Studies Of The Interpersonal Meaning Of English Cover Letters

As one of language functions, interpersonal meaning (IP meaning) is of great importance. As Halliday(1994) points out, people use language to set up and keep interpersonal relationship, to influence others' behavior, or to try to change others' point of view, etc. In this thesis, each of the 50 English cover letters collected is divided into three parts. Each part is analyzed mainly through the systems of Mood and Modality to see how interpersonal meaning is realized. Thus linguistic patterns such as modal auxiliaries, mood adjuncts, interpersonal metaphors of three parts of English cover letters are analyzed respectively. It's found that modal auxiliaries reflect the applicant's intention, opinion and attitude, and also show implicitly the applicant's confidence of what he conveys. Mood adjuncts are to reinforce the applicant's expression. Tense in English cover letters is a device to help convince the reader that the applicant is just the right person for the job. In addition, tense, "if clause and imperatives are also analyzed. Psychological analysis is also employed in this thesis. Imperatives are to enforce the inclination or command implicitly and indirectly in English cover letters. "if" clause offers greater freedom of choice to the reader. Hence, it's also found that politeness strategy is employed in cover letter writing. In a word, it's found in writing English cover letters all devices are employed by the applicant in order to influence the employer(reader)'s opinion or impression upon the applicant, and ultimately set up a good relationship with him/her.