Interpersonal Meanings In The Discourse Of American Presidential Inaugural Address

American Presidential Inaugural Address, as a sub-component of political speech, is publicly delivered by the newly-elected president on inauguration ceremony. In the addresses, the new president reveals about the fundamental political values, particular principles and the enactment of a presidential persona. As a unique and practical genre, the addresses are of great significance. Studies on this discourse can help readers understand the meaning and better appreciate the essence of the English language. In addition, it also can facilitate the improvement of the speech lover's skills in using public speaking language and promote the teaching in English comprehension and writing in colleges.Presidential Inaugural Addresses are studied from many perspectives. Most of the studies are carried out from the perspective of political, science, stylistics, rhetoric and so on. But the analysis from the interpersonal perspective is rare.Based on functional grammar, the thesis employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches. With ten American Presidential Inaugural Addresses as the data, the thesis analyzes how the interpersonal meaning is generally realized from the perspective of mood, modality, person and tense.The findings can be summarized as follows:(1). In American Inaugural Address, among the three mood choices, declaratives are used the most frequently. The use of interrogative is to invoke the audience's attention and get them involved in the address.(2).The modal verb operator "will" is mostly frequently used in the address. What's more, the use of other modal verbs such as "can" and "must" also plays an important role in the realization of the interpersonal meaning.(3). The pronominal selection by different speaker is a reflection of the social and political contexts, which can be illustrated from the strategic use of inclusive "we" and exclusive "we".(4). The proper use of tense also contributes to establish relationships between speakers and audiences.The above findings show that Halliday's functional grammar is scientific and applicable in the analysis of the interpersonal meaning of a discourse. What's more, the analysis also helps the readers to appreciate the type of discourse more precisely.