A transitivity analysis of Adichie’s Zikora and Kafka’s A report to an academy

Abstract

The research recognises that prose fiction forms a significant source of data for stylistic investigations. The study aims to examine transitivity features in Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘Zikora’ and‘ A Report to an Academy’ by Franz Kafka. The research recognises that the short stories have not attracted much linguistic research interest over the years. In doing so, it applies Systemic Functional Linguistics by Halliday as an analytical tool to explore 20 clauses with reference to system networks in general and the transitive system in particular. The study first identified the independent clauses in the text. Subsequently, it randomly chose 20 clauses for the analysis of transitivity patterns. The analysis pays attention to participants, process, and circumstances in the clauses. The research discovered that the material process is more frequent than other process types in Adichie’s ‘Zikora’, with an equal number of material and mental processes in Kafka’s A Report to an Academy. This choice helped the former in presenting actions of the characters rather than giving a mere narration about their mental preferences, while the latter created a balance between doing and mentalising.