Verbal processes

1	They have arrived	4	There's a bus stop at the corner	7	They remembered meeting me
2	I thought he was a bit dim	5	She sneezed	8	The bridge collapsed
3	She said goodbye	6	I'm the boss	9	The office lies on the left

As you can see, the categories can each be subdivided into two areas.  We'll take them one by one.

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doing verbs

In less strict (and, arguably, accurate) analyses, these are called action verbs.  That's right as far as it goes but it doesn't go very far.

MATERIAL processes

These include verbs such as the ones in these examples:
    the machine works well
    the string broke
    the bomb exploded
    the house fell down
They are to do with what happens in the external, material world of our experience.

BEHAVIOURAL processes

These include verbs such as the ones in these examples:
    they imagined being on TV
    she sang in church
    I sneezed constantly
    I worried half to death
These verbs refer to psychological or physical behaviour.

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thinking, feeling, saying verbs (projecting verbs)

MENTAL processes

These include verbs such as the ones in these examples:
    I enjoyed the film
    she noticed his nervousness
    I remembered his face
    they hated the place
The verbs refer to thinking, wanting, perceiving and emoting.

VERBAL processes

These include verbs such as the ones in these examples:
    he told me what to do
    I said I was angry
    they explained the problem
    they asked to be allowed to go
These verbs refer to putting thoughts (mental processes) into words.

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being verbs

EXISTENTIAL processes

These include verbs such as the ones in these examples:
    there are no cigarettes left
    there were some potatoes in the cupboard
    there's nothing to be said
    unicorns don't exist
    is there anything more to say?
These verbs almost always come with the word 'there' and refer to whether something exists or not (hence the name)

RELATIONAL processes

These include verbs such as the ones in these examples:
    the office is down the hall
    this tastes of garlic
    it feels rough
    we were in Paris
These verbs express the relationship between two entities (called participants, in the trade) and refer to something's attributes (where, when etc.) and to its identity, either of a class:
    It's a language book
or specifically:
    It's called "How to teach"
In fact, the process is often subdivided in relational attributive and relational identifying processes.  The first refers to what something is like and the second to what, when or where something is.
A more traditional view is to analyse the verbs here as copulae.

Here's a small cut-out-and-keep summary of the 6 main types of verbal process with examples of each.

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Now we can return to our initial examples and be a little more precise.

Look again at the examples and see if you can identify which is which in each category:

material and behavioural processes	projecting (mental and verbal) processes	existential and relational processes
They have arrived	I thought he was a bit dim	There's a bus stop at the corner
She sneezed	She said goodbye	I'm the boss
The bridge collapsed	They remembered meeting me	The office lies on the left

Click here when you have done that.

So what?

How does this way of looking at verbs help me to teach them and help my learners to use them and understand them?

1. It makes it easier for learners to find out how to use verbs especially in the area of transitivity and qualification.  It also helps in a number of other areas.  You could help them notice, e.g., that MENTAL process verbs are often followed by the -ing form, e.g.:
       I considered going home
       They disliked doing the work
   etc.
   Other areas are also made easier to grasp by this categorisation:
   1. Stative vs. dynamic uses:
      believe is a MENTAL process so is unlikely to be used in the progressive but MATERIAL and BEHAVIOURAL processes are often used that way.
      hence, we generally prefer
          I believe he's coming
          She understands my point of view
      etc. to
          *I am believing he's coming
          *She is understanding my point of view
      because these examples refer to MENTAL processes.
      However, we do use progressive aspect forms with BEHAVIOURAL and MATERIAL processes as in:
          The ladder is shaking
          He's driving tomorrow
          We are running out of beer
      especially if we are concerned to emphasise the continuous or progressive nature of the event or action.
      If a verb which is normally a mental process verb, such as feel or think is used behaviourally, it can be used in a progressive form so we have contrasts, for example, between:
          I feel that's a mistake (mental process)
          I'm feeling a bit sick (behavioural process)
          I think that's the man (mental process)
          I'm thinking about going to America (behavioural process)
   2. VERBAL processes can be better understood as making the internal MENTAL processes external in some way.  This helps with the natural production of indirect speech forms.
      For example,
          I want her to come (a mental process)
      can be externalised as
          I tried to persuade her to come (a verbal process)
   3. Verbs which vary their meaning can be more easily understood with a grasp of process types:
          He felt the surface of the carving (BEHAVIOURAL)
          He felt ill (BEHAVIOURAL)
          He felt the play was very poor (MENTAL)
      In these examples, you will see that the last is the only one which cannot be used dynamically so:
          *He was feeling the play was very poor
      is not available because the verb is a mental process.
2. It is especially important for anyone who is taking a genre approach to teaching.  If you have done the guide to genre and/or the guide to circumstances, both linked below, this will be familiar territory.
   Once we have a grasp of the concept of verbs as processes, we can begin to predict the sorts of ones we will need to understand and deploy to match the text type we are writing, speaking, hearing or reading.  Here are some examples:
   1. In a text whose purpose is a narrative, such as telling an anecdote, we need to deploy and understand MATERIAL:
          the bus crashed
      BEHAVIOURAL:
          the passengers screamed
      and VERBAL:
          the police officer suggested
      processes because texts of this sort are used to describe what happened, what people did and what they said about it.
   2. In a text whose purpose is a to explain a procedure, such as a recipe or experiment, MATERIAL and BEHAVIOURAL processes will again be important
          heat the water
          the product of the reaction combines with ...
      but we also need RELATIONAL ATTRIBUTIVE processes
          the mix is placed in a furnace
          the beans are flavoured with salt and garlic.
      We are unlikely to deploy VERBAL or MENTAL processes in text types like this because what people say or think is not relevant.  In fact, the use of verbal or mental process verbs is often out of place and stylistically inappropriate in such texts where e.g.:
          We thought the reaction was proceeding quickly
      would be a jarring insertion.
   3. In a text whose purpose is a discussion (arguing both sides of an issue), such as an academic essay, processes are very important.  They are often:
      MATERIAL:
          cars produce pollutants
      EXISTENTIAL:
          there is an increasing number of cars on our roads
      and RELATIONAL:
          many families now have two or more cars.
      However, if the text is an exposition (arguing a point of view) then MENTAL and BEHAVIOURAL process verbs will be needed:
          I believe
          I often notice
      etc.
      If there is a need to focus on people in the text, we will deploy BEHAVIOURAL:
          people use cars too often to get to work
      and MENTAL:
          people do not understand how damaging ...
      process verbs.

The second point is important because instead of simply practising producing or understanding the text types, we can prepare our learners by teaching them how to use the various verb types (see point 1).
There's little point in asking learners to produce narrative until they have at least some grasp of how to use MATERIAL and BEHAVIOURAL verbal processes.
You can't properly understand a discussion or appreciate the writer's point of view unless you can decode the language that betrays MENTAL process rather than objective MATERIAL process.