| The passive voice, being a significant linguistic resource, has been researched by abundant linguists from the formalistic perspective for long. Only in recent decades, a new functional approach has been adopted in the analysis of the passive voice. These two types of comprehension are not incompatible, and to some extent, both ways are necessary for a systematical and comprehensive study of the passive voice.The Constitution of the United States (1787) (hereinafter referred to as the Constitution) is the first as well as the most enduring statute constitution in the contemporary world. Since its formulation in 1787, more than two hundred years have passed, during which time the whole world, the United States included, has changed dramatically, both politically and economically, yet as to the change of the Constitution, only twenty-seven amendments are added to it, except for which the Constitution is kept intact. And lots of scholars attempt to figure out the reasons for its stability from the perspective of jurisprudence. However, the language use in the Constitution itself also adds to its endurance, which is always taken for granted.In accordance with the author's incomplete statistics, the Constitution maintains a large portion of instances of the passive voice worth studying. To some degree, the high frequency of the employment of the passive voice in the Constitution is closely related to the stylistic features of the Constitution. Meanwhile, the passive voice manifests some specific form characteristics when employed in the Constitution, which is also noteworthy. Whilst the core of this thesis lies in the analysis of the textual metafunctions of the passive voice in the Constitution on the basis of the theory of textual metafunctions—one of the three metafunctions proposed by Halliday in his functional grammar system. And Liu Chao (2004) proposes that six textual metafunctions are involved in the passive voice employed in the English journalistic register, namely, theme-stressing function, theme-introducing function, theme-transferring function, focus-protruding function, focus-contrasting function and cohesion-developing function. Through analysis of a number of excerpted examples from the Constitution, it is seen that the passive voice in the Constitution also performs the six textual metafunctions, without which the Constitution would be much looser both structurally and semantically. Moreover, though the six textual metafunctions are illustrated respectively, the passive voice can contain different types of textual metafunctions simultaneously.This thesis is made up of six chapters. Chapter one introduces the rationale, the purpose, the methodology as well as the outline of the study. Chapter two is the literature review of the thesis, in which the previous studies on the passive voice and the Constitution are presented. Chapter three is the theoretical foundation of the study, which is mainly based on the theory of textual metafunctions—one of the three metafunctions proposed by Halliday in his functional grammar system. Chapter four analyzes the stylistic characteristics of the Constitution as well as the form characteristics of the passive voice in the Constitution so as to demonstrate the intensive relationship between the passive voice and the Constitution. Chapter five, as the main part of the thesis, elaborates on investigating the textual metafunctions of the passive voice in the Constitution. While chapter six draws a natural conclusion of the study and provides some suggestions for further researches.The analysis of the passive voice in the Constitution is set as an example to signify the importance of the passive voice in the construction of various legal documents. The comprehending abilities of legal readers as well as the writing skills of legal writers can be enhanced if they take advantage of the passive voice appropriately. In addition, some implications for the teaching of the passive voice are given in the study. |
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