英语专业毕业论文8.doc

摘 要m. a. k. halliday的系统功能语法已成为20世纪最具影响力的语言学理论之一，其对各个学科都有深远影响。政治演讲的衔接手段丰富，具有口语和书面语的双重特性。本文运用halliday的系统功能语法从人际功能方面对英语和汉语政治演讲进行分析，主要从语气、情态和人称代词三方面揭示英语和汉语政治演讲的异同，并尝试从语言和文化角度进行解释，以期对外语教学及翻译实践有可借鉴之处。为保证对比研究的有效性，本文选取了四篇最新中美国家领导人访问期间的演讲奥巴马在复旦大学的演讲，奥巴马在白宫隆重欢迎中国主席的致辞以及胡锦涛在白宫南草坪欢迎仪式上的致辞，胡锦涛在美国友好团体欢迎宴会上的讲话。关键词：人际功能；语气；情态；人称代词；政治演讲abstracthallidays systemic-functional grammar has been one of the most influential linguistic theories in the 20th century, and it has great effect on various disciplines.political speech, with its dual characteristics of both written and spoken modes and various cohesive devices, can reveal as many similarities and differences between english and chinese as possible. this thesis intends to apply one of the three metafunctions of hallidays systemic-functional grammarinterpersonal function, to the analysis of chinese and english political speech discourse. a comparison, mainly based on the four mood functions of clause, modality and personal pronouns, is made to find out the similarities and differences between the english discourse and chinese discourse, and explanations are given from linguistic and cultural perspectives. it is hoped that the results can shed some light on efl teaching and translation practice. for the purpose of guaranteeing the validity of this comparative study, the speech discourses chosen are narrowed down to four speeches delivered by chinese and american state leaders during their official visitobamas speech in fu dan university, obamas welcoming address on south lawn, hu jintaos welcoming address on south lawn and hu jintaos speech on american friendly groups welcoming banquet. key words: interpersonal function; mood; modality; personal pronouns; political speechcontentsintroduction1chapter i an overview of systemic-functional grammar31.1 three meta-functions31.2 significance of interpersonal function5chapter ii features of political speeches72.1 features of public speeches72.2 features of political speeches8chapter iii a comparison of chinese and american leaders speeches from interpersonal function93.1 mood93.2 modality153.3 personal pronouns20conclusion23references24acknowledgements25 河北工程大学学士论文introductionnowadays, the capability of making a speech is necessary for the ordinary people in modern society. when people communicate with each other, they have to be able to introduce themselves, to express their intention, and to show their feelings. similarly, the country leaders make political speeches at home and abroad frequently in order to explain something important to the national people to get their support or in order to introduce the countrys foreign policies to the foreigners for the purpose of acquiring some successful cooperation for the good of the country. therefore, in a sense, anyone who wants to succeed in life should not neglect the ability of public speaking.in the past several decades, hallidays systemic-functional grammar has become very popular. it has been applied into a variety of fields, such as discourse analysis, stylistics, sociolibguistics, machine translation and language teaching(hu zhuanglin, 2006:306). however, very few researches have been done in the field of comparative analysis of political speech discourse. systemic-functional grammar is of significance for the survey of the nature and the use of language. the interpersonal function serves to establish and maintain social relations such as the expression of social role, which include communication between one person and another.this thesis takes four speech texts as the samples to analyze their functional meanings. they are: obamas speech in fu dan university (dec. 16, 2009), obamas welcoming address on south lawn (jan. 19, 2011), hu jintaos welcoming address on south lawn (jan. 19, 2011) and hu jintaos speech on american friendly groups welcoming banquet (jan. 20, 2011). the main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the american political speeches and chinese political speeches by using interpersonal function, and to find out the similarities and differences of the two kinds of discourse.this thesis consists of three chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. chapter one is an overview of systemic-functional grammar. chapter two is devoted to the features of political speeches. chapter three demonstrates the comparative analysis of chinese and american leaders speeches from the interpersonal function: mood, modality, and personal pronouns.chapter ian overview of systemic-functional grammarsince m.a.k halliday put forward systemic-function (sf) grammar, which was a sociologically oriented function linguistic approach, sf has been one of the most influential linguistic theories in the 20th century, and it has great effect on various disciplines. halliday believes that social demand on language has helped to shape its structure, and he interprets language development from a functional point of view and formulates a functional theory of language. in this chapter, the three meta-functions and interpersonal function will be examined closely.1.1 three meta-functionsaccording to halliday, the adults language can be highly abstracted as three meta-functions: the ideational, the interpersonal, and the textual function. metafunction system is the key part of hallidays systemic-function (sf) grammar. “these meta-functions appear at a new level in the linguistic system, taking the form of “grammar”. the grammatical system has, as it were, a functional input and a structural output; it provides the mechanism for different functions to be combined in one utterance in the way the adult requires” (hu zhuanglin 312). it is necessary to show the framework as follows:informationmetafunction system interpersonalfunctiontextualfunctionideationalfunctiontransitivityvoice polaritymodalitymoodpersonalpronounsthemecohesion declarativeinterrogativeimperativeexclamativereferenceellipsissubstitutionsconjunctionslexical cohesionmaterial processesmental processesrelational processesverbal processesbehavioural processexistential processes“the ideational function (experiential and logical) is to convey new information, to communicate a content that is unknown to the hearer. it mainly consists of transitivity and voice” (ibid.). this function not only specifies the available options in meaning but also determines the nature of their structural realizations” (ibid.). as mentioned in the above figure, transitivity, divided into six kindsmaterial processes, mental processes, relational processes, verbal processes, behavioural process, and existential processes, is simply the grammar of the clause in its ideational aspect (hu zhuanglin 2006: 312).the interpersonal function contains all uses of language to express social and personal relations. “this includes the various ways the speaker enters a speech situation and performs a speech act” (hu zhuanglin 313). interpersonal function is realized by mood, modality and person pronouns. mood system is a major grammatical system, which shows what role the speaker selects in the speech situation and what role he appoints to the addressee. for example, if the speaker selects the imperative mood, he assumes the role of one giving commands and puts the addressee in the role of one expected to obey orders. “the textual function refers to the fact that language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living passage different from a random list of sentences” (hu zhuanglin 315).take the following example as a summary,analyze the sentence “john likes linguistics.” on three levels of metafunctions.ideationalmental processreactionjohnlikeslinguisticssenserprocess:mental: reactionphenomenoninterpersonaldeclarativemood residuesubjectpredicatoradjuncttextualunmarked themethemerhemegivennew1.2 significance of interpersonal functionsince the interpersonal function is used to express the speakers attitude and evaluation, so it is clear that to whatever purpose the language is used, it expresses an attitude and takes up a role. therefore, the interpersonal function of language serves to establish and maintain social relations such as the expressions of social roles, which include the communication roles created by language itself by means of the interaction between one person and another. through this function, the speaker makes himself take part in a certain situation to express his attitude and deduction, and tries to affect others attitude and behavior.as to the function of the interpersonal meaning of language, davis & ravelli (1992:86) pointed out that “the interpersonal resources of language are primarily interactional in nature; they help us to establish the social relations between participants in the dialogue”.thus this thesis focuses on some sense of the rising awareness of the significance of interpersonal function in the political speech. it explores the linguistic realizations of the interpersonal relations between the speaker and the hearer, as evidenced by the linguistic means used by the speaker in the speech.this thesis is to study the factors that determine the meaning of language, the ways the speaker uses to establish and maintain the relationship with the hearers, and the purpose and effect that are achieved through the interpersonal meaning.chapter iifeatures of political speeches2.1 features of public speechesbefore a close examination of political speeches, lets first take a look at the general properties of a speech. in the dictionary oxford english dictionary (2004, the seventh version), the word “speech” refers to: 1. a formal talk that a person gives to an audience one about a particular subject, given to a group of people; 2. the ability to speak; 3. the way a particular person speaks; 4. the language used when speaking; 5. a group of lines that an actor speaks in a play in the theatre. in other words, the speech is a personal behavior of communication on a special occasion to particular listeners. speech, as a social action, had been very universal before middle ages. nowadays, in the western developed counties, speech was taken seriously. “tongue, money, and computer” are regarded as the “three talismans” of the 21st century. lucas (1986) argues that there are seven elements in a speech, namely, speaker, message, channel, listeners, feedback, interference, and situation. dance, frank and zak-dance (1996) state that public speeches, a form of spoken language, are speeches delivered in public and its goal is to communicate. in the speech communication, the speaker prepares a speech to an audience of one or more people who listen to the speech and have the freedom to accept or reject the speakers goal. it is an activity which leads us to know new information and change our beliefs, attitudes, and values. it has the below features: first, public speaking is highly structured. the speaker usually uses less formal language than written communication. second, the words and phrases in speaking are usually shorter, simpler and more varied than those written. third, public speaking contains more repetition than written communication. fourth, spoken language allows personal interaction between speaker and audience.2.2 features of political speechesfrom a practical point of view, public speaking can be classified into political, economic, academic, moral, legal, religious, military speeches, and so on according to its function and contents (lucas, 1986). public speeches can be classified into different types. there are many political speeches, such as diplomatic speeches, military speeches, debates on political conferences, inaugural speeches, farewell speeches, campaign speeches, etc. political speech is a kind of public speaking. public speaking first appeared in homeric epics while political speech can be dated back to ancient greece and roman times. in eastern countries, it was mainly used for argument to make a decision of the policy. the thesis is mainly concerned with political speeches. they here refer to those given by authorities with political purposes that will influence a certain group of people.generally speaking, there are three main features of political speeches: firstly, the political speeches are always with overwhelming power of logic. the speaker should carefully consider what he is going to say and how to make his speech persuasive. secondly, they must be eloquent and precise. the background of proposing the issue, the material used to analyze it and the methods and steps for solving it are deeply considered to make it well organized. thirdly, the political viewpoint is quite firm and clear. when the political speaker publicizes political views of certain political parties, groups or individuals, they always include vivid political views, a large amount of substantial contents and brilliant standpoints.in political speeches, the speakers, whose speech role is addresser, aim at transferring their political viewpoints towards the audiences. the speakers usually employ declarative mood, which reflects the speakers speech role (addresser) and purpose. in addition, political speeches often use the imperative mood, which means persuasion, invitation, and suggestion.chapter iiia comparison of chinese and american leaders speeches from interpersonal functionone of the functions of language is establishing interpersonal relationship by communicating. in interpersonal communications, the commodities exchanged can also fall into two kinds: goods-&-services and information. this chapter takes four speech texts as the samples to analyze their functional meanings from mood, modality, and personal pronouns. they are “obamas speech in fu dan university” (dec. 16, 2009, from ), “obamas welcoming address on south lawn” (jan. 19, 2011, from 24en.com), “hu jintaos welcoming address on south lawn” (jan. 19, 2011, from ) and “hu jintaos speech on american friendly groups welcoming banquet” (jan. 20, 2011, from www. news. cn).3.1 mood3.1.1 definition of moodmood is the selection by the speaker of a particular role in the speech situation, and his determination of the choice of roles for the addressee (halliday, 1973:33). it is made up of subject and finite, and the reminder of the clause is called residue. the subject can be a noun, a noun phrase, or a clause. for example,to quarrel with her is nothing for help.thinking before talking will make your performance better.“mood shows what role the speaker selects in the speech situation and what role he assigns to the addressee” (hu zhuanglin 313). there are four types of mood declarative mood, interrogative mood, imperative mood, and exclamative mood. at the same time, the reflecting counterparts are accepting an offer, carrying out a command, acknowledging a statement, and answering a question. thus, speech roles and commodities exchanged make up four principal speech roles: offer, command, statement, and question (hu zhuanglin 314).commodity exchangedrole in exchanged(a) good-&-services(b) information(i) giving“offer”would you like this teapot?“statement”hes giving her the teapot.(ii) demanding“command”give me that teapot!“question”what is he giving her? ( from halliday, 1994: 69 )3.1.2 comparison of moodin this part, the comparison of mood will be from the four typesdeclarative mood, interrogative mood, imperative mood, and exclamative mood, according to the results of proportion of different mood types shown in table 3-1, table 3-2, and table 3-3, and then the detailed explanations of every mood type are given respectively.table 3-1 proportion of different mood types in obamas speechesspeeches moodat fu danuniversityon the south lawnnumber%number%declarative9997.061878.26interrogative0000imperative32.94521.74exclamative0000total10210023100table 3-2 proportion of different mood types in hu jintaos speechesspeeches moodon the welcoming dinneron the south lawnnumber%number%declarative6497.702191.30interrogative11.5200imperative0014.35exclamative11.5214.35total6610023100table 3-3 proportion of different mood types in both obamas and hu jintaos speechesmood typesspeeches declarativeinterrogativeimperativeexclamativetotalobamas93.60%06.40%0100%hu jintaos95.51%1.12%1.12%2.25%100% declarative mooddeclaratives can be further divided into full declaratives and elliptical declaratives. through the study, there is a finding that most declaratives are full declaratives. full declaratives are used to offer much information to the audiences, to reveal the speakers position which is on behalf of the government, and to present the governments identity.it can be concluded from the tables above that in both the chinese and the english corpuses, declarative mood is predominantly used (chinese: 95.51%; english: 93.60%), because the main purposes of political speech are persuasion and inspiration. besides, one of the foremost functions of political speeches is to provide information. examples of clauses using declarative mood could be easily found in the corpuses:“china has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of povertyan accomplishment unparalleled in human historywhile playing a larger role in global events.”（obama, 2009）“history shows that societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful, and the world