Linguistic Structures and Their Reflection of Reality Conception in a Literary Text

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the language used by the main characters (Helena Popova and Grigori Smirnov) in the one- act play ‘THE BOOR’ written by Anton Chekhov through applying the theory of transitivity which is part of Halliday’s systemic functional grammar. The application of transitivity helps analyzing people’s perception of the world and its effect on the language they use and their choice of certain lexicogrammatical structures. Halliday states that ‘language enables human beings to build a mental picture of reality, to make sense of what goes on around them and inside them’ (1994:106).