AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 208 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 209 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 210 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. AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 211 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 212 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) AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 213 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 214 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 215 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. AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 216 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 217 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. AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 218 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 219 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 220 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. AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 221 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’ AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 222 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 223 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. AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 224 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 225 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. AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 226 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 227 (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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 228 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 229 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. Works Cited Achebe Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Pearson Education Ltd, 2008. AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 7, No. 1, 2020 Page 230 Akinmede, Arinola. “The Decline of proverbs as a creative oral Expression. 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