Discourse Analysis of Theresa May's Inaugural Address from the Perspective of Metafunctions_英语论文

摘要

政治人物就职演说由于其具有一定的政治性而为许多学者所关注和研究。而近年来，韩礼德所创建的系统功能语言学理论对语篇分析具有较高的科学性和适用性，不少学者运用其理论对政治演讲进行语篇分析。但由于学界对女性演讲题材分析较少，因此笔者以特蕾莎·梅2016年的就职演说为研究对象，运用系统功能语言学三大元功能对语篇进行分析，以探究其语言特征以及语言的潜在意义。

在本次分析中，经验功能、人际功能和语篇功能就被作为分析的理论基础和工具，分析表明：1）为了增强就职演说的号召性和说服力，特蕾莎使用较多的物质过程和关系过程组织其语言。2）本次就职演说的主要意义在于向群众宣布新首相的政治主张，并表明自己的决心，同时又为了避免树立过于激进的形象，因此特蕾莎演讲全程使用向听众发出信息的陈述句，并使用中等情态的语气。3）为了更好地建立和保持与民众的关系，特蕾莎在演讲中变换主位以强调不同的内容，以聚集民心。4）韩礼德的元功能理论对演讲体裁的语篇分析具有一定的实用性和科学性。

关键词: 韩礼德  特蕾莎梅  元功能  就职演说  语篇分析 

Abstract

Many scholars have been focusing on and studying political speeches for its political nature. In recent several decades, many scholars use systemic functional linguistic theory which is founded by Halliday to conduct the discourse analysis to political speeches because this theory has relatively high scientificity and practicability to discourse analysis. But there is less discourse analysis to female politicians than to male politicians. Therefore, this Thesis conducts a discourse analysis to Theresa’s inaugural address to further explore its linguistic features. 

In this Thesis, experiential, interpersonal and textual metafunctions are used as the theoretical framework and tools to conduct the analysis. It is found that (1) Theresa applied lots of material process and relational process in her speech in order to increase her charisma and persuasiveness; (2) Theresa used declarative clauses in her speech to announce her political propositions, and in order to avoid building an aggressive and mighty image, she mostly used medium level modal operators; (3) Theresa changed the themes in her speech to emphasize different points so as to gain popular support and maintain the relationships with the audiences; (4) Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics theory has its scientificity and practicability to discourse analysis.

Key words: Halliday  Theresa May  metafunctions  inaugural address  discourse analysis

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Purpose of This Thesis 1

1.2  Significance of This Thesis 2

1.3  Structure of This Thesis 2

1.4  Research Method of This Thesis 3

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4

2.1  Introduction 4

2.2  Methods of Discourse Analysis 4

2.3  The Study of Metafunctions 5

2.4  Summary 6

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 7

3.1  Introduction 7

3.2  The Three Metafunctions 7

3.2.1 Experiential Metafunction 8

3.2.2 Interpersonal Metafunction 9

3.2.3 Textual Metafunction 10

Chapter Four  Discourse Analysis of Theresa May’s Inaugural Address 11

4.1  Introduction 11

4.2  Discourse Analysis 11

4.2.1 Analysis based on Experiential Metafunction 12

4.2.2 Analysis based on Interpersonal Metafunction 14

4.2.3 Analysis based on Textual Metafunction 17

Chapter Five  Conclusion 19

Bibliography

Appendix

Acknowledgements