A Comparison of Chinese and American Leaders Speeches from Interpersonal FunctionWord文档格式.docx

A Comparison of Chinese and American Leaders Speeches from Interpersonal FunctionWord文档格式.docx

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情态；

人称代词；

政治演讲

Abstract

Halliday’sSystemic-FunctionalGrammarhasbeenoneofthemostinfluentiallinguistictheoriesinthe20thcentury,andithasgreateffectonvariousdisciplines.

Politicalspeech,withitsdualcharacteristicsofbothwrittenandspokenmodesandvariouscohesivedevices,canrevealasmanysimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenEnglishandChineseaspossible.ThisthesisintendstoapplyoneofthethreemetafunctionsofHalliday’sSystemic-FunctionalGrammar—interpersonalfunction,totheanalysisofChineseandEnglishpoliticalspeechdiscourse.Acomparison,mainlybasedonthefourmoodfunctionsofclause,modalityandpersonalpronouns,ismadetofindoutthesimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweentheEnglishdiscourseandChinesediscourse,andexplanationsaregivenfromlinguisticandculturalperspectives.ItishopedthattheresultscanshedsomelightonEFLteachingandtranslationpractice.Forthepurposeofguaranteeingthevalidityofthiscomparativestudy,thespeechdiscourseschosenarenarroweddowntofourspeechesdeliveredbyChineseandAmericanStateleadersduringtheirofficialvisit—Obama’sspeechinFuDanUniversity,Obama’swelcomingaddressonSouthLawn,HuJintao’swelcomingaddressonSouthLawnandHuJintao’sspeechonAmericanfriendlygroupswelcomingbanquet.

KeyWords:

InterpersonalFunction;

Mood;

Modality;

PersonalPronouns;

PoliticalSpeech

Contents

Introduction1

ChapterIAnOverviewofSystemic-FunctionalGrammar3

1.1ThreeMeta-functions3

1.2SignificanceofInterpersonalFunction5

ChapterIIFeaturesofPoliticalSpeeches7

2.1FeaturesofPublicSpeeches7

2.2FeaturesofPoliticalSpeeches8

ChapterIIIAComparisonofChineseandAmericanLeaders’SpeechesfromInterpersonalFunction9

3.1Mood9

3.2Modality15

3.3PersonalPronouns20

Conclusion23

References24

Acknowledgements25

Introduction

Nowadays,thecapabilityofmakingaspeechisnecessaryfortheordinarypeopleinmodernsociety.Whenpeoplecommunicatewitheachother,theyhavetobeabletointroducethemselves,toexpresstheirintention,andtoshowtheirfeelings.Similarly,thecountryleadersmakepoliticalspeechesathomeandabroadfrequentlyinordertoexplainsomethingimportanttothenationalpeopletogettheirsupportorinordertointroducethecountry’sforeignpoliciestotheforeignersforthepurposeofacquiringsomesuccessfulcooperationforthegoodofthecountry.Therefore,inasense,anyonewhowantstosucceedinlifeshouldnotneglecttheabilityofpublicspeaking.

Inthepastseveraldecades,Halliday’sSystemic-FunctionalGrammarhasbecomeverypopular.Ithasbeenappliedintoavarietyoffields,suchasdiscourseanalysis,stylistics,sociolibguistics,machinetranslationandlanguageteaching（HuZhuanglin,2006:

306）.However,veryfewresearcheshavebeendoneinthefieldofcomparativeanalysisofpoliticalspeechdiscourse.Systemic-FunctionalGrammarisofsignificanceforthesurveyofthenatureandtheuseoflanguage.Theinterpersonalfunctionservestoestablishandmaintainsocialrelationssuchastheexpressionofsocialrole,whichincludecommunicationbetweenonepersonandanother.

Thisthesistakesfourspeechtextsasthesamplestoanalyzetheirfunctionalmeanings.Theyare:

Obama’sspeechinFuDanUniversity（Dec.16,2009）,Obama’swelcomingaddressonSouthLawn（Jan.19,2011）,HuJintao’swelcomingaddressonSouthLawn（Jan.19,2011）andHuJintao’sspeechonAmericanfriendlygroupswelcomingbanquet（Jan.20,2011）.ThemainpurposeofthisthesisistoanalyzetheAmericanpoliticalspeechesandChinesepoliticalspeechesbyusinginterpersonalfunction,andtofindoutthesimilaritiesanddifferencesofthetwokindsofdiscourse.

Thisthesisconsistsofthreechaptersinadditiontoanintroductionandaconclusion.ChapteroneisanoverviewofSystemic-FunctionalGrammar.Chaptertwoisdevotedtothefeaturesofpoliticalspeeches.ChapterthreedemonstratesthecomparativeanalysisofChineseandAmericanleaders’speechesfromtheinterpersonalfunction:

mood,modality,andpersonalpronouns.

ChapterI

AnOverviewofSystemic-FunctionalGrammar

SinceM.A.KHallidayputforwardSystemic-Function（SF）Grammar,whichwasasociologicallyorientedfunctionlinguisticapproach,SFhasbeenoneofthemostinfluentiallinguistictheoriesinthe20thcentury,andithasgreateffectonvariousdisciplines.Hallidaybelievesthatsocialdemandonlanguagehashelpedtoshapeitsstructure,andheinterpretslanguagedevelopmentfromafunctionalpointofviewandformulatesafunctionaltheoryoflanguage.Inthischapter,thethreemeta-functionsandinterpersonalfunctionwillbeexaminedclosely.

1.1ThreeMeta-functions

AccordingtoHalliday,theadult’slanguagecanbehighlyabstractedasthreemeta-functions:

theideational,theinterpersonal,andthetextualfunction.MetafunctionsystemisthekeypartofHalliday’sSystemic-Function（SF）Grammar.“Thesemeta-functionsappearatanewlevelinthelinguisticsystem,takingtheformof“grammar”.Thegrammaticalsystemhas,asitwere,afunctionalinputandastructuraloutput;

itprovidesthemechanismfordifferentfunctionstobecombinedinoneutteranceinthewaytheadultrequires”（HuZhuanglin312）.Itisnecessarytoshowtheframeworkasfollows:

“TheIdeationalFunction（‘Experiential’and‘Logical’）istoconveynewinformation,tocommunicateacontentthatisunknowntothehearer.Itmainlyconsistsof‘transitivity’and‘voice’”（ibid.）.Thisfunctionnotonlyspecifiestheavailableoptionsinmeaningbutalsodeterminesthenatureoftheirstructuralrealizations”（ibid.）.Asmentionedintheabovefigure,transitivity,dividedintosixkinds—materialprocesses,mentalprocesses,relationalprocesses,verbalprocesses,behaviouralprocess,andexistentialprocesses,issimplythegrammaroftheclauseinitsideationalaspect（HuZhuanglin2006:

312）.

Theinterpersonalfunctioncontainsallusesoflanguagetoexpresssocialandpersonalrelations.“Thisincludesthevariouswaysthespeakerentersaspeechsituationandperformsaspeechact”（HuZhuanglin313）.Interpersonalfunctionisrealizedbymood,modalityandpersonpronouns.Moodsystemisamajorgrammaticalsystem,whichshowswhatrolethespeakerselectsinthespeechsituationandwhatroleheappointstotheaddressee.Forexample,ifthespeakerselectstheimperativemood,heassumestheroleofonegivingcommandsandputstheaddresseeintheroleofoneexpectedtoobeyorders.

“Thetextualfunctionreferstothefactthatlanguagehasmechanismstomakeanystretchofspokenorwrittendiscourseintoacoherentandunifiedtextandmakealivingpassagedifferentfromarandomlistofsentences”（HuZhuanglin315）.

Takethefollowingexampleasasummary,

Analyzethesentence“Johnlikeslinguistics.”onthreelevelsofmetafunctions.

Ideational

MentalProcess

Reaction

John

likes

linguistics

Senser

Process:

Mental:

reaction

Phenomenon

Interpersonal

Declarative

MoodResidue

Subject

Predicator

Adjunct

Textual

UnmarkedTheme

Theme

Rheme

Given

New

1.2SignificanceofInterpersonalFunction

Sincetheinterpersonalfunctionisusedtoexpressthespeaker’sattitudeandevaluation,soitisclearthattowhateverpurposethelanguageisused,itexpressesanattitudeandtakesuparole.Therefore,theinterpersonalfunctionoflanguageservestoestablishandmaintainsocialrelationssuchastheexpressionsofsocialroles,whichincludethecommunicationrolescreatedbylanguageitselfbymeansoftheinteractionbetweenonepersonandanother.Throughthisfunction,thespeakermakeshimselftakepartinacertainsituationtoexpresshisattitudeanddeduction,andtriestoaffectother’sattitudeandbehavior.

Astothefunctionoftheinterpersonalmeaningoflanguage,Davis&

Ravelli（1992:

86）pointedoutthat“theinterpersonalresourcesoflanguageareprimarilyinteractionalinnature;

theyhelpustoestablishthesocialrelationsbetweenparticipantsinthedialogue”.

Thusthisthesisfocusesonsomesenseoftherisingawarenessofthesignificanceofinterpersonalfunctioninthepoliticalspeech.Itexploresthelinguisticrealizationsoftheinterpersonalrelationsbetweenthespeakerandthehearer,asevidencedbythelinguisticmeansusedbythespeakerinthespeech.

Thisthesisistostudythefactorsthatdeterminethemeaningoflanguage,thewaysthespeakerusestoestablishandmaintaintherelationshipwiththehearers,andthepurposeandeffectthatareachievedthroughtheinterpersonalmeaning.

ChapterII

FeaturesofPoliticalSpeeches

2.1FeaturesofPublicSpeeches

Beforeacloseexaminationofpoliticalspeeches,let’sfirsttakealookatthegeneralpropertiesofaspeech.InthedictionaryOxfordEnglishDictionary（2004,theseventhversion）,theword“speech”refersto:

1.aformaltalkthatapersongivestoanaudienceoneaboutaparticularsubject,giventoagroupofpeople;

2.theabilitytospeak;

3.thewayaparticularpersonspeaks;

4.thelanguageusedwhenspeaking;

5.agroupoflinesthatanactorspeaksinaplayinthetheatre.Inotherwords,thespeechisapersonalbehaviorofcommunicationonaspecialoccasiontoparticularlisteners.Speech,asasocialaction,hadbeenveryuniversalbeforeMidd