A Correlation Study Between Speakers' Use Of Interpersonal Linguistic Resources And Their Five-Factor Personality Traits

This research endeavors to explore the correlation between speakers' use of linguistic resources of Halliday's interpersonal function theory and their five-factor personality traits in an informal oral interview context.Linguistic resources of interpersonal function theory refer to the interpersonal linguistic resources that can help with the realization of interpersonal meaning.Specifically,the interpersonal linguistic resources in this study include: ?.the clauses of different functions under mood system,like the clause of offer,statement,command and question;?.the modal verbs of different values under modality system,such as modal verbs of high value like “must,ought to,need,has/have to”,modal verbs of median value like “will,would,shall,should,is/was to”,and model verbs of low value like “may,might,can,could”;?.different personal pronouns,like “I,we,you,he,she,and they”.As for the five-factor personality traits theory,it divides the personality traits into five dimensions,which are agreeableness,openness,conscientiousness,extraversion,and neuroticism.Considering that Ma Crea& Costa's five-factor model is the most applied personality traits model in psychological study,their simplified fivefactor personality scale is used to measure the scores of each dimension of the interviewees.And to be specific,this study is conducted to answer the research questions that can be seen as follows:1)What relationships,if any,exist between speakers' five-factor personality traits and their use of mood system linguistic resources in terms of the use of different clauses?2)What relationships,if any,exist between speakers' five-factor personality traits and their use of modality system linguistic resources in terms of the use of modal verbs of different values?3)What relationships,if any,exist between speakers' five-factor personality traits and their use of different personal pronouns?Thirty-two native English speakers were invited to complete an informal face-to-face interview with the researcher one by one.They were asked about the same questions which were previously prepared by the researcher,and the interviews were all recorded with interviewees' consent.After the interview,each interviewee was asked to fill in Ma Crea& Costa's Five-Factor Personality traits Scale Questionnaire(NEO-FFI)to measure their personality traits.The record data were all transcribed into texts,and the data was processed with the help of Ant Conc and Excel.At last,SPSS was used to do the correlation analysis,and the results show that1)In mood system,the significant positive correlation can be found between a)the scores of neuroticism and the use of sentences of information statement;b)the scores of openness and the uses of sentences of command.The significant negative correlation can be found between a)the scores of neuroticism and the uses of sentences of offer;b)the scores of neuroticism and the uses of sentences of question;c)the scores of agreeableness and the use of sentences of offer.2)In modality system,the significant positive correlation can be found between a)scores of conscientiousness and the use of modal verbs of low value;b)scores of extraversion and the use of modal verbs of high value.There is no significant negative correlation found.3)As for personal pronouns,there is significant negative correlation between the scores of neuroticism and the use of second pronouns and third plural pronouns.There is no significant positive correlation found.Under Halliday's systemic functional linguistics theory,this study reveals a new way to predict the possible speech roles one is trying to construct,the possible attitude one is trying to present,and the possible social relation one is trying to set up,which is from the perspective of his or her five-factor personality traits.Setting Halliday's systemic functional linguistics theory aside,as in this informal oral interview speakers' use of interpersonal linguistic resources are related to their five-factor personality traits,this study shows that more consideration should be taken in the future studies that apply systemic functional linguistics theory to investigate informal oral interview discourse.Therefore,this study may be of some help to further studies when doing discourse analysis,and to the development of some linguistic theories especially systemic functional linguistics theory.Moreover,this study proves the reliability of the approach to study people's personality by analyzing the words people use.