In this monograph I have attempted to present some aspects of a Systemic Functional description of transitivity in Mandarin Chinese. I have described in detail two major clause types: material and relational. Fawcett’s model provides useful tools for classifying the range of distinct sub-types of these macro-types. This classification is based on the configuration of roles. We have dispensed with traditional descriptive terms such as middle, transitive, intransitive etc., replacing them with direct descriptive labels according to their role-configurations. This approach also provides us with insights into the semantic properties of each clause type.