摘 要

语言学习素材一直是一个比较热门的研究领域，语言的特点决定了它会反映作者的偏见，因此，新闻并非完全客观。以往的研究大多是分析特定领域新闻的语言选择或语法特征。本研究旨在从韩礼德的系统功能语言学的角度，运用四维分析法，从分类、及物性、转换和情态四个维度对经济学人2018年全年的新闻标题进行分析，揭示这四个维度对读者接受意义的影响。

研究发现，分类功能体现了人在认知和描述客观世界时在词语选择上会存在倾向性，及物性分析了新闻标题中的过程以及这些过程安排对读者关注点的导向作用，转换这部分解释了语法转换对于隐藏部分客观信息的作用，而情态则研究了情态动词及一些含有情态意义的词，由此得出结论新闻作者会运用单词和句子选择的细微差异，潜移默化地影响读者的判断。因此，新闻的客观性会受到作者和媒体的立场的影响。

本研究希望能提高双语学习者的语言意识，使他们能够注意到单词和句子选择上的细微差别，从而打破二语学习者对新闻报道的固有认知。

关键词：系统功能语言学；新闻标题；经济学人

Abstract

Language learning material, a factor of vital importance in language learning has always been in the spotlight. The characteristics of language determine that it will reflect the bias of the author. Therefore, the news is not entirely objective. Recent studies have focused on the language selection or grammatical features of news in specific fields. The purpose of the study is to analyze the English news headlines from the perspective of Halliday’s System-functional linguistics from the following four dimensions, classification, transitivity, transformation, and modality, thus, reveal how these four dimensions will influence the meaning the readers receive.

The analysis shows that classification in news headlines embodies people’s word selection in the cognition and description of the objective world, and transitivity part analyzes the process and concludes that the process arrangement in the headlines can guide the readers to change the focus of their reading. The transformation part explains that syntax conversion may hide part of the role of objective information. Finally, in the modality part, words contain the emotion of authors are studied. Thus, this paper concludes that the author will use the nuances of words and sentence selection, and subtly influence the reader’s judgment. Therefore, the objectivity of news can be influenced by the position of the author and the media.

This study is expected to improve the language awareness of the bilingual learners so that they can pay attention to the subtle differences in the choice of words and sentences，thus, break the implicit cognition that second language learners wholeheartedly believe in news reporting.

Key Words: Systemic-functional Linguistic；News headline；The Economist

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Research Purpose and Significance 2

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Halliday’s Theory of Metafunction 3

2.2 Studies on English News Headlines 4

3 Research Methodology 7

3.1 Data Collection 7

3.2 The Four-dimensional Analysis 8

4 Analysis of English News Headlines 9

4.1 Classification in News Headlines 9

4.2 Transitivity in News Headlines 11

4.3 Transformation in News Headlines 13

4.4 Modality in News Headlines 14

5 Conclusion 17

5.1 Summary of Findings 17

5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research 17

References 19

Acknowledgements 21

A Study on English News Headlines from the Perspective of Systemic-functional Linguistics——Take The Economist for Example

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

News language is a special form of language used in news reporting. Unlike other academic writing, the news reports need to convey as much information as possible vividly within a limited space. As the core clue of a news report, the news title is the most concentrated area of news content. The author’s choice of vocabulary and grammar in news headlines can reflect his attitude and affect public opinion to a certain extent. The characteristics of language determine that it will reflect the bias of the author. Therefore, the news is not entirely objective.

In this new era, the paper-based newspaper is gradually eliminating, people are more tended to obtain news information on the network platforms. Thus, many bilingual learners use online news as a “textbook” to learn English as well as build their world outlook. Although in recent years, as critical thinking mode has been paid more and more attention in education, language learners have begun to realize that public opinion shows the characteristic of tendentiousness. However, the lack of familiarity with the second language will influence the bilingual learners，leading them to be insensitive to the choice of words and sentences, and can only achieve simple meaning correspondence. This indirectly leads to the possibility that learners with low language sensitivity may use learning materials such as original English news as a “textbook” which has been expounded in the famous “Sapir–Whorf hypothesis” as “our language helps mold our way of thinking and, consequently, different languages may probably express speakers’ unique ways of understanding the world…the greater their structural difference is, the more diverse their understanding of the world will be.” (Hu, Jiang amp; Qian, 2017:143)

However, few studies have analyzed the subtle differences in the choices of vocabulary and the sentence pattern. The language awareness of the bilingual learners needs to be improved by analyzing the headlines to make them aware that the news headlines can have emotional biases and positions.

1.2 Research Purpose and Significance

The purpose of the study is to analyze the English news headlines with the theoretical framework of Halliday’s System-functional linguistics from the perspective of the following four dimensions, classification, transitivity, transformation, and modality, thus, reveal how these four dimensions will influence the meaning the readers receive.

This study is expected to improve the language awareness of bilingual learners so that they can pay attention to the subtle differences in the choice of words and sentences, thus, break the inherent cognition that second language learners fully believe in news reporting.

2 Literature Review

This part is intended to introduce the theories of Halliday’s theory of metafunction. It begins with an introduction of SFL (Systemic-Functional Linguistics). Then, the three metafunctions theory, including ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function, are discussed with previous research. In the last part of the literature review, an analysis of previous studies of the English news headlines indicates the importance of the current study.

2.1 Halliday’s Theory of Metafunction

Halliday’s SFL theory is one of the most influential linguistic theory in the 20th century. In his Book Language as Social Semiotic (1978), he put that language is “a system of systems”. The system and system are mutually exclusive. In expressing meaning, this exclusive choice is meaning, and the meaning of each choice in the system depends on the meaning of other choices in the system.

With the development of SFL, researchers pay more attention to solving specific problems, especially “focusing on how to solve specific language problems or language-related problems in specific contexts... the higher level the development of system function theory have reached, the more obvious its applicability shows, and the more detailed and specific the application is.” (Xin amp; Huang, 2010)

News headlines, as the core clues of news reports, are the most concentrated areas of both the news content and the emotional expression of the writers. The choice of words and the use of grammar in news headlines can reflect the author’s attitude and the effect of public opinion that he wants to achieve in writing this news. Furthermore, systemic grammar emphasizes the sociological features of the language and the importance of discourse observation, which is very suitable to analyze English news headlines—a highly social language.

As the process of using language can be seen as the use of social semiotic, in terms of organizing language, users will use the experience learnt before by selection to express what he or she wants to say. This selection process is reflected in metafunction, in other words, the integration of three strands of meaning. Metafunction, as a famous theory in SFL, includes three aspects: ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function. It deems that the nature of language is closely related to what we need of it and what it is supposed to do. (Halliday, 1970) The ideational function is a reflection of the processes of matter and things that exist in the objective world. In application, it is mainly reflected in transitivity, which takes the predicate verb as the center. Interpersonal function refers to the fact that language can be a representation that reveals the message of the speaker, be it gender, identity, and social status, which establish the bond between the speaker and the social relationship with others. As Banks (2010) explains, “The model of the Interpersonal metafunction, as it has been developed for English, is related to choice of mood, and distinguishes between a Mood (or Mood element) and a Residue, the Mood being made up of the Subject and the Finite.” (Banks, 2010:396) Besides, the textual function deals with how people organize information and the relationship between them. (Cheng amp; Si, 2017) The application of this function can make the language adapt to the context, so as to the smoothness and coherence of the text.

2.2 Studies on English News Headlines

The majority of existing studies have mainly focused on certain language choices and grammatical features of domain-specific news. For example, Ren (2015) paid attention to the verb used in news headlines, while Wang (2005) keep a watchful eye on Acronyms. Foreign research also tends to focus on small areas: Schubert (2015) focuses on unidentified speakers, Musolff (2015) on rhetoric, Merminod amp; Burger (2020) on Narrative of vicarious experience. Few studies analyzed news headlines over a period of time for specific publications.