A Research On The Stylistic Features Of Business News Reporting Based On Systemic-Functional Grammar

Nowadays news is becoming more and more indispensable to people's life. News reporting is a more stable written form which is familiar to ordinary people. It can indicate the latest change of language and also create the new form of language.Journalistic English cannot be regarded as a sole register, but a blend of register. According to the statistics of Yang Xueyan, the researchers illustrate 38 stylistic markers of journalistic English in their 8 books concerning stylistic features. However, there are only 12 stylistic markers being mentioned by half of the researchers; 8 stylistic features are mentioned by several researchers and 4 pair stylistic markers are in contradiction. As a result, we had better choose a specific sub-variety in order to find more accurate stylistic features. This thesis is a practical application of Systemic- Functional Grammar theory in the understanding to business news reporting. Based on Halliday's Systemic- Functional Grammar, the thesis makes an analysis of business news reporting and tries to find out its specific lexico-grammatical features and how the lexico-grammatical features realize its context of situation. 20 pieces of business news reporting have been collected from The Financial Times and The China Daily to carry out the research work. The thesis first introduces the theoretical basis on which the following analysis and discussion are based, including three metafunctions--- the ideational function, the interpersonal function, and the textual function and the theory of register. Then the thesis makes a close analysis of the twenty- authentic English business news reporting in the transitivity system, the mood system, and the theme system.The significance of the study is to extend the field of journalistic English stylistic features from Systemic-Functional approach, which may broaden the relevant theoretic studies through application. Apart from that, for the practical purpose, some illumination can also be achieved in teaching practical journalistic writing. It is hoped that the present study will contribute to the better understanding of business language and the design and practice of ESP courses.