How English Texts Work for Deaf Learners: A View from Systemic Functional Linguistics’ Transitivity System

This study adopts an experiential analysis approach to examine how sexual harassment is represented in opinion columns published by The Jakarta Post. Utilizing Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the theoretical framework, the research focuses on exploring how language is structured to convey experiential meaning, particularly through the transitivity system. As a form of qualitative and descriptive research, this study investigates online news texts with the aim of uncovering how linguistic choices reflect and construct social realities. The central analytical focus lies in identifying types of processes, participant roles, and circumstantial elements within the clauses of the texts. These components are crucial for understanding how actions, events, and relationships are framed in relation to gender and power dynamics. Through the analysis of 436 clauses, the findings indicate that material and relational processes are the most frequently used. Material processes reflect actions and events, while relational processes emphasize classification, attribution, and identification. Their prevalence suggests that opinion columnists highlight both the concrete experiences of harassment and the ways individuals and groups are labeled or characterized. This dominance illustrates how language is strategically employed to both narrate and evaluate incidents of sexual harassment. By analyzing these linguistic features, the study sheds light on how media discourse contributes to shaping public understanding and societal attitudes toward gender-related issues. Ultimately, the study provides valuable insight into how opinion columns, as influential media texts, can reinforce or challenge dominant ideologies, thus playing a critical role in public discourse surrounding sexual harassment.

<p>As one of the metafunctions in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), experiential meaning plays a vital role in interpreting texts. The transitivity system identifies the experiential meaning and captures how reality is construed by manifold linguistics choices. Despite the widespread application of Holliday’s transitivity system, academic discourse receives far less attention than it deserves. In response, the study is set to analyze an extracted passage from the academic essay <em>The Feminist Reader</em> and to reveal the author’s underlying ideology of feminism by using the transitivity system as a theoretical framework. Among the six processes outlined in the framework, the study discovers that relational processes highly dominate writing, distantly followed by material, while verbal and mental processes respectively come third. Moreover, it is the genre and register of academic writing and the author’s writing intentions that contribute to different proportions of processes. In addition to exploring those hidden reasons, it is admitted that the transitivity choices the author makes are covert manifestations of her perspective on femininity.</p>

In this article, the process type and participant function of Jiah Khan’s, Kevin Carter’s, and Virginia Woolf’s suicide notes are analyzed. This article actually is a continuation of the article entitled Experiences around the Clauses: A Transitivity Analysis of Four Famous People’s Suicide Notes published by Vivid: Journal of Language and Literature (see Sawirman and Ridhwani, 2020) about the transitivity system, including process types, participant functions, and circumstantial elements, used in these suicide notes. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory is applied. Not only qualitative approach but also descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Existing documents are one of the instruments to collect the data. Four suicide letters namely a suicide note written by Jiah Khan in 2016, a suicide letter written by Kevin Carter and published by TIME in 2001 entitles The Life and Death of Kevin Carter, and two Virginia Woolf’s suicide discourse published by Quentin Bell entitle Virginia Woolf: A Biography: 1912-1941 (1972) and an autobiography entitles The Journey Not the Arrival Matters: an Autobiography of the Years 1939 to 1970.

Deaf students are entering tertiary education in much higher numbers than ever before. With the advent of increased inclusion for deaf students in local schools in New Zealand, the expectation of these students is that they will be able to access tertiary education in the same way as their hearing peers. The aim of this project was to identify current learning and social participation experiences of deaf students within New Zealand tertiary institutions, to obtain an understanding of what the perceived barriers to successful outcomes were, and what the possible solutions to those barriers might be. The research used a sequential mixed methods procedure, in that the initial nested quantitative and qualitative written survey was followed by an in-depth qualitative interview with a selected sample of participants. In all, 64 students completed the written survey and I selected eight of those students to interview. Findings indicated that, access to accommodations, attitudinal barriers, level of social integration, and ease of communication were influential to their learning and participation experiences. Recommendations that aim to address the identified barriers and enhance the tertiary education experiences and outcomes for this population, included the need for students to have strong self-advocacy skills and familiarity with the range of resources available, including new technology. An increased awareness within tertiary institutions of deaf students’ academic and social needs must be at the forefront of any move towards inclusive education, where both deaf and hearing students are equal and valued participants.

This paper reports on a teaching program for the Functional Grammar (FG) unit at an English Education Study Program of a state university in West Java Indonesia in 2020-2022. Three cohorts of pre-service teachers in semester six were involved in the program (38 students in 2020, 26 in 2021, and 36 in 2022). The teaching program was conducted online due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The report focuses on exploring students’ understanding of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) – FG in particular, and their ability to use SFL in text analysis. The study also addresses students’ opinions on learning SFL through FG unit. The study used a qualitative case study design and the data were obtained from participant observations, a questionnaire distributed at the end of the teaching program, and analysis of students’ essays on text analyses. In the interest of space, the paper will only present and discuss data from the questionnaire and three samples of student essays. The questionnaire data were analysed qualitatively using a thematic analysis of different aspects of the unit and SFL, and students’ essays were analysed using SFL, especially theme, transitivity, and mood systems in lexicogrammar stratum. The data from the questionnaire indicate that all the students in all cohorts responded positively to the teaching program. Many students in each cohort said that learning FG is fun, enjoyable, interesting, and useful for both daily and academic life. They displayed a good understanding of SFL, including its basic principles, notions, and values ­ – especially concerning their reading and writing improvement. The data from students’ essays also reveal their ability to show how and why the text means what it does and to evaluate why the text is or is not effective for its own purposes. On this basis, it is recommended that SFL be introduced to Indonesian university students to enhance their literacy capacity and to Indonesian teachers to improve their teaching skills and their ways to develop assessment that is linguistically informed.

The present study is an endeavor to explore applying Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to the oldest Arabic text (the Qurʾān). The study point of departure is the textual metafunction (of the Sura 19:41-50), focusing principally on thematic structure (Theme-Rheme) for its role first in organizing the linguistic resources of both the experiential and interpersonal meanings in text production; and secondly in message unfolding. The salient results are the followings: the use of the three types of Theme (i.e., textual, interpersonal and topical). The topical Theme, important in message unfolding, it is essentially realized by the verbal group in the declarative clause. By virtue of verbal inflection, the bound pronominal markers, expressing Subject in Mood system and the Participant in the transitivity system, expands Theme boundary to better reflect Arabic clause structure. As to Theme orientation, the semantic aspect of Theme function , it is seen that the interaction of the verbal-locution- projection, modalization of Theme, in particular, and other elements contributed to the saliency of interpersonal meanings. Though the Qurʾānic Arabic, of this narrative, lends itself for SFL analysis, the results should be interpreted as an approximation that needs further studies. That Theme, in this study, is register specific is too early to consider as comprehensive analysis of Qurʾānic narrative register is required to support these results. Finally, analyzing the Qurʾānic Arabic provides a support for SFL universality; and at the same time, SFL, as a sociosemiotic linguistic theory, offers new avenues to better understand the Qurʾānic texts in many ways.

The main problem in this study is the system of transitivity and modality translation of Al-Quran Al-Insan, and relevance to the context of learning in higher education, with the aim 1) to determine the system of transitivity and modality, 2) know the type of process and modalities that dominates and determines relevance of the research on learning discourse in college. The method used is qualitative descriptive theory based on Systemic Functional Linguistics. Data were collected through documentation and records. The analyzed data using clause identification and data analysis using the description method. The findings show that transitivity system and modalities text as Al-Insan 27 process materials (46.55%), mental processes as much as 9 (15: 52%), the identification process relational as many as 10 (17: 24%), behavioral process 2 (03: 45%), oral process as much as 1 (1.72%), and the process as much as one (1.72%). The findings in the form of shaped modality modality (probability and frequency) of 37 (71.15%) and modulation (needs and wants) of 9 (17: 37%). Keywords: Transitivity, Modality, Surah Al-Insan, Systemic functional linguistics, Learning discourse

This paper explores the intricacies of causative constructions within the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) framework, emphasizing their significance in understanding the relationship between processes and the individuals affected. Delving into diverse theoretical perspectives on causation, the study provides an overview of causative expressions, highlighting the formalist view and its proponents such as Nash and Pylkkänen. Cognitive linguists, like Langacker, contribute to the discussion with the action chain model, emphasizing the transfer of energy between entities in the causal chain. After discussing these clashing positions, the paper critiques previous studies that equate agency with causation within the transitivity system. SFL communities have also debated how causation simultaneously fits in the whole transitivity system along with the subsystems of agency and process type. This study revisits the debate and offers an overview of different positions among SFL scholars such as Lavid and Arús, and García. The relationship between agency and causation is discussed while considering the complexity of the transitive and the ergative perspectives. After fully discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the opposing viewpoints of these scholars, this paper suggests extending the agency system to include analytic and synthetic, which interact with the causation system to form analytic causation, supporting the idea of a comprehensive causation system within the transitivity system. Finally, the paper suggests future avenues for research, endorsing the incorporation of corpus-based analyses to complement qualitative approaches in understanding causative constructions fully.

Ancient Chinese poetry and prose (ACPP) are the essence of traditional Chinese culture and also literary gems of the world. Despite the long tradition of previous Chinese Presidents using ACPP in their political addresses, the translation work on the three volumes of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China with much ACPP still poses a daunting challenge to the translation of literary texts in non-literary texts. As experiential meaning is inherent in all kinds of texts, literature, and non-literature, this study, drawing on the sights of Halliday's experiential mode of meaning and register theory in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), explored how the ACPP's experiential meaning was rendered in the political texts, and factors motivating transitivity patterns and shift tendencies. Statistics showed that the translations tend to reproduce the experiential meaning such that it involves more representations of the flow of events and the creation of relationships among entities, focusing more on construing the experience of the physical world rather than personal emotions, feelings, or cognition. Besides, the target text is also inclined to simplify the experiential meaning by compressing and omitting unnecessary transitivity processes and the participant and circumstance nominalization. This research found that the factors responsible for such tendencies include the features of political texts, language differences, the distribution of process types, the delicacy of the transitivity system, and register variations of fields of activity. With these findings, the study is expected to contribute to the SFL approach of studying literary translation in non-literary texts through the prism of experiential meaning and offer guidance in the translation of political literature with ACPP.

Mathematical attitude is a psychological response that arises when students interact in learning mathematics in school. For deaf students, attitudes towards mathematics have an important role in their success in learning mathematics. Deaf students are students who have hearing loss and verbal communication. The experts revealed that the visual potential of deaf students is a potential that can be utilized in mathematics learning activities. One learning model that utilizes the visual potential of deaf students is the EL-CPA model. The research aims to determine the effect of the application of the EL-CPA model on the mathematical attitudes of deaf students in Special Schools. This research is a quasi-experimental study with a sample of 20 deaf students. The sample was chosen randomly from 10 Special Schools in the city of Bogor. Data were analyzed using non-parametric statistics through binomial tests. The results of this study indicate that there is an effect of the EL-CPA model on the mathematical attitudes of deaf students with a Sig value of 0.024. Therefore, researchers recommend applying the EL-CPA learning model for deaf students in special schools.

This study examines how Khalid Hasan's English translation of Saadat Hasan Manto's beloved short story, Toba Tek Singh, uses the circumstantial elements of Time, Place, Manner, Cause, and Contingency to depict the trauma of the 1947 Indian Partition. To investigate how these grammatical features relate to the story's main themes of madness, identity crisis, and spatial displacement, the study employs a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) framework and qualitatively analyzes the translated text at the clause level. The analysis shows a high frequency of temporal and spatial circumstances, which anchor the story in the fractured post- Partition landscape, using the UAM Corpus Tool for systematic annotation and categorization. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the conditions of Manner, Cause, and Contingency improve the representation of political absurdity and psychological trauma. Data analysis was done using the UAM Corpus Tool. To ascertain the function of circumstantial elements in the narrative representation of Partition, the results were qualitatively interpreted. According to the study's findings, the most common circumstantial element is spatial location (28.9%), which is followed by temporal location (23.6%), extent (distance, duration, and frequency combined at 30.2%), manner (9.2%), means (6.6%), cause (3.9%), contingency (2.6%), matter (2.6%), accompaniment (1.3%), and role (1.3%). By showing how language mediates historical trauma, this study advances both SFL and Partition studies. This study emphasizes the crucial role of functional linguistic analysis in understanding how a translator’s grammatical choices affect the reader’s experience.

This study explores the ecological values embedded in the awig-awig of Desa Adat Denpasar by combining insights from ecolinguistics, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and Arne Naess’s ecosophy. The analysis focuses on how the transitivity system encodes the community’s ecological worldview through choices of process types, participant roles, and circumstantial elements. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, several clauses from the awig-awig are examined to reveal how linguistic patterns represent obligations related to environmental care. The findings show that material processes foreground concrete ecological duties, such as maintaining vegetation and performing ritual actions in agricultural or sacred spaces. Behavioral processes highlight embodied ethical practices that frame ritual discipline as part of ecological harmony, while existential processes affirm the presence of ecological spaces like the telajakan as entities that must be preserved. These linguistic patterns indicate that the awig-awig operates not only as a regulatory text but as a cultural medium through which ecological ethics are shaped and transmitted. The study concludes that the integration of ecolinguistics, SFL, and ecosophy offers a productive framework for understanding how customary discourse sustains ecological awareness and relational ethics within Balinese communities.

Purpose:Reflection is increasingly being used in higher education, but the criteria to assess the depth of reflection in student essays are difficult to define. This article tested the hypothesis that a good reflective essay contains more terms indicating mental processes.Methods:The authors selected two essays written by first year medical students at The University of Hong Kong, after their first encounter with cadavers in their dissection class. The two essays were perceived by teachers as having different depths of reflection. The transitivity system in Systemic Functional Linguistics was adopted to compare the two essays in terms of percentage occurrence of different process types (mental, material, relational, verbal, behavioral, existential).Results:The analysis showed that the essay with deeper reflection had a higher percentage occurrence of mental and relational processes and a low percentage occurrence of material processes. The other three processes accounted for only a low percentage of processes in both essays.Conclusion:From the transitivity analysis of the two reflective essays, the hypothesis that a good reflective essay contains more terms indicating mental processes is supported. The transitivity system in systemic functional linguistics can thus be used as an objective framework for assessing the depth of reflection in written essays.

The effectiveness of using language in a brochure is not something that easy to interpret. Information and understanding must be clear and concrete. A good and correct brochure from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective is objectivity that can be understood in terms of appropriate content. The application of SFL in daily activities may simplify the meaning of text sentences so that people could decipher the meaning carefully and minimize misunderstanding the meaning of the related texts. The research was intended to: (1) identify and analyze a transitivity system in the tourism destination brochure of Dinas Kebudayaan, Kepemudaan Olahraga dan Pariwisata Kabupaten Sumenep (2) find out the dominance of the process type in the ideational metafunction in the language used in the brochure. This research was supported by the theory of Halliday and Matthiessen (2004). This study used a qualitative description to develop a research index in terms of analyzing, describing, and agglomerating the existing brochure at the Gili Labak tourism destination, Sumenep, Madura. The results found that transitivity systems have a role to make meanings in a clause and the relational process was the dominant type of process involved in the brochures. This research is expected to be a reference for further research by discussing Systemic Functional Linguistics thus it becomes the data that has solutions for the application of language that parses through processes in ideational metafunction.

This study aimed at describing and explaining the experiential meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning as well as the nature of schematic structure in the students’ writings under study. This study used descriptive qualitative approach with content analysis as its technique. In collecting the data, some techniques were used such as content analysis, document analysis and also interviewing. This study involved 24 students of the eleventh grade of SMAN 1 Kubu in the academic year 2013/2014. Thus, the object of this study was 24 students’ expository writings analyzed through Systemic Functional Linguistics. From the result of the study, it was found out that the students expressed the experiential meaning by using six process types. Mostly, they used material process in their writings. The students expressed the interpersonal meaning of the text through the use of declarative, imperative, modality and personal pronoun. It was revealed that the expository texts under study were mostly constructed in declarative forms. The students expressed the textual meaning of their expository texts through developing themes and rhemes of the clauses constructing the texts. For that reason, the thematic development or progression was analyzed to recognize the textual meanings. Meanwhile, it was identified that twenty three expository writings were built in three main stages, while there is one text which was constructed in two stages or generic structures. The three stages cover introduction (thesis), main body (arguments) and conclusion (reiteration). keyword : Discourse Semantics, Expository Writing, Systemic Functional Linguistics.