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TRANSITIVITY IN PROVERBS IN ACHEBE’S THINGS 

FALL APART 

Akabuike Ifeoma G. 

Department of English,  

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University,  

Igbariam Campus. 

Email: ifyakabuike2014@gmail.com 

 

Abstract 

This paper shows how transitivity can be used to classify verbs 

and clauses through many processes in Achebe’s proverb in 

(Things Fall Apart. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar 

(SFG) was adopted as the theoretical framework. Its aim is to 

clarify the meaning of proverbs beyond a literary work. The 

paper focused on “transitivity” in ideational metafunction in 

analyzing the verbs according to the different process types. The 

researcher employed a qualitative design because the data is 

displayed in the form of string of words. The analysis was done 

in line with the adopted theoretical framework. The study 

revealed that the transitivity system can analyze clauses as 

expressed in proverbs effectively. Again, the author made the 

most use of material process type. This shows that action words 

were mostly used in the proverbs. 

 

Keywords: Transitivity, Systemic Functional Grammar, Process 

types and Proverbs. 

 

Introduction 

Proverb is one of the tools with which writers justify the actions 

of characters, criticize bad ethical and immoral behaviours while 

advocating right virtues and morals. Through the use of 

proverbs, writers try to express the wealth of philosophy, 

mailto:ifyakabuike2014@gmail.com


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wisdom and perception of life as they affect and control their 

community. Also, writers write to reflect the realities of their 

time and to highlight the peculiar socio-political and economic 

situations that have exerted a lot influence in shaping them and 

pushing their frontiers as writers. In a bid to recreate a believable 

account of a given set of people, many African writers have 

tended to look inwards, deep in the oral tradition of the people. 

In this regard, many African writers incorporate a lot of proverbs 

and other cultural artifacts in their works. 

In this study, the researcher explored the linguistic 

representation of imaginary events, the people and things 

involved in the proverbs in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, using 

Halliday’s transitivity system. The reason is to find out whether 

the analysis of the transitivity system: Process type, in terms of 

what is represented by the verbal group in the clause have 

helped to bring out meanings intended by the writer for easy 

understanding of the novel. Drawing on Halliday’s Transitivity, 

the study analyzed proverbs from a semantic-grammatical point 

of view. 

This research will enable the readers to appreciate the creativity, 

beauty and Achebe’s style of writing evident in the use of 

proverbs in the text under study. Again, an investigation of the 

linguistic choices in proverbs would help the reader to 

understand both complex, literary meanings and expand the 

reader’s understanding of Halliday’s transitivity as a linguistic 

tool to explore or analyze proverbs which will help to further/ 

cement the relationship between language and literature. 

 

Statement of the Problem 

Proverb played an integral role in Things Fall Apart, because 

one can hardly tell effectively, an African story that involves her 



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rich cultural past and heritage in isolation from the rich proverbs 

that are part of the love of the people.  Achebe made abundant 

use of proverbs in his work under study and one may argue that 

those proverbs were not accidental but intentionally incorporated 

by the writer as part of his techniques to achieve a desired style 

of writing. These proverbs also serve as a way of asserting the 

African unique cultural values.  

Since the writer’s tool is word made possible by language, 

proverbs have become an effective tool and technique with 

which writers store and weave ideas and thematic issues 

together. This all important literary genre has not been analyzed 

with systemic functional grammar. Generally, it has been viewed 

from the literary angle, hence this study: Transitivity in proverbs 

in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The question for this linguistic 

analysis of proverb will concern the choice of words, 

grammatical form and text structure in terms of their experiential 

values:  

1. To what extent can the transitivity system analyze clause 

found in the proverbs? 

2. What are the different process types recognized in the 

language and structures by which the proverbs were 

expressed in the text under study? 

3. To what extent can the transitivity system solve the case 

of reference in contexts of potential ambiguity? 

 

Proverbs and their Importance 

Several scholars have attempted to define proverb, each from the 

dimension or viewpoint that is more appealing to them. This has 

given rise to various definitions of proverbs, found in many 

scholarly publications. Ruth Finnegan quoted in Asika and 

Akabuike (34) defined proverb as “a saying in more or less fixed 

from marked by shortness, sense and salt and distinguished by 

the popular acceptance of the truth tensely expressed in it. 



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Mieder (2004:24) in support of the above assertion by Finnegan 

said that proverb “is a short, generally known sentence of folk of 

wisdom, truth, morals and traditional views in metaphorical, 

fixed and memorizable form which is handed down from 

generation to generation”. Akporobaro (2001:110) argues that 

proverbs are “about old-age wisdom but many of them are 

rhetorical and humorous”. Proverb in the words of Nwoga is a 

“terse statement which figuratively gives expression to 

traditional wisdom relevant to a given situation”. Achebe 

(2008:7) sees it as” “the palm oil with which words are eaten”.  

Proverbs are very useful in the African society especially in Igbo 

society. Most usages of proverbs according to Umeh (233) 

“serve to: basically protect the user in the speech act that 

necessitated the proverb usage, justify whatever situation the use 

is in, to insult or castigate the recipient”.  

Also, Asika (2014) on Achebe’s use of proverbs in Things Fall 

Apart rightly said that,  

Proverbs play an integral role in Things Fall 

Apart, for one can hardly tell effectively an 

African story that involves her rich cultural past 

and heritage in isolation from the rich proverbs 

that are part of the love of the people. Achebe 

made abundant use of proverbs in his work and 

one may argue that those proverbs were not 

accidental but intentionally incorporated by the 

writer as part of his techniques to achieve a 

desired style of writing. The proverbs play 

integral role in the making of the novels. These 

proverbs serve as a way of asserting the African 

unique cultural values. The proverbs used in the 

novel are familiar. Achebe was able to borrow 

some of these proverbs and he blended them 

perfectly in his literary work that one can hardly 



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differentiate this oral mode of communication in 

the literary from. (140) 

 

On the role of proverb above, Asika is saying that Achebe 

succeeded in telling the African story from a real African 

perspective and with the African voices too. We can as well 

observe from the above that proverbs have become part of the 

prominent and reoccurring aspect and technique of writing in 

many of the literary works that replete the African scene. Since 

the writer’s tool is word made possible by language, proverb has 

become an effective tool and technique with which African 

writers store and weave ideas and thematic concerns together. 

 

The Notion of Clause in the Light of SFG 

As the highest unit in the grammatical rank, the clause is viewed 

in the light of systemic functional grammar as a grammatical 

resource for all the three languages metafunctions: construing 

the world, enacting social roles, and presenting information. 

According to Bloor & Bloor (2013), clause can be seen as: 

‘Clause rather than word’ or sentence is the unit 

of analysis in systematic functional. And the 

function of a clause is analyzed in terms of: (a) 

subject, finite, predicator, complement and 

adjunct (SFPCA) (b) theme and Rheme (c) given 

and new and (d) process and participant or 

transitivity system. SFPCA captures syntactic 

niceties of the text. Theme-Rheme and Given-

New indices deal with the way a text is packaged 

and the way information in a text is structured in 

a clause. However, a process and participant 

analysis of text reveals the way language users 

manipulate language to represent their perception 

of reality. (107) 



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Again, a clause according to Halliday (2014) is: 

A fundamental property of language is that it 

enables human being to build a mental picture of 

reality, to make sense of their experience of what 

goes on around them and inside them. Here, 

again, the clause is the most significant 

grammatical unit, in this case, because it is the 

clause that functions as the representation of 

processes. Transitivity specifies the different 

types of processes that are recognized in the 

language, and the structure by which they are 

expressed. (101) 

Halliday (1973:1) points out that there are three lines of meaning 

in a clause: the textual meaning, the interpersonal meaning, and 

the ideational meaning(s) (the clause has three metafunctions: 

textual, interpersonal and ideational metafunctions as can be 

illustrated through the table below. 

 
Metafunctions The 

professor 

Was Analyzing the function that 

a class can perform 

Textual Theme Rheme  

Interpersonal 

 

Mood 

 

 Residue 

Ideational Actor Process 

(material) 

Goal 

 

 

Transitivity 

Traditionally, transitivity is normally understood as the 

grammatical feature, which indicates if a direct verb takes a 

direct object. If a verb takes a direct, it is described as transitive, 

and it is called intransitive if it does not. An extension of this 

concept is the ditransitive verb, which takes both a direct and 

indirect object. Halliday, however, found the new concept of 



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transitivity. This new concept represents a further development 

of the old concept. In Halliday's conception in his introduction to 

functional grammar, whether a verb takes or does not take a 

direct object is not a prime consideration. Transitivity is a part of 

ideational function of language. The ideational function of the 

clause is concerned with the “transmission of ideas”. Its function 

is that of “representing ‘processes’ or ‘experiences’: actions, 

events, processes of consciousness and relations” (Halliday, 

1985:53). The term “process” is used as in a … extended sense, 

“to cover all phenomena…and anything that can be expressed by 

a verb: event, whether physical or not, state or relation” 

(Halliday 1976:159). Halliday views that “processes” expressed 

through language are the product of our conception of the world 

or point of view. He further notes, that “Our most powerful 

conception of reality is that it consists of “going-ones” : of 

doing, happening, feeling. Being. These goings-on are sorted out 

in the semantic system of the language, and expressed through 

the grammar of the clause…clause evolved simultaneously in 

another grammatical function expressing the reflective, 

experiential aspect of meaning. This…is the system of 

TRANSITIVITY. Transitivity specifies the different types of 

process that are recognized in the language and the structures by 

which they expressed” (Halliday 1985:101). The semantic 

processes expressed by clauses have potentially three 

components as follows:  

1) The process itself, which will be expressed by the verb 

phrase in a clause.  

2) The participants in the clause, which refer to the roles of 

entities that are directly involved in the process: the one 

that does, behaves or says, together with the passive one 

that is done to, said to, etc. The participants are not 

necessarily humans or even animate; the term 

“participant entities” would be more accurate (Halliday 



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1976:160). The participant entities are normally realized 

by noun phrase in the clause.  

3) The circumstances associated with the process, which are 

typically expressed by adverbial and prepositional 

phrases. (Halliday 1985: 101-102).  

 

With these three components of transitivity one can analyze the 

mind-set or worldview “framed by the authorial meaning 

(Fowler 1986:138) in literary or non literary texts. The first 

principle of a transitivity analysis is to uncover the principle 

“who or what does what to whom or what” In simple terms, it 

refers to the relationship between the action of an Actor and its 

effect upon the Goal. In order to get a clear picture of what is 

happening from the viewpoint of one’s subjective reality 

involved in the story the following process is helpful; 

(1) Isolate the process per se and determine which 

participant (who or what) is doing each process  

(2) Determine what sorts of process they are and which 

participants is engaged in which of type of process.  

(3) Determine who or what is affected or seems to be 

affected by each of these processes. (Burton 1982:202). 

 Ezeifeka (2018:166) noted that in the transitivity system, 

processes are divided into six groups: material process, 

mental process, behavioural process, verbal and 

existential processes. 

 

Material Process 

Material process consists of action or doing clauses conducted 

by the agents. Bloor and Bloor (2013:110) termed it as “the 

prototypical action type clause of traditional school grammar 

and that most material processes could reasonably be said to 

involve doing words” and take mainly transitive verbs. E.g. 

gave, bought, break, tub etc. 



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Relational Process 

Relational process is the process of being, according to 

Thompson (2004:96), it identifies one entity in favour of 

another. Its verbs are: be, remain, seen, have, exemplify, felt, 

belong etc. Ryder (41) stated that “this process is used for many 

functions including indentifying and attributing. 

 
A girl 

Identified 

Is 

Relational 

A young person 

Identifier 

 

Mental Process 

The mental process is the process of perception and cognition. It 

deals with how we perceive and present the world to ourselves. 

It consists of verbs like, think, know, feel, smell, hear, see, want, 

like, believe etc. 

There are two kinds of participants in this process, the sensor, 

who does the action and the phenomenon which according to 

Ryder (40) is “the entity that is inducing the state” 

 
I 

Sensor  

Saw 

Mental  

Ali 

Phenomenon  

Yesterday 

Circumstance 

 

Verbal Process 

Verbal processes are the verbs of saying like: tell, speaking, 

announce, promise, ask, Bloor and Bloor (2013:122) noted four 

participants in this process: “the sayers, the receivers, the 

verbiage and the target. 

Obi praised Ebuka before other students in the class 

 

He  Gave  Smith  Some cash 

S (subject) F/P (finite/predicator) C (complement) C (complement) 

Actor Material Beneficiary goal 



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Obi Praised Ebuka Others students In the class 

Sayer Verbal Target Receiver Circumstance 

 

Existential Process 

Existential processes are those that have only one participant, the 

existent. It has two main forms of grammatical realizations:  

1. With a copular verb and an empty “there” as subject e.g. 

There were five of us in the party. 

2. With copular verb, the existent as subject and usually a 

circumstantial adjunct e.g. Twenty of us were in the 

party. 

There is a passenger by the door 

 
There 

Circumstance 

Is 

Existential  

a passenger 

Existent 

by the door 

circumstance  

 

Behavioural Process 

Behavioural processes are the processes of physiological and 

psychological behaviour. Bloor & Bloor (2013:126) stated that 

‘it is the grey area between material and mental processes. The 

only participant is labeled behaver. They are represented by 

verbs such as coughing, watching, listening, laughing etc. e.g. 

He is laughing 
He 

Behaver 

Is laughing 

Behavioural 

 

In conclusion, we noted that transitivity specifies the different 

type of processes that are recognized in the language and the 

structure by which they are expressed. Each process type 

provides its own model or schema for construing a particular 

domain of experience. 



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Using the above process types as analytical tools, it is possible to 

pin-point how the writer represents the dominant agent of the 

text and so, uncover the motivation and bias of the text producer 

and for understanding the proverbs better. This paper analyzed 

proverbs used by Achebe in Things Fall Apart using Hallliday’s 

transitivity theory. 

Theoretical Framework 

The theory on which this research work is based is transitivity 

system in Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday’s Systematic 

Functional Grammar (SFG). 

SFG is a form of grammatical description developed by Michael 

Halliday in the 1960s. SFG considers language as a system for 

expressing meaning in context. To Halliday (2004:5), systemic 

refers to the view that language is organized in a network of 

systems or interrelated sets of options from where users make 

choices. In other words, when we use language, we make 

choices from the sets of available options. It equally emphasizes 

the function which natural languages serve. Functional refers to 

the view that whenever we make choices from the sets of 

available options, we do so in order to fulfill a communicative 

purpose. According to this theory, language has three basic 

functions which he calls “metafunctions”. This is one of the 

basic concepts around which the theory of SFG is constructed. 

He observed that languages are metafunctionally organized into 

three kinds of semantic components which are: ideational, 

interpersonal, and textual metafunctions. Ideational 

metafunction refers to the way language conveys and organizes 

the cognitive realities of experience. When we interpret the 

clause in the views of experimental metafunction, we analyze 

and label it in terms of transitivity system. Transitivity is a way 

of classifying verbs with reference to the relationship of the verb 



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to other structural elements of the clause. It expresses who does 

what, to whom, when, where and how through the verbal 

process types. 

Empirical Studies 

Several scholars have carried out and concluded researches on 

the study of proverbs and in the transitivity system-Rems 

Umeasiegbu carried out a study on the works of Chinua Achebe. 

The aim of his study was to prove and validate that proverb is a 

part and parcel of what literary creative artist under the influence 

of his creative ingenuity puts to existence. In his study, he was 

able to demonstrate how the proverbs used by Achebe tells us 

much about the values of the Igbo society. He clearly 

demonstrated how such proverbs served as thematic statements 

reminding us of some of the major motifs in the novel, ranging 

from the importance of status, the value of achievement, the idea 

of man as sharper of his own destiny. He found out that proverbs 

can only be well understood from the context of usage because 

context gives life to proverbs and their meaning. 

Existing studies on the use of proverbs in Achebe’s literary texts 

had been investigated from different fields of studies but none 

used a theory to analyze the proverbs. The scholars examined, 

had made tremendous effort to establish the significance of the 

use of proverbs in Achebe’s work in the society. However, it has 

been discovered that these studies have not adequately paid 

attention to how efficiently language is used in proverbs, hence 

this study transitivity in proverbs in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. 

Methodology 

The researcher used qualitative method to carry out this study. 

The design is a qualitative design because it is displayed in the 

form words. It is aimed at analyzing transitivity in proverb in 



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Achebe’s Things fall apart. Research questions were designed in 

such a way that the researcher obtained evidence which 

addressed the questions. The data of this study were obtained 

from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The proverbs were randomly 

selected from the novel and used for analysis. The method of 

data analysis for this study was textual analysis. Textual data 

were analyzed in line with the theoretical framework adopted. 

Data Presentation and Analysis (Tables 1-6) 

Transitivity Analysis of proverbs in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart 
S/N Process type F & % Examples 

1 Material 

process 

32, 

33.6% 

Those whose palm kernel are cracked 

for them by their benevolent spirits… 

A chick can be spotted… 

The very day it hatches. 

That since men have learnt to shoot 

without missing… 

He has learnt to fly without perching. 

That the sun will shine on those… 

Who stand before it… 

It shines on those… 

Who kneel under them. 

I cannot wash my hand with spittle… 

He has put a knife on the things… 

That held us together… 

That as the man danced… 

So the drums were beaten for him. 

Living fire begets cold impotent ash. 

That fills the mouth… 

Who pays respect for his greatness… 

He can curse the gods of his fathers and 

his ancestors… 

The dog suddenly turns on his master. 

 



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Material process 

Material processes are processes of material doing and the 

express the notion that an entity physical does something which 

are or may not be done to some entity. The participant roles may 

be actor and goal depending on whether the process is transitive 

or intransitive. The process may also be in the passive or active 

voice. 

Excerpt 1: He can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors 

like a hunter dogs that suddenly goes mad and turns on his 

master (TFA 134). This proverb is grouped under the type as 

metaphor. It has three processes of material type. These are: 

a. He can curse the gods of his fathers and ancestors 

 
He Can curse The gods of 

his fathers and 

ancestors 

Like a hunter’s 

dog 

Actor Material process Goal Circumstance 

The hunters dog Turns On his master  

Actor Material process Goal  
 

The above is an example of material process found in the text. It 

is indicated by the verb curse which is an action and a doing 

verb. “He is the actor. It does the action of ‘cursing’ and the 

receiver of the action ‘the gods of his fathers and ancestors’ 

becomes the goal. 

In the second example, the hunter’s dog is the actor which 

performs the action of “turning”. The sentence is transitive too. 

It has the goal ‘master’ 

 

 

 

 

 



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2 Mental 

process 

16, 17.8% He grew rapidly like a yam tendril 

in the rainy season… 

That will grow… 

one would think… 

Whenever you see a toad jumping 

in broad day light… 

Then know that… 

He knew… 

It soon grew another… 

Okonkwo fame has grown like a 

bush-fire in the harmattan. 

A man paves the way for his 

greatness. 

 

Mental process 

Mental processes are one of sensing (feeling), cognitive 

(thinking), perception (perceiving through five senses), and 

inclination. It has senser and phenomenon as its two participant 

role. 

Here is an example of mental process. 

 

Excerpt of mental process 

He grewrapidly like a yam tendril in the rainy season 

 

Senser Mental 

process 

Cir Phenomeno

n 

cir 

 

That will grow 

 

In the examples above, grew, will grow, see, know, grew, has 

grown, respectively are all mental processes. They represent 

states of mind or psychological events. He, that, you, you, he, it, 

okonkwo’s fame are all senser while like the yam tendril, a toad, 

that, another, like a bush fire are all phenomenon. In mental 



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process and in passive situation, the phenomenon becomes the 

senser. This is one way in which the material process is different 

from the mental process. We don’t have that example here, it is 

very important that it is noted. 

3 Relational 

process 

27, 30% When the moon is shining… 

The cripple becomes hungry for a 

walk. 

An old woman is always uneasy… 

That something is after its life… 

He was a fierce fighter… 

The clan was like a lizard… 

Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in 

water… 

I am evil forest… 

I am dry-meat… 

Amalinze was a willy craftman… 

It is play… 

 

The relational process 

Relational excerpt 

The cripple becomes hungry for a walk              
    

Carrier  Relational  Attribute  

 

Relational processes are of two types: attributive and 

identifying. Attributive relational processes are those that 

describe an entity by ascribing attribute to them while 

identifying process is used to identify a person. The participant 

roles for attributive relational processes are carrier and attribute 

while those of identifying are identified and identifier. For 

instance, in the excerpt above, nos 1,2,3,4,5,6,9 and 10 are all 

attributive relational process while nos 7 and 8 are identifying. 



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This is because identified knows himself well. He identified 

himself with those identifiers. 

 
4 Verbal process 14, 15.6% When a man says yes, 

His chi says yes too 

Eneke the bird says 

Our elders say 

As the saying goes 

Said an old woman 

As the dog says 

If one says no the other 

As our people say 

 

Verbal process 

This is the process of saying or symbolically signaling. The person 

who produces the utterance is given the self-explanatory title of sayer; 

the verb, the verbal process, and the representation of the words 

actually spoken, which is in the context, we label quoted (Bloor and 

Bloor: 2013:125). According to them the function quoted is realized as 

direct speech but it is a reported speech, the function becomes 

‘Reported’. But since quoted and reported are separate clauses from 

the clause containing sayer and process, they are not participants in the 

clause. 

 

Verbal excerpts 

As the dog    say,   ‘if I fall down for you and you fall down for me, it 

is play’ 

Sayer   Verbal Quoted    

 

5 Existential 

process 

1, 1.1% There was a saying in 

Umuofia 

 

 



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Existential process 

This is the process of existent. They are expressed by verb of 

existence e.g. be and exist. This type of process has two main 

forms of grammatical realization. They are (a) with a copular 

verb and an empty there and (b)with a copular verb, the existent 

is subject and usually a circumstantial adjunct. The researcher 

found just one existential process has only one participant. 

Example, 

 

There was a saying in Umuofia  

Existential    Existent cir  

 

Here the empty ‘there and was constitute the existential process 

while ‘a saying’ becomes the goal. Was shows the existence of 

something. What is existing is ‘a saying’ 

 
6 Behavioural 

process 

5, 5.5% Looking at a kings mouth 

They should not forget to be 

humble 

When the old banana tree dies 

Who kept louder than the 

bereaved 

When mother cow is chewing 

grass 
 

Behavioural process 

For behavioural process, only one participant is required. This 

participant is called behaver. For example, 

 

When the old banana  tree dies   

Behaver    Behavioural process 

Tables  1- 6 above: Selected Proverbs from Achebe’s Things 

Fall Apart  

Source: Adopted from Emodi, 2018. 



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Types of participants in Proverbs table 11 

S/N Types of 

participant 

Frequency Percentage 

1 Actor  32 19.6% 

2 Goal 17 10.2% 

3 Senser  15 9.2% 

4 Phenomenon 9 5.5% 

5 Recipient 2 1.2% 

6 Client 3 1.8% 

7 Carrier 15 9.2% 

8 Attribute 15 9.2% 

9 Identified 12 7.3% 

10 Identifier  12 7.3% 

11 Sayer 14 8.6% 

12 Quoted 14 8.6% 

13 Existence 1 0.6% 

14 Behaver 3 1.2% 

 Total 163 100% 

 

Discussion of Findings 

The tables above show the types of processes and participants in 

the proverbs. The processes are categorized into six different 

types: material, mental, relational, verbal, existential and 

behavioural. The researcher found 32 material processes from 

the proverbs in the text under study. The material processes 

according to Halliday’s theory are processes of “doing and 

happening”. For instance, cracked,spotted, cursed, jumped, 

hatches, shoot, perch,wash and so on. These material processes 

shows that somebody (Actor) did something to some entities 

(goal). Material process expresses events in the outside world 

and activities which occur in real world. There are 32 actors 



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(Actors are used to refer to individuals who are responsible in 

carrying out the action). The research equally found out that 

there are 17 goals (the ones that receive the actor of the Actor). 

The goal is optional especially when the mental processes is 

intransitive. In addition, we can observe from the examples that 

most of the Actors are personal pronouns: I, he, we, their, …  

Mental processes express events in the outside world and 

activities which occur in real life experience. For example: in the 

proverb “Let the kite perch and the eagle perch…” Nwakibie is 

the kite and Okonkwo is the eagle or it could be any other 

human in the real life experience. Nwakibie in that proverb is 

showing appreciation for Okonkwo’s visit and stress the need 

for accommodating one another. The action word there “perch 

denotes accommodation. The widely use of material processes in 

describing actions demonstrated by the Actors in the probers, 

show that the narrative is action-packed. 

Another process seen is relational process. There are about 27 

relational processes which consist of 15 attributive relational 

processes and 12 identifying relational processes. They are used 

to assign attribution and describe an individual by attributing a 

quality or qualities to someone. For instance: “An old woman is 

always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in proverbs” In 

this proverb, Okonkwo’s attitude/reaction (uneasiness) is being 

linked to this father’s indolence (laziness) each time the matter is 

raised. That is to say that connecting/linking Okonkwo to the 

father’s laziness keeps him uncomfortable. Little wonder 

Okonkwo chose to be hard-working and not lazy. 

Next is the mental process. The researcher found 16 mental 

processes. The participants are senser and phenomenon. They 

are used to show the character’s feeling, thought, knowledge, 

perception, affection and desire. For example, “A chick that will 



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grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches” “A 

chick refers to Nwoye” (Senser) that will grow (mental process). 

The proverb is uttered to show Okonkwo’s condemnation of 

Nwoye’s strong effeminate/unmanly attitude. 

Verbal processes according to Haliday is a process of saying 

which encodes the mental operations by the physical actions of 

‘say’, so it is intermediate between mental and metal processes. 

There are only 14 of the verbal processes. Verbal processes are 

usually realized by direct and indirect question. For instance, 

“when a man says yes, his chi says yes too”. Okonkwo said yes 

strongly, so his chi agreed.  

This proverb depicts will power, determination and dedication to 

succeed in life. 

The list Existential process and behavioural process were not 

used in a large percentage 1% and 5% respectively. 

Again, from the quotation of Bloor & Bloor (2013:101) in this 

paper, it is clearly said that the only unit of analysis in the 

transitive system is clause. The transitivity system can also help 

users of language to express their experiences, or what Bloor 

and Bloor call “representation of their perception of reality. This 

paper agrees with Bloor and Bloor because the unit of analysis 

of proverb in this paper is the clause. 

Furthermore, the researcher explained some ways of analyzing 

clause by the transitivity system. For instance, in line with the 

quotation of Halliday (2014:101) and Ezeifeka (2018:166) 

agrees with this research that transitivity specifies the different 

types of processes that are recognized in the language and the 

structure by which the proverbs were expressed. From those 

quotations, we conclude that by analyzing clause by transitivity 

system we can know exactly the processes in a language and 



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also know how human beings also state their experiences in the 

world.  For instance, let us see some examples of these 

processes. 

There are three elements in transitivity analysis-processes, 

participants and circumstances. But the researcher’s analysis is 

focused on the processes and participants. 

Therefore, circumstances are left out completely.  

 

Conclusion 

The ideational function allows language users to present their 

world experience through the lexicogrammatical choices they 

make, which are part of the transitivity system. The transitivity 

system proposed by Halliday is composed of six processes: 

material, mental, relational, verbal, existential, and behavioural.  

Transitivity is an important semantic concept in the analysis of 

representation of reality, in that transitivity enables us to analyze 

and represent the event and situations in different ways. Relying 

on the transitivity analysis, the reader can uncover the thoughts 

of participant and sorting out who does what, to whom, where, 

when as expressed through language in the proverbs and can 

help readers understand the proverbs better. 

From the analysis, I conclude that the transitivity system can 

analyze clause effectively and that the transitivity systems 

specifies the different types of processes that are recognized in 

the language and structure by which proverbs are expressed. 

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication1286735442.transitivity
https://www.researchgate.net/publication1286735442.transitivity

