AN ANALYSIS OF PROCESS TYPES IN SELECTED DAILY TRUST NEWSPAPER HEADLINES ON BANDITRY IN NIGERIA.

Abstract

This paper investigates the application of Halliday’s theory of
transitivity in the representation of banditry in the Daily Trust
Newspaper headlines. The research aims to identify the types of
processes found in the headlines, the most dominant process as well
as how the transitivity processes employed have added to the overall
meaning of the headlines. Systemic Functional Linguistics was
employed as a framework for its analysis. It identifies ideational
meanings realised by processes, participants, and circumstance. Data
was collected from 15 Daily Trust Newspaper headlines between the
periods of 2022 to 2023. Data collected were divided based on the
process type they entail. The dominant process was identified based
on occurrence and then the processes employed were examined to
show how they have added to the overall meaning of the headlines.
The findings show that all the process types were identified. It also
reveals that material processes dominate the other processes and also
indicates that the whole process of banditry is concerned with actions
and events. The analysis reveals that the transitivity processes
employed have contributed to the construction of negative image of
bandits. For example, in the headlines where bandits are the Actor,
they are always the doer of violent and chaotic acts and causes
insecurity and challenges to their victims.