| Abstract [eng] |
Within the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics, an attempt is made to analyze the semantic roles of the words related to coffee. The semantic roles are assigned to nominal phrases according to the relation they hold with the process (verb). In the present research the notion of transitivity is seen as enabling us to refer to events that realize the process (i.e. the verb) with its associated participants (i.e. semantic roles). Thus the aim of the present research is twofold: to analyze the functional potential of the words related to coffee and what semantic roles they perform embedded in the processes. The source of data used in this investigation is online reviews related to coffee. The study is based on a subcorpus of randomly collected reviews from the following websites: http:// www.melbournecoffeereview.com/, http://www.bannisterdowns.com.au/dairylounge.htm, http://www.beanhunter.com/cafes/review/cartel-breakwater. The research proved that the content of the communication is a situation, which does not refer directly to an extralinguistic reality which exists in the real world, but rather to the speaker’s conceptualization of it. The components of this conceptualization of reality are semantic functions, or roles: processes, participants and circumstances. The transitivity structure of a clause can be seen to opt for a process type (material, mental, verbal, and relational). The process type specifies the action, event or relationship between embedded participants or semantic roles that may be performed by the words related to coffee (Agent, Affected, Effected, Beneficiery, Senser, Phenomenon, Sayer, Verbiage, Carrier, and Attribute). To sum up, the transitivity patterns (or structures on the level of clause) represent the encoding of experiential meanings about the surrounding world and our experience about how we perceive what is going on. |
