Abstract
In the past, the discourse analysis of the texts of public speaking mostly focused
on phonetic characteristics, vocabulary, grammar, and the figures of speech. However,
the stylistic analysis of texts from the perspective of the interpersonal metafunction of
Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is scant. Therefore, the aim of this research
attempts to explore the usage of the selection of the person system, mood types,
modality, and interpersonal metaphor of the three public speeches of Barack Obama.
They are Announcement for President, Victory Speech, and Inaugural Speech. The
theoretical framework of analytical techniques of discourse analysis behind this
research is SFL, which is a theory of language to establish the relationship between
language and social life. The descriptive statistics was used to tabulate the analytical
results.
Five principal findings are listed as follows: a) the first person and the third
person are the dominant person system; b) the declarative mood and the imperative
mood are mainly used mood types; c) modulation and modalization with high value
are frequently used; however, the use of modulation for obligation and inclination is
less than that of modalization for probability and usuality; d) the use the explicitly
subjective orientation is more than that of the explicitly objective orientation; e)
metaphor of mood functioning as command is realized by the declarative mood in that
iii
by means of metaphor of mood, the speaker would like to make the listeners feel
respected.
To conclude, this study based on the interpersonal metafunction of SFL is of
difference, compared to what was studied before, in exploring the interpersonal
communication in public speaking genre, as well as in enhancing teaching and
learning English in terms of reading and writing proficiency.
Table of Contents
Abstract(Chinese) ...................................................................................................................i
Abstract.................................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgements...............................................................................................................iv
Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................v
Tables ..................................................................................................................................vii
Figures............................................................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER 1 ..........................................................................................................................1
Introduction...................................................................................................................1
Background and Motivation ..................................................................................1
Problem Statement .................................................................................................4
Purpose of the Study ..............................................................................................5
Research Questions................................................................................................6
Significance of the Study .......................................................................................7
Definitions of Terms ..............................................................................................7
Organization of the Thesis ...................................................................................10
CHAPTER 2 ........................................................................................................................11
Literature Review.........................................................................................................11
The Genres of Public Speaking............................................................................11
The Nature of Public Speech .......................................................................11
The Features of Public Speech.....................................................................12
An Introduction of Systemic Functional Linguistics ...........................................15
Context.........................................................................................................16
Lexical-grammar..........................................................................................17
Semantics .....................................................................................................18
An Investigation of the Interpersonal Metafunction............................................19
The MOOD Types........................................................................................20
The Modality Structure ................................................................................22
Personal Pronouns........................................................................................23
Interpersonal Metaphors ..............................................................................24
Relevant SFL Studies about the Genre of Public Speaking.................................29
Summary ..............................................................................................................32
CHAPTER 3 ........................................................................................................................33
Method .........................................................................................................................33
Research Design...................................................................................................33
Data Collection ....................................................................................................36
Source of Data..............................................................................................36
A Brief Introduction to the Chosen Texts ....................................................36
Instrument ............................................................................................................38
Data Analysis .......................................................................................................39
Identifying the Basic Units Before Analyzing the Texts..............................39
Analyzing the Person System ......................................................................43
Recognizing the Mood Types ......................................................................43
Distinguishing the Modality System............................................................45
Detecting the Metaphors of Modality ..........................................................46
Assaying the Metaphors of Mood................................................................46
CHAPTER 4 ........................................................................................................................48
Results and Discussion ........................................................................................................48
Result of Research Question 1.............................................................................48
Result of Research Question 2.............................................................................51
Result of Research Question 3.............................................................................55
Result of Research Question 4.............................................................................62
Result of Research Question 5.............................................................................64
CHAPTER 5 ........................................................................................................................66
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................66
Summary of Major Findings................................................................................66
The Findings of Research Question One .....................................................67
The Findings of Research Question Two.....................................................68
The Findings of Research Question Three...................................................70
The Findings of Research Question Four ....................................................72
The Findings of Research Question Five.....................................................72
Pedagogical Implications .....................................................................................73
Limitations of the Study.......................................................................................75
Suggestions for Future Research .........................................................................76
References...........................................................................................................................78
Appendix A:The Address of “Announcement for President” ..............................................87
Appendix B:The Victory Speech .........................................................................................98
Appendix C:The Inaugural Speech....................................................................................107
Tables
Table 1. Outline of the Most Relevant Studies on the features of Public Speech Texts......14
Table 2. Speech Functions and Commodalities in Exchange ..............................................21
Table 3. Speech Function and Mood of Clause ...................................................................21
Table 4. The Orientations And Types of Modality...............................................................23
Table 5. The Orientations And Types of Modality...............................................................25
Table 6. Speech Function and Mood Clauses ......................................................................27
Table 7. The Metaphorical Realization of the Speech Functions ........................................29
Table 8. Outline of the Most Relevant Studies On the Interpersonal Metafunction of
Public Speech Texts ...............................................................................................31
Table 9. Analytical Keys for Modality, Subject, Metaphors of Modality, and
Metaphors of Mood................................................................................................41
Table 10. The Explanations of Data Analysis ......................................................................42
Table 11. Personal Pronoun Distribution (announcement for President).............................48
Table 12. Personal Pronoun Distribution (victory speech) ..................................................49
Table 13. Personal Pronoun Distribution (inauguration speech) .........................................49
Table 14. Personal Pronoun Distribution (in all of the three speeches)...............................49
Table 15. The Distributions of Mood (announcement for President) ..................................52
Table 16. The Distributions of Mood (victory speech)........................................................52
Table 17. The Distributions of Mood (inauguration speech) ...............................................52
Table 18. The Distributions of Mood (in all of the three speeches).....................................52
Table 19. The Distributions of Modal System (announcement for President).....................56
Table 20. The Distributions of Modal System (victory speech) ..........................................57
Table 21. The Distributions of Modal System (inauguration speech) .................................58
Table 22. The Distributions of Modal System (in all of the three speeches).......................59
Table 23. The Distributions of the Metaphors of Modality (announcement for
President) .............................................................................................................62
Table 24. The Distributions of the Metaphors of Mood ......................................................64
Figures
Figure 1. Context, semantics and lexico-grammar ..............................................................16
Figure 2. The three stages of the research design ................................................................35
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