Lai Yee Win (2021) examined the transitivity systems of English and Myanmar using Halliday’s transitivity theory and He’s (2022) model of the Chinese transitivity system. This study, grounded in the Systemic Functional perspective, aimed to aid English and Myanmar language learners by exploring the meaning potential of both languages to facilitate effective mutual communication. The research highlights how cognition, thinking, and cultural influences shape the unique features of English and Myanmar transitivity systems. For English, its distinctive characteristics stem from Roman culture, analytic thinking, and cognitive principles like subject salience and figure-to-background cognition. In contrast, Myanmar’s unique features are rooted in Buddhist culture, holistic and spatial thinking, and cognitive patterns like background-to-figure cognition and the natural sequence principle. These cognitive, cultural, and thinking modes contribute to the differences in the configuration and realization of transitivity elements between the two languages. The study underscores the importance of understanding these influences to bridge linguistic and cultural gaps, enhance language learning, and promote smoother communication. By exploring the motivations behind the similarities and differences in English and Myanmar transitivity systems, this research provides valuable insights into the interplay of language, cognition, and culture. It also paves the way for further comparative studies of Myanmar and other languages, deepening the understanding of linguistic systems across cultural contexts.
Lai Yee Win (Thu,) studied this question.