The use of the passive voice in selected native and non-native English editorials : a corpus based study

Abstract EN

This research is a corpus-based study of the use of the passive voice in the depiction of the Syrian and Palestinian conflict in The New York Times and Al-Ahram weekly editorials in 2015.

The data are analyzed quantitatively using Clusters/N Grams tool in the Antconc 3.4.4Software to find out the rates and distributions of the passive sentences in both newspapers.

Afterwards, explanations and clarifications of these results are completed qualitatively using the framework of the socio-cognitive approach of Van Dijk (2000).

Special consideration is devoted to how the use of the passive voice reveals hidden ideologies in the examination of the Middle East Politics.