SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The ultimate aim of this study is to present a classification and a description of the clause types common among educated speakers of E.C. Arabic and used by them in their normal speech situations of everyday life within the framework of systemic grammar. Apart from the "Introduction", the thesis falls into three Parts, comprising thirteen chapters. Part I "Theoretical Orientation" briefly traces the origin of the theory applied in this study and its components in an attempt to set the background against which the analysis is carried out. It comprises three chapters which deal with: (1) The Primitives of the Theory; (2) Components of Systemic Grammar; (3) Transitivity in Hallidayan Grammar. In Part II "Clause Types" we give a classification of ECA Clauses in terms of Halliday's three types of process: action, mental and relational process; also given is an account of the participant roles and the structural elements to which they correspond. This classification depends basically on the type of process expressed by the verb-root or in the absence of a verb the relationship obtaining between the noun-phrases concerned. In other words, we deal here with a "Classification-System", which is in part, at least, lexical. This Part comprises the following chapters: (4) Action Clauses (i) Extensive; (5) Action Clauses (ii) Descriptive, Stative; (6) Action Clauses (iii) Semantic Systems; (7) Mental Process Clauses; (8) Relational Clauses. In Part III "Transitivity Systems'' the clauses are analysed along the axis of systems involving the relation of transitivity roles to the process types concerned. These systems are 2iiore purely grammatical than the clause types (process types) described under Part II which are, in a sense, a semantico-syntactic classification. In other words, the 'Systems' treated in this Part involve a system of choices, or a "Commutation- System" inherently and in most cases in fact applicable to more than one process type. The systems dealt with separately in Chapters 9-13, which this Part comprises are: (9) Causative V. non-causative; (10) Emphatic V. non-emphatic; (11) Reciprocal V. non-reciprocal; (12) Benefactive V. non-benefactive; (13) Operative V. Receptive and thematization. We also include a diagram which represents the main process types and the transitivity systems which have emerged from this study.