（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）奥巴马就职演讲的人际功能实现手段分析.pdf

华中科技大学硕士学位论文 iii 摘要摘要 本文运用韩礼德的系统功能语法理论，结合李战子等学者的理论，从语气， 情态操作词，人称代词，评价词四个方面分析了奥巴马的就职演讲，以其通过个 案分析，找出政治演讲中实现人际功能的语言手段。 近年来， 越来越多的学者开始关注某一特定语篇的人际意义研究。 如 sultan 对医生诊断报告的研究；李战子对个人自传中实现人际意义的手段的研究；以及 其他学者对学术话语，广告语篇等的人际功能研究。尽管鲜有学者专门针对政治 语篇的人际功能进行研究， 在其他语篇的研究成果为我们进行政治语篇的人际功 能研究提供了宝贵的理论视角和经验。 韩礼德指出语言有三种元功能：概念功能，人际功能和语篇功能。人际功能 是指人们用语言来表达自己的观点，建立和保持人际关系，影响别人的行为。韩 礼德主要从语气，情态，语调三个方面研究人际功能的实现。他的整个语法系统 结构严密、语言精确。但另一方面，我们发现在词汇层面实现人际功能的手段广 泛地存在着。本文试图在韩礼德的系统功能语法理论的基础上，在政治演讲中探 讨实现人际功能的多种手段。 研究发现，语气，情态，人称代词，评价词是奥巴马就职演讲中实现人际功 能的有效手段。使用大量陈述句，他宣扬了自己的政治观点和主张。祈使句的使 用彰显了总统的权威，而“let”结构的使用缓和了权利，与听众建立了良好的 关系。通过不同的情态操作词，演讲者实现了演讲的多重目的：维护其地位，激 励听众，拉近与听众的距离。选择不同的人称代词，演讲者不仅实现了一般演讲 的目的， 如吸引观众注意力， 维护双方关系， 同时也达到了政治演讲特有的目的， 如将权利施加给听众。评价词也是实现人际功能的有效手段。通过评价词，演讲 者表达感情， 做出判断， 在维护其权威地位的同时， 激励听众， 赢得听众的信任。 关键词关键词：人际功能 语气 情态 人称代词 评价词 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 i abstract based on hallidays systemic-functional grammar, together with other scholars, such as li zhanzis theory, this study takes obamas inaugural address as an example to demonstrate by what means the interpersonal function of political speech is realized. it is found that mood, modal operators, personal pronouns and evaluation words are the major devices obama uses to achieve interpersonal function. in recent years, there is a trend in linguistic study to pay more attention to interpersonal function. for instance, sultan studies the doctors diagnosis report; li zhanzi explores the realization of interpersonal function of biographies while other scholars contribute to the realization of interpersonal function in academic discourse, advertisement discourse and so on. few scholars have studied the realization of interpersonal function in political discourse. however, the findings of studies of other discourses provide unique perspective and experience for the study on political discourse. halliday puts forward three language metafunctions: ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. interpersonal function is that people use language to communicate with others, establish and maintain relationship, influence others behaviors and express their opinions. halliday mainly studies the realization of interpersonal function from grammatical level, that is, from the perspectives of mood, modality and key. his grammatical system is neat and concise. however, it should be noticed that other lexical means also have the potential of realizing interpersonal function. based on haliidays systemic- functional grammar, this dissertation intends explore the various means realizing interpersonal function in political speech. through the analysis of obamas inaugural address, we find that mood, modal operators, interpersonal pronouns and evaluation words are important means obama uses to achieve interpersonal function. with different mood structures, the speaker gives information about his political attitude and policy and gives command. with skillful manipulation of imperatives, the speaker succeeds in enhancing his authority 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 ii while mitigates power. with various modal operators, obama achieves multiple goals: establishing his status as the authority, shortening the distance with the audience and inspiring the audience. various personal pronouns not only possess the general functions of attracting hearers attention, maintaining the two parts relationship, but also have the specific function of enforcing power on the audience. with evaluations, the speaker expresses his feelings and makes judgment. he reflects his status as the authority and establishes a kind relationship with the audience. key words: interpersonal function mood modality personal pronouns evaluation words 独创性声明独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取 得的研究成果。尽我所知，除文中已经标明引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何 其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。 对本文的研究做出贡献的个人 和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到本声明的法律结果由本 人承担。 学位论文作者签名： 日期： 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：学校有 权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版，允许论文被查阅和 借阅。本人授权华中科技大学可以将本学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据 库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文。 保密， 在 年解密后适用本授权书。 不保密。 （请在以上方框内打“” ） 学位论文作者签名： 指导教师签名： 日期： 年 月 日 日期： 年 月 日 本论文属于 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 1 introduction speech is a very practical activity. with speech, the speaker gives information, expresses emotions, and establishes social relations and so on. there are various kinds of speeches: social life speech, academic speech, judicial speech and political speech. as the globalization expands quickly, the communication between different countries becomes more and more frequent. political speech is no longer a concern of the people in the country of the speaker, but also a matter that people from other parts of the world are concerned about. political speech shows the skills of the speakers, but the more significant function of it is that it demonstrates the political attitude and intended policy of the speaker. the speaker, in his speech, expresses his political views explicitly or implicitly. power is the most important feature of political speech. the speaker usually employs various skills to present himself as authority and enforce power on his hearers. on the other hand, in order to gain the trust and support of his hearers, the speaker also need establish a kind relationship with the hearers. this two-sidedness makes political speech complicated and deserve our attention. political speech reflects political views and also influences the thought of the hearers. the feature of effectiveness and persuasiveness of speech is reflected through language. successful speakers usually can manipulate the language skillfully and make language serve for them. there is a trend in the field of language study to put more and more emphasis on interpersonal meaning of language. functionalists are the founders of interpersonal function study, among who halliday takes the lead. in his systemic-functional grammar, halliday(1985) proposed that language is a means of social interaction and it serves three metafunctions: ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. language is used to convey new information to the hearers. this is the ideational function. the interpersonal function of language refers to the function that language serves to establish and maintain social relations. it includes the various ways the speaker performs a speech act. it embodies the status, role and attitude of the 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 2 speaker. through this function, the speaker is communicating with others and interaction will be realized. the textual function is to organize information and ensure that any text of english is not just a random list of word meanings. so halliday systematic-functional grammar can be taken as an effective theoretical framework to analyze the effective and persuasive features of political speech. in order to examine by what means political speakers realize their interpersonal function of their speech, this dissertation, based on the theory of hallidays functional grammar, together with some other scholars theories, chooses obamas inaugural address as an example to explore how obama adopts different language devices to achieve the various aim of his speech. halliday mainly studies interpersonal function in terms of mood and modality. that is to say, his study is mainly conducted at grammatical level. although he has made great achievement in the study of interpersonal function, he also leaves room for further study. for example, in this study, if we anaylze interpersonal function with mood and modality only, we will find obama uses most declaratives in his speech. this kind of analysis does not make much sense, so we should not take mood and modality as the sole devices realizing interpersonal function when analyze obamas inaugural address. while hallidays studies focus on grammatical level, it is easy for us to discover that lexical resources are also effective means usually used by speakers to realize the interpersonal function in political speech. li zhanzi pointed out that many lexical resources, such as personal pronouns, evaluations and so on can also realize interpersonal function. in this dissertation concerned, we find that besides mood and modality, personal pronouns and evaluations are also effective means the speaker uses to the realize the interpersonal function. so this dissertation will analyze obamas inaugural address from these four aspects. the author will give an analysis in the dissertation to show by what means a political speaker realizes the interpersonal function of his speech and how the interpersonal function is realized. the author conducts a case study on the realization of interpersonal function of a specific politicians speech through a systemic analysis of linguistic devices from 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 3 different aspects. the data selected in the study is from obamas inaugural address in 2009. as obama is the first american black president. his inauguration is significant to not only american people but also people all over world. his inaugural address is an effective tool for him to express his political opinion, attitude and policy. in order to enhance his authority as the president as well as establish a kind relationship so as to gain the support of his people, obama employs various language skills in his speech. thus his speech deserves our attention. it is hoped that the results of this study may serve to show how interpersonal function is usually realized in political speech. besides, it is also conducted to challenge traditional speech studies, which mainly focus on the content and beautiful sentence structures of speech. it is found that a perfect adoption of linguistic elements, such as mood, modal operators, personal pronouns and evaluation words may help the speaker achieve the aim of his speech. the significance of this dissertation is to explore the ways the speaker uses to realize the interpersonal function of his speech and the effect produced through the realization of interpersonal function. the study examines the realization of interpersonal relationship between the speaker and his audience. it is intended to reveal the different roles of the two parties, the way the speaker uses to build his own status and assign a certain role to the hearers, the methods the speaker adopts to establish a kind relationship with the hearers and achieve his aim of delivering the speech. it is hoped that this study of the speech of a specific politician can make sense to reveal the usual ways politicians use to realize the interpersonal function of their speech and it also can give some evidence to obamas personal style in delivering political speeches. the dissertation consists of four parts altogether. the first part is the literature review. in this part, the author gives a review to theories dealing with the realization of interpersonal function of the language as well as the previous study on interpersonal function. a brief introduction to political speech is also made in this part. the second part is about the methodology. in this part, the author introduces the research method and data used in the study. chapter three is the discussion and results 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 4 of the study. this is the main body of the dissertation. the author analyzes obamas inaugural address from mood, modal operators, personal pronouns and evaluation words. this chapter first gives a general literature background on these elements and then demonstrates their functions through concrete analysis. it is found out that these four devices are the most effective way obama uses to realize the interpersonal function of his inaugural address. the last part is a conclusion of the whole study. it is found that these language devices can not noly realize the general interpersonal function of attracting the attention of the hearers, maintaining the relationship between the speaker and the hearers and inspiring the hearers, but also realize the specific functions of political speech, such as conveying multiple aims, enhancing the authority and enforcing power on the hearers. we can perceive the real intention of the speaker in political speech only when we understand these devices. 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 5 1. literature review when human beings appear, there appears langugae. with the development of human civilization, languge develops into its more formal and mature form. the magic power of language has urged people to explore the mystery between language and human thought. scholars at home and abroad have been making great contribution in the description and explanation of the mechanism, nature and use of human language. various linguistic schools, such as american structuralism, london school, prague school, chomskys transformational-generative grammar and hallidays systemic-functional grammar, have put forward many insightful ideas from different perspectives. systemic-functional grammar launched a challenge to the traditional structuralism which paid more attention on linguistic competency rather than language performance. it also gives new perspectvies on linguistic studies by looking on language as a system network to realize various kinds of functions. this dissertation will take hallidays systemic-functional grammar as the theoretical basis to study the realization of interpersonal function of political speeches. this chapter will make a review on the theoretical framework of this analysis. it consists of four parts. part one is a brief introduction to hallidays three metafunctions and more explanation will be given to interpersonal function. part two explains the theories in details used in this study. it will include an introduction to mood, modality, personal pronouns and evaluations. it is the nuclear of this chapter and the theoretical basis of the whole study. in part three, the author will make a review on previous studies on the means of realizing interpersonal function. part four gives a brief introduction to political speech. 1.1 hallidays metafunctions linguists have been studying the interpersonal function of language for a long time. functionalists are the pioneers of interpersonal function study. the prague school proposed that the study of language should start from the function of the 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 6 language. they looked on langugae as functional, that is, language is a tool realizing a variety of essential functions and performing tasks for the community using it. buhler (1934) put forward the three functions of language: descriptive function, appealing function and expressive function, which is similar to hallidays three metafunctions. in speech acts, the three functions all exist, with only one principal function. if the speaker conducts the speech act to express his own feeling, the language serves the expressive function; when the speaker tries to influence others and achieve interaction, then the language serves the appealing function; when the speaker just states something, then the language servers the descriptive function. jakobson (1960) proposes that language serves six functions: referential function, poetic function, emotional function, appealing function, phatic function and metalinguistic function. the referential function refers to the fact that language serves to describe the world. the poetic function serves to organize the information. the emotional function reflects the attitude of the speaker toward what he says. the appealing function of language is used by the speaker to influence the hearers. the phatic function refers to the function of establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationship, which is similar to hallidays interpersonal function. (liu and the exchange is successful if the hearer perceives the information the speaker gives or provides the information the speaker demands. but in other cases, a successful exchange may happen only when a non-verbal action is carried out. when the commodity the speaker may be giving is goods- within the category of the indicative, the characteristic expression of a statement is the declarative and that of a question is the interrogative; within the category of interrogative, there is a further division between yes/no interrogative, for polar questions, and wh-interrogative, for content questions. the grammatical category that is characteristically used to make a command is the imperative. since offers are not involved in a specific mood choice, from this perspective, they are included in the analysis. we can see these features in the following illustration: figure 1.1mood structures these features can be expressed as follows: (1) the presence of mood element, composed of subject and finite , indicates the feature “indicative” (2) within the indicative, the significant label is the order of subject and finite: 华中科技大学硕士学位论文 10 (a) when subject is before finite, it realizes “declarative”; (b) when finite is before subject, it realizes “yes/no interrogative”; (c) in a wh- interrogative, the order is : (i) subject before finite if the wh- element is the subject; (ii) finite before subject otherwise. the following are some examples showing how to analyze the mood element in different clauses. figure 1.2 mood in declarative clauses the duke has given that teapot to my aunt last year subject finite mood residue declaratives realize the speech role of giving information and the speech function of making statement. in this example, the speaker firstly introduces the subject of the statement “the duke”, and then the finite “has”, which expresses a present perfect tense and finally he makes the claim in the residue. interrogat