Non-arbitrariness of Language——an Interpretation from the Transitivity System

Taking the functional stance, Systemic Functional Linguistics supports the functional assertion of the nonarbitrary relationship between language form and meaning. It is at this nonarbitrary stance that Halliday built his grammar system. This paper starts from the construction of ideational (meaning) base in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and interprets from the transitivity system the nonarbitrariness both of language as a theory about experience and in language as a stratified social semiotic system.