Friday 4 March 2022

David Banks On Process Types

I wonder if anyone can help out with the following:
(1) identifying what type of process 'thrive' is in the following clause. It seems to me to be Relational, but it's also kind of Material with a dash of Behavioural. :)I've given the clause within its cotext. And the clause comes from an historical advertisement.
"Your child will thrive on Glaxo when all else fails because it is a natural substitute for breast milk"
(2) And I just want to check the process type of 'make' in the following clauses - I have analysed these as Relational (attributive, intensive) ('cause to be something'), but I'm not 100% sure:
"A happy baby makes a happy mother"
"Your happy Glaxo baby will make you a happy mother"

I would have no hesitation in analysing your first example (thrive) as material: it's about growing and increasing in good health, so about physical change
And I would have analysed your second example (make) as material too: it's causal, concerned with making the mother better, so again to do with physical change.

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] Transitivity analyses of these clauses are provided here.

[2] To be clear, 'physical change' is not an exclusive feature of material processes, as demonstrated by the attributive clause the baby turned into a pig. Halliday (1994: 120):

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 159-165) provide a helpful discussion on material doing and relational being as complementary perspectives on change; (op. cit.: 161):

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