A Corpus-Based Transitivity Analysis of “Season of the Rain Birds” By Nadeem Aslam

Abstract

Transitivity is a term used in linguistic analysis to describe how verbs and phrases are structured to express relationships or events. It focuses on identifying participants and their roles in sentences.

This study aims to investigate how the ideational meta-function of language employs transitivity in the novel "Season of the Rain Birds" to analyze writer’s preference in expressing his approach on the subject. The main goal is to identify the most prominent element of transitivity, with a particular focus on how individuals are portrayed in a larger context (Halliday, 1994). The UAM corpus tool created by O'Donnell (2009) is used to calculate the frequency and percentage of processes to perform a quantitative analysis of transitivity. The study identified various transitivity processes, including material, relational, mental, verbal, behavioral, and existential, showcasing the diversity inherent in linguistic analysis. The study's results indicate that Nadeem Aslam's writing style emphasizes the expressive portrayal of emotions among his characters. The author was motivated towards the use of participants at 27.33% in the novel Season of the Rain Birds. According to the clause type, this shows that the author chose to use material processes frequently in the novel Season of the Rain Birds at 14.57%, which is indicative of the fact that Aslam’s stories revolve around people more as compared to the situations that manifest themselves.