A Study of Surah Al-Mutaffifin from the Perspective of Halliday's Ideational Metafunction

Halliday's functional grammar is one of the well-known theories within functional linguistics that beyond the level of syntax cares about the context and the formation of the language of the text. It consists of three ideological, interpersonal, and textual metafuctions that make the basis of functional linguistics. Ideational metafunction which is the result of experience from the outside world, has three components of process, participants, and peripheral elements. Among these three components, process which is embodied as verb of the sentence has a central and focal role and is divided into two main and secondary categories. The present descriptive-analytical and statistical research investigated the ideational metafunction in Surah Al-Mutaffafin aiming to expose the hidden layers of the ayahs and to shed light on the concepts of the surah more deeply. The results show that the dominant process in the mentioned surah belongs to two material processes (30%) and relational processes (28%) and this finding is in harmony with the concepts of the surah. Additionally, given their material and descriptive nature, these two processes are the best tools to realize such concepts. The behavioral process (17%) is next in terms of frequency and it has been used to reflect the behavior of criminals and believers. Two verbal (13%) and mental (11%) processes, although having a lower frequency than other types of processes, play a prominent role in completing the intended meanings of the surah.