Verbal process. These are processes of saying, as in 'What did you say? – I said it’s noisy here'. But ʻsayingʼ has to be interpreted in a rather broad sense; it covers any kind of symbolic exchange of meaning, like 'the notice tells you to keep quiet', or 'my watch says it’s half past ten' [...] The Sayer can be anything that puts out a signal, like 'the notice' or 'my watch'; cf. 'the light' in 'the light says stop', 'the guidebook' in 'the guidebook tells you where everything is'. Such entities could not figure naturally as Senser in a mental process: 'my watch thinks it’s half past ten' is decidedly incongrous. But 'my watch says it’s half past ten' calls for no comment at all; a Sayer can just as readily be 'it' as 'he' or 'she'. For this reason verbal processes might more appropriately be called ʻsymbolicʼ processes. The verbalized clause may be either (a) a proposition, as in ('he told me) it was Tuesday', ('she asked me) whether it was Tuesday', ʻwhy are you late?ʼ ('he demanded'); or (b) a proposal, as in ('she told him) to mend his ways', ('he promised) to go home'. The proposal may be expressed alternatively by a modulated declarative clause [...] ('she told him) that he should / must mend his ways', ('he promised her) that he would go home'.
- Halliday (1985), Pag. 129-130