Ideational function

Ideational Metafunction
M.PhilEnglish
Submitted by: Laza Saleem
Roll no.14

Introduction to the M.A.K Halliday
• Michael Alexandra Kirkwood Halliday is an
internationally renowned scholar for his
significant contribution to theories of language
and related areas. Born on 13 on April, 1925, this
Australian linguist presented his internationally
influential Systemic Functional Linguistic
Model of Language which transformed views
about language by making ‘’choice’’ a core
concept of his theory where choices in language
system is between meanings rather structures.

There are 3 types of metafunction.
They are independent ,
they affect each other

Ideational function
The ideational function is to express our
experiences of both the physical world and
mental world.
The ideational function mainly consists of
“transitivity” and “voice”.

Transitivity
• Transitivity is a grammatical system.
• It “specifies the different types of process that are
recognized in the language, and the structures by which
they are expressed”.
• The basic semantic framework for the representation of
process consists of three components:
• (1) the process itself,
• (2) participants in the process, and
• (3)circumstances associated with the process

Process
• In English, we make choices between different
types of process, participants, circumstances,
roles, and members. They are known
collectively as the transitivity choices. We first
divided the choices into six kinds:

Process
Transitivity
Material process (John kicked the ball)
Mental process (John likes Mary)
Relational Process (John is on the sofa)
Behavioural process (John laughed)
Verbal process (John said it is cold in the room)
Existential process (There is a cat on the sofa)

Process
1. Material processes: Processes of doing
Material processes are processes of doing. Such
a process is expressed by an action verb (e.g.
beat、break、kick), an actor (logical subject)
and the goal of the action (logical direct object,
usually a noun or a pronoun). Actor and Goal
correspond to Agent and Patient. For example:
My brother broke the window. (Actor-Process-Goal)
The girl smiles. (Actor-Process)

Process
2. Mental Processes: Processes of sensing
Two participants: Sensor and Phenomenon.
Sensor: the conscious being that is feeling, thinking,
or seeing.
Phenomenon: what is “sensed” – felt, thought, seen.
Three principal subtypes:
(1) perception (seeing, hearing, etc),
(2) affection (liking, fearing, etc),
(3) cognition (thinking, knowing, etc)
e.g. Mary liked the gift. (Sensor-Process-Phenomenon)
The gift pleased Mary. (Phenomenon-Process-Sensor)

Process
3. Relational Processes: Processes of Being
Two types: the Attributive and the Identifying.
• Attributive process expresses what attributes a certain object
has, or what type it belongs to. (Carrier-Process-Attribute)
• Identifying process expresses the identical properties of two
entities. (Identified-Process-Identifier)
participant reversible
attributive only one (carrier) No
identifying two Yes
Mary is wise.
* Wise is Mary.
Tom is the leader.
The leader is Tom.

3. Relational Processes: Processes of Being
Halliday points out that in any identifying clause, there is a
Token (the more specific category) and a Value (the more
general category).
e.g. John is the monitor.
Identified Process Identifier
Token Value

Processes
4 . Verbal processes
These are processes of saying. The participants of the processes are: sayer (participant
who speaks), receiver (the one to whom the verbalization is addressed), verbiage (a
name for the verbalization itself). There is however one other type of verbal process,
in which the sayer is in sense acting verbally on another direct participant, with verbs
such as: insult, praise, slander, abuse, and flatter. This other participant will be referred
to as the target.
For example:
They asked him a lot of question
Sayer Process: verbal Receiver Verbiage
And also the example for Target:
I ‘m always praising you to my friends
Sayer Process: verbal Target Recipient

Process
5. Behavioral Processes: Processes of Behaving
• Behavioral processes refer to physiological and
psychological activities such as breathing, coughing,
dreaming, and crying, etc.
• Generally only one participant — the Behaver (often
a human) is involved in these processes.
The girl laughed heartily.
(Behaver- Process-Circumstantial)
He sighed deeply.
(Behaver-Process-Circumstantial)

Process
6. Existential Processes:
Processes of Existing or Happening
It is usually realized by there-construction.
Existent ：an event, an object or a human being.
There was a storm.
(Process-Existent)
On the wall there hangs a picture.
(Circumstance- Process-Existent)

Process Types Category Meaning Participants
Material: Action
Event
Doing: Doing,
happening
Actor, Goal
Behavioural Behaving Behaver
Mental: Perception
Affection, Cognition
Sensing: seeing
feeling, thinking
Senser, Phenomenon
Verbal saying Sayer, receiver,verbiage
Relational:
Attribution
Identification
Being:
attributing
identifying
Carrier, Attribute,
Identifier, Identified,
Token, Value
Existential existing Existent

Participants
1. Beneficiary
The beneficiary is the one to whom or for whom the
process is said to take place. It appears in material and
verbal processes, and sometimes in relational processes.
e.g. He gave her a book.
(Actor Process Beneficiary Goal)
He bought a present for her.
(Actor Process Goal Beneficiary)

Participants
2. Range
The Range is the element that specifies the range or scope of
the process.
It may occur in material, behavioural, mental, and verbal
process.
He climbed the mountain.
They moved the
mountain.
material
process
(range)
(goal)
mental
process
He likes it. (it specifies the domain of one’s liking)

Participants
2. Range
Verbal process: the range element expresses
the class, quality, or quantity of what is said.
She speaks German. (class)
He asked a difficult question. (quality)
He made a log speech. (quantity)

Circumstances
Extent and Location
Manner (Means, Quality and Comparison)
Cause (Reason, Purpose and Behalf)
Accompaniment
Matter
Role

1. Extent and Location
Extent is related with the notion of distance and
duration (a stretch, a period) whereas Location is
related with the notion of place and time (a spot, a
point). Both of them can express spatial and
temporal meanings.
He walked two miles. (Extent: spatial)
He stayed for two weeks. (Extent: temporal)
He studied in the classroom. (Location: spatial)
He gets up at six o’clock. (Location: temporal)

2. Manner
Manner consists of three subcategories: Means,
Quality, Comparison.
(1a) The pig was beaten with the stick.
(1b) She beat the pig with the stick.
(2a) The pig was beaten by a stick.
(2b) The stick beat the pig.
Means refers to the means or instruments whereby a
process takes place.
instrumen
t
actor,
agent

2. Manner
Quality represents various meanings such as degree.
e.g. It puzzled him too much.
Comparison represents the meaning of similarity or
difference. It is typically expressed by a
prepositional phrase with like or unlike.
e.g. He worked like a slave.
He signed his name differently.

3. Cause
Three subcategories: Reason, Purpose, and Behalf.
Behalf represents entity, “on whose behalf or for whose
sake the action is undertaken”.
He died of starvation. (Cause: Reason)
Let’s go for a walk. (Cause: Purpose)
He put in a word on John’s behalf. (Cause: Behalf)
Reason represents the reason for which a process
takes place.
Purpose represents the purpose for which a process
takes place.

4. Accompaniment
This semantic element represents the meanings and
(positive accompaniment), not (negative accompaniment)
as circumstantials. It is expressed by prepositions or
prepositional phrase, e.g. with, without, instead of.
e.g. He came with/without her.
He came instead of her.
He set out with/without his umbrella.

5.Matter
This element corresponds to the interrogative “what
about?” and is expressed by prepositions or
prepositional phrase, e.g. about, concerning, with
reference to.
e.g. I worry about her health.
They are talking about the weather.

6. Role
The element corresponds to the interrogative “what
is?” and is expressed by prepositions and
prepositional phrase, e.g. as, by way of.
e.g. I came here as a friend.
They leave the place untidy by way of protest.

Voice
• Traditional grammar:
Voice: active vs. passive
• Functional grammar:
Voice Middle
non-middle
active
passive

• middle voice: only one participant involved
The glass broke.
The baby stood up.
• non-middle voice: two participants or more
She gave me this book.
The landlady won’t sell.
• active: They have sold all the tickets. (actor)
• passive: All the tickets have been sold by
them. (goal)
• He rose to speak, and was listened to with
enthusiasm by the great crowd present.

CONCLUSION
The analysis has shown that the examination of linguistics features of a
text not only helps in understanding the structure of the text but also
the deep meanings of it. Such an analysis reveals the hidden-self of the
characters bringing out their intentions behind the utterances which
may appear difficult to grasp for a second language learner. Further,
teachers can use discourse analysis not only as a research method for
investigating their own teaching practices but also as a tool for studying
interactions among language learners. Learners can benefit from using
discourse analysis to explore what language is and how it is used to
achieve communicative goals in different contexts. Thus discourse
analysis can help to create a second language learning environment that
more accurately reflects how language is used and encourages learners
toward their goal of proficiency in another language.

Ideational function

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Ideational function