The Speech Claims The Man: Chairman Xi’s Public Speeches

Public speaking is a kind of language communicative activity which made by acelebrity or a person with special experience in the face of the public for a specificissue. Political speech is one type of public speaking which focuses on domestic andforeign affairs. The speaker makes it representing certain party, government orcountry on certain important issues. It plays a very important role in the leader’spolitical life. Mr. Xi, as the new leader of the People’s Republic of China, representsthe China’s image, so his word and deed will be the focus of the world attention.This thesis is to probe into the interpersonal meaning of President Xi Jinping’stwo public speeches from an interpersonal perspective. The foci of this thesis aremood system, modality system and some typical lexical items.This thesis comes to the following conclusions:(1) From the perspective of mood system, the declarative mood makes up amajor part followed by the imperative mood. The large number of declarative clausesindicates that Mr. Xi gives abundant information and shows his confidence andrespect to the people. He also uses lots of imperative sentences with modal operatorslike “should”,“must” or “need” to express the persuasion, invitation and advice to thepeople and also show their determination to serving for people.(2) From the perspective of modality system, the median value modal operators“will”“should” help his speech more reliable and easily accepted; the high valuemodal operators “need”“must” can strengthen the tone and show his determinationand confidence. While he also uses the lower value modal verbs “can”“may” toexpress the objective fact and show his modesty. Metaphorical modality is a specialitem in the SFL, Mr. Xi also uses this kind of linguistic device to maintain his goodimage and gain the support of the people.(3) From the perspective of typical lexical items, President Xi mainly uses theadverbs and the personal pronouns. The adverbs such as “still”“only”“never”“hardly” etc. convey his strong emotions and evaluations and can make a deepimpression on the audiences. The personal pronoun “I” shows his willingness to beresponsible for what he has said. The use of inclusive “we” helps him shorten the psychological distance between him and the listeners; President Xi’s use of theexclusive “we” helps him emphasize the Communist Party’s responsibilities. Xi alsouses “our” to stress Chinese Communist Party and the people are at one family andthey share the same interests. While through the use of “you”, President Xi makes theaudiences feel closer to him and lay a good foundation for the later speech. The highfrequency use of “its” shows Xi’s objective tone.This paper can help us have a better understanding of Mr Xi’s speech style andpersonality. Speech claims the man. It is a speech that crackles with wit and wisdomand blows people’s mind. Mr. Xi’s speeches are concise, plain and forceful.Furthermore, this thesis will contribute a lot to the teaching and studying of thespeech discourses.