RELATIONAL PROCESSES OF BEING AND BECOMING
TYPES OF BEING
Relational processes express the concept of being in a broad sense. They answer the questions ‘Who or what, where/when or whose is some entity, or What is some entity like?’ In other words, relational processes cover various ways of being: being something, being in some place/at some time, or in a relation of possession, as illustrated here:
1 Mont Blanc is a (high) mountain. (an instance of a type)
2 Mont Blanc is popular with climbers. (attribution)
3 Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in western Europe. (identification)
4 Mont Blanc is in the Alps. (circumstance: location)
5 Those gloves are yours. (possession)
There are two main patterns, the attributive as in 1, 2, 4 and 5 and the identifying, as in 3. We shall take a look at each in turn.
