On The Interpersonal Meaning Of VOA News Reports From Functional Perspective

One of the most important functions of language, from the point of view of functional linguistics, is for interpersonal purposes and language serves to interact with other people and to establish and maintain relations with them. By drawing insights primarily from functional grammar, this thesis uses the data collected to demonstrate how the interpersonal meaning is generally realized in VOA news reports. Based on the basic level of analysis in functional grammar---the clause, the author has first set up the theoretical framework by proposing a four-level framework, regarding the Present Tense, Intonation, Quote and Nominalization as the representative linguistic resources for conveying interpersonal meaning in VOA news on each level of discourse: the level below the clause, the clause level, the level above the clause and beyond the clause. Then the four linguistic devices are probed into one by one with the aim at examining how interpersonal meaning is achieved through these dimensions.It is found, firstly, that the present tense in VOA news reports has a double time framework:"report present"and"event present"; the proper use of the present tense and the combination of the present and the past tense can create a sense of being present-oriented among listeners of VOA news reports, and through the alteration of tenses between the present and the past, the reporter keeps shuttling between the past and the present so that some present specific attitudes are conveyed to the listeners through the past events. Secondly, the interpersonal meaning of intonation in VOA news reports is manifested in two aspects: giving prominence to the information focus and enhancing popularity. The tonicity system helps give prominence to information focus in a tone unit; the tonality system contributes to the division of different and multiple foci, and the tone system is conducive to the conveyance of attitudes of the news agency and attracting listeners to listen on. After that, the author talks about communication roles and points out that the dominant role played by the combination of being outsider-oriented and tone 1 and tone 4 can result in such awareness among listeners: the reporter is talking with us about something concerning the third party and all the information provided is about someone else, so that what is reported is easier for listeners of different values or cultural backgrounds to accept. Thirdly, the interpersonal meaning of quote in VOA mainly lies in the relation between quote and the enhancement of objectivity, and between quote and ideology & evaluation. The relation between quote and objectivity can be seen in four aspects: quote can promote the sense of"on the scene", improve the authoritativeness of the report itself, give the report a sense of human touch and reduce the risk of the report especially when opinions are shown; the relation between quote and ideology & evaluation is that quote is frequently applied to convey official attitudes, reflect the universality of certain opinions and advocate western values & lifestyles. Lastly, the author concludes that the nominalizations in VOA news reports are mainly transferred from verbs, adjectives, adverbs as well as nominal clauses; the three interpersonal meanings that nominalization mainly realizes are: objectivity, formality and fluency of information conveyance. Meanwhile the reasons why nominalization can realize each of those interpersonal meanings are discussed one by one.After due analyses and statistics based on functional grammar, it can be shown that the realization of the interpersonal meaning in VOA news reports is achieved through all the linguistic resources and devices from different levels of a discourse.