An introduction to Verbal Process in clause as a representation or Transitivity in Systemic Functional Linguistics.

2. Verbal Process
(in Clause as Representation)
Presented To: Sir Amir Kareem
Presented By: Asma Saif Ullah
Roll # 09
M-Phil Linguistics
Department of English

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Definition:
•Verbal Process is a process of clause when the verb is
“Say” or any equivalent term like: tell, order, command,
ask, inquire, etc
As in: What did you say?
or
John said “I am hungry.”
•According to Halliday:
In a broader sense in covers all kind of symbolic
exchange of meanings . E.g:
The notice tells you to keep quite.
Or
My watch says its half past ten.

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Participants:
Participants in verbal process are
cosidered as:
•Sayer
•Receiver
•Target
•Verbiage

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Sayer:
This is the participant responsible for the verbal process.The
one who performs the function of saying something, in a
clause is known as sayer, a sayer can be anything that puts
out a signal.For example:The notice tells you to keep quite.
or
My watch says its half past ten.
In these sentences “the notice” and “my watch” are sayers.

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Receiver:
The receiver is the one to whom the saying is directed in
the clause. Unlike mental process verbal process doesn’t
require a conscious participant.
For Example:
The security ministers asked the residents to stay calm.
In this clause “the residents” is the receiver.

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Target:
The differnce between Target and receiver is that:
•The target doesn’t need to be a human
•The Target usually exists alongside verbal processes dealing
with something good or bad about something or someone(it
involves the words like accused, criticized, praised etc)
For Example:The opposition criticized the government policies.
In this Sentence “The government policies” is the target
because of the word criticized.

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Verbiage:
It is the content of what is said or name of the saying. The
other part of the clause in verbalization than sayer and
receiver/target is known as verbiage.
For Example:The Opposition has criticized the
government policies by calling them a national disgrace.
In this sentence “by calling them a natinal disgrace” is
verbiage.

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•The Verbalized Clause may either be :
1-A Proposition, as in (He told me, it was Tuesday)
2- A Proposal, as in (She told him, to mend his ways)
The proposal may be expressed alternatively by a
modulated declarative clause, as in (He promised her
that he would go home)

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