| Nowadays disastrous events are arousing more and more attention worldwide. Disasters, either natural catastrophes or artificial wars, exert profound influences on the human life. So disaster news is very important. Many researchers have made studies on English disaster news from different perspectives, however, systematic and comprehensive researches with regard to its linguistic features are very limited.This thesis attempts to analyze the linguistic characteristics of English disaster news by transitivity system in the ideational metafunction of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and to explain how these features serve to realize the functions of disaster news. In the research forty pieces of news ranging from May,2008 to August,2008 are chosen as the research corpus. Every sample text is classified in terms of the six processes and the active voices and passive voices of material processes are also written down.It is shown in the research that the material process is the dominant process in English disaster news, followed by verbal processes and relational processes. Existential processes, mental processes and behavioral processes are relatively seldom used. This means that English disaster news is aimed at describing disastrous events, providing sources of reporting and related background information so that people can be informed of the hard facts and respond to disasters quickly and properly. The mental status and behaviors of individuals are not the focus of English disaster news, therefore, mental and behavioral processes rarely appear in disaster news. Active voices account for the vast majority of the material processes, making the expression of information more effective. It is hoped that this thesis can help English learners know better about disaster news listening, speaking, reading and writing. |
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