Analysis of Transitivity Processes in the Confessional Statements of Suspects in Selected Police Case Files in Taraba State, Nigeria

This study analyses transitivity processes in the confessional statements of suspects in selected police case files in Taraba State, Nigeria. Previous studies on transitivity processes have explored transitivity system in 2018 State of the Union address by president Donald Trump; transitivity system in CNN Online News and transitivity systemin Sri Mulyani speech; but not much scholarship have been done on transitivity processes in the confessional statements of suspects. This study examines transitivity processes in the confessional statements of suspects in selected police case files in Taraba State, Nigeria.The confessional statements of suspects extracted from the police case files in Divisional Police Headquarters Jalingo, Bali, Takum and Area Command Headquarters Jalingo, serve as primary data. The study adopted Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar as its theoretical framework and employed qualitative descriptive and quantitative designs to analyse its data. The result of the analysis revealed that the suspects deployed transitivity processes, namely; material, mental relational, behavioural, verbal and existential processes in their confessional statements. The dominant transitivity processes the suspects deployed in their confessional statements are material processes; they occurred with a frequency of 8 or 34.78%. The second dominant transitivity processes the suspects deployed in their confessional statements are relational and verbal processes; they occurred with a frequency of 4 or 17.39% each. The third predominant transitivity processes the suspects employed in their confessional statements are mental and behavioural processes; they transpired with a frequency of 3 or 13.04% each. The fourth predominant transitivity process the accused persons utilised in their confessional statements is existential process, it materialised with a frequency of 1or 4.35%. The study impact positively on the readers generally as it provides a stable means of communication for both Police and Civilians.

Keywords: Confessional Statement Transitivity Process Suspect Police Case File Taraba State

Author

• Samaila Yakubu
  Department of English and Literary Studies,
  Faculty of Humanities, Federal University,
  Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria.
  samaila.yakubu@fuwukari.edu.ng