Let the Circumstance Speak: A Focus on the Circumstance in a Register Study

Abstract

The place of the Circumstance in Systemic Functional Grammar’s transitivity system has always been considered peripheral due to its optional status in traditional grammar and as such several transitivity studies unfortunately ignore the Circumstance as a tool of analysis. This study argues for and demonstrates the use of the Circumstance as a major tool of analysis in linguistic studies. This is achieved by exploring the Circumstance in a register analysis of newspaper editorials. The data for the study consist of four-month political newspaper editorials selected from state and private newspapers in Ghana. The study found Location is the predominant Circumstance and the Circumstance of Place is the dominant kind of Location in the political newspaper editorials. The Location performs the function of emphasizing the context of political activities and struggles in the texts. Again, most Location Circumstances are placed in the clause-final positions and are often expressed by prepositional groups. These findings are instructive because in their status as optional elements, the choices of particular Circumstances should be deemed intentional and purposeful. The study concludes with two important observations: as registers, political newspaper editorials are characterized by the Circumstance of Location, and secondly, the Circumstances can serve as a viable, insightful focus of linguistic analysis of texts.