The Ideological Manifestation of Transitivity Process:  A Critical Stylistic Analysis

Dr. Shaymaa Abid Abdulameer Kareem & Azhar Hassan Sallomi,

Department of English, College of Education for Human Sciences, University of Kerbala, Iraq

Ideology is a mental framework that is constructed, communicated, negotiated, and reproduced by means of language, including the transitivity process. As a typical grammatical phenomenon, the transitivity process is implied in four basic processes: relational, mental, material, and verbalization. The current paper detects the ideological implication of these four processes in Walker’s novel The Color Purple, which deals with African-American women’s persecution. The study aims to show how this concept is represented through the four categories of transitivity process. Additionally, it aims to reveal the ideological impact of the transitivity process in Walker’s novel. The extracts that clearly show men's oppression of women are analyzed using Simpson's (1993) transitivity model, which is included in Jeffries' (2010) framework. The researchers find out that Alice Walker uses the four categories of transitivity with different circulation to refer to black women’s oppression, which is implemented by even those who belong to the same race (black). Furthermore, mental and material processes are primarily used to deliver negative and contradictory ideologies that accompany women's percussion. These ideologies are man’s dominance and woman’s submission. Moreover, relational and verbalization processes are dedicated to offering a hint at women’s individuality and freedom. This in turn reflects Walker’s optimism and hope that women’s percussion will soon have no survival in their society.

Keywords: Transitivity, Alice Walker, Oppression, Ideology, Critical Stylistic

The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Eighth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.LLLD.IR), 14-15 February 2023, Ahwaz.