VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG
TRANSITIVITY AND ITS REALIZATION IN THE SHORT
STORY “THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE” BY OSCAR
WILDE FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
PERSPECTIVE
(Chuyển tác và sự thể hiện của nó trong truyện ngắn “The
Nightingale and the Rose” của Oscar Wilde dưới góc độ ngữ pháp
chức năng hệ thống) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English linguistics
Code: 60220201

Hanoi – 2014


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DECLARATION

A thesis submitted for the partial fulfillment of degree of Master of Art in English
Linguistics
Vietnam National University, Hanoi
University of Language and International Studies
Faculty of Postgraduate Studies
I declare that this thesis hereby is the presentation of my original work.
Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this
clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative
research and discussions.
The work was done under the guidance of Professor Hoang Van Van, at the
University of Language and International Studies, Hanoi.
Hanoi, September 2014
Nguyễn Quỳnh Trang
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ABSTRACT

This study offers an analysis of the transitivity system used in the short story
“The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde using Halliday's systemic functional
grammar as the theoretical framework. The main goals are to explore systemic
functional grammar concepts and to use them as the framework for the analysis and
discussion of the story. It also conducts an analysis of how Oscar Wilde uses the
different types of process and the attending circumstances in his story. The emerging
patterns will be summarized to reveal the experiential meanings of the short story;
some educational implications will be made and some suggestions will be offered for
further studies.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.1. The context of the chosen text……………………………….………………… 15
2.2. The analysis of the story into clauses ………………………………………… 16
2.3. The transitivity analysis of the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”… 17
2.3.1. The transitivity pattern of the text…………………………………… 17
2.3.2. Circumstances used in the text………………………………………… 20
2.4. Summary………………………………………………………………………….22
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION …………………… ……… … 23
3.1. Findings………………………………………………………………………… 23
3.2. Discussion……………………………………………………………………… 25
3.2.1. The first part of the story……………………………….………………25
3.2.2. The second part of the story……………………………………………29
3.2.3. The third part of the story………………………………………………32
3.2.4. The fourth part of the story……….…………………………………….34
3.3. Summary…………………………………….……………………………………35
PART C: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………36
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1. Summary……………………………………………………………………………36
2. Limitations of the study…………………………………………………………….37
3. Implications…………………………………………………………………………37
4. Suggestions for further studies……………………………………… ……………38
REFERENCES…… ……………………………………………………………… 39
APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………… I
Appendix 1: The clause analysis of the text………….……………………………….I
Appendix 2: The analysis of the text in terms of transitivity……………………… IX
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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Of all possible human qualities, the one that wields the most power is the ability
to use, understand and communicate effectively through language. A proficient use of
language allows us to communicate an exact idea from one person to another person or
group of people. We can use language to let others know how we feel, what we need,
and even ask questions. Clearly, language cannot be separated from human life. Being
aware of the importance of language, many well-known linguists have studied the way
the language is structured. We usually call this grammar.
There are many ways of describing the grammar of language. If pre-twentieth
centuries approach represents traditional grammar, most twentieth-century approaches
are varieties of formal grammar and functional grammar. The main thing that
traditional grammar set out to teach was the parts of speech, or word classes: noun,
verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and so on (Cope, 1993). However,
according to Christie (1981), it will be a “jail” when teaching traditional grammar for
the students, because the teachers will be bound to teaching language structure without
any reference to the learning context (cited in Cope, 1993).
Like traditional grammar, formal grammar specifies all the possible
grammatical structures of a language. It viewed grammar as set of rules and focused on

of functional grammar.
As shown by the title, “Transitivity and its realization in the short story “The
Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde”, I hope that this thesis will be of some
helps for my student to approach English in particular, and is a reference for anyone
who wants to make researches using functional grammar as the theoretical framework.

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2. Aim and objectives of the study
This study aims to explore the experimental meanings of the short story “The
Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde, using systemic functional grammar as the
theoretical framework. To achieve this aim, some of the following objectives are set for
exploring:
- Exploring systemic functional grammar concepts to establish the framework for
the transitivity analysis.
- Analyzing the transitivity of the story to see how Oscar Wilde uses the different
types of process and the attending circumstances to reveal the experiential
meanings in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”.
3. Scope of the Study
This study does not attempt to cover all aspects of functional grammar but limits
itself to one aspect: transitivity and its realization in the short story “The Nightingale
and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde.
4. Methods of the Study
The study is carried out as an attempt to understand more about the nature of
transitivity and its realization in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”. To
complete the study, the descriptive and analytical methods will be used as the principal
methods. The descriptive method is concerned with the description of concepts related
to systemic functional linguistics as well as transitivity system. The analytical method
is used to analyze the text. In some cases, some statistics are made to qualify the
frequency of use of the processes used in the story. The procedures and conventions
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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This chapter will provide the theoretical background of the research. I will begin
with an overview of systemic functional grammar. Then, I will present six types of
process in the transitivity system and their incumbent circumstances.
1.1. An overview of systemic functional grammar
Systemic functional grammar developed by Michael Halliday and his colleagues
has had a great impact on the approach to language . It is different from other models
of grammar in that it interprets language as interrelated sets of options for making
meaning and seeks to provide a clear relationship between functions and grammatical
systems (Halliday, 1994).
Functional linguists analyze a text, whether spoken or written, from a functional
point of view. A text is “a harmonious collection of meaning appropriate to its context”
(Butt, et al., 2000). A text cannot be fully understood without any reference to the
context in which it occurs. And context can be observed from two perspectives: the
context of culture and the context of situation. If the context of culture refers to the
broad sociocultural environment such as ideology, social conventions and institutions,
the context of situation relates to the specific situations within the sociocultural
environment (Droga & Humphrey, 2002). Montgomery (2006: 105) said that
“language is sensitive to its context of situation”, and with respect to this, all the
situational differences between texts can be explained by three aspects of the context
that Halliday & Hasan (1989) developed. They are called field, tenor, and mode.
The field is the social action in which the grammar is embedded, what is going
on, what is being talked about in a particular setting of space and time. It also includes
what the interaction is about (the subject matter) and what the participants know about
it (shared knowledge). Tenor is the term denoting the relationship between the

As mentioned in the title, the purpose of this study is to concentrate on the
transitivity analysis of the story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde;
therefore we will provide an overview of the theory on transitivity to establish the
framework for the analysis of the story in Chapter 2.
1.2. Theory on Transitivity
In this part, we are looking at the clause from the point of view of its
experiential function – a way of representing patterns of experience. Language
therefore represents external reality by happenings and states, which are referred to as
Processes; entities, known as Participants, and circumstances in which the happenings
and states occur, which are referred to as Circumstances (White, 2000:4). Halliday
(1994:107) stated our most powerful impression of experience is that it consists of
“goings-on” – happening, doing, sensing, meaning, being and becoming. In the process
of presenting, the clause plays a central role to be sorted out and embodied a general
principle for modeling experience which is made up of process. The process is to show
out the entire things which we usually call “states of affairs” or “representation”. As I
have mentioned above, language has three metafunctions of which transitivity is
concerned with representating the ideational metafunction which includes the
experiential and logical metafunctions. When the experiential function of the clause is
described, the clause can be broken down into three functional constituents: participant,
process and circumstance.
- The process: Process is a powerful concept which represents the possible
worlds as consisting of goings-on: doing, happening, feeling, and being. Halliday
(1994: 106-107) states that the processes in a language like English are construed by
the transitivity system. These goings-on are expressed through the structure of the
clause. Apart from the structural meaning, the meaning of the clause also expresses the
experiential aspect, called transitivity. Process can be classified into: material,
relational, mental, verbal, behavioral, and existential processes.
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- Participants: Can be a person, place or object and they are usually realized by

“happening”
Actor, Goal
Mental
perception
affection
cognition
“sensing”
“seeing”
“feeling”
“thinking”
Senser, Phenomenon
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Relational
attribution
identification
“being”
“attributing”
“identifying”
Token, Value
Carrier, Attribute
Identified, Identifier
Behavioural
“behaving”
Behaver
Verbal
“saying”
Sayer, Target
Existential
“existing”

other words, a relation is being set up between two entities.
The Relational process in English operates with three main types:
+ (1) intensive: “x is a”
+ (2) circumstantial: “x is at a” (Where “is at” stands for is at, in, on, for, with,…)
+ (3) possessive: “x has a”
Relational process has two different modes – attribution and identification,
resulting in two relational clause types, with different sets of participant roles: i)
attributive clauses with Carrier and Attributive, and ii) identifying clauses with
Identified and Identifier.
In attribute mode, an entity has some quality ascribed or attributed to it.
Structurally, we label this quality the Attribute, and the entity to which it is ascribed is
the Carrier.
Judy
seemed
so nervous
before the interview
Carrier
Process: relational
Attribute
Circumstance: time
When a relational clause is in the identifying mode, two equating participants
are referred to respectively in two pairs of terms: Identified/Identifier and
Token/Value.
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The clever one
is
Alice
Identifier/Token
Process: relational

1.3.5. Verbal Process
Verb processes are processes of saying such as telling, insulting, praising,
promising. They are representing symbolic relationships constructed in human
consciousness and enacted in the form language. They involve four entities: Sayer,
Verbiage, Target, and Receiver. Sayer can be anything that puts out a signal, Target
is one that the verbalization is directed to, Receiver is one that benefits from the verbal
process, and Verbiage is the name of the verbalization itself.
They
complained about
Peggy
to the principal.
Sayer
Process: verbal
Target
Receiver
1.3.6. Existential Process
Existential clauses resemble relational clauses by the way that they construe a
participant involved a process of being but different from relational ones by the way
that there is only one participant, the Existent. Frequently existential clause contains a
distinct circumstantial element of time or place. In English the word “there” is needed
as Subject, but it has no experiential meaning.
Suddenly
there
appeared
a man
Circumstance

Process: existential
Existent
1.3.7. Other participant functions

Spatial (where?)
Work in the kitchen
Extent
Temporal (for how long?)
Stay (for) two hours
Spatial (how far?)
Walk (for) seven miles
Manner
Means/quality/comparison
(how? what with? in what
way? like what?)
The pig was beaten with a stick
It was snowing heavily
Cause
Reason (why?)
I love her because she is rich
Purpose (what for?)
She went out for lunch
Behalf (who for?)
I am writing on behalf of Aunt Jane
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Contingency
Condition/ concession/
default (under what
conditions?)
Despite the rain, the excursion was a
great success
Accompaniment
(Who/what with?

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CHAPTER 2: TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF THE SHORT STORY
“THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE”
In this chapter, I will analyze the story “The Nightingale and the Rose” in terms
of transitivity. The analysis is based on the framework of Halliday‟s (1994) An
Introduction to Functional Grammar. Firstly, I will introduce the context of the chosen
text in order to have a general understanding about the story. Then, the story will be
analyzed into clauses, which are the basic units for analyzing in functional grammar.
From the clause analysis of the story, I will present a detailed analysis of the clauses
and their components as shown in Appendix 2. Finally, based on the analysis of the
clauses, I will find out the transitivity pattern in the story.
2.1. The context of chosen text
No name is more inextricably bound to the aesthetic movement of the 1880s and
1890s in England than that of Oscar Wilde. This connection results as much from the
lurid details of his life as from his considerable contributions to English literature. “The
Nightingale and the Rose” is one of Wilde‟s best short stories. It was published in 1888
with some other short stories. To have a deep understanding of the story, let us look at
content of the text. As I have mentioned above, filed answers “what is being talked
about?”, and it has direct connection with ideational metafunction that transitivity is the
main focus; therefore, it is very important to look at the field of the story. The plot of
the story is very simple. It starts with a student who wanted to dance with the girl he
liked. The girl said she would dance with him if he got her a red rose. But the student
was unable to find a red rose. A nightingale overheard the story and went to search for
a red rose. The bird ended up sacrificing itself to come up with a red rose. But the
following day, the girl disregarded the rose and the student flung it to the gutter. The
field of the story is reflected through a wide range of process types used in the text. I
will go for more detailed in the next section.
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