Transitivity system in the discourse of corruption in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The beautyful ones are not yet born

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discover the transitivity system in the discourse of corruption in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Textual data was gotten by purposively selecting clauses that purport corruption from different pages in the novel. Clauses that are related in theme and are within the same pages were struck into the same excerpt for ease in analysis, while clauses that are not related in terms of theme, e.g., the same characters being discussed, are put apart in different excerpts from 1 to 11. Halliday’s transitivity theory forms the theoretical framework used for this study. The clauses were labeled into their transitivity components and further analysed, quantitatively, qualitatively, and statistically. From the result gotten, it was revealed that the material process ranked highest, with 68% indicating that in the discourse of corruption a lot of doings and physical activities go on with the participants, actors (27%), searching for their
Okenmuo & Ezenwa-Ohaeto Preorcjah Vol. 10, 2025
83 Copyright @ Ezenwa-Ohaeto Resource Centre, Awka, Nigeria
corrupt goals (33%). The material process was followed by the mental and relational processes with 11.2%, respectively, revealing that psychological and relational activities also transpire with the participants, the sensors, the carriers, etc. The verbal process (5%) ranks third, indicating that little talk is done by the participants, perhaps in order not to reveal much of their corrupt practices. Very little of behavioural and existential activities happen in the discourse, as both processes rank fourth and fifth with 2.5% and 1.2%), respectively. Again, all the circumstantial components appeared in the discourse of corruption in the text, showing a rich description of the concept in the text.