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79        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF THE PROBING EYES BY NWACHUKWU-

AGBADA 

                                                                                      

Prof. Ngozi Ezenwa-Ohaeto 

Department of English Language and Literarture, 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka 

& 

Eucharia Nkechinyere Ugochukwu 

Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Owerri 

euchay74@gmail.com 

 

Abstract 

This study uses Halliday’s transitivity system to analyse the processes, participants and 

circumstances in The Probing Eyes written by Nwachukwu-Agbada. Transitivity system 

considers language as representation of human experiences of the world orreality. From the 

analysis, the study explorescharacters in a text use language to represents the worldinside 

human beings as well as the world around them. The findings show that material processes has 

the highest percentage of occurrence with (35.56%), to demonstrate that the actors are active 

participants acting out their world of experiences of what goes in and out of them. Mental 

process comes second with (31.11%); relational processes (13.33%); behavioral processes 

(8.89%); verbal processes (8.89%) and lastly is the existential process with (2.22%)..  Material 

process expresses actions and reactions of the participants.  Based on the analysis of the 

transitivity process, participant and circumstance of the story through the direct method 

(showing), the result shows that the author does not merely convey the characters based on 

what appears through the behavior of the characters but also penetrates the thoughts, feelings, 

turmoil and inner conflict as well as the motivation that underlies the behavior of the characters. 

Keywords: Transitivity, Processes, Participants, Circumstance  

 

Introduction 

Many researches have been carried out in Nwachukwu-Agbada’s works such as, Psychological, 

Psychopathological analyses and relevance of his stories in contemporary times. None has tried 

to look into his works from transitivity point of view. This informs the basic interest of this 

study; to look into Nwachukwu-Agbada’s short story, The Probing Eyes, from the transitivity 

aspect using Halliday’s transitivity theory as a theoretical framework to analyze the processes, 

participants and circumstances found in the clauses that will be selected from the story under 

study. Transitivity analysis has been used to understand the language of writers and speakers, 

examining in depth, the structure of sentences which expresses semantic processes, 

participant’s involvement and circumstances in which the participants are involved. In his 

Introduction to Functional Grammar, Halliday’s concern is not whether a verb takes or does 

not take a direct object but his preoccupation is in what he calls “transitivity process” which 

involves the process itself, participants in the process and circumstances associated with the 

process (Halliday, 1981:172). This he divides into six process types namely: material, mental, 

relational, behavioral, verbal and existential. These process types align with the metafunctions 

of language in his clause definition as “The simultaneous realization of ideational, interpersonal 

and textual meanings.   

 

Semantically, experiential meaning and the assignment of processes offers a model of the 

speaker’s experience and serves to represent this experience by construing configuration of a 

process, participants involved in it and any attendant circumstances” (Halliday and Matthiessen 

2014: 169). These configurations are organized syntactically through the transitivity 



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80        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

system.Analyzingmetafunctions in a text may help people understand the information 

contained in a literary work, especiallyhow the information develops.Transitivity theory is 

applied by scholars to explain the experiential choices an author/ speaker makes to create a 

certain meaning to express his/ her message. This article therefore, adopts Halliday’s model as 

the theoretical framework to analysethe transitivity processes, participants and circumstances 

in  “The Probing Eyes” in “Love Strokes and Other Stories” by Nwachukwu-Agbada (1998), 

to find out if there are clauses in the story that show transitivity processes, participants and 

circumstances. 

 

Transitivity System 

Thompson (1996:78) stated that transitivity refers to a system for describing thewhole clause, 

rather than just the verb and its object. It describes how meaning is carriedacross from subject 

to predicate through the verb (Hancock, 2005:91). It may also help to think about verb phrases 

as determining kinds of representational processes(Hicks, 2007: 20). Halliday stated that a 

clause construes the world of experiences and consisting of nuclear processes, participants, and 

circumstances (Martin, 1992:10). The concepts of process, participant and circumstance are 

semantic categorieswhich explain in the most general way how phenomena of the real world 

are represented aslinguistic structures (Halliday, 1994:109). Processes are expressed by verbal 

groups,participants by nominal groups, and circumstances by adverbial groups or 

prepositionalphrases.In Halliday’s Transitivity Model, there are six process types: material, 

mental, relational, verbal, behavioral, and existential. Material, mental and relational are the 

major categories, while verbal, behavioral and existential are the minor processes group.  

Table Showing transitivity processes and their phrase classes. 

Process Type Category Meaning  Participants 

Material “doing” Actor, Goal 

Action ‘doing”  

Behavioral “behaving” Behaver 

Mental “sensing” Senser 

Perception 

Affection 

“seeing” 

“feeling” 

Phenomenon 

Verbal “saying” Sayer, Target 

Relational “being” Token, Value 

Attribution “attributing” Carrier, Attribute 

Existential “existing” Existent 

    (Halliday, 1985:131) 

 

Processes 

Processes are central to transitivity. The process centers on that part of the clause that 

is realized by the verbal group, but it can also be regarded as what ‘goings-on’ as represented 

in the whole clause (Bloor and Bloor, 1995:110). There are indeed six differentprocess types 

identified in Halliday’s model: material, behavioural, mental, verbal, relational, and 

existential. 

 

Material Processes (Processes of doing and Happening) 

Material processes are processes of doing and happening. Semantically, material processes 

indicate activities or events which happen in the outside world of human beings (Saragih, 

2010:7). There are two varieties of this type of processes; “Doing to” or dispositive type and 

“bringing about” or creative type. Material process expresses that an entity “does” something, 

which may be done “to” an actor, who carries out the action, and some processes, but not all 

have a second participant called goal, which implies “directed at”  or “the one to which the 



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81        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

process is extended” (Downing, 2006:134).  They express the notion that some entity 

physically does something, undertakes some action.One identification criterion for material 

processes is that they can be explored by asking: ‘what did x do?’: what did John do? John 

repaired the car. 

 

Mental Process: (Processes of sensing) 

Mental processes are processes of “sensing”. This process of sensing may be construed as 

flowing from a person’s consciousness (Halliday, 1985:170). Mental processes differ from 

material ones and therefore they require a different functional interpretation. Mental processes 

may be of four sub-types; perception, which refers to processes of feelings, seeing and so forth; 

cognition, which refers to processes of thinking, knowing, etc; emotion or affection, refers to 

processes of liking, hating etc; desideration which refers to processes of wanting, and so forth. 

In a mental process, there is always a conscious participant, “the senser”, also called 

“experiencer”, who perceives, knows and so forth, and a second participant, “the 

phenomenon”, that which is perceived, known or liked (Downing, 2006:133). Mental processes 

express mental reactions and give insight into people’s consciousness and how they sense the 

experience of the reality (134). It refers to the perception senses like seeing and hearing. 

Perceptive process is marked by verbs such as “see” and “hear”. The second type is cognitive 

process which refers to the process of thinking. These verbs; like, think, recognize, and 

“consider” belong to cognitive mental process. Affective mental process signals the process of 

“liking” or “hating”. The verbs in this category are “admire”, “love”, “hate”, or “dislike”. 

Desiderative, which is the last, is also called volition, which shows the senser’s expectation. 

‘Want’ and “wish” are such verbs that mark this process (Halliday, 1970:160). Hence, the 

reason for using mental processes are as spring to take a leap on the transitivity analysis of the 

main character in the short story is that the narrator uses mental verbs mostly in his narration 

to depict the mental tortures of love relationship amongst the participants in the texts. The 

realization of mental verbs is necessarily to observe different intentions on why certain type of 

mental verb is chosen. By doing so, the comprehension and interpretation of the character can 

be more objective as it relies on hard data and careful analysis. 

 

Verbal Processes (Saying and Communicating) 

Verbal processes are processes of saying and communication realized by verbs such as say, 

talk, asked, etc (Downing, 2006:134). Eggins (1994:215) states that a verbal process typically 

contains three participants: sayer, receiver and verbiage. The sayer, the participant responsible 

for the verbal process, does not have to be a conscious participant (although it typically is), but 

anything capable of putting out a signal. The receiver is the one to whom the verbal process is 

directed; the beneficiary of a verbal message, occurring with or without a preposition 

depending on position in the clause. The verbiage is a nominalized statement of the verbal 

process; a noun expressing some kind of verbal behavior. Many verbal processes occur with a 

nominal element, and a verbiage(Halliday,1985:129). 

 

Behavioural processes (Psychological and Physiological behaviour processes) 

Behavioural Processes are processes of physiological and psychological behaviours, like 

breathing, dreaming, snoring, smiling, hiccupping, looking, watching, listening, and pondering 

(Gerrot and Wignell, 1994:60). Grammatically, they are situated between material and mental 

processes. The majority of these processes usually hand only one called behaver, who is 

typically a conscious being, and a Range which is often a cognate (Halliday, 1985:137). 

Examples according to Halliday (1985:136) are: (1). (near mental) processes of consciousness 

presented as forms of behaviour, look watch, listen, think, dream and so on.(2). (near verbal) 

verbal processes as forms of behaviour chatter, talk, murmur, and so on.(3). (Physiological 



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82        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

processes manifesting states of consciousness, laugh, smile, whine, mood and so on. (4). Other 

physiological processes – breathe, sneeze, bump and so on. (5). (near material) bodily postures 

and pasteurizing, dance, lie (down) etc 

 

Relational Process (being and having) 

Relational processes are in a wide sense, processes of being. Halliday (1985:112) argues that 

relational processes are those of being; for example, Sarah is wise, Tom is the leader. The 

central meaning of clauses of this type is that something is. Every language accommodates, in 

its grammar, a number of distinct ways of being, expressed as different types of relational 

process in the clause.  Nevertheless, there are many types of being which will be expressed as 

different types of relational processes in the clause. Those which the author identifies are the 

following (Halliday, 1985:116): (1) Intensive “X is A” and (2) Circumstantial “X is at A. (3) 

Possessive “X has A”. Each of these types comes in two modes: (a). Attribute, “A in an attribute 

of ‘X’. (b). Identifying “A is the identity of ‘X’and the identified (Halliday, 1976:114).  

 

Existential processes 

Existential processes are those processes which represent that something happens or exists. 

They are usually realized by the verb “there + to be or some other verb which expresses 

existence for example; exist or arise, and they are followed by a nominal group which functions 

as an existent which is often an event, but can be a phenomenon of any type. Oftentimes, an 

existential process contains a circumstantial element as in, “there was a picture on the wall”.  

It is frequent in a non- finite clause, as in “there’s a patient to see you (Halliday, 

1985:130).These processes represent that something exists or happens. These clauses typically 

have the verb “be”, or some other verb expressing existence, such as exist, arise, followed by 

a nominal group functioning as existent (a thing which exists in the process).  

 

Participants  

Participants are typically realized by nominal groups. Each process has special sort of 

participants. It means, by knowing the participants we can also know the types of processes 

and circumstances. The type of participant is determined by the process involved. Each of these 

processes has its own participants. Participants are discussed according to the various processes 

and the type of action they perform in the processes. The basic principle is that participants are 

realized by nominal groups and circumstances are realized by prepositional phrases of 

adverbial groups. Participants are attached to every process (Eggins, 1994). However, the basic 

principle may be departed from under certainconditions: a) Participants that are marked theme 

or late news in the clause are marked by a preposition: Agent (in a receptive ['passive'] clause): 

by (sometimes with). Medium (in a receptive clause): by, Recipient: to, Client: for, Range: at, 

up, over, Actor (doer of the action), Goal (Object of the action) Carrier,Attribute (Goal after 

the process has been completed), Token (participant which is identified) Value (something 

which is given to the identified participant), Sayer (refers to speaker or anything that become 

the source of saying), Senser (the one that sense), Behaver, Existent, Verbiage ( signal 

something that is said), Addressee, Receiver (indicate addressee to whom the saying is 

delivery), Phenomenon (something which is sensed by the senser) Halliday and Matthiessen, 

2014) and Target (show entity or event which is being said or exist. (Gerrot and Wignell, 

1994:86). (b) Participants in relational clauses may be adverbial groups as well as prepositional 

phrases: (identifying:) on the twelfth. (c) Participants can serve as Subject, but Circumstances 

cannot. (d) Participants are interrogated by means of who, what, which; circumstances by 

means of when, where, why, how (plus prepositional phrases such as withwhom/ who ... with, 

since when/ since ... when, for whom/ who ... for) (Lock, 1996:165).  

 



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83        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

Table Showing Halliday’s Transitivity Participants in the Processes 

Material Mental Relational Verbal Behavioral Existential 

Actor Senser Carrier Sayer Behaver Existent 

Goal Phenomenon Attribute Receiver Behavior  

Beneficiary/ 

Recipient 

 Attributor Verbiage   

Beneficiary 

(Client) 

 Identifier Target   

Scope Initiator  Identified    

  Assigner    

(Halliday, 1985:131) 

 

Lock (1996:165) states that the basic principles of participants are realized by nominal groups. 

For instance,“we had breakfast with Tiffany in the afternoon”. The participant is we (actor), 

breakfast (range); and the circumstance is with Tiffany (accompaniment), in the afternoon 

(locative-time). The basic differences between participant and circumstance may be departed 

from under certain conditions: (a) Participants that are marked theme or late news in the clause 

are marked by a preposition: (1) Agent (in a receptive (passive) clause): by (sometimes with); 

(2) Medium (in a receptive clause): by (3) Recipient: to (4) Client: for (5) Range: at, up, over. 

For instance: he jumped the fence: he jumped clumsily over the fence; he baked her cake: he 

baked cake for her; she gave him the book: she gave the book to him; she played tennis with 

him: she played him at tennis. Participants in relational clauses may be adverbial groups as 

well as prepositional phrases: (identifying :) on the twelfth (c). Participants can serve as subject, 

but circumstances cannot. For instance, she drove here there by car, he was driven there by 

car; but not car was driven there by, there was driven by car.  The attribute of a relational 

clause cannot serve as Subject (it is not a prototypical participant in any case). Participants are 

interrogated by means of who, what, which; circumstances by means of when, where, why, how 

(plus prepositional phrases such as with whom/ who ... with, since when/ since ... when, for 

whom/ who ... for).Actor isthe participant which is doer or performer of an action in a material 

process.Goal isthe participant which is affected by the  actor in the process. Goal is constructed 

by the process involvement of the actor.Scope isthe participant which is unaffected from actor 

in the process. It is not constructed by the process directly.Beneficiary-recipient - the 

participant “to whom” the processtakes place. The participant who gets advantage from the 

goods and services is known as beneficiary/recipient(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014: 224-244). 

In the clause,“John” and “the car”, John is the actor while the car is the goal(Eggins,1994:217). 

The two participants in the mental process are senser and phenomenon. A senser is the 

conscious being involved in the process, while a phenomenon is the participant which has felt, 

thought, or seen by the senser.Senser is the central and inherent participant in mental process. 

It may be one person or human collective. Senser is the participant who perceives, thinks, feels 

or wants in mental process.Phenomenon is also inherent participant like senser in mental 

process. Phenomenon is the act, thing or fact which is perceived, felt or wanted.(Halliday & 

Matthiessen, 2014:245-258) 

The Carrier is the participant who carries an attribute or the entity which is ascribed or 

assigned with attribute in the process.Attribute is the entity or attribute (quality) which is 

assigned or ascribed to carrier.Attributor is the participant in relational process who assigns 

the quality (attribute). It is also known as assigner in relational process.Identified is the 

participant in relational process who is indicated by an entity in identification process. It is also 

known as Token in relational process.Identifier is the participant which identified the Token. 



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84        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

It is also known as the Value in relational process.(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014:259-299). 

The Sayer is the participant who speaks or says in the verbal process. It is also known as the 

speaker of the process.Receiver is the also oblique. Receiver is the participant in verbal process 

to whom saying is directed.Target is the participant which is targeted by verbal process. 

Subtypes of clauses in verbal process contains target participant. 

 

Verbiage is very important participant in verbal process. “What is said by sayer?”(Halliday, 

1971:115). “The participant who carries out the role of the sayer is the “notice”. 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). In behavioral process, 

there is only one participant, namely; behaver (the agent who behaves).Behaviour isthe 

participant which is affected by the process with the involvement of behaver (Halliday 

&Matthiessen, 201:301-302).There is only one participant in this process that is Existent. It is 

the entity or event which comes into existence as the process unfolds. 

 

Circumstances  

Circumstances answer such questions as when, where, why, how, how many, and as what. The 

principal types of circumstances are time (temporal), place (spatial), manner (means, quality, 

and comparison), cause (reason, purpose, and behalf), accompaniment, matter, and role 

(Gerrott and Wignell, 1994:52-53). In addition, Halliday (1985:137) suggests that the principal 

types of circumstantial element in English are as follows: extent and location in time and space, 

including abstract space: manner (means, quality, and comparison): cause (reason, purpose, 

and behalf); accompaniment: matter; role, extent and location. Circumstances give extra detail 

about the physical action and inner world in which the human experiences are constructed. 

Circumstantial Elements in TransitivitySystemCircumstances (Expansion: enhancing), 

Extent: (Distance, Distance in space), Duration: (Duration in time), Frequency: (How many 

times?), Location:(Place-Where?), Spatial: (Time-When? Temporal), Manner: (Means- 

How? By which means?), Quality: (How? Adverbial group), Comparison: (Similarity and 

differences), Degree: (Prepositional phrase, How much? Adverbial group), Cause:(Reason 

Why? Causes, because Purpose What for? Intention Behalf Who for? On whose behalf action 

takes place, Contingency: (Condition, Why? Having sense of ‘if ’Default Having sense of 

negative condition Concession Frustrated cause, with prepositions). 

 

Table Showing Circumstances in Halliday’s Transitivity System. 

Category Sub-Category Sub-Type Probe Example 

 Extent Distance How far? over 10 miles 

  Duration How long? for several days 

  Frequency How many 

times? 

20 times 

 Location Place Where? In Tulsa 

  Time When? In May 

 Manner Means How?  By Train 

  Quality In what way? This way 

  Comparison What like? His hair was cut 

differently 

  Degree How much? I like him so much 

 Cause Reason Why? because of 

(Halliday, 1985:138) 



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85        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

 

Analysis 

The method of data analysis employed in this paper is a purposive qualitative method. First 

and foremost, the clause in the stories were selected and analyzed based on Halliday’s systemic 

processes. The texts were split into sentences and clauses. Each of the clauses was expressed 

in tables and examined to determine the process types of processes , the participants in the 

processes, and the circumstantial elements in the process. The selected clauses were thoroughly 

checked to enable the identification of the high occurring process, its participant and 

circumstance involved manually.  

Clause 1. His heart gave a little lurch of excitement (TPE). 

His heart Gave a little lurch of excitement   

Participant  Process  Scope  

Behaver   Behavioural  Behaved  

Clause 2. Prospero could not have his way yesterday (TPE). 

Prospero  could not have   His way Yesterday 

Participant  Process  Carrier  Circumstance  

Actor  Material  Goal  Time  

Clause 3. He felt like rushing her (TPE). 

He  felt   like rushing her 

Participant  Process  Scope  

Senser   Mental   Phenomenon  

Clause 4. Monday would have been away on morning duty (TPE). 

Monday  would have been   away on morning duty  

Participant  Process   Circumstance   

Identified  Relational  Location  

Clause 5. She has a penchant for a neat dress (TPE). 

She  has  a penchant  for a neat dress 

Participant  Process  Scope  Circumstance  

Actor  Material  Goal  Manner  

Clause 6. Suddenly Monday emerged from underneath the bed   (TPE). 

 

Clause 7. Those Chadian beggars are sleeping on Lagos road (TPE). 

Those Chadian beggars are sleeping  On Lagos road 

Participant  Process  Circumstance  

Actor   Material  Place  

Clause 8.  Naomi would have been treating his eyes to such exposure (TPE). 

Naomi  Would have been treating  his eyes  to such exposure 

Participant  Process  Scope  Circumstance  

Actor  Material  Goal  Place  

Clause 9. All he knew was that he had arranged with Naomi to be at home by 10am (TPE). 

All he 

knew 

was He had 

arranged  

With 

Naomi  

To be home  By 10am 

Adjunct  Process  Participant  Process  Scope  Circumstance  Circumstance 

Modal  Relational  Identified  Relational  Identifier  Place  Time  

 

 

 

Suddenly  Monday  emerged  From underneath the bed  

Circumstance  Participant  Process   Circumstance  

Manner  Actor  Material  Place  



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86        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

Clause 10. Prospero’s heart flowed over its brim with the joy of a conqueror (TPE). 

Prospero’s heart   flowed over its brim with the joy of a conqueror  

Participant  Process Circumstance  Circumstance  

Actor  Material  Place  Manner  

 

Discussions 

Based on the results obtained, the most frequent type of process used in the short story is 

material process. It shows that the message of the short story is expressed through the actions 

and physical movements of the characters. The second process in the data is mental processes 

and relational processes. Relational process is applied in expressing the message through the 

way of being and having something. While, the mental process is applied in expressing the 

message through the process of feeling, thinking, perceiving. It is continued by verbal 

processes indicating the theme of love expressed through some utterances said by the 

participants.  Material process expresses actions and reactions of the participants.    Based on 

the analysis of the transitivity process, participant and circumstance of the stories through the 

direct method (showing), the result can be seen from above that the author does not merely 

convey the characters based on what appears through the behavior of the characters but also 

penetrates the thoughts, feelings, turmoil and inner conflict as well as the motivation that 

underlies the behavior of the characters. 

The study examines the experiential meaning analysis using transitivity system in expressing 

the themes of the data expressed in the short story in detail. Focusing on identifying the 

processes, participants, and circumstances, the study will show the readers the way the narrator 

develop the themes of the short stories. It can be seen through two ways of transitivity 

processes, which are material process and mental process. Although there are 10 clauses, the 

analysis shows a total number of 45 transitivity processes that indicate the themes of the stories.  

The following table illustrates clearly the total amount of findings consisting of the number 

and percentage of each process type of transitivity system. From the analysis, 11 participants 

partook in the processes; 9 major participants and 2 minor participants.  

 

 

Process types in The Probing Eyes. 

Process  Frequency  Percentage (%) 

Material  16 35.56% 

Mental  14 31.11% 

Behavioural  4 8.89% 

Verbal  4 8.89% 

Relational  6 13.33% 

Existential  1 2.22% 

Total 45 100 

 

From the results obtained, the most frequent type of process used in the short stories is material 

process (35.56% and 16 processes). It shows that themes of the short stories are expressed 

through the actions and physical movements of the characters. The second processes used are 

mental (31.11% and 14 processes) and relational process (13.33% and 6 processes). Relational 

process is applied in expressing the theme through the way of being and having something. 

While, the mental process is applied in expressing the theme through the process of feeling, 

thinking, perceiving. It is continued by verbal process which has 4 processes (8.89%) indicating 

the themes are expressed through some utterances said by the characters. Behavioural process 

has 4 (8.89%) processes expressing the themes of the short stories. Lastly, existential has only 



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87        Ezenwa-Ohaeto & Ugochukwu 

one slot (2.22% and 1 process). From the analysis, 11 participants partook in the processes; 9 

major participants and 2 minor participants.  

 

It might be argued that the clauses that imply the process of physiological or psychological 

behavior to express the themes are only 4 processes. Meanwhile, the writer found only 1 

existential process which expresses the theme of the short stories. In other words, the clause 

expressing themes stated by the presence of something or some event is only one process. 

 

Conclusion 

In the process of representation, clause plays a central role, because it embodies a general 

principle of modeling experience, namely, the principle that reality is made up of Processes. 

Transitivity system, according to Halliday, is a set of grammatical system which construes the 

world of experience into a manageable set of Process Types (Halliday, 1994:106). There are 

six principle processes types in transitivity system: Material, Mental, Relational, Behavioural, 

Verbal, and Existential. Process types in transitivity system helps human beings recognize and 

encode their experiences or phenomena of the real world. 

 

From the analysis of the processes, the dominant process is material processes with 16clauses 

(35.56 %) of the total clauses of the text, showing that the participants are active actors in their 

experiences of the happenings around them.    The second place is mental process with 14 

clauses (31.11%), the third place is relational processes with 6 clauses (13.33%). Next is 

behavioral processes with4 clauses (8.89%), verbal processes has the same number with 

behavioural processes clauses (8.89%). While existentialprocesses comes last with only 1  

clause (2.22%).  

Analysis of data shows that the text yields 11 Participants: 9 major and 2minor. These 

participants are distributed as 8 actors/goals, 1 existents, 3 carriers of certain attributes, 8 

identified possessors of characteristics, 4sayers or verbiages, 6Sensers /phenomena, and 11 

behaver. Specifically, the main participant, Prospero in “The Probing Eyes”, is portrayed in the 

story as an “opportunist” lover, who wants to grab any opportunity to have a fast 

sexualrelationship with another man’s wife. Through this, the characters act out the world 

around them.  

 

In Halliday’s Functional Grammar System, language has three basic functions:ideational 

function, interpersonal function, and textual function. Each of them can be realizedby one or 

more sets of grammatical system of language. The ideational function, Hallidaymentions, 

concerns how human beings build a mental picture of reality with language, howthey make 

sense of what goes on around them and inside them. Those goings-on consist ofhappening, 

doing, meaning, being and becoming. 

 
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Eggins, S. (1994). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. 1st ed. London: 

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