Transitivity Analysis of David Cameron’s Speech in Retaining Scotland

This thesis adopts Systemic-Functional Grammar as its theoretical framework to conduct a transitivity analysis of David Cameron’s speech in retaining Scotland. The aim is to work out the distributions and functions of the transitivity processes and the main participants. To attain this goal, two research questions are proposed. The first one is what the distributions of transitivity processes are and the main participants in David Cameron’s speech. The second one is what the functions of transitivity processes and main participants in David Cameron’s speech are. The quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted simultaneously in analyzing the whole text of David Cameron’s speech. The analysis yields two major findings as follows: 1. all of the six process types can be found in Cameron’s speech. Among them, the relational process and material process are the most frequently occurred process types in his speech, which makes his speech more objective and convincing; 2. The pronouns of the first plural forms “we, us and our” are the main participants in Cameron’s speech, which shows he wants to shorten the distance with his audiences.


Introduction
On November 15, 2013, the Scottish government released a white paper with a length of 670 pages, which elaborated on the specific details and the ways in which Scotland would like to become an independent nation from the United Kingdom. The referendum took place on September 18, 2014, voting for "Should Scotland be an independent country?". Voters can only vote "yes" or "no". Three days before the referendum, Cameron came to Aberdeen to give a speech to retain the Scottish people. This speech was highly praised by the society.

Research Significance
It is of great significance to study the language of David Cameron's speech in retaining Scotland. The situation was urgent when David Cameron made this speech. If the voters chose to say "yes", Scotland would be an independent country. The whole society of the United Kingdom would be greatly changed. Finally the majority of the people in Scotland chose to vote "no". It can be said that David Cameron's speech has good impact to the final result. A political speech usually implies the speaker's political stand and view. David Cameron must be very careful to design his speech from its lexis choice to sentence organization and content arrangement in order to make people be in consonance with the spirits which are extracted from the speech. To study this speech is useful to know more about the history of the United Kingdom as well as learn how to make a successful speech.
It is also of great significance to study this speech by using the ideational function of language, or more exactly, the transitivity system in ideational function. It is through this function that the speaker or writer embodies in language his experience of the internal world of his own consciousness: his cognition, reactions and perceptions, and also his lingual acts of speaking and understanding [3]. Language is used to represent our experience of the processes, persons, objects, abstractions, qualities, states and relations of the world around us and inside us [4]. Transitivity is the foundation of representation: it is the way the clause is used to analyze events and situations as being of certain types. And transitivity has the facility to analyze the same event in different ways, a facility which is of course of great interest in ideational analysis [1].

Research Methodology
This thesis employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches in analyzing the ideational function and its realization in David Cameron's speech in retaining Scotland. On the one hand, quantitative approaches are taken to show the distributions and frequency of these six transitivity processes and personal pronouns in the selected speech. On the other hand, qualitative description is carried out to explain how the ideational function is realized through the transitivity processes and personal pronouns. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are used together to make the findings more convincing.

Overview of the Thesis
This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One is the introduction of the thesis, which introduces the research background, research significance, research methodology and the organization of the thesis. Chapter Two presents the theoretical framework of this thesis. Chapter Three is literature review which reviews the previous studies towards Cameron's speech in retaining Scotland. In Chapter Four, the realization of ideational function is analyzed from transitivity processes and personal pronouns. Chapter Five summarizes the findings of this study and points out some limitations.

Three Meta-Functions
Halliday's systemic grammar contains a functional component, and the theory behind his functional grammar is systemic. Halliday believes that language is what it is because it has to serve certain functions. In other words, social demand on language helps to shape its structure. And types of meanings or functions can be grouped into three meta-functions as follows: (a) The textual function. The textual function refers to how people organize information in the use of language. At the same time it shows the relationship between conditional information and other information, and also the relationship between the transmission of information and the communicative context in which the speaker locates. The textual function mainly consists of three components, the theme-rheme structure, the information structure and coherence. (b) The interpersonal function. The interpersonal function shows people use language to interact with other people, and establish and keep interpersonal relationship. At the same time they use language to influence the behavior of others and express their opinions about the world and even change the world. It mainly consists of mood, modality and tone. (c) The ideational function. The ideational function means that people use language to talk about their experience of the world (the physical world and the spiritual world), and describe the events and situations that occur around them. It mainly consists of transitivity system and voice.
According to Halliday's opinion, these three meta-functions are used as the basis of studying how meaning is created and expressed. Different types of functions can be seen through particular types of wordings in language.

Transitivity System
Different from the meaning of "transitivity" as a character of verbs, the "transitivity" here matches our experience of a real life event. The term "transitivity" in Systemic Functional Grammar is a semantic category, which is a reflection of human beings' recognition at the lexicogrammar level both in written and spoken form with the choice of process types and participant and circumstantial element [4]. The transitivity system construes the world of experience into a manageable set of process types. Each process type consists, in principle, of three components: a process unfolding through time, the participants involved in the process, circumstances associated with the process. And altogether there are six types of process. Material, mental, relational are the major types of process in the English transitivity system. And three minor ones are verbal, existential and behavioral.
Material clauses are processes of doing and happening. A material clause construes a quantum of change in the flow of events as taking place through some input of energy. Mental clauses are processes of sensing. And mental clauses are concerned with people's experience of the world of their own consciousness. A mental clause construes a quantum of change in the flow of events taking place in people's consciousness. Relational clauses are processes of being or having. And relational clauses serve to characterize and identify. These are processes of (typically human) physiological and psychological behaviour. They are the least distinct of all the six process types because they have no clearly defined characteristics of their own. Verbal clauses are clauses of saying. Such clauses are an important resource in various kinds of discourse. They contribute to the creation of a narrative by making it possible to set up dialogic passages. Existential clauses represent the idea that something exists or happens. Existential clauses are not very common in discourse, but they make an important, specialized contribution to various kinds of text.

Literature Review
Halliday calls for scholars to use the functional theory of language to analyze discourse. And he managed to analyze a novel of William Gerald Golding by using the transitivity system of Systemic Functional Grammar. It is the beginning with which scholars conduct discourse analysis by using transitivity system. And nowadays more and more scholars begin to use transitivity system to do discourse analysis.
Although scholars have conducted many discourse analyses by using transitivity system, it is still rare to use transitivity system in analyzing political speech discourse. Public speech is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners [5]. A political speech may be a powerful vehicle used to effect change, inspiring and arousing feelings of great passion, motivating individuals to fight for a cause, to unite in a common purpose. A memorable speech lives on in the hearts and minds long after it has been delivered. And scholars who use transitivity system to do political discourse analysis mostly focus on the inaugural speech. Until now there is no transitivity analysis of Cameron's speech in retaining Scotland.
Previous studies of transitivity analysis have provided significant implications to the present studies.
Present studies about David Cameron's speech in retaining Scotland mostly aim at the rhetorical features, critical discourse analysis and positive discourse analysis. With regard to the three meta-functions, in China, Zhou Lili [16] and Jin Juan [12] have conducted interpersonal function researches in analyzing David Cameron's speech in retaining Scotland. However, no research has been found on the ideational and textual function of this speech. And also, no meta-function analyses can be found towards Cameron's this speech. Therefore, It is the first time to use ideational, or accurately, the transitivity system function to analyze David Cameron's speech in retaining Scotland.
Through the analysis of the corpus of David Cameron's speech, this thesis tries to discover the characteristics of such political texts and see why this speech achieved success.
The present thesis applies transitivity system in Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar approach to the study of David Cameron's speech to retain Scotland to work out the transitivity distributions of six transitivity processes in this speech and pragmatic functions of each transitivity type. The interrelated research questions addressed in this thesis are as follows: In carrying out the research, the thesis mainly deals with two research questions: 1. What are the distributions of transitivity processes and main participants in David Cameron's speech? 2. What are the functions of each transitivity process type and each involved participant in David Cameron's speech?

Distributions of Six Process Types in David Cameron's Speech
To conduct a transitivity analysis of David Cameron's speech, at first all the ranking clauses, which are the basis of the process types should be identified. When calculating the ranking clauses, the author follows the rules from Halliday. As for dependent clauses, the author only calculates the finite clauses (traditionally adverbial clauses, object clauses, non-defining relative clauses), excluding those non-finite clauses (traditionally to-infinitive clauses, present and past participle clause) and embedded clauses. For the paralleled or paratactic clauses or verb phrases, the author calculate them respectively. Table 1 shows the total numbers of the different processes appear in the ranking clauses of this speech. A total of 315 ranking clauses were found in this speech. And each of the six process type can be found in David Cameron's speech. As shown in table 1, the relational process is the most frequently used process type with a total occurrence of (123, 39.05%) and followed by the material process (109, 34.60%), the mental process (40, 12.70%), the behavioral process (21, 6.67%), the verbal process (15,4.76%), the existential process (7, 2.22%) with a descending order of the occurrence frequencies. There are significant differences in the occurrence of each process type. And in the next section a further discussion will be made.

Distributions and Functions of Each Transitivity Process in David Cameron's Speech
This speech can be divided into five parts. The first part is The United Kingdom, which expounds what the United Kingdom means to its people. People of four nationalities have worked together to make the United Kingdom as a great country and the greatest example of democracy in the world. Table 2 shows the distributions of six process types in this part. The second part is The Consequences of Yes Vote. It is an end of the things that people of four nationalities share together. And their lives will be hugely changed in almost every way. Table 3 shows the distributions of six process types in the second part of the speech. The third part is Efforts and Improvements. The United Kingdom is not perfect and no country is. But all of the people are on a constant effort to change the country to the better. A white paper for a stronger Scotland Parliament will be out into draft legislation by January. And there are many improvements the government is going to make. Table 4 shows the distributions of six process types in the third part of the speech. The fourth part is We are Better Together. The United Kingdom is a family of four nations and Scotland plays an important part in this family. And it is never a good choice to turn away from each other. Table 5 shows the distributions of six process types in the fourth part of the speech. The last part is Vote to Stay. David Cameron reiterated that they don't need to tear their country apart to get a bright future and begged Scottish people to vote no to stay. Table 6 shows the distributions of six process types in the last part of the speech. These five parts will be taken a whole respectively to conduct an analysis of the transitivity processes.

Distributions and Functions of Material Process in
David Cameron's Speech Material process in David Cameron's speech holds a percentage of 34.60% of all the processes. Although being less than those of the relational process, the percentage is far higher than those of other processes.
Material processes are processes of doing. They express the notion that some entity does something, which may be done to the other entity [4]. Table 1 shows that material processes appear with a frequency of 34.60%, with the number of 109, which is second only to the relational process.
Through table 2 to table 6, it can be seen that in The United Kingdom part, the Efforts and Improvements part and the Vote to Stay part, material processes are strongly involved in. And a further analysis of the material process will be made in these three parts. Some of the material clauses are listed for analysis and the italics are used to distinguish verbs of material processes in a ranging clause from others.
The analysis of material process in the United Kingdom part will be made first. The material clauses from The United Kingdom part are as follows: 1) And you know what, we built this home together.
2) We did all this together.
3) This is a decision that could break up our family of nations, and rip Scotland from the rest of the UK. In this part, David Cameron wants to remind his audiences how the United Kingdom has been what it is now. It is the people from four nations who work together to build such a great country. And Scottish people play an indispensable part in the construction of the country. The focus in this part is what the people of the four nations do to build the country. So the material processes are used frequently.
The analysis of material process in the Efforts and Improvements part will be made secondly. Material clauses in the Efforts and Improvements part are as follows: 1) Of course we must constantly change and improve people's lives. 2) But you can get real, concrete change on Thursday: if you vote No. 3) And we have spelled that change out in practical terms, with a plan and a process. In this part, David Cameron wants to assure the Scottish people that the government is on a constant mission to change the United Kingdom for the better. And it means faster and better change. No country is perfect but the United Kingdom is trying constantly to be perfect. The focus is on the specific measures to change. So he uses a lot of material processes to state what the government is doing and what they will do.
The analysis of material process in the Vote to Stay part will be made lastly. Material clauses in the Vote to Stay part are as follows: 1) We've just pulled through a great recession together. We are now moving forward together. 2) Vote No-and you are voting for a bigger and broader and better future for Scotland and you are investing in the future for your children and grandchildren. 3) So please, from all of us: vote to stay together. Vote to stay. Vote to save our united kingdom. The verb "vote", which stands for the material process appears many times. Cameron wants to recover the audiences' confidence, and with a final purpose to make them take action to vote "no". Table 1 shows that relational processes appear most frequently in David Cameron's speech and the percentage of relational process is the highest of all the process types.

Distributions and Functions of Relational Process in David Cameron's Speech
Relational processes are used most commonly to attribute qualities to entities, to classify them as one thing or the other, or to identify them.
In The Consequences of Yes Vote part, Efforts and Improvement part, and We are Better Together part, relational processes are strongly involved in. Some of them will be listed for analysis. The italics are used to distinguish verbs of material processes in a ranging clause from others.
Firstly, relational processes in The Consequences of Yes Vote part will be analyzed. Relational clauses in The Consequences of Yes Vote part are as follows: 1) But when something looks too good to be true-that's because it is. And it is my duty to be clear about the likely consequences of a Yes Vote. 2) Independence would not be a trial separation; it would be a painful divorce. 3) To warn of the consequences is not to scare-monger, it is like warning a friend about a decision they might take that will affect the rest of their lives-and the lives of their children. To retain Scotland, David Cameron must let the Scottish people know what the Yes Vote means to them. By frequently using the relational clauses to state the relationship between Yes Vote and the consequences, Cameron wants the Scottish people to know that voting "yes" means a "painful divorce", and it could not be remedied. So he used many relational processes to attribute painful qualities to the consequences.
Secondly, relational processes in Efforts and Improvements part will be analyzed. Relational clauses in Efforts and Improvements part are as follows: 1) The United Kingdom is not a perfect country -no country is. 2) Yes, every political party is different. But we are all of us-Conservatives, Labor, Lib Dems, Nationalists-on a constant mission to change our country for the better. 3) So a No vote actually means faster, fairer, safer and better change. 4) Scotland's identity is already strong. The relational processes are of the same importance with the material processes in this part. The material processes expound how to change and improve. The relational processes focus on the reasons for change and the role of Scotland in the process of change. Why should they change and improve? Because their country is not perfect. And in the process of changing, Scotland is not an observer. It is a participant as well as the beneficiary.
Lastly, the relational processes in We are Better Together part will be analyzed. The relational clauses in We are Better Together part are as follows: 1) The United Kingdom is not one nation. We are four nations in a single country. That can be difficult but it is wonderful.
2) We are a family of nations.
3) A family is not a compromise, or a second best, it is a magical identity that makes us more together than we can ever be apart. 4) In human relations it is almost never a good thing to turn away from each other, to put up walls, or to score new lines on the map. In this part, David Cameron is trying to tell the Scottish people that the four nations are not only a country but also a family. And a family is a magical identity. They help each other and will never turn their backs when their family members are suffering. By using relational processes most frequently, David Cameron wants to give an identity to the Scottish people. They are family members. And the four nations can never be apart. They are better together.

Distributions and Functions of Mental Process in
David Cameron's Speech Mental process is a process of sensing. It involves phenomenon described as state of mind or psychological events. It expresses affection, cognition and perception. In David Cameron's speech, mental process is the third frequently used process type and largely distribute in the Vote to Stay part.
The italics are used to distinguish verbs of mental processes in a ranging clause from others. Mental processes in the Vote to Stay part are as follows: 1) Let no one fool you that 'Yes' is a positive vision.
2) We want you to stay. Head and heart and soul, we want you to stay. 3) If you don't like me -I won't be here forever. If you don't like this government -it won't last forever. This part is the last part of Cameron's speech. And Cameron calls for the Scottish people to vote to stay sincerely. He asked the Scottish people to be positive of what their country can be and remember that they are part of their family. " We want you to stay. Head and heart and soul, we want you to stay", by using mental processes, the feeling of this speech is more sincere and it is easy for the Scottish people to be moved by the words so that they may take Cameron's suggestion to stay.

Distributions and Functions of Verbal Process in David Cameron's Speech
Verbal process covers all modes of expression and indication which includes a potential verbal action. In David Cameron's speech in retaining Scotland, verbal process as well as existential process and behavioral process are not frequently used. Therefore, it is better to make analysis over the whole text when dealing with these three process types.
The italics are used to distinguish verbs of verbal processes in a ranging clause from others. Verbal processes in the Cameron's speech are as follows: 1) So I would say to everyone voting on Thursday, please remember. This isn't just any old country. This is the United Kingdom. This is our country. 2) And as Prime Minister I have to tell you what that (independence) would mean. 3) I say all this because I don't want the people of Scotland to be sold a dream that disappears. The use of "say, tell" makes the relationship between David Cameron and his audiences closer. It seems like Cameron is their friend and give them suggestions from their standpoint and for their own interests. It makes Cameron more reliable and his points of view more convincing.

Distributions and Functions of Existential Process in
David Cameron's Speech Existential process shows the existence of an entity. It involves existential construction which is introduced by a "there" in subject position and a typical verb "be" to mean that something exists or does not exist.
The italics are used to distinguish existential processes in a ranging clause from others. Existential processes in the Cameron's speech are as follows: 1) There's no going back from this. No re-run.
2) We must constantly change and improve people's lives.
No-one is content while there are still children living in poverty. No-one is content while there are people struggling, and young people not reaching their full potential.

3) We have agreed a timetable for that stronger Scottish
Parliament: a time-table to bring in the new powers that will go ahead if there is a No vote, a White Paper by November, put into draft legislation by January. It can be found that the existential process in the first example is not used to show existence of something but draw people's attention that they should be alert to the present situation and be careful in making their decisions. The function of existential clauses is mainly to show existence, but occasionally to be an eye-catching technique.

Distributions and Functions of Behavioral Process in
David Cameron's Speech Behavioral processes are processes of (typically human) physiological and psychological behaviour, like breathing, coughing, smiling, dreaming and staring. [4].
The italics are used to distinguish verbs of behavioral processes in a ranging clause from others. Behavioral processes in the Cameron's speech are as follows: 1) The values that say we don't walk on by when people are sick. 2) Please don't think: I'm frustrated with politics right now, so I'll walk out the door and never come back. 3) And as you stand in the stillness of the polling booth, I hope you will ask yourself this. Most of the behavioral processes in Cameron's speech are used when David Cameron presuming a situation from the Scottish people's angle. It makes the Scottish people think twice before they make their decision. They would know that the situation is really urgent and the consequences of Yes vote is really painful.

Distributions and Functions of Main Participants in Cameron's Speech
Participants is an important part in transitivity analysis. The interrelation between processes and participants might reflect the features of certain discourses [7]. The previous sections are mainly about the distributions and functions of the process types in David Cameron's speech. In this part, the author is going to analyse the distributions and functions of the main participants of this speech.
There are different participants in every process. It is meaningless to count and analyze all the participants. The author only takes some regularly occurring participants into consideration. To be specific, the author only counts the frequencies of "I/ you/ your/ we/ our/ us/ they/ them" and find the hidden information of their functions.
The distribution of main participants are calculated as the following table shows: The table shows that the average percentage of the pronouns "we/ us/ our" and "you/ your" are main participants in this speech. The pronouns most frequently occurred in this speech is "we/ us/ our", with a frequency of (47, 37.30%), followed by "you/ your" (43, 34.13%), "I/ my/ me" (22, 17.46%), "they/ their/ them" (14, 11.11%). In next part the author will analyze the functions of the different participants respectively.
The analysis of "we/ us/ our" as participants will be made firstly. The examples of "we/ us/ our" as participants are as follows: 1) If Scotland vote Yes, the UK will split, and we will go our separate ways forever. 2) A family is not a compromise, or a second best, it is a magical identity that makes us more together than we can ever be apart.

3) This isn't just any old country. This is the United
Kingdom. This is our country. "We/ us / our" are personal pronouns in plural forms, which represent a group of people. In Cameron's speech, "we/ us/ our" are the most frequently used participants. It shows that Cameron wants to shorten the distance with his audiences. He is a member of them and can not be separated. Cameron always states that the four nations built the United Kingdom together. And the four nations are a family. Cameron and his audiences are the members of this family. They can never be apart. So he consciously chooses the pronouns "we/ us/ our" in order to achieve the identification with his audiences.
The analysis of "you/ your" as participants will be made secondly. The examples of "you/ your" as participants are as follows: 1) And you know what, we built this home together. better future for Scotland and you are investing in the future for your children and grandchildren. "You/ your" in this speech refers to the addressees, or we can say the Scottish people. The participants "you/ your" have three levels of meaning here. Firstly, Cameron remind the Scottish people that Scotland is an inseparable part of the United Kingdom. And the UK means home to them. Secondly, Cameron wants to warn the consequences of the Yes Vote. Thirdly, Cameron retains them sincerely. "Head and heart and soul, we want you to stay." Cameron wants them to know, whether emotionally or intellectually, the Yes Vote is not a good choice.
The analysis of "I/ my/ me" as participants will be made thirdly. The examples of "I/ my/ me" as participants are as follows: 1) I believe I speak for millions of people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and most in Scotland, too who would be utterly heart-broken by the break-up of the United Kingdom. 2) And it is my duty to be clear about the likely consequences of a Yes Vote. 3) And as you stand in the stillness of the polling booth, I hope you will ask yourself this: will my family and I truly be better off by going it alone? Will we really be more safe and secure? Do I really want to turn my back on the rest of Britain? Pronouns "I/ my/ me" are singular forms. They have strong sense of expressing personal opinions or individual ideas. In this speech, most of the "I/ my/ me" refers to Cameron himself, but there are also some exceptions. "I/ my/ me" in some places of the speech refers to the Scottish people when Cameron let them ask themselves questions. "I/ my/ me" occur only a few times in this speech, which makes the political speech more objective, persuasive and impartial.
The analysis of "they/ them/ their" as participants will be made lastly. The examples of "they/ them/ their" as participants are as follows: 1) When people vote on Thursday they are not just voting for themselves, but for their children and the generations beyond. 2) To warn of the consequences is not to scare-monger, it is like warning a friend about a decision they might take that will affect the rest of their lives-and the lives of their children. When Cameron uses "they/ them/ their", he looks like a bystander but not a relevant people of the event. He is presuming some possible situations. That makes his speech more objective and more reliable.

Conclusion
The study yields some findings as follows.
(1) The first is that all these six process types have been found to occur in this speech. The relational process is most frequently used, followed by the material process, mental process, verbal process, existential process, behavioral process. The last three processes are not frequently found in this speech. And in different parts of this speech, the frequency of each process type is also different.
(2) This speech is a political speech. It is with typical political aims. So the politician always chooses more objective and more persuasive processes to convey his ideas and reach his goals. There is no doubt that relational process and material process are both the best choices. Because material process and relational process always state the true events. That makes the speech more objective and more persuasive.
(3) In the analysis of the participants, "we/ us/ our" are the most frequently used participants in Cameron's speech. It shows that Cameron wants to shorten the distance with his audiences and try to act as their family members.
(4) "You/ your" are almost of the same frequency with "we/ us/ our". And most of "you/ your" in this speech refer to the Scottish people. At first, Cameron wants to let them know what the United Kingdom means to them. Secondly, he'd like to warn them of the consequences of the Yes vote. And at last he begged them to stay sincerely.
(5) The first singular pronouns "I/ my/ me" are not frequently occurred in David Cameron's speech. It shows that Cameron wants to make his speech more objective, persuasive and impartial.
Undoubtedly, this thesis has its limitations. There is still much room for improvement. There is no analysis of the third component-the circumstantial element in transitivity system. The circumstantial element may add more enlightenment in transitivity system analysis. 16. RE: and we will go our separate ways forever.
17. MA: When people vote on Thursday 18. MA: they are not just voting for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren and the generations beyond.
19. ME: So I want to 20. VE: speak very directly to the people of this country today about 21. RE: what is at stake. 22. ME: I believe 23. VE: I speak for millions of people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland -and many in Scotland, 24. RE: too who would be utterly heart-broken by the break-up of the United Kingdom. 25. BE: Utterly heart-broken to wake up on Friday morning to the end of the country 26. ME: we love, 27. ME: to know that 28. MA: Scots would no longer join with the English, Welsh and Northern Irish in our Army, Navy and Air Force, or in our UK-wide celebrations and commemorations, or in UK sporting teams from the Olympics to the British Lions.
29. RE: The United Kingdom would be no more. No UK pensions, no UK passports, no UK pound.
30. ME: The greatest example of democracy the world has ever known, of openness, of people of different nationalities and faiths coming together as one, 31. RE: would be no more.