Verbal processes in student academic writing in Spanish from a systemic functional perspective

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a systemic functional analysis of verbal processes in student texts. This work is part of an on-going research project developed at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The paper is based on literature texts belonging to two genres: question-answer and essay. First, I define the group of verbal processes and determine their frequency. Then I explore the context of their use and identify the participants in the verbal clauses. Finally, I compare the two groups of texts according to their verbal process characteristics.