Amy Neale PhD Thesis Summary

(March 2002)

In this thesis, the system of TRANSITIVITY is seen as enabling us to refer to events, this type of 'experiential' meaning being manifested in the clause in the Main Verb and its extensions - which realize the 'Process' - and in the associated 'Participant Roles'.

The research presented has three main aims:

1. To make it possible to generate a very wide range of types of Process for a large computational grammar. This is achieved by greatly extending the system networks for PROCESS TYPE in English. These allow us to model the paradigmatic relations between verb senses.

2. To contribute to the theory of language known as Systemic Functional Linguistics. The notions of 'Process', 'system network' and 'delicacy' adopted in this thesis are Systemic Functional concepts. This research builds on these ideas to extend the semantic classification of verb senses in such a way as to greatly extend the system network for TRANSITIVITY.

3. To base the system networks on data obtained from large corpora. For this purpose a new methodology has been developed which makes 'second level' use of corpora. This allows the researcher to store and access detailed information about large quantities of data.

The thesis has two main products:

1. A database of almost 5,400 fully analysed verb senses. This includes the most frequently occurring verb senses according to Francis et al (1996), and, unlike any other study of this kind, a high proportion of multi-word verbs.

2. Extended system networks for three major Process types in English. This includes full semantic classifications for each, in the spirit of Halliday's concept of (1961) 'lexis as most delicate grammar'.