syntax. Other approaches are taken by traditional stylisticians. Political speech has also been studied from the perspective of critical linguistics. It has been found that media discourse, such as political speeches, has rich ideological meanings.
English political speech also caught many Chinese scholars’ attention. In recent years, the presidential speeches are analyzed by different scholars with different methods. Many qualitative and contrastive studies have been carried out with data of inaugural speeches and public speeches of American Presidents, which have been analyzed with theories of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar or Critical Discourse Analysis.
Based on theories of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar, this paper intends to provide some clues for the analysis on the realization of interpersonal function in political speeches.
Ⅱ. Theoretical Framework and Methodology
In this chapter, the theoretical framework is explained and the methodology of this study is represented.
Theoretical Framework
In Halliday’s view, interpersonal function is realized through mood and modality. Other scholars put forward that other lexical resources such as personal pronouns can also realize interpersonal function.
2.1.1 Mood
Functional linguists regard mood as a major method to realize interpersonal meanings. Halliday (1994) points out that when speaking, the speaker adopts himself a particular speech role, and assigns to the hearer another role which he wishes him to adopt. The most fundamental types of speech roles are giving and demanding a commodity of some kind. Giving means “inviting to receive” and demanding means “inviting to
give”. The commodity that the speaker may be giving or demanding is information or goods & services. The speech roles and commodities exchanged define four principle speech functions: offer, command, statement and question. The four speech functions are closely related to certain grammatical structures:
(1)Statements that are most commonly expressed by declarative clauses.
It moves forward because of you. (2) Questions by interrogative clauses.
What did you do yesterday (3) Commands by imperative clauses.
Let me say this publicly: Michelle, I have never loved you more. Declaratives realize the speech role of giving information and the speech function of making statement. Interrogatives realize the speech role of demanding information and the speech function of realizing questions. Imperatives realize the speech role of demanding goods & services and speech function of commanding.
Mood consists of two parts: the subject and the finite element. The subject and the finite element are combined to form the mood of various clauses and different mood is often used by the speaker to realize different speech functions.
2.1.2 Modality
Modality is considered as a major component of interpersonal relations. It specifies whether the speaker is indicting probably, usuality, obligation and inclination.
In functional grammar, modality falls into two types: modalization and modulation. Modalization is the modality in a proposition and modulation is the modality in a proposal. Modalization is concerned with two kinds of intermediate possibilities: degrees of probability: ‘possibly, probably, and certainly’ and degrees of usuality: ‘sometimes, usually, and always’. In a proposal, there are also two kinds of intermediate possibility depending on the speech functions of command and offer. “In a command, the intermediate points represent
degrees of obligation and in an offer, they represent degrees of inclination or willingness.” (Halliday, 1994: 89).
Modalization reflects the speaker’s judgment of probability and frequency. It is expressed through three ways: (1) modal operators, such as “can”, “will”, “must”, etc.; (2) adjuncts of probability and usuality, such as “possibly”, “probably”, etc.; (3) both together. Obligation and inclination can be both realized in the following two ways: (1) by finite modal operators; (2) by an expansion of the predicator, such as a passive verb.
Modal operators are most frequently used in modality. Modality realized through modal operators can be divided into three levels: low, median and high.
Positive Low Median High would, Must, ought to, should, need, have to Mustn’t oughtn’t mayn’t, hasn’t/hadn’t to Table1 Modal operators
2.1.3 Personal Pronouns
According to Halliday, interpersonal meanings are embodied in the person system. Through the choice of personal pronouns, the speaker recognizes the existence of himself and hearers and uncovers their relationship. In English, there are three persons: I/we, you/you, and he, she, it/they.
“I” is often used to refer to the speaker in the speech situation.
Can, may, could, Will, might, dare shall, is/was to Won’t, shan’t, Negative Needn’t, need to/have to doesn’t/didn’t wouldn’t, shouldn’t, to, can’t couldn’t isn’t/wasn’t to mightn’t,
“We” is usually used to refer to a group of individuals including or excluding the speaker in the speech event. “You” is usually used to refer to the hearer directly. By using it, the speaker shows that he has chosen the hearer as the target of his speech.
The meaning or function of the language determines the choice of person, number and gender. A particular form of personal pronouns may indicate solidarity or power. Thus, it is wiser to take social and psychological factors into account to reveal the covert meaning when deal with personal pronouns. By choosing appropriate personal pronouns, the speaker can clarify his own stand and establish good interaction with hearers.
Methodology
The data used in this paper is Obama’s victory speech on 7th, November, 2012.
In this study, both quantitive and qualitative approaches are adopted to analyze how the interpersonal function is realized in the speech. The qualitative analysis is used to establish what will be counted as the means of realizing interpersonal function in Obama’s victory speech. Quatitative analysis is made to measure the frequency of these devices used by Obama and explore what an important role interpersonal function plays in the course of his speech.
This paper attempts answer the following two questions:
(1) What are the means by which the interpersonal function in Obama’s victory speech is realized
(2) How is the interpersonal function realized by these means
Ⅲ. The Analysis on Obama’s Victory Speech in 2012
Following the theoretical framework described in Chapter Two, this chapter intends to analyze how mood, modality and personal pronouns that appear in Obama’s victory speech help to realize the interpersonal function.
Analysis of Obama’s Victory Speech in Terms of Mood
Mood plays an important role in realizing the interpersonal function of language. In political speeches, there are three kinds of mood structures: declarative, interrogative and imperative. In declarative sentences, the speaker’s position is information giver and the hearer’s position is information receiver. The speaker uses declaratives to express his ideas and makes judgments. In interrogatives, the speaker is in the position of asking the hearer something while the hearer is in the position of providing information. In imperatives, the speaker is in the position of demanding the hearer to do something, and the hearer should obey and take actions. The following is a statistic of mood structures in Obama’s victory speech.
Mood structures 115%) 0(0%) 1%) 116(100%) declaratives interrogatives imperatives total number Table 2 Mood structures in Obama’s victory speech in 2012
From the table we can conclude that declaratives dominate the whole speech, accounting for %. Imperative mood is only used once, accounting for only %. Interrogative mood is never used.
In his victory speech, Obama uses declarative mood as the basic tone, which is persuading and encouraging. Declarative mood is very effective to publicize his political attitudes and opinions. By using declaratives, Obama first expresses his gratitude to American people, to Governor Romney, and to his wife, Michele. Then he explains the importance of presidential campaign, and gives information about the current problems of America. At last, he encourages his people that they can overcome all the difficulties and gain great success.
Here are some examples:
As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits
奥巴马演讲-人际功能
