Functional perspective of verbal processes in the writing in Spanish of students of Literature and History

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a systemic functional analysis of verbal processes in student texts. This work forms part of the on-going research project developed at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The present analysis is based on literature and history texts belonging to two genres: question-answer and essay. First, a group of verbal processes is defined and their frequency is determined; then the context of their use is explored and the participants in the verbal clauses are identified. Finally, the two areas and the two genres under analysis are compared according to their verbal process characteristics present in each of them.