THE IDENTIFICATION OF MINOR TYPES OF PROCESSES FROM A FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
THE IDENTIFICATION OF MINOR TYPES OF PROCESSES FROM A FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: Within the systemic-functional framework, clauses can be analysed according to three metafunctions they embody: textual, interpersonal and experiential, realized by the transitivity system. The term Ŗtransitivityŗ is used in a broad sense, referring to a system for describing the whole clause, rather than just the verb and its Object. Transitivity construes our experience in terms of configurations of a process, participants and circumstances. Such configurations are determined by two major systems: process type and circumstantiation. According to the Process itself and to the number and kind of participants involved, the system displays four major types: material, mental, verbal and relation, each with a small set of subtypes. But there are also further categories located at the three boundaries. Between the material and mental processes there are the behavioral processes which represent the outer manifestation of the inner feelings and actions. Between the mental and relational processes there are the verbal processes which represent the relationship construed in the human consciousness and enacted in the form of language. Between the relational and the material processes there are the existential processes which simply recognize the phenomena by using the verbs Ŗto beŗ, Ŗto existŗ or Ŗto happenŗ. In this paper we are concerned with behavioral and existential processes, presenting them from two points of view. On the one hand, we present the particularities of these types, comparing the behavioral processes with mental/verbal and material ones and the existential processes with material and relational ones. On the other hand, the aim of this paper is to present the difficulties that may arise in identifying these two types according to semantic and grammatical criteria.

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