Ideological Function of Syntactic Transformations in Media Discourse

Abstract

The paper deals with the analysis of syntactic transformations – passivization and nominalization regarding their ideological use. Within the ideological discourse analysis, we want to show how syntactic transformations can be used for manipulative purposes. First of all, we describe the changes within sentences through their transformation from deep into surface structure, e.g. the ellipsis of agent, claiming that sentences do not keep the same meaning in their deep and surface structure. Image schemas conditioned by different perspectives of the given situation enable such manipulations and can possibly explain the ideological use of syntactic transformations.