Abstract:
The study uses Halliday's transitivity theory as a framework to analyse how
language has been used by Kofi Awoonor and Adjoa Yeboah-Afari to reveal how the
African experience is represented from the Ghanaian perspective in their respective
stories Just to Buy Corn and The Sound of Pestles. The primary focus is on the analysis
of transitivity in the selected stories and how the interplay between processes,
participants and circumstances is used as representation of the author‟s perception of the
Ghanaian experience. Using the qualitative design and the interpretative content
analysis, the study finds that material processes abound in both texts analysed. The
dominance of material processes in the stories indicates the existence of a lot of physical
actions in the African experience. The existential process types are used in the stories to
describe the places where the setting of each story is set. They are also used to point to
some of the challenges the characters face as well as their conditions before the narrative
time to make readers fully appreciate their problems. The conclusion drawn from the
study is that the selected stories use more primary process types than secondary types.
The study confirms that the transitivity system can help in analysing clauses effectively
and also helps us encode our experiences of the world. The study recommends that
Systemic Functional Grammar is made an integral part of the English curriculum so that
students will be abreast of the requisite skills for textual analysis.
Description:
A THESIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION, FACULTY
OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION,
SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY
OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR AWARD OF THE MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY
DEGREE IN ENGLISH.
OCTOBER, 2017