Transitivity in the Speeches of Malcolm X: A Message to the Grassroots as an Example

This study aims to identify the process types used in the speeches of Malcolm X. The speech that is chosen is entitled A Message to the Grassroots. In order to achieve this objective, I relied on Transitivity as explained in Halliday and Matthiessen (2004). Transitivity involves six process types (e.g. material process). The questions that this article attempts to answer are: (1) did Malcolm rely on all or some of the six process types?, (2) have they served the purpose? and (3) which process type is most frequent in the speech? The results show that all process types are attested in Malcolm X’s speech. It turns out that material process (41.61%) is the most frequent whereas existential (2.07%) and behavioral (1.15%)) are the least frequent. Since Malcolm did not advocate peaceful revolutions, he was inclined to use material process, which is associated with action and happening. Thus material process is proven to be compatible with his militant ideology and his criticism of peaceful revolutions. As for relational and mental processes, they were needed because he aimed at persuading his audience to adopt his viewpoint concerning subservient and obedient black civil rights leaders.