An Analysis of Obama’s Inaugural Address from the Perspective of Halliday’s Interpersonal Function

Abstract

In public speaking, speakers share their thoughts, call for action, and even influence listeners’ attitudes through language. This paper employs Interpersonal Function Theory of Halliday’s Functional Grammar to analyze Barack Obama’s inaugural address. It aims to reveal the relationship between language choice and the meaning one is inclined to express will make a thorough analysis of Barack Obama’s inaugural address from the perspective of Interpersonal Function theory of Functional Grammar, finally revealing the relationship between language choice and the meaning one is inclined to express and illustrate how Obama realizes Interpersonal Function through language in his address.

It is found that in Obama’s inaugural address, Mood, Modality and Personal pronouns all facilitate to the intimacy between the speaker and listener in varying degrees, thus achieving the purpose of communication. In terms of Mood system, declaratives and imperatives are decidedly in the majority in Obama’s speech. In the aspect of Modality system, the usage of median and high value modal auxiliary verbs predominates over that of low value modal auxiliary verbs. In terms of Person, the first personal pronoun is used more frequently than the second personal pronoun and the third personal pronoun.