A FUNCTIONAL APPROACH OF MENTAL CLAUSES

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss some problems that can appear in identifying mental
clauses from a systemic functional point of view. According to systemic functional grammar,
there are four major process types within the systemic functional framework: material,
mental, verbal and relational which constitute a particular theory of ‘space’. Most of these
major process types are clear, but there are also some other cases which cannot be identified
so easily, the so-called ‘intermediate’ cases which are difficult to classify.