Transitivity of Discourse Functionality: Letters-to-the-Editor

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the discoursal value of functionality of transitivity of letters-to-the-editor. It sheds light on the function of transitivity and its variants in the act of communication. Letters-to-the-editor is a linguistic case in which the letter writer expresses a specific type of mode related to previous issue that needs to be well interpreted well. To convey the communicative value of transitivity utilised in letters-to-the-editor of The Times, the study adopts Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (henceforth SFG) to present a statistic of transitivity processes. The analysis requires Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA) since letters-to-the-editor is one of newspaper genra. The study presents some conclusions which reflect the communicative value of transitivity of letters-to-the-editor. The discourse functions of transitivity processes realised in the selected samples of letters-to-the-editor are variant, depending on the ideological significance, social power and text type.