A Transitivity Analysis of Shashi Deshpande’s Short Story “And Then?”

Abstract

The research paper describes Process Types, Participants Function, and Circumstantial Elements of Transitivity Analysis of Shashi Deshpande’s short story entitled “And Then?”. The system of Transitivity is a part Systemic Functional Linguistic and used for analyzing experimental meaning in language this is the way in which we talk of our experiences. The method can be used for analyzing literary text. The aim of the paper is to investigate how the Transitivity in extracts reflects the processes the main character old widow woman goes through. The results show that the old women goes through mental condition it shows Mental Processes and her actions show material processes.

            The researcher has applied descriptive qualitative method that described texts in the story. The researcher includes the explanation of the major process type of the Transitivity model and their sub classifications in addition to the participant’s roles that are directly involved in the processes. This is followed by the application of the transitivity theory to the literary text. A result of the analysis shows the use of certain Process types and Participants, Circumstances.

            The study found that the characterized process types of Participant Functions were mental Process (40%) material Process (22%), Verbal Process (14%) Relational Process (5%) Behavioural Process (5%)