Putting transitivity to the test: a review of the Sydney and Cardiff models

Abstract In Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the system of Transitivity is a common means by which to analyse both isolated clauses as well as clauses in context. To date, two Transitivity models have emerged. The first and more established of the two is the Sydney model, which was proposed by Halliday (Journal of Linguistics 3(1):37–81, 1967; An introduction to functional grammar, 1985; An introduction to functional grammar, 1994) and more latterly developed by himself and Christian Matthiessen (Halliday and Matthiessen, An introduction to functional grammar, 2004; Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar, 2014). The second is the Cardiff Grammar (CG) model put forward by Fawcett (Cognitive linguistics and social interaction: Towards an integrated model of a systemic functional grammar and the other components of a communicating mind, 1980; The semantics of clause and verb for relational processes in English, 1987) as an alternative to the former and, which has subsequently been elaborated by Neale (More delicate Transitivity: Extending the process type system networks for English to include full semantic classifications, 2002; Matching corpus data and system networks, 2006). Although both models have various strengths, neither model is void of limitations. Thus, the aim of this paper is to describe, compare and draw on the inadequacies associated with either one or both of the aforementioned systems, which have come to light following substantial research on Transitivity. All in all, several issues are raised here in order to highlight particular areas that need to be addressed if we are to ensure a systematic and delicate analysis of Transitivity patterns across texts.