Reyes, Clariza A.

Meta-analysis November 8, 2014 ENG711M

Transitivity Analysis of Selected Grade 7 Short Stories

as Used in Philippine Public Secondary Schools

The use of short stories improves English Language Learners’ (ELLs) reading
comprehension and language skills more effectively (Pathan, 2012); thus, short
stories are being used in English Language Teaching (ELT). As compared to a normal
passage, Brumfit and Carter (1986), as cited in Pathan, suggest that short stories
catch students’ attention more. Using short stories in ELT classroom can also
influence students “to learn some literary aspects and cultural awareness” and “can
make them to think critically” (Arju & Rahman, 2008).
On the other hand, when it comes to using short stories in ELT, it is important
that teachers also understand their responsibilities not only as teachers of language
but also as “student developers” of the society as short stories greatly affect students’
learning not only intellectually but also emotionally (Wright, 2006). This claim has led
the researcher to investigate the context and structure of short stories as used by
teachers in the classroom.
Specifically, Grade 7 short stories are the target materials in this study for a
fact that secondary schools start with Grade 7 level under the K-12 Curriculum and it
is expected that Grade 7 is the basic foundation of students in secondary school
before they can reach to the next grade level. Further, the researcher finds it more
reliable to use Grade 7 level for this study to determine how particular short stories
included in the Grade 7 lessons can affect students’ minds and emotions at an
earliest level in secondary school. The short stories in this study were written by
Filipino authors and were included by the Department of Education (DepEd) in the
Grade 7 Learning Package and in the English Time Journal in public high schools in
the Philippines. These short stories as well as their respective authors in this study are
the following: (1) How the World Was Created (by the Panay folks; 1 st Quarter); (2) How
My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife (by Manuel Arguilla; 2 nd Quarter); (3) The
Happiest Boy in the World (by NVM Gonzalez; 3 rd Quarter); and (4) “The Sacrifice” (by
Celso Carunungan; 4th Quarter).

Transitivity Analysis
To analyse the Grade 7 short stories, Halliday’s (1985) Theoretical Framework of
Transitivity is an effective framework in determining the world view of the characters in a
literary work. Through the use of this theory, this study aims to determine the process
types of the main verbs used in the clauses, the participants in the process, and the
circumstances associated with the process of each Grade 7 short story to find out the
contextual meaning of the particular short story. The clausal structure of the selections is
examined by categorizing the main verbs of the clauses which can show the connection
between linguistics and literature (Hişmanoğlu, 2005). Halliday determines transitivity as
“to how meaning is represented in clauses, and aims to make clear how the action is
performed, by whom and on what.” Halliday claims that in constructing experimental
meaning, there is one major system of grammatical choice involved: the system of
transitivity or process type. Moreover, he states that language expresses three main
kinds of meanings simultaneously: ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings.
According to Halliday’s Theory of Transitivity, there are six processes types of clauses:
(1) Material processes (e.g: eat, knock, call); (2) Behavioral processes (e.g: smiling,
laughing, breathing); (3) mental processes (e.g: think, feel, know); (4) Verbal processes
(e.g: say, said, tell); Relational processes (e.g: am, is, are); and (6) Existential processes
(e.g: be, exist, arise).
 The interpretation of verb meaning hinges in large part on the argument structure
of the verb (Fisher et. al, 2010). On the other hand, Graesser et al. (2013) state that
verbs play a vital role in human languages as verbs create meanings which humans
acquire. Thus, examining the structure of each Grade 7 short story based on the main
verbs that are used will be effective to determine the contextual meaning of each story.
In his paper, Brooks (2010) highlighted the effectiveness of Halliday’s Theory of
Transitivity in Halliday’s transitivity analysis of the three passages from “The Inheritors.”
Brooks states that the use of transitivity analysis connects “grammar” from “meaning” as
transitivity and grammar work together to create literary meaning. Halliday, as cited in
Bustam (2009), also state that there are three kinds of grammar in English: (1) “theme is
the grammar of discourse”; (2) mood is the grammar of speech and function”; and (3)
“transitivity is the grammar of experience.” Halliday (1981) defines transitivity as “the
grammar of the clause” and “as a structural unit for expressing a particular range of
ideational meanings.” Transitivity is “the cornerstone of the semantic organization of
experience” and “it subsumes all participants’ functions and all experiential functions
relevant to the syntax of the clause” (Halliday, 1981, as cited in Bustam, 2009, p.24).
With Halliday’s claims on transitivity, it is clear that through transitivity, a clause can be
analysed, making it more understandable for the readers upon identifying the process
type of a clause.
There have been other studies conducted on the use of Halliday’s Theory of
Transitivity. In her paper, Nguyen (2012) used Halliday’s Theory of Transitivity to identify
and explain how the main character’s personality is portrayed and represented through
language used in the short story entitled “Heroic Mother” by Hoa Pham. In addition,
Cunanan (2011) used Theory of Transitivity to stylistically analyze the essay of Virginia
Woolf’s essay entitled “Old Mrs. Grey” in terms of processes, participants, and
circumstances to illustrate the mind frame or world view of the persona in an essay
written in the Stream of Consciousness (SOC) technique.

Techniques of Representation: Lexical Relations and Meaning Properties

Aside from transitivity analysis, this study also aims to determine the techniques
of representation used in the selected Grade 7 short stories and the researcher finds
lexical relations and meaning properties as effective techniques. In her paper, Aginta
(2010) used these techniques to find out the types of lexical relations and meaning
properties found in articles in The Jakarta Post newspaper and to find out which type of
lexical relations and meaning properties occur the most in articles in The Jakarta Post
newspaper.
Aginta states that “semantics is the study of meaning in language.” She further
claims that understanding the semantics of a language leads in the full understanding of
that language. “Lexical relations are relationship of the meaning of a word to other
words” (Bolinger, 1968, as cited in Aginta) while “meaning property is one of several
features or component which together can be said to make up the meaning of a word or
utterance” (Lyons, 1977, as cited in Aginta). Lexical relations include “hyponyms,
meronyms” (Siregar, 1981, as cited in Aginta), homonyms, synonyms, and antonyms
(Palmer, 1976, as cited in Aginta). While meaning properties include meaningfulness,
ambiguity, redundancy, anomaly, and contradictory (Siregar, 1981, as cited in Aginta).
“Hyponymy is a word the meaning of which may be said to be included in that of another
word. Meronymy is a part-whole relationship between lexical items” (Siregar, 1981, as
cited in Aginta). “Homonyms are different words which are pronounced the same, but
have different meanings. Synonyms are words which sound different, but have the same
or nearly the same meaning. And antonyms are words or expressions which are
opposite in meaning or two words that express opposing concepts” (Palmer, 1976, as
cited in Aginta). On the other hand, “meaningfulness means a word or expression that
has meaning and neither anomalous nor contradictory; ambiguity means a word or
sentence that has more than one sense; redundancy is the degree to which an
expression contains more information than is needed for it to be understood; anomaly is
an expression which has an incompatibility of meaning between constituent expressions;
contradictory means that there is a contradiction of meaning between constituent
expressions” (Siregar, 1981, as cited in Aginta).
There were certain studies that used lexical relations and meaning properties in
their studies. In her thesis entitled “An Analysis of Meaning Properties in Campbell’s
Kingdom by Innes Hommand,” Tiakhiroh (2007) found that there are 138 cases for
meaning properties: 94 cases for meaningfulness, 28 cases for anomaly, 7 cases
for contradictory, 3 cases for ambiguity, and 6 cases for redundancy. Meanwhile, in her
thesis entitled “The Analysis of Meaning Properties and Meaning Relations in Saul
Bellow’s short story Looking for Mr. Green,” Sofiana (2008) found that there are 136
cases for meaning properties: 112 cases (82, 3%) for meaningfulness, 12 cases (8, 8%)
for ambiguity, 6 cases (4, 4%) for anomaly, 4 cases (2, 9%) for contradictory, and 2
cases (1, 4%) for redundancy. There are also 34 cases for meaning relations: 13 cases
(38, 2%) for antonyms, 11 cases (32, 3%) for homonyms, and 10 cases (29, 4%) for
synonyms.

As a whole, this study gives significant contributions in the field of ELT in the
country as students and teachers can easily unlock and probe what flows directly
through minds of characters and how their perceptions can affect students’ minds and
emotions. Moreover, dealing with lexical relations and meaning properties can
significantly contribute in the study of semantics in the field of ELT.
 List of References

Aginta, W. (2010). An analysis of lexical relations and meaning properties in articles

The Jakarta Post daily newspaper. (online thesis). Retrieved from
http://repository.usu.ac.id/bitstream/123456789/19292/4/Chapter%20II.pdf

Arju, S. & Rahman, S. (2008). Exploting short stories in the EFL classroom.
Stamford Journal of English, 4,124-141.

Brooks, J. (2010). The growing absurdity of the South African apartheid: Transitivity
in Christopher Van Wyk’s, “In Detention.” Innervate, 2, 26-32.

Bustam, M.R. (2009). Analyzing clause by Halliday’s transitivity system. Jurnal Ilmu
Sastra, 6(1), 22-33.

Cunanan, B.T. (2011). Using transitivity as a framework in a stylistic analysis

of Virginia Woolf’s Old Mrs. Grey. Asian EFL Journal, 54, 69-79.

English Time. (2012). 18 (2), 24-28.

English Time. (2012). 18 (3), 22-25.

English Time. (2012). 18 (4), 16-18.

Fisher, C., Goldberg, A.E., & Ratitamkul, T. (2014). The role of discourse context in
determining the argument structure of novel verbs with omitted arguments.
(Online Thesis). http://www.learnigace.com/doc/5902391/ede35010e6dd35
01e6dd30ffcb48d6c4da8010b7/04-ratitamkuletalclrf

Grade 7 English Learning Package. (2012). Manila: Department of Education.

Graesser, A., Wiemer-Hastings, P., & K. Wiemer-Hastings. (2013). Inferring the

meaning of verbs from context. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual
Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 1142–1147.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1985b). An Introduction to Functional Grammar London: Edward

Arnold.

Hişmanoğlu, M. (2005). Teaching English through literature. Journal of Language

and Linguistic Studies, 1(1) 53-66.

Nguyen, H.T. (2012). Transitivity analysis of heroic mother by Hoa Pham.

International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(4), 85-100.

Pathan, M.M. (2012). Advantages of using short stories in ELT classroom and the
Libyan EFL learners’ perceptions towards them for developing reading
comprehension skill. Arab World English Journal, 4(1), 28-41.
Sofiana, Lili. 2008. Meaning properties and meaning relations in Saul Bellow’s
short story Looking for Mr. Green. Medan: Fakultas Sastra USU.

Tiakhiroh. 2007. An Analysis of Meaning Properties in Campbell’s Kingdom by

Innes Hommand. (Unpublished). Medan: Fakultas Sastra USU.

Wright, Andrew. (2006). Stories and their importance in language teaching.

Humanizing Language Teaching, 2(5), 2.