Transitivity Patterns in Selected Excerpts from Amma Darko’s Beyond The Horizon and Dapo Adeleke’s Thrills and Trials

Abstract

In Systemic Functional Linguistics, Halliday (1971) has identified three metafunctions language is structured to make. These are interpersonal, experiential and textual metafunction. This article explores the experiential metafunction in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon (1991) and Dapo Adeleke’s Thrills and Trials (2006). The exploration of the experiential metafunction in the two novels aims to uncover the worldview or elusive mind-set of the authors, i.e., to unveil how they represent reality via language. The paper attempts to show the link between language and literature on the one hand, as well as fiction and reality, on the other. The methodology used in this research work is based on sampling and the quantitative and qualitative approaches have been the plinth of the study. The analysis and interpretation of the extracts show that throughout their novels, Amma Darko and Dapo Adeleke have raised some serious problems of their societies.