Bidding Farewell to a Lover: A Transitivity Analysis of a Tribute by Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings

Abstract

This paper is a transitivity analysis of the tribute to the Late Former President of Ghana, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings by his widow, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings. To do this, the study sets out two main objectives which were to identify the transitivity processes employed by the widow in the tribute and discover the participants and circumstances used and their functions. The study used the documentation method to collect the data, which were downloaded from the internet. In analyzing the data, the researchers used the following steps: first, watching the video and transcribing it into a written text. Second, reading the text. Third, segmenting the data in the form of clauses. Fourth, identifying the types of processes, participants, and circumstances. Fifth, classifying the clauses into the categories of transitivity process types and their functions. Finally, concluding the field of discourse of the text. The paper discovered that the writer, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings used all the six transitivity processes: material, mental, behavioral, existential, verbal, and relational in her tribute to her late husband, the former president of Ghana, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. Out of the 118 clauses identified in the text, the most used transitivity process was behavioral with the frequency of 45 representing a percentage of 38 of all the processes employed. The behaver is the highest used participant with a frequency of 32 representing 28% of the total number of participants used in the tribute. Matter as a circumstance was used 42 times representing 38% of the total circumstances Nana Konadu used in the tribute. The process types, the participants and the circumstances were used to successfully project and present the message of the tribute.