Abstract:
The present study aimed to explore the relationship between Ghanaian
newspaper editorials and the passive voice. Using six hundred (600) editorial
articles, three hundred (300) each from the Ghanaian Times and the Daily
Graphic, the study sought to ascertain the register features such as field, mode,
participants and how they relate to one another, the communicative purpose
and passive constructions employed in the above named newspapers, thereby
establishing the link between the context and the passive voice. The study
employed Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as a theoretical framework
and the Register perspectives of Halliday (1978) and Biber and Conrad (2009)
as an analytical tool. The study indicated that the context of Ghanaian
newspaper editorials determines the grammatical choices made to disseminate
significant information to the citizenry of Ghana and this links the
relationships among participants in conjunction with the situation of the
register. The study showed that editors inform citizens about issues through
register variables such as field, mode, tenor, setting, production circumstance
and communicative purpose. The study also revealed three kinds of passives:
agentive (passives with explicit agentive phrase and passives with implicit
agentive phrase), non-agentive (passives without agents) and quasi (passives
which resemble agentive passives). The findings have implications for SFL,
the Register theory, Grammar and the passive voice. Thus, the choice of the
passive voice creates a formal environment for the Ghanaian newspaper
editorials.
