An Analysis Of Interpersonal Grammatical Metaphor In VOA Editorials

VOA editorial reflects the views of the United States government and it is a political tool for external propaganda.It expresses the viewpoint and explains the thoughts through the report on major news events,thus affecting the social behaviors of the audiences.As English learners,it is necessary to understand and identify the special interpersonal meaning as well as to keep the habit of independent thinking.Therefore,the VOA editorials are worth studying.Interpersonal function is realized when people take discourse to build interpersonal relationship and express their opinions or change others' views.Interpersonal grammatical metaphor is an essential means to realize interpersonal meaning and it plays an important role in English editorial.Therefore,this paper tries to analyze the VOA editorials from the perspective of interpersonal grammatical metaphor.And revealing the interpersonal meaning in VOA editorials is of great significance in the following aspects: firstly,it can help readers understand and interpret VOA editorials;secondly,it is good for readers to grasp the intentions and political purposes in VOA editorials;thirdly,it can provide a better suggestion for VOA editorials writing and teaching.Besides,it can provide references and aids for English learners to produce persuasive writing.The present study takes the interpersonal grammatical metaphor to analyze the forty-five VOA editorials which are selected randomly from the official website of VOA with the qualitative research methods and draw the following conclusions: 1)In VOA editorials,the number of metaphor of mood is larger than the metaphor of modality because the latter is of great significance for the government to show its firm political stand and establish its authority;2)Interpersonal grammatical metaphors create the interaction between the editors and listeners and convey the views implicitly.They imply the diplomatic strategy of the United States government and play an important role in influencing audiences' awareness and behaviors.Therefore,the purpose of this paper is to analyze the true intentions and purposes of the American government which are implied in the VOA editorials with the interpersonal grammatical metaphor and help readers improve their ability of news appreciation.