"she had her hair cut"

GE: Unit 4 Question | Rita Balbi | January 27th, 2002

How would you consider "She had her hair cut" in terms of process, etc (GE unit 4)?

Thanks to whoever can help.

Rita Balbi

Re: GE only: she had her hair cut | Tom Bloor | January 27 th , 2002

Dear Rita,

Re: She had her hair cut.

I think this type of construction is neglected in the GE file and in Bloor & Bloor. It is a material process (someone cut hair) but there is a causative meaning involved. The subject 'she' is not the Actor since she did not do the cutting; the Actor is unspecified here. So what is the Participant role of the Subject "she"? In a sense, she causes the Process although she does not implement it herself. "She" could be said to instigate or initiate the process, and is therefore labelled Initiator.

Thus:

Material process

She: Initiator

her hair: Goal

(had) cut: Process.

In "She had her brother cut her hair"/ "She made her brother cut her hair" "She" is Initiator; "her brother" is Actor; "her hair" is Goal.   (I think that some people might argue for "her hair" being labeled as Range; the boundary between Goal and Range is very fuzzy indeed).

A similar thing occurs in data like this from the satirical nursery rhyme "The Grand Old Duke of York":

"He marched them up to the top of the hill"

where the Complement "them" (the soldiers) is Actor (they actually do the marching), and "he" (the Grand Old Duke of York) is Initiator. (roughly = He caused them to march up to the top of the hill).

Halliday goes into some intricate discussion of related issues in IFG 5.8 but it is heavy going and leads into 'another interpretation" of transitivity and voice: namely, ergativity. This was omitted from the module because it adds very considerably to the workload and is too tall an order, especially for a single module. See also Martin et al (1997). Both books mention other participants such as Assigner and Attributor (in relational processes). Bear in mind that this is still a research area and so there is scope for some doubt and disagreement.

I hope that this helps

Tom Bloor

 

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