Abstract: The use of passive voice in some English writing styles is very extensive, especially in English news. Quite a number of domestic and foreign scholars did many researches on the function of the passive voice in English news, but many of them stay on the word and single sentence level, therefore, this article will analyze the collected 36 news systematically from the perspective of metafunction of language.

This article will discuss the following questions: 1) how to analyze the structure of the passive voice from the perspective of language metafunction in English news; 2) how to analyze of the function of the passive voice from the perspective of language metafunction in English news. The transitivity in ideational function shows how passive voice is made and how to judge if it is passive voice or not. The mood system in interpersonal function shows how the passive voice creates the interpersonal meaning by changing the structure of the sentence. And the theme-rheme structure in textual function shows that how the passive voice help build the coherence between words and sentences.And from the perspective of ideational function, the passive voice can help the news reporter expound objective truth, at the same time it can also help the reporters to express personal opinions and attitudes; From the interpersonal function of language, passive voice can help the report meets the language of the cooperative principle; From textual function of language, the passive voice has six functions: theme-stressing function, theme-introducing function, theme-transferring function, focus-protruding function, focus contrasting function and cohesion-developing function. 

Through the analysis above, the author proves that the metafunction can be used to analyze the passive voice in English news, and it is effective.

Keywords: passive voice; English news; metafunction

Contents

摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-3

2.1 Situation of Passive Voice Using in English News-3

2.2 The Structure of Passive Voice from the Metafunction Perspective-3

2.2.1 Ideational Function-4

2.2.2 Interpersonal Function-4

2.2.3 Textual Function-4

2.3 The Function of The Passive Voice-5

2.3.1 Ideational Function-5

2.3.2 Interpersonal Function-5

2.3.3 Textual Function-9

3.The Function of Passive Voice in English News-11

3.1 The Metafunction of Language-11

3.1.1 Ideational Function-11

3.1.2 Interpersonal function-11

3.1.3 Textual Function-12

3.2 The use of passive voice in English News-13

3.3 The Function of Passive Voice in English News-14

3.3.1 Ideational Function-14

3.3.2Interpersonal Function-15

3.3.3Textual Function-16

4. Conclusion-24

5.Reference-26