An Interpersonal Function Analysis Of The Characters' Dialogues In This Is Us

One of the core ideas of Systemic Functional Grammar is based on the three meta-language functions put forward by Halliday,namely,the interpersonal function,the conceptual function and the textual function.Among them,the interpersonal function,one of the three meta-language functions,refers to the people's use of language to interact with other people,to establish and maintain personal relationships,and to express their own judgments and evaluations of the world,which are mainly realized through the mood system and the modality system.The application of interpersonal function helps not only to explore the relationship,the status and the willingness of various characters in the text but also to reveal the profound connotation of the text and to resolve the interpersonal conflicts,thus achieving more effective interpersonal communication.With the development and popularization of movies and TV series,watching TV series has become one of the most important ways of entertainment in modern times.This Is Us is an American TV series,broadcasted by NBC(National Broadcasting Company).Season 1 began in September 2016 and ended in March 2017.The premiere delivering of Season 1 set the highest ratings of 2016 in the United States.In this thesis the author selects some important occasions and important moments of Season 1 in This Is Us as the analytic corpus.From the analysis based on interpersonal function,the author finds that,in terms of mood,the declarative mood is the most frequently used mood type in the three dialogues,with the interrogative being in the second place.Through the analysis of the different mood types that the characters choose,we can feel their different feelings,opinions and values.At the same time,the characters use a lot of mood metaphors,for instance,declarative clauses are used to express the interrogative mood,imperative clauses are used to express the declarative mood,and etc.,which further realize the interpersonal function of characters' dialogues in This Is Us and point to the love and respect that greatly needed today.In terms of modality,the characters in the three dialogues use a majority of the median and low-value modal operators to express their opinions and feelings,which mean they respect each other.They also adopt some modal adjuncts to express intensity and degree of emotions,which emphasize their love for the listeners.There are also some modal metaphors used to express the characters' subjective thoughts and opinions.Through the research and the analysis,first,the feasibility and applicability of interpersonal function theory to the analysis of dialogues in TV series are further illustrated.What's more,it deeply reveals the thoughts,feelings and relationships of the characters in this TV play,and helps the audience to understand this play more comprehensively.In brief,the research results demonstrate,firstly,the feasibility and applicability of interpersonal function theory to the analysis of dialogues in the TV series.Secondly,they deeply reveal the thoughts,feelings and relationships of the characters in this TV series,thus helping the audience to understand this TV series more comprehensively.Finally,the results of this study suggest that if social members will show their mutual respect and love in their interpersonal communication,they can resolve the possible interpersonal conflicts and make more effective communication,which will be of great help to maintain social stability,build a harmonious society and promote the prosperity of the country.