’t working.
PROCESSES
are expressions of happening, doing,
being, saying and thinking
Example:
Verbal groups with “jump” as head
1. DOING WORDS
describe actions and happenings in the
outside
Three Process Types
1. BEING WORDS
can be subdivided into:
Differences:
a.) wording of clauses (Material)
Differences:
b.) way a particular verb is functioning in a
particular clause
ex: the English verb “feel” can function as
a material, a mental or a relational process
depending on its relationship with the other
elements in the clause or clause complex
Three Process Types
Relational process
I felt tired. (a kind of being)
*Each process type has its own set of
participant roles. This means that once the
process type has been identified, the
function labels for the participant roles fall
into place easily.
*Moreover, the function labels for
participants in each process are fairly
transparent:
-When the process is material, the Doer is
known as Actor.
-When mental, the Doer is Senser.
MATERIAL PROCESSES
- construe doing
- they answer the questions:
a. What did X do? or
b. What happened?
Process types and participant roles
BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES
- construe physiological or psychological
behaviour
- the main Participant, the behaver, is
generally a conscious being and, if it is
not, the clause is considered to be
personification.
Process types and participant roles
MENTAL PROCESSES
- encode the inner world of cognition,
perception, inclination or liking/disliking
(known as affect)
Process types and participant roles
VERBAL PROCESSES
- construe saying
EXISTENTIAL PROCESSES
- construe being as simple existence
- there is only one participant known as
EXISTENT
- typically preceded by there and occur at
the beginning of a text or where the text is
moving into a new phase
Thank you!
- Maimonides