A Study On The Language Of Condoleezza Rice-From The Perspective Of Systemic Functional Grammar

Systemic functional grammar, developed by the famous linguist M.A.K. Halliday, has been used as the theory and methods in discourse analysis by many linguists and scholars as well. Throughout the literature review on functional discourse analysis, there isn't any research concerned on one individual's speeches from the theory of three metafunctions, that is, ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function. Moreover, there isn't any research on the remarks of Condoleezza Rice—the 66^th State Secretary of United States, from the aspects of transitivity, mood, modality, thematic structure and thematic progression. This thesis is the first attempt on such a study to explore Rice's linguistic features.Through the analysis of the five pieces of remarks delivered by Secretary Rice in different contexts, the paper is designed to find out the ideational meaning, interpersonal meaning, and textual meaning hidden in the remarks. The number and proportion of each functional component were illustrated through figures and diagrams. And then the thesis also explored the ways the speaker used to arrange and organize the content in order to influence the audience and their attitudes towards the given topic in a certain context.Through the analysis, some features and characteristics about Secretary Rice's remarks are obtained. Firstly, in terms of ideational function, the speaker mainly employed material, relational and mental processes, among which, material processes are used most frequently. The speaker applied material processes and relational processes to present large amount of facts and achievements made in the past. At the same time, in order to explain the interrelationship between these facts, she used abundant material processes to promise to the audience what she will do for the government, so as to encourage the audience and get support and trust from them. Secondly, as far as interpersonal function is concerned, the speaker applied different tenses and modality according to the nature and context of each piece of remarks. According to the formality and importance of the remarks, the frequency of the use of modality and the degree of modality is diverse. Among which, finite modal operator, modal adjunct and metaphor are the most commonly-used means. Thirdly, with regard to textual function, the application of unmarked themes makes the text more comprehensible, which also shows the speaker's respect for the audience, and embodies the speaker's affinity. Nevertheless, the employment of marked theme is to reveal the speaker's key information, which makes the remarks more accessible to the audience, and the alternative use of marked theme and unmarked theme makes the remarks more coherent and clear. Meanwhile, the integrative application of various patterns of thematic progressions creates a clear semantic-logical relation, a condense and reasonable structure, and a refined and smart organization of information for the remarks.All in all, the thesis, on the one hand, is expected to validate the hypothesis that analysis on one individual's remarks from the three metafunctions is applicable and feasible, and on the other hand, to explore the linguistic characteristics of Secretary Rice's remarks, thus offer insights to language users and other researchers who have interest in the study on the State Secretary.