Part 2: Verbs
Meaning of Verbs
Exercises
Action verb: I walked to school.
Relating verb: Chlorophyll is the substance that gives green plants their color.
Saying/Thinking verb: The article argues against school uniforms.
Feeling verb: Annie felt angry.
Definition
Functional grammar classifies verbs (or, processes, as they are technically called) semantically, that is by the kinds of meanings they bring to a clause. You may have heard that verbs are used for actions, beings, and states. That’s a good start, but it doesn’t cover the full range of meanings!
The metalanguage (terminology) you use will depend on the age and level of students you teach. The table below summarizes the four key groups of verbs used in the WIDA Framework and this companion along with other names you may see for them in other grammar references.
|
Verb type |
AKA |
Examples |
Participants |
|
action verbs |
doing verbs material processes |
walk, eat, go, happen, make |
Agent (who does the action) Goal (whom the action affects) Recipient (who receives the action) |
|
relating verbs |
linking or being verbs relational processes |
be, have, become, refer to, define, cost, include there is/are |
Token (the thing being links or described) Value (the quality or characteristic given to the token) |
|
thinking/ saying verbs |
verbal processes mental processes reporting verbs dialog verbs |
say, think, argue, believe, claim, wonder |
Sayer (the person, group, or source that says or thinks) |
|
feeling verbs |
behavioral processes mental processes |
feel, hear, sense, smell, taste |
Sensor (the person who feels, thinks, or behaves in a certain way) |
Discovery
Drag the verbs from this passage into the correct category. Note that the categories overlap somewhat, so you may disagree with the answers: that’s OK as long as you can justify your choices!
Function
Each category of verb allows or requires different participants. So from a structural perspective, it’s important to understand the type of verb in order to write a grammatical clause. More importantly, perhaps, is the idea that each type of verb does something different. Imagine you’re standing at the front of a room. When you say an action verb, you move one step forward. When you say a linking, reporting, or feeling verb, you take a step to the side. Your progress will mirror the development of the text, especially one that Narrates (I wish I could give credit to the presenter at TESOL who demonstrated this technique, but sadly I don’t remember her name!).
One consequence is that students who need to understand or produce texts that Inform or Explain will need good control over linking (relational) verbs since these are the verbs that describe, define, and explain concepts. Students using sources to Inform or Argue will need reporting verbs that “project” the ideas and words they have read and heard. Focusing exclusively on verbs as “doing words” is good preparation for narratives but not much else!
Exercises
Take two texts encountered by students in the grade you teach (remembering that texts can be written, spoken, or multimodal) but in different disciplines. For example, you might choose an ELA narrative and a Science explanation. Categorize the verbs (processes) using the scheme on this page. What do you notice? Do the texts have different patterns of verb use? Try “walking out” the texts using the exercise described above: what do you find?
(Very) Technical Notes
I follow the WIDA Framework in using Agent in place of Actor as the “doer” of an action verb. In SFL, Actor and Agent are different labels that refer to different ways of analyzing material processes (action verbs). However, I depart from WIDA in retaining SFL’s distinction between the Goal (the direct object, that is, the participant whom the action is “directed at” rather like a ball at a goal; Thompson, 2014, p. 95) and the Recipient (traditionally the indirect object). WIDA uses Recipient for both categories of objects.
SFL’s mental processes encompass both reporting verbs included here as thinking verbs (think, believe, know) and verbs that describe feelings (hear, feel, see). In terms of both meaning and use, these are more similar to “feeling” verbs (SFL’s behavioral processes).
It is possible to analyze other participants in saying/thinking and feeling verbs, but it has little practical benefit.
There is/are is known is really an existential process, but it is semantically similar to a linking verb and so is included with relating verbs in this companion.
There are in fact two different categories of relational processes (linking verbs): attributive and identifying. Only identifying relational processes use Token/Value, but I have extend these labels to all relating verbs.
Categories of processes are not entirely distinct in SFL, so the focus is always on the analysis that makes the most sense in context.
