Functional Grammar: Clauses, Processes and Message Organization
Chapter 1 — Language and Meaning
Unit 1: Language and Meaning
Core idea: Language conveys meaning through grammar, context, and use. Functional grammar focuses on how linguistic form expresses communicative function, viewing language as a resource for making meaning in social interaction.
Key definitions
Language is a structured system for human communication. Functional grammar explains how forms such as words and clauses express functions such as meanings and actions. A communicative act or speech act is an action performed through language, for example stating, asking, commanding, requesting, promising, or thanking. A proposition is the core meaning of a clause, independent of tense, modality, or mood. Sense refers to the internal meaning of an expression within the language system, meaning how words relate to other words, as in the similarity between “teacher” and “educator.” Reference is the real-world entity or situation that an expression points to, such as “my brother,” which refers to an actual person.
Morpheme, morph, and allomorph
A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. Morphemes can be free morphemes, meaning they can stand alone, as in book, run, or happy, or bound morphemes, meaning they must attach to another morpheme, such as un-, -s, or -ed (for example, un + happy or cat + s). A morph is the physical spoken or written realization of a morpheme. For instance, the plural morpheme can appear as /s/ in cats, /z/ in dogs, or /ɪz/ in buses. These different realizations are called allomorphs, meaning different forms of the same morpheme that do not change meaning.
Communicative acts
Communicative acts describe what speakers do with language.
- Statements provide information, as in “The exam starts at nine.”
- Questions ask for information, such as “Where are you going?”
- Directives attempt to get someone to do something, for example “Close the door.”
- Offers involve the speaker offering an action, such as “I’ll help you revise Unit 2.”
- Promises commit the speaker to future action, as in “I promise I’ll email you the notes.”
- Expressives communicate feelings or attitudes, for example “Thank you for your help.”
Direct and indirect speech acts
Direct speech acts occur when grammatical form matches communicative function. For example, “Close the door!” is an imperative functioning as a command. Indirect speech acts occur when form differs from function. For example, “Could you close the door?” is interrogative in form but functions as a polite request.
Levels of speech acts
Speech acts can be analyzed on three levels. The locutionary act is the literal utterance, or what is actually said. The illocutionary act is the intended communicative function. The perlocutionary act is the effect the utterance has on the listener. In the example “Can you close the door?”, the locutionary act is asking about ability, the illocutionary act is requesting, and the perlocutionary act is that the door gets closed. Locutionary acts involve producing a meaningful linguistic expression, while non-locutionary meaning refers to the communicative force beyond the literal words, mainly intention and effect. For example, “It’s cold in here” is locutionarily a statement about temperature, but non-locutionarily it may function as a request to close the window.
Clause as representation
A clause encodes experience through three core elements. The process is the event or state described by the verb, such as run, believe, or be. Participants are the entities involved, including roles such as Agent, Experiencer, Patient, or Recipient. Circumstances provide extra information such as time, place, manner, or reason. In the clause “I’ll come into your shop tomorrow,” the process is come, the participant is I as Agent, and the circumstances are into your shop as place and tomorrow as time.
Clause perspectives
Clauses can be understood from three perspectives. Representation (transitivity) concerns who does what to whom. Interaction (mood) concerns how the speaker engages the listener through declarative, interrogative, or imperative forms. Message structure (theme–rheme) concerns how information is arranged. In “Janice gave Chris the bill yesterday,” the theme is Janice and the rheme is gave Chris the bill yesterday.
Active and passive voice
In active voice, the subject functions as the Agent, as in “Chris posted the letters.” In passive voice, the subject is the Patient and the Agent may be omitted, as in “The letters were posted (by Chris).” Functionally, passive voice allows the speaker to focus on results, objects, or information flow.
Unit 2: Linguistic Forms and Syntactic Functions
Core idea: Every element in a sentence has both a form, meaning its structural type, and a function, meaning its role in the clause.
Key definitions
Form refers to the structural type of a word or phrase, such as noun phrase, verb phrase, or clause. Function refers to the role played in the clause, such as Subject, Object, Complement, or Adjunct. A constituent is a word or group acting as a single unit within a sentence. An adjunct provides optional information like time or place, while a complement provides information required to complete the verb’s meaning.
Main syntactic functions
The subject (S) controls agreement with the verb. The predicator (P) expresses the process. The object (O) is affected by the process. A complement (C) describes the subject or object. An adjunct (A) adds optional information.
Finite and non-finite clauses
A finite clause contains a verb marked for tense or modality and can usually stand alone. A non-finite clause lacks tense or modality and is structurally dependent.
The Finite
The Finite anchors the clause to the speech situation and expresses tense, modality, and polarity.
Independent and dependent clauses
An independent clause can stand alone. A dependent clause cannot stand alone and relies on another clause. Finite dependent clauses contain a Finite element but remain grammatically dependent.
Adjunct types
Circumstantial adjuncts express time, place, or manner. Stance adjuncts express the speaker’s attitude. Linking adjuncts express discourse relations.
Unit 3: Negation and Expansion
Core idea: Negation changes the polarity of a clause, while expansion allows speakers to add information, connect ideas, and build more complex structures.
Key definitions
Negation denies or reverses the truth value of a proposition. Scope of negation refers to which part of the clause is affected. Negative polarity items (NPIs) such as any or ever occur only in negative, interrogative, or conditional environments. Negative concord is the use of more than one negative form for a single negation, avoided in Standard English.
Negation in clause structure
Negation is closely connected to the Finite element. Clausal negation normally attaches to the Finite using not. When no auxiliary verb is present, English uses do-support, as in “She does not like coffee.”
Constituent negation
Negation may target only one element rather than the entire clause, as in “Not many students came.”
Negative interrogatives
Negative interrogatives often seek confirmation or express surprise, shaping the speaker–listener relationship.
Scope of negation
The position of negation determines interpretation. In “He didn’t say she lied,” negation applies to say. In “He said she didn’t lie,” negation applies to lie.
Local negation affects only one element, as in “Try not to worry.”
No-negation vs not + any
English allows no-negation, which is emphatic (“I have no money”), and not + any, which is more neutral (“I don’t have any money”).
Assertive and non-assertive forms
Choice of determiners and adverbs depends on polarity. Assertive forms typically appear in affirmative declaratives, such as some, someone, something, somewhere, and adverbs like already or still. For example, “She has some money.” Non-assertive forms appear in negatives, questions, and conditionals, such as any, anyone, anything, anywhere, and adverbs like ever or yet. For example, “She doesn’t have any money.”
Negative polarity items
NPIs appear in negative clauses, questions, and conditionals, such as “Have you ever been there?”
Expansion of linguistic units
Coordinating expansion links equal elements using conjunctions like and or but. Subordinating expansion links unequal clauses, as in “because she was tired.” Embedding occurs when a clause functions inside another clause, as in “I think that she left early.”
Chapter 2 — Syntactic Elements of the Clause
Core idea: A clause is built from functional elements that combine according to the valency of the verb. The verb determines how many elements are required and what kind of structure is grammatically complete.
Key definitions
A clause is the basic grammatical unit expressing a single proposition, such as an event, situation, or state. Each clause contains functional elements, meaning roles such as Subject, Predicator, Object, Complement, and Adjunct. These roles are defined by what they do in the clause, not by their form. A central concept is valency, which refers to the combinatory potential of a verb: how many and what type of elements a verb requires. Valency explains why some clauses sound incomplete, as in She put, which requires further elements, compared with She put the book on the table, which is complete.
Verb processes and valency types
Verbs encode different types of experience. Material processes express actions or events, as in She broke the window. Mental processes express cognition, perception, or emotion, as in He believes the story. Relational processes express states of being, as in She is a doctor. Verbal processes involve communication, as in They told the truth. Behavioural processes describe physiological actions, as in The baby cried. Existential processes express existence through there is/are, as in There is a problem.
Verbs can also be classified by their valency patterns.
- Intransitive verbs require no object, as in She sleeps.
- Monotransitive verbs require one Direct Object, as in She reads the book.
- Ditransitive verbs require two objects, as in She gave me a gift.
- Complex-transitive verbs require a Direct Object plus an Object Complement, as in They elected her president.
- Copular verbs require a Subject Complement, as in She is happy.
A further important category is the prepositional complement, where the verb requires a fixed preposition, as in They rely on their neighbours or She insists on fairness. These are complements, not optional adjuncts, because the preposition cannot be removed.
Unit 5: Subject and Predicator
The Subject
The Subject may be realised by a noun phrase, pronoun, or even a full clause, as in That she left surprised everyone. Subjects control agreement and may be omitted in imperatives, where the implied subject is usually you. Special subject structures include dummy it, used in weather or environmental clauses such as It is raining. Another structure is anticipatory it, which postpones a heavy clausal subject for better information flow, as in It is important to rest or It surprised me that she left. The clause may also use existential there to introduce new entities, as in There are many books on the table. Here, there is not a semantic subject, since the real subject follows the verb. Subjects may also be generic or indefinite, as in You never know or They say it’s going to rain, which generalise experience and reduce responsibility. In coordinated subjects, agreement depends on meaning rather than just form, as in Bread and butter is my favourite breakfast.
The Predicator
The Predicator is always realised by a verb group and is central because it determines clause structure, valency, and required complements. For example, give typically requires two objects, while sleep requires none. Predicators carry grammatical information such as tense, aspect, modality, and voice. Some verbs are more prototypical, meaning they clearly express actions with identifiable participants, such as kick or write, while less prototypical verbs express states, such as seem or exist.
Unit 6: Direct, Indirect, and Prepositional Objects
Direct object (Od)
The Direct Object is the participant directly affected by the verb. It typically answers what? or whom? and can usually become the Subject in the passive, as in The book was read. This passive test is a strong indicator of Direct Object status. Direct Objects are most commonly noun phrases, but they can also be pronouns, nominal clauses, or non-finite clauses, as in She likes to read novels.
Indirect object (Oi)
The Indirect Object expresses the recipient, beneficiary, or addressee of the action and occurs mainly with ditransitive verbs. It is typically animate and often appears before the Direct Object, as in She gave her friend a gift. Like Direct Objects, Indirect Objects may also be promoted in the passive, as in Her friend was given a gift.
Double-object vs prepositional dative constructions
English allows two major ditransitive patterns. The double-object construction follows the structure S + V + Oi + Od, foregrounding the recipient, as in She gave me the keys. The prepositional dative construction follows S + V + Od + PP, shifting focus to the transferred object, as in She gave the keys to me.
Prepositional objects
Not all prepositional phrases are Indirect Objects. If the verb requires a fixed preposition and does not allow alternation, the phrase is a prepositional object/complement, as in They rely on their neighbours. This cannot be restructured as They rely their neighbours, which is ungrammatical.
Verb–object patterns
Object patterns reflect verb valency, not stylistic choice. These include monotransitive, ditransitive, prepositional-object verbs, phrasal verbs such as pick up, and phrasal–prepositional verbs such as put up with or look forward to.
Unit 7: Complements
Subject complement (Cs)
A Subject Complement occurs with copular verbs such as be, seem, become, or feel. It identifies or describes the Subject, as in She is a teacher or She is happy. It is obligatory and cannot be omitted. Subject Complements cannot be passivised.
Object complement (Co)
An Object Complement provides additional information about the Direct Object, often expressing a resulting state or role. It occurs with complex-transitive verbs such as elect, make, call, or paint, as in They elected her president or They painted the walls blue. In passive clauses, only the Direct Object becomes Subject, while the complement remains attached, as in She was elected president.
Unit 8: Adjuncts
Definition and types
Adjuncts are optional clause elements that add circumstantial or discourse information and are not required by the verb.
- Circumstantial adjuncts express meanings such as time, place, manner, or reason, as in yesterday, in the park, or because of the rain.
- Stance adjuncts express the speaker’s attitude toward the whole proposition.
- Epistemic adjuncts express probability, as in probably.
- Evidential adjuncts express information source, as in apparently.
- Evaluative adjuncts express judgement, as in unfortunately.
- Style adjuncts comment on the manner of speaking, as in frankly.
- Domain adjuncts restrict interpretation to a field, as in politically or legally.
Connective adjuncts and position
Connective adjuncts express discourse relations, such as however or therefore. Adjuncts may appear initially, medially, or finally in the clause. When multiple adjuncts occur together, the preferred order is manner → place → time, as in She sang beautifully in the hall yesterday.
Chapter 3 — Development of the Message
Core idea: The verb determines clause structure through its valency, specifying the number and type of elements required to complete meaning. Different verb patterns shape interpretation, focus, and the way information is presented.
Unit 9: Intransitive and Copular Patterns
Intransitive verbs do not take a Direct Object and have valency = 1. The basic intransitive pattern is Subject + Predicator, as in The baby cried. When an Adjunct is added, the pattern becomes Subject + Predicator + Adjunct, as in She ran quickly, but the adjunct is optional. Time or place adjuncts may be pragmatically important, e.g., The accident happened yesterday, but they remain optional.
Types of intransitive verbs include behaviour verbs (laugh, cry, yawn), weather verbs (rain, snow), occurrence verbs (happen, occur), and idiomatic phrasal verbs (break down, fall out). Some verbs are pure intransitives, which cannot become transitive, as in She slept. Ergative verbs alternate between transitive and intransitive, as in The glass broke versus He broke the glass. Some intransitives require complements, as in She lives in Valencia.
Copular verbs connect the Subject to a Complement and do not express action. They have valency = 2. The pattern Subject + Copula + Subject Complement occurs in She is happy. The pattern Subject + Copula + Adverbial Complement occurs in He is at home. Common copulas include be, seem, appear, become, feel, look, sound, smell. Copular verbs cannot take a Direct Object, and the Complement is obligatory.
Locative complements are required by certain verbs such as live, stay, put, place. For example, She lives in Spain is incomplete without the locative complement.
Unit 10: Transitive Patterns
Transitive verbs require a Direct Object to complete meaning and have valency = 2. The basic monotransitive pattern is Subject + Verb + Direct Object, as in She bought a car. Optional adjuncts may be added: She found the keys on the table. Passive formation is a diagnostic for objecthood: A car was bought confirms that the Direct Object can become the Subject.
Ditransitive verbs have valency = 3 and typically express transfer or communication. The double object pattern is Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object, as in She gave him a gift. The prepositional dative pattern is Subject + Verb + Direct Object + to/for + Recipient, as in She gave a gift to him. The Indirect Object expresses the recipient or beneficiary, and the Direct Object represents the transferred entity.
Complex transitive verbs require a Direct Object plus another element. In the Object Complement pattern, the complement describes the object, as in They elected him president or We painted the wall blue. Some verbs require an obligatory adverbial, as in She put the bags in the car.
Direct Objects vs Prepositional Objects: Direct Objects appear without a preposition and can become the Subject in passive constructions, e.g., She answered the question. Prepositional Objects are introduced by a verb-selected preposition and cannot be omitted, e.g., She referred to the report. Not every prepositional phrase is an adjunct; some are complements.
Unit 11: Complementation by Finite Clauses
Finite clauses contain a Subject and a Verb marked for tense or modality, e.g., I know that she is coming. Common verbs selecting finite clauses include think, know, believe, say, hope.
That-clauses express propositions with truth value: She said (that) she was tired. In informal contexts, that is often omitted.
WH-clauses function as embedded clauses rather than questions: What he said surprised everyone, I don’t know where she went.
Reported speech often uses finite clauses: He said that he would call.
Unit 12: Complementation by Nonfinite Clauses
Nonfinite clauses lack tense marking, often omit an explicit Subject, and depend on the main clause, e.g., To leave now would be unwise.
Types include infinitive clauses (She decided to leave), gerund clauses (He enjoys swimming), and participial clauses (Having finished the work, she left).
Nonfinite clauses may function as Subject, Object, or Adverbial, e.g., To win was his dream; She wants to learn; After finishing, they celebrated.
Verb preferences differ: infinitives often follow hope, decide, want; gerunds follow enjoy, avoid. The meaning contrast is: to-infinitive expresses potential or future (I want to travel), gerund expresses factual or habitual situations (She enjoys reading), and bare infinitive expresses a complete event (She saw him leave).
Catenative verbs control a following nonfinite clause to form verb chains: She decided to try to rent a house. Multiple embeddings are possible.
Recurring embedding is typical in formal or academic language: I think [that she believes [that he lied]]. Common complementisers are that, if, whether, e.g., They asked whether we agreed.
Unit 13: Cognitive and Semantic Considerations
A frame is a mental scenario activated by a verb, e.g., the “buy” frame: buyer, seller, goods, and money. Frames help listeners interpret meaning instantly.
Attention and perspective guide interpretation. The active voice foregrounds the agent: The chef cooked the meal. The passive voice foregrounds the result: The meal was cooked.
Current vs resulting attribute: Current attributes indicate present state, e.g., She painted the door red. Resulting attributes indicate a state caused by an action, e.g., They left the room empty.
Retrospection is expressed with perfect forms, e.g., She had finished before he arrived.
Chapter 4 — Syntactic Elements and Clause Use
Core idea: Chapter 4 shifts the focus from clause structure to clause use. It examines how grammatical forms interact with communicative intentions, showing that form and function do not always coincide. Clause types provide grammatical resources, but speech act force emerges from context, discourse, and pragmatics.
Unit 13: Speech Acts and Clause Types
A speech act is an action performed through language. Levels of speech acts include the locutionary act, which is the literal utterance (words plus grammar), the illocutionary act, which is the intended communicative force (asserting, requesting, promising), and the perlocutionary act, which is the effect on the hearer (persuading, frightening, convincing). These levels distinguish what is said, what is meant, and what happens as a result.
English shows default correspondences between clause type and speech act: declarative clauses typically signal statements, interrogatives signal questions, and imperatives signal directives, e.g., She lives in Madrid (statement), Where do you live? (question), Close the door (directive). These associations are tendencies, not rules.
Direct speech acts occur when grammatical form matches communicative function, e.g., Close the door! (imperative → command). Indirect speech acts occur when form differs from function, e.g., Can you pass the salt? (interrogative → request). Interpretation depends on context, shared knowledge, social conventions, and politeness expectations. Key exam phrase: “what the utterance counts as.”
Unit 14: Declarative and Interrogative Clause Types
The Mood element consists of Subject + Finite. Clause type is signalled by the order of Subject and Finite. In declaratives, the Subject precedes Finite (She has finished). In interrogatives, the Finite precedes Subject (Has she finished?). Inversion is a grammatical marker of interrogation, not a stylistic choice.
Declarative clauses are characterised by neutral intonation, lack of inversion, and functional flexibility. They can be used for statements, assertions, warnings, or indirect directives, e.g., You might want to sit down (declarative → directive).
Interrogative clauses involve Subject–Finite inversion when auxiliaries are present, or do-support when no auxiliary is present, e.g., She likes coffee → Does she like coffee? The do-operator is used for question formation, negation, and emphasis, e.g., She DOES like coffee!
Yes/No interrogatives check whether a proposition is true or false (Are they coming?), and responses highlight the Finite (Yes, they are / No, they aren’t). Alternative interrogatives offer a restricted set of answers (Would you like tea or coffee?), using Subject–Finite inversion and coordinated alternatives. Wh-interrogatives place the wh-word in initial position, generally with inversion (Where are you going?), but when the wh-word is the Subject, no inversion occurs (Who called you?). These clauses target specific semantic roles such as time, place, reason, or identity.
Double interrogatives embed a question inside another question (Do you know where she lives?), softening the request or managing interaction. Question tags repeat the Finite, reverse polarity, and include a pronominal Subject (She’s coming, isn’t she?). Tags seek confirmation, invite agreement, or soften assertions. Rising intonation signals uncertainty; falling intonation signals expectation of agreement. Invariant tags (right?, okay?, yeah?) are discourse markers rather than syntactic tags.
Unit 15: Exclamative and Imperative Clause Types
Exclamatives express strong emotion or evaluation, e.g., What a beautiful day! / How quickly time passes!. They presuppose truth and do not expect a response.
Imperatives perform directives, featuring an implicit Subject (you), base verb form, and no tense marking (Close the window). Negative imperatives use do-support (Don’t touch that). Emphatic imperatives use Do + verb for urgency or politeness (Do sit down). Inclusive imperatives with Let’s / Let us propose rather than command (Let’s go home).
Verbless and freestanding subordinate clauses appear in instructions, signage, or headlines (No parking / If necessary), and are highly context-dependent. Subjunctive clauses occur in formal directives or non-factual contexts (They insisted that he leave immediately).
Unit 16: Indirect Speech Acts and Discourse Functions
Performatives are utterances that perform the action they name. Explicit performatives include a first-person subject, present tense, and performative verb (I apologise for the delay / I promise to return it). Implicit performatives perform the act without naming it (I’ll be there tomorrow = promise). Exclamations are a discourse function, not a clause type. They can be realised by exclamatives, declaratives, or interrogatives, e.g., Isn’t it amazing!.
Unit 17: Questions and Discourse Functions
Rhetorical questions are formally interrogative but functionally assertive (Who would believe that?).
Questions as preliminaries prepare the conversational ground and manage politeness (Can I ask you something?).
Bias in questions can be signalled by quantifiers: any = neutral, some = biased. Negative interrogatives often presuppose an answer (Aren’t you coming?). Biased declaratives function as questions (You’re coming tomorrow, then?).
Unit 18: Directives
Imperatives are prototypical directives with high force and potentially face-threatening. Let’s imperatives reduce imposition and create solidarity. Politeness strategies in directives include indirectness, modality (could, would), hedging, and softeners, e.g., Could you pass the salt?. Responses focus on compliance rather than literal meaning. Declaratives as directives appear frequently in institutional discourse (You need to submit the form). Indirect forms can still be confrontational. Clause type does not determine speech act force; force emerges from use.
Chapter 5 — Clause as Representation: Processes, Participants, and Situations
Core idea: The clause is the most significant grammatical unit for the representation of experience. Through clauses, language construes situations by organising processes, participants, and circumstances. Functional grammar treats language as a system for constructing reality rather than merely reflecting it. The key exam phrase is: “The clause is the most significant grammatical unit for the representation of experience.”
Unit 19: The Clause as Representation
Language does not reflect reality directly; instead, it construes it. A clause represents a situation by combining a process, participants, and optionally circumstances. The situation is the configuration of experience encoded in a clause, which may represent an event, state, action, perception, or relation. Every experiential clause minimally contains a process and participant or participants. For example, in the clause The storm destroyed the village, the process is “destroyed”, the agent is “the storm”, the affected participant is “the village”, and the optional circumstance “last night” provides additional context. Meaning in a clause is constructed through the interaction of these elements.
Functional grammar distinguishes six major process types: material, mental, relational, verbal, behavioural, and existential. The first three are the most frequently examined in an academic context.
Unit 20: Material Processes — Action and Event
Material processes construe physical actions and events in the external world. They answer the question: Who does what to whom? Material clauses involve participants such as agents, who initiate actions, affected participants who undergo the effect or change, recipients who receive something, and beneficiaries who gain an advantage. Act processes involve intention and control, as in She opened the door, whereas non-act processes occur without deliberate agency, as in The door opened.
Voluntary actions are controlled and intentional, for example He grabbed the rope, whereas involuntary actions are accidental or uncontrolled, such as He dropped the glass. Three-place verbs, also called ditransitive verbs, such as give, send, show, or offer require three participants: an agent, a recipient, and an affected entity. Material processes can be classified as creative when they bring something into existence, transformative when they alter an existing entity, and destructive when they eliminate something. Examples include She wrote a novel, They painted the house, and The fire destroyed the building.
Unit 21: Mental Processes — Inner Experience
Mental processes construe inner experiences such as cognition, perception, emotion, and desire. Participants include the senser, who must be conscious, and the phenomenon, which is the entity or situation experienced. Mental processes include cognition, such as thinking, knowing, or believing; perception, such as seeing or hearing; emotion, such as loving or fearing; and desideration, such as wanting or wishing. Mental processes typically resist the progressive, which is why I know the answer is grammatical, whereas I am knowing the answer is not.
Unit 22: Relational Processes — States and Identities
Relational processes construe states, identities, and relations. They are typically realised by copular verbs such as be, become, seem, appear, and remain. Relational clauses have a valency of two, consisting of a subject and a complement, and do not take a direct object.
The attributive pattern assigns a property to the subject, as in She is intelligent, while the identifying pattern defines one entity in terms of another, as in She is the manager, which is reversible as The manager is she. Relational process types include intensive processes, where X is Y, such as She is tired, circumstantial processes, where X is at Y, such as The keys are on the table, and possessive processes, where X has Y, such as He has two sisters.
Relational clauses also distinguish between current attributes, describing a present state as in The door is open, and resulting attributes, expressing the outcome of a prior action, as in The door is broken. Some verbs require a locative complement to specify location, as in She lives in Madrid, which is obligatory and unlike adjuncts. Complements are required by the verb to complete meaning, whereas adjuncts are optional and provide extra information. Direct objects indicate affected participants, while prepositional complements involve a fixed preposition required by the verb, as in They relied on their friends, which cannot be omitted.
Unit 23: Verbal Processes — Communication
Verbal processes construe acts of saying and symbolic exchange. Participants include the sayer, who produces the utterance, the receiver, who is optionally addressed, and the verbiage, which is the content of the utterance. Examples of verbal processes include The manager announced the results, She told me the truth, and They warned her. The typical structure is sayer plus verbal process plus optional receiver plus verbiage or clause. Verbal processes often introduce reported speech or projected clauses.
Unit 24: Behavioural and Existential Processes
Behavioural processes represent physiological or social behaviour and occupy an intermediate position between material and mental processes. The participant is the behaver, and examples include laughing, crying, breathing, and staring. Existential processes construe existence, typically following the structure there plus the verb be plus the existent, as in There is a problem. In existential clauses, there has no semantic role.
Unit 25: Participants, Agency, and Perspective
Participant roles are determined by process type rather than surface syntax. Agency distinguishes between agents and affected participants, as well as between intentional and non-intentional participants. Perspective involves the choice between active constructions, which highlight the agent, and passive constructions, which highlight the affected participant. Frames are cognitive structures that shape how situations are interpreted. For example, The police arrested the protester focuses on the agent, whereas The protester was arrested focuses on the affected participant. Grammar guides attention and perspective, directing which participant is foregrounded and how responsibility is construed.
Key participant summary: Material processes involve agents, affected participants, recipients, and beneficiaries. Mental processes involve sensers and phenomena. Relational processes involve carriers and attributes or tokens and values. Verbal processes involve sayers, receivers, and verbiage. Behavioural processes involve the behaver. Existential processes involve the existent. The clause construes experience rather than mirrors reality, and process type determines participant roles. Material processes encode the outer world, mental processes the inner world, relational processes classification and identity, and verbal processes symbolic exchange.
Common exam traps include confusing attributes with direct objects, misinterpreting identifying clauses, treating existential “there” as a semantic subject, confusing complements with adjuncts, and assuming non-act processes have intentional agents. The one-line memory map is: Material → doing, Mental → sensing, Relational → being, Verbal → saying, Behavioural → behaving, Existential → existing.
Chapter 6 — Organising the Message
Core idea: Chapter 6 focuses on the textual dimension of meaning, explaining how clauses are organised as messages and how information is distributed to create discourse that is coherent, interpretable, and contextually appropriate. Organising the message involves attention to thematic structure (Theme–Rheme), information structure (information unit, focus, Given/New), and principles such as end-focus and end-weight, as well as techniques like ellipsis, postponement, extraposition, and clefting.
Unit 28: The Textual Dimension of Meaning
Textual meaning refers to the linguistic resources that speakers use to organise clauses into coherent messages and relate them to discourse and situational context. It complements ideational meaning (representation), which construes experience, and interpersonal meaning (interaction), which manages social relations. Key systems for textual meaning are Theme–Rheme, information unit, focus, and ellipsis. The clause is therefore not merely a syntactic structure but a message shaped for communication, designed to guide interpretation and facilitate understanding.
Unit 29: Thematic Structure
The Theme is the starting point of the clause, representing the element the speaker selects as the point of departure for the message. The Rheme contains the remainder of the clause, what is said about the Theme. The Theme is typically clause-initial and is an obligatory textual choice rather than a semantic role. For example, in Yesterday, we finished the report, Theme is Yesterday and Rheme is we finished the report. In declarative clauses, unmarked Themes consist of the Subject, as in She passed the exam. Marked Themes occur when any element other than the Subject is fronted, for example, In the morning, she passed the exam. Marked thematisation functions to create coherence, link clauses across discourse, and foreground circumstances.
Theme and Rheme are related to, but distinct from, Given and New information. Theme often aligns with Given and Rheme with New, but these are independent systems. For example, in That book, I haven’t read, Theme is That book and Rheme is I haven’t read.
Thematic progression describes how Themes develop across text. In constant Theme progression, the same Theme is repeated across clauses, as in The project was difficult. The project took months. In linear Theme progression, the Rheme of one clause becomes the Theme of the next, as in She bought a car. The car was expensive. In split Theme progression, a single Theme gives rise to multiple Themes, as in The plan involved time and money. Time was limited. Money was scarce.
Unit 30: Information Structure
Information structure concerns how information is packaged within the clause. Its key components are information unit, Given vs New information, Focus, end-focus and end-weight, ellipsis, and postponement/extraposition.
An information unit is a stretch of discourse organised around a focus, realised in speech by intonation and tonic stress and in writing by syntax and structure. Each information unit typically includes Given information, which is recoverable from context, assumed known, and provides continuity, and New information, which is not recoverable from context, introduces fresh content, and carries communicative weight. Given anchors the discourse, while New advances it.
Focus is the element carrying maximum informational prominence. Unmarked focus usually falls on the final lexical item, as in She bought a new CAR, whereas marked focus is placed elsewhere to signal contrast or emphasis, as in SHE bought a new car. End-focus reflects the tendency for new or important information to occur at the end of the clause. End-weight refers to the postponement of longer or more complex constituents to the end. These principles facilitate processing, guide interpretation, and help manage information flow.
Ellipsis is the omission of recoverable elements. Textual ellipsis is recoverable from linguistic context, as in I ordered the pasta and she did Ø too, whereas situational ellipsis is recoverable from the situational context, such as signs like No smoking. Postponement delays heavy or clausal elements, while extraposition uses an anticipatory it to postpone clauses, for example, It is important to rest. These mechanisms respect end-weight, improve clarity, and help manage the flow of information in discourse.