Interpersonal Meaning In Foreign University Introductions-A Systemic Functional Approach

With the development of educational globalization, more and more top universities seek for international cooperation and are engaged in the international recruitment. As the primary means of publicity, the university introduction plays a crucial role in attracting the potential students. Therefore, it is important to study the realization of interpersonal meaning in foreign university introductions.The present study is to analyze the realization of interpersonal meaning in university introductions by an systemic functional approach. Interpersonal function is one of the metafunctions of language in Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics and the core idea of Martin’s Appraisal Theory, the latest development on interpersonal meaning study at the level of semantics in the 20th century. Interpersonal meaning is concerned with the use of language to express our own viewpoints, to interact with other people, to establish and maintain relations with others, to influence their behavior, and even to change the world. According to Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics, mood, modality and person systems are the main means to realize interpersonal meaning at the lexico-grammatical level. While in the framework of Martin’s Appraisal Theory, the interpersonal meaning is mainly realized by attitude system, expressing speaker’s affect, judgment and appreciation.In the present study,40 texts of foreign university introductions are collected from official university websites and the university promotion flyers. The descriptive analyses are carried out in terms of mood, modality, person and attitude systems and then the distribution and frequency of the modal expression, personal pronouns and attitude resources are discussed with examples.The study mainly finds that (1) in terms of mood, foreign university introductions provide information basically through declarative clauses to achieve the speech role of information-giving. A few imperative and interrogative clauses are also used to stimulate the interaction with the reader. Furthermore, the mood adjunct of polarity appears most frequently to make the statements more assertive and reliable. (2) The modality of inclination is most frequently employed to encourage potential students to take action by applying to the university. The modality with median values realized by modal operators creates a negotiable and friendly relationship with the reader. To maintain objectivity, the writer provides information in an implicitly subjective way in the exchange. (3) The first person pronouns and the referential switch shorten the distance between the reader and writer, and make the reader get involved in the interaction. (4) In the attitude system, the appreciation resources are most frequently expressed to provide the evaluation of the university, and thus to offer a better standing of the university and realize the function of promotion to the reader.Through the study of interpersonal meaning of the foreign university introductions, this thesis explores the feasibility of a systemic functional approach in the introductory discourse. This thesis strengthens the understanding of the interpersonal meaning in the foreign university introductions and provides a new approach for translating the introductory discourses.