A Study On Interpersonal Meanings Of Modality In Obama's Speeches

Although as a particular form of human communication, speech, especially the public speaking with its own features, has been the ever fresh research objective in the discourse analysis field, most of the researches studying speeches which have been done previously are almost all about political speeches, especially the presidential victory and inauguration speeches. And few discourse analyses developed on the basis of Hallidayan Functional Grammar focus only on one aspect. This thesis, focusing only on modality system of Functional Grammar, aims to study the interpersonal meanings revealed by modality in President Obama's different speeches.The research questions to be addressed in this thesis are:(1) How are the interpersonal meanings revealed by different values of finite modal operators?(2) How the interpersonal meanings are revealed by different modal adjuncts of modality?(3) How are the interpersonal meanings revealed by different metaphors of modality?(4) What are the factors influencing the speaker's choice of different linguistic realizations of modality?To answer these four questions, eight Obama's speeches of four kinds—politics, economy, education and society are chosen as the data to do the research. Under the theory foundation of Hallidayan modality system, the author gives a thorough analysis of how are the interpersonal meanings revealed by the different realizations of modality. With the results of the analysis, there are some pregnant findings of this thesis:Firstly, though there are various realizations of modality, no matter in which kind of speech, for English speakers, finite modal operators is still the main method to express modality meanings. The reason for this phenomenon maybe: finite modal operators has the most distinguished feature of modality firstly—subjectivity. And then its implicit orientation helps the speaker to keep polite and give enough respect to others. What's more, it can be used as all the four types of modality in both propositions and proposals.Secondly, there are no marked differences in the choice of modality among the four kinds of speeches since no matter what the specific content of the speech is involved—politics, economy, education or society, the speech still has the common characters of the public speaking. The tiny differences are: political and economy speeches are more formal in language choice than that of educational and social speeches, so speakers always prefer to use median value modality to keep their language more accurate and strict.Thirdly, as to the choice of specific one of modality, multiple complex elements make influences on the speakers'choice together, such as the speech type, the culture of country, the specific interpersonal meanings the speakers want to express and the specific functions of some modality can take etc.Language is such a complex subject that the research will never stop. Based on the study and findings of this thesis, a new perspective of oral discourse analysis may be given.