PROCESSES OF SAYING, BEHAVING AND EXISTING
VERBAL PROCESSES
Verbal processes are processes of ‘saying’ or ‘communicating’ and are encoded by such verbs as say, tell, repeat, ask, answer and report. They have one participant which is typically human, but not necessarily so (the Sayer) and a second essential participant, which is what is said or asked or reported (the Said). A Recipient is required with tell and may be present as a PC (e.g. to me) with other verbal processes:
The Sayer can be anything which puts out a communicative signal (that clock, Jill, our correspondent). What is said is realized by a nominal group or a nominal what clause (what she knew). As these examples show, verbal processes are intermediate between material and mental processes. From one point of view, communicating is a form of ‘doing’, and in fact the Sayer is usually agentive or made to appear agentive, as in the case of the clock. Like material processes, verbal processes readily admit the imperative (Say it again!) and the progressive (What is he saying?).
On the other hand, the action of communicating is close to cognitive processes such as thinking. Verbs of saying, telling and others can be followed by a clause that represents either the exact words said (direct report) or a reported version of the meaning (indirect report). Many speech-act verbs can function in this way, to report statements, questions, warnings, advice and other speech acts:
She said: ‘I won’t be late’ (quoted statement or promise)
She said she wouldn’t be late (reported statement or promise)
She said: ‘Don’t go to see that film’ (quoted directive: advice)
She told us not to go to see that film (reported directive: advice)
When however, the message is encapsulated as a speech act by means of a nominal – such as ‘apology’, ‘warning’ and many others – it is treated as a participant in the verbal process. The verb then may express the manner of saying:
The airport authorities issued an apology
Someone shouted a warning
Retired cop vows revenge (press headline)
Wish in I wish you a merry Christmas is clearly both mental and verbal. Talk and chat are verbal processes, which have an implicit reciprocal meaning (They talked/chatted [to each other]). Talk has no second participant except in the expressions talk sense/ nonsense. Speak is not implicitly reciprocal and can take a Range participant. (She speaks Spanish. He speaks five languages).
