Interpersonal meanings in american presidents donald trump’s and joe biden’s speeches about the covid‑19 pandemic a comparative study

Appraisal Theory, which is derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics, aims to investigate how individuals describe interpersonal meanings in texts Martin & White, 2005.. A study condu

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

TRAN THI THU THUY

INTERPERSONAL MEANINGS IN AMERICAN PRESIDENTS DONALD TRUMP’S AND JOE BIDEN’S SPEECHES ABOUT THE COVID‑19 PANDEMIC: A

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

TRẦN THỊ THU THÚY

NGHÊN CỨU SO SÁNH CÁC NÉT NGHĨA LIÊN NHÂN TRONG DIỄN NGÔN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ DONALD TRUMP VÀ

JOE BIDEN VỀ ĐẠI DỊCH COVID-19

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn Ngữ Anh

Mã Số: 8220201

Người hướng dẫn: PGS TS Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “Interpersonal meanings in American presidents Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s speeches about the covid‑19 pandemic: a comparative study” is entirely my own original work

In addition, I emphasize that the thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not simultaneously submitted to any candidature for any degree or diploma Any works of other authors consulted in this thesis are listed in the reference

Quy Nhon, 2023

Signature

TRAN THI THU THUY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of this graduation thesis is the result of not only my own efforts but also the assistance of organizations and individuals to whom I would like

to express my sincerest appreciation

First and foremost, I am profoundly thankful to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, for the thoughtful guidance, critical comments, and precious advice that she provided me Without her endless patience and constant encouragement during the process of conducting this study, the work would never have been completed

Secondly, I am deeply grateful to all the lecturers not only from Quy Nhon University, but also from other universities for their whole-hearted contribution

to sharpening my academic knowledge during the previous semesters

Thirdly, I would like to sincerely thank the Department of Postgraduate Training and the Department of Foreign Languages of Quy Nhon University for their cooperation and support

Last but not least, I would like to thank my beloved family and friends, who have always believed in me and given me the strength to overcome all the troubles I encountered during the fulfillment of this research

Quy Nhon, 2023

to emphasize the urgency of taking action and instill hope for the future Additionally, Trump relied more heavily on Affect resources, while Biden used more instances of Judgment and Appreciation The study suggests that the use

of Attitudinal resources in language can provide insight into a politician's communication style and their strategies for appealing to different audiences

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIRGURES viii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 4

1.2.1 Aim 4

1.2.2 Objectives 4

1.3 Research Questions 5

1.4 Scopes of the Study 5

1.5 Significance of the Study 6

1.6 Organization of the Study 6

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 Systemic Functional Grammar 8

2.1.1 The Ideational Metafunction 10

2.1.2 The Textual Metafunction 11

2.1.3 The Interpersonal Metafunction 12

2.2 Appraisal Theory 24

2.2.1 Engagement 26

2.2.2 Graduation 28

2.2.3 Attitude 30

2.3 A review of previous studies related to the topic 36

2.4 Summary 42

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 44

3.1 Research method 44

3.2 Data collection 44

3.3 Data analysis 45

3.4 Research Procedures 45

3.5 Reliability and Validity of the Study 46

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 48

4.1 Interpersonal meaning expressed by Mood system 48

4.2 Interpersonal meaning expressed by Modality system 60

4.2.1 Interpersonal meaning expressed by Modal Auxiliary 60

4.2.2 Interpersonal meaning expressed by Modal Adjuncts 69

4.3 Interpersonal meaning expressed by Attitudinal resources 74

4.3.1 Affect 76

4.3.2 Judgment 82

4.3.3 Appreciation 87

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 96

5.1 Conclusions 96

5.2 Implications 98

5.3 Limitations for further research 99

5.4 Recommendations for Future Research 99

REFERENCES 101

LIST OF ABBREVIATONS

SFG Systemic Functional Grammar SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics DTSs Donald Trump’s speeches

JBSs Joe Biden’s speeches

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Typical functions of group and phrase classes (Halliday

1994 :109) 11 Table 2.2 The speech roles and the speech functions (Halliday, 1994) 13 Table 2.3 Finite Verbal Operators (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014) 16 Table 2.4 Modalization and Modulation (Halliday, 1994:91) 22 Table 2.5 Modal Adjuncts (Halliday, 2004: 82) 23 Table 2.6 The monoglossic and the heteroglossic (Martin and White,2005) 26 Table 2.7 Judgment – Social Esteem (Martin and White, 2005) 33 Table 2.8 Judgment – social sanction (Martin and White, 2005) 34 Table 2.9 Sub-types of Appreciation (Martin and White, 2005) 35 Table 4.1 Mood Types in Joe Biden’s speeches and Donald Trump’s

speeches 49 Table 4.2 Frequency of modal verbs in Donald Trump’s speeches 61 Table 4.3 Attitudinal resources in DTSs and JBSs 75 Table 4.4 Distribution of parts of speeches of Affec resources in Donald

Trump’s and Joe Biden’s speeches 76 Table 4.5 Distribution of parts of speeches of Judgment resources in

Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s speeches 82

LIST OF FIRGURES

Figure 2.1 Mood types (Gerot and Wignell, 1994) 16 Figure 2.2 An overview of Appraisal resources (Martin and White,

2005) 26 Figure 2.3 The engagement-contract: disclaim (Martin and White,

2005:122) Error! Bookmark not defined

Figure 2.4 Force: intensification – quality and process 30 Figure 4.1 Appreciation values in Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s

speeches 89

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020 The pandemic has had a significant impact on the world, especially in the United States, where political leaders have been scrutinized for their handling of the crisis Donald Trump and Joe Biden are two of the most prominent political figures in the United States and have had differing approaches to handling the pandemic As country leaders, their speeches have a significant impact on strengthening the relationship with the community in order to influence people’s behavior and attitudes toward this problem

In the realm of social communication, the language used reflects an individual's social identity, relationships, and cultural norms, as noted by Tannen (1990) Effective organization of speech is essential for establishing an interpersonal connection between the speaker and listener The theory of interpersonal meaning provides a framework for analyzing social interactions between speakers and their audience Numerous perspectives with varying frameworks have been employed in researching interpersonal meaning, with Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) gaining increased attention in recent years

Scholars have extensively researched language from the perspectives of metafunctions, which include the ideational, interpersonal, and textual dimensions Among these dimensions, the interpersonal meaning has received significant attention and contributions from researchers across academic genres, including news reporting, commentary, editorials, and advertising

Huang and Lin (2019) conducted research to investigate the use of interpersonal meaning in news reports about political events Their analysis of the language used in news reports about the 2018 US midterm elections revealed that the use of evaluative language and personal pronouns was associated with a higher degree of subjectivity and bias in reporting

Similarly, Abolfazli and Azizifar (2019) used Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to investigate the use of interpersonal metafunction markers

in the presidential debates between Trump and Clinton Their study revealed that the candidates employed various types of markers to establish their identity and authority In addition, Chen and Baker (2020) conducted a study that investigated the use of modality in political speeches about climate change They found that politicians strategically used modality to appeal to different audiences and to present themselves as knowledgeable and trustworthy

Appraisal Theory, which is derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics, aims to investigate how individuals describe interpersonal meanings in texts (Martin & White, 2005) This theory focuses on how speakers intensify emotions and utilize multiple voices in their discourses It provides systematic techniques for analyzing evaluation and stance in texts, with a primary focus on the social function of these resources rather than the ways in which writers or speakers convey their emotions and positions

The Appraisal framework comprises the following three subsystems: Attitude, Graduation, and Engagement Attitude involves analyzing how writers or speakers express their emotions and opinions towards entities, situations, or people Graduation encompasses the extent to which evaluative meanings are intensified or downplayed in a text Engagement refers to the way

in which writers or speakers align themselves with their audience or context, including the level of directness, inclusiveness, and rapport-building strategies they utilize

A study conducted by Liu and Wang (2019) used Appraisal Theory to analyze the interpersonal meaning in the speeches of former UK Prime Minister Theresa May The study found that May used a combination of positive and negative Appraisals to construct her identity and establish rapport with her audiences, while also signaling her authority and power as a political leader Additionally, Opstaele (2008) found that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama used a variety of Appraisal resources in their speeches to manage their own identities and those of their opponents However, Clinton used more resources for Affect, whereas Obama used more resources for Appreciation and Engagement The study also found that Clinton focused more on the past, while Obama focused more on the future These studies demonstrate the value of using Appraisal Theory and SFL to examine the interpersonal meaning in political discourse and highlight the different ways in which politicians use language to construct their identity, authority, and relationships with their audiences

Several Vietnamese linguists have employed Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as an analytical tool to investigate the various meanings of discourse For instance, Nguyen Hoa (1999) explored the ideational and interpersonal meanings in Vietnamese poems through a systemic approach Nguyen Hoa argued that the interpersonal meanings in poetry were closely related to cultural values and the poet's intentions in creating the poem Nguyen Thi Thu Hien (2009) analyzed the interpersonal meanings in Vietnamese tourist brochures employing SFL The study found that the tourist brochures used various linguistic devices to create a positive image of Vietnam and to establish

a rapport with the target audience Ton Nu My Nhat (2004) applied SFL to analyze the interpersonal meanings in Vietnamese advertising language The study found that advertising language used various strategies to appeal to the reader's emotions and to establish credibility and trust The research conducted

by these scholars suggests that SFL can be a useful tool to investigate the interpersonal meanings in various types of discourse in the Vietnamese language

Moreover, scholars have utilized the Appraisal Theory to analyze various types of discourse, highlighting its significance in discourse analysis These investigations have included research on examining interpersonal meaning through the simultaneous application of Systemic Functional Grammar and the Appraisal framework, as demonstrated by Nguyen Thi Thu Hien (2016), Montemayor-Borsinger (2008), and Pascual (2010) Recent works

by Nguyen Thi Thu Hien (2017) have further emphasized the diverse applicability of the evaluative theory in investigating the interpersonal meanings of discourse across genres, such as academic research, news, and spoken discourse

Despite previous research that has employed SFL as analytical frameworks to explore different types of discourse, a literature gap exists regarding an approach that integrates both frameworks as its principal foundation for analyzing political spoken discourse Therefore, this study aims

to bridge this gap by performing a comprehensive analysis of the interpersonal meanings conveyed through political speeches regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, delivered by Donald Trump and Joe Biden using a mixed approach

By examining the interpersonal meanings in the speeches of both candidates, this study can provide insight into their leadership styles, perspectives on the pandemic, and ability to connect with their audience The comparative examination of the interpersonal meanings in their speeches may reveal differences and similarities in their language use, contributing to a deeper understanding of their communication strategies

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

1.2.1 Aim

This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the interpersonal meanings in the speeches of Trump and Biden during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify the similarities and differences in their language use This study will contribute to the field of linguistics, political science, and communication studies, and provide valuable insights into the use of language in political communication during a crisis

- To compare and contrast in order to determine similarities and contrasts

in the use of language resources to disclose interpersonal characteristics employed by these two presidents

1.4 Scopes of the Study

As previously mentioned, this study centers on the analysis of interpersonal aspects using the Functional Grammar and Appraisal Theory frameworks Moreover, a comparative analysis will be conducted on the

speeches of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, with a focus on the written text for reliability purposes While there are numerous variables to explore in uncovering the interpersonal characteristics of discourse, this research will specifically examine Mood, Modality, and Attitudinal values, including Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation

1.5 Significance of the Study

The significance of this study lies in its exploration of how Donald Trump and Joe Biden utilized interpersonal meanings in their speeches about the COVID-19 pandemic By examining the use of functional grammar and Appraisal Theory, this study provides insights into how the two political leaders constructed their messages and conveyed their attitudes and emotions towards the pandemic

Understanding the interpersonal meanings in political speeches is important as it can shape public perception and influence decision-making By comparing the speeches of Trump and Biden, this study can provide valuable insights into the communication strategies employed by the two leaders and how they influenced their audiences' perceptions of the pandemic

Moreover, the study's focus on written text provides an objective and reliable source of data, making it a valuable resource for future researchers and policymakers Overall, this study's significance lies in its potential to enhance our understanding of how political leaders communicate during crises and how these communications can impact public opinion and policy decisions

1.6 Organization of the Study

There are five chapters in the thesis and they are arranged in the following order:

Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the background for the study,

including rationale, aim, and objectives; research questions; the scope of the study; the significance of the study; and the organization of the study

Chapter 2, Literature review and Theoretical Background, provides a

brief overview about Functional grammar and Appraisal Theory as well as previous studies related to the present study

Chapter 3, Methodology, deals with research methods, data collection,

data analysis, and research procedures

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussions, presents and discusses the results

of the study

Chapter 5, Conclusions, summarizes the key points in the findings,

makes conclusions, offers some implications for applying suitable structures for political public speeches, points out the limitations of the study, and puts forward some suggestions for further investigation

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is divided into two main sections, each contributing to the theoretical and analytical framework used in the present study The first section provides a thorough overview of the relevant theoretical foundations, specifically Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and its applications to Interpersonal meaning analysis The Mood and Modality systems are introduced and their respective roles in analyzing Interpersonal meaning are discussed in detail (Martin and White, 2005) The Mood system focuses on mood choices such as declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives In contrast, the Modality system is examined through modalization and modulation and is classified using Halliday's (1994) modality value scales of high, median, and low Additionally, this section delves into Appraisal Theory, which was developed from SFG by Martin and White (2005), exploring its relevance to the study at hand

The second section of this chapter presents a comprehensive review of past research that utilized similar analytical frameworks as those used in this thesis

2.1 Systemic Functional Grammar

Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) is a linguistic theory that examines the intricate relationship between language and its functions within social contexts This theoretical framework, commonly referred to as Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), originated from the work of M.A.K Halliday in 1990s As a functional grammar, SFG is conceptually rooted in functionalism rather than formalism This means that SFG is primarily interested in the functions that language serves in communication, rather than solely focusing

on the structure of language itself SFG recognizes that language is not simply

a set of abstract rules or a system of signs, but rather a tool for communication that serves a variety of social functions Language is viewed as a resource that

speakers use to create meaning, express their ideas and emotions, negotiate social relationships, and perform a range of other functions in different contexts (Eggins, 2004)

According to Halliday (1994), language serves three primary metafunctions: ideational, textual, and interpersonal The ideational metafunction is realized through the transitivity system, which generates human experiences The textual metafunction organizes discourse and facilitates cohesion by utilizing information emphasis and Theme-Rheme The interpersonal metafunction, which underpins personal and social relationships,

is expressed through the Mood and Modality systems Through these three metafunctions, language serves to represent and organize human experience, facilitate communication and social relationships, and create coherent and cohesive texts

According to Halliday (1978), language is not merely a set of arbitrary sounds or symbols, but a complex system of resources that speakers use to make meaning The clause is a unit of language that allows us to express a complete thought It consists of a subject and a predicate and is rich in meaning and functional potential Halliday believed that the clause is a fundamental unit

of organization in language and provides the basic structure for all levels of linguistic analysis, including phonology, grammar, semantics, and pragmatics Therefore, by analyzing the clause, linguists can gain insights into how language operates at different levels of analysis, from the sounds of speech to the social context in which language is used In summary, Halliday chose the clause as a unit of analysis in language because it is a rich and fundamental unit that provides insights into the workings of language at all levels of analysis and

is central to his theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics

2.1.1 The Ideational Metafunction

According to Halliday (2004), Ideational meaning related to the expression

of content, that is, subjective and objective experience of humans This kind of meaning is divided into two sub-categories: experiential meaning and logical meaning Meaning of experience provides a mental picture of realityto describe inner and outer experience: between what we experience as going on "out there", in the world around us, and what we experience as going on inside ourselves, in the world of consciousness and imagination The prototypical form of the“outer” experience is that of actions and events: things happen, and people, or other actors, do things or make them happen The "inner" experience

is partly a kind of replay of the outer - recording it, reacting to it, reflecting on

it, and partly a separate awareness of our states of being Goings-on, doing, sensing, meaning, and being are our most profound impressions of experience

The reference framework to explain the meaning of experience is Transitivity

which contains: process, participants, and (optionally) the circumstances

involved in the process An experiential analysis of a clause focuses on the processes which are:

1) material process – processes of doing;

2) mental process – processes of sensing;

3) verbal process – processes of saying;

4) behavioral processes – processes of physiological and psychological behavior;

5) existential process – processes of existing or happening;

6) and relational process – processes of being and having

(Halliday, 2004) The interpretation of processes is what lies behind the grammatical distinction of word classes into verbs, nouns, and the rest, a pattern that in some form or another is probably universal among human languages We can express

this as in Table 2.1 below:

Table 2.1 Typical functions of group and phrase classes (Halliday 1994 :109)

Type of element Typically

realized by Process Verbal group the happenings or states of affairs

represented in a clause Participant Nominal group the elements which denote who or

what is directly involved in the process

Circumstance

(optional)

Adverbial group

or prepositional phrase

information regarding the who, when, where, how, for how long, and so on, of the process

2.1.2 The Textual Metafunction

Textual meaning is related to the organization of the elements in the

text It is used to organize ideological and interpersonal meaning and to create coherence throughout the text (Butt et al., 2000; Thompson, 1996) It is also concerned with how the meanings in the clause are organized to fit in with the co-text of the surrounding messages and with the wider context of the utterance The textual system that has been most fully explored is that of theme: the theme

of a clause is the initial experiential constituent, which has a special role in signaling how the current clause relates to clauses around it Very broadly, there

is a choice between unmarked themes (where theme and subject are the same), which typically signal continuity of some kind in the topic, and marked themes (where something other than the subject, such as an adverbial adjunct, is theme) which signal that there is some kind of specific contextual pressure at work, often associated with a change of textual frame (Thompson, 1996)

The system of theme is realized through a structure in which the clause

falls into just two main constituents: a Theme and a Rheme "Theme" and

"Rheme" are terms used to describe the organization of information in a sentence or clause The Theme is the part of a sentence or clause that provides background information, while the Rheme is the part that provides new or important information The Theme typically comes first in a sentence or clause, and the Rheme comes after it

In SFG, the Theme is often described as the "point of departure" for the message being conveyed in a sentence or clause It is the information that the speaker assumes the listener already knows or has in their mind The Theme can be a word, a phrase, or an entire clause The Rheme, on the other hand, is the "point of arrival" for the message It is the new information that the speaker

is conveying to the listener The Rheme can also be a word, a phrase, or an entire clause In addition to providing information about the organization of information in a sentence, the concepts of Theme and Rheme can also be used

to analyze the communicative function of language (Halliday, 1994) For example, in an expository text, the Theme is often used to preview the main idea of a paragraph or section, while the Rheme provides more detailed information to support that idea Furthermore, the Theme-Rheme structure is also used to analyze the coherence of a text For example, a well-structured text will often have a clear Theme at the beginning of each paragraph or section, which provides a clear point of departure for the reader to follow the author's message

2.1.3 The Interpersonal Metafunction

Thompson (2000) posits that one of the primary aims of communication

is to establish personal and social connections by interacting with others This

is achieved through the use of language to convey attitudes, emotions, judgments, and social distance, collectively known as interpersonal meaning, which is one of the three metafunctions of language in Systemic Functional

Grammar According to Eggins (2004), the speaker's choice of words and the relationship between language systems allow us to perceive the speaker's interpersonal meaning, including their level of intimacy, familiarity, attitudes, and judgments towards the listener In public speaking, achieving interaction with the audience is the primary objective of every speaker, and interpersonal meaning plays a crucial role in identifying the speaker's attitudes, motivations, and expressions Through interpersonal function, individuals can express and identify themselves, strengthen their relationships with others, and attempt to influence their attitudes and behavior

According to Halliday (1994), in the process of intercommunication, there are various roles, such as expressing opinions, raising questions, giving orders, making instructions, or showing emotions, etc The core of a semantic understanding of dialogue is Halliday's metaphor of exchange among interactants, which gives us the two notions: giving and demanding What to

give or demand can be information, referred to as a “Proposition”, or goods and services, referred to as a “Proposal” By combining them, we can obtain

four Speech Roles, as illustrated in Table 2.2

Table 2.2 The speech roles and the speech functions (Halliday, 1994)

Commodity

Exchanged

Role

(a) goods-&-services (b) information

Would you like this tea pot?

“statement”

He is giving her the teapot

Give me that teapot!

“question”

What is he giving her?

As illustrated in Table 2.2, through communication, the speaker gives something to the listener or demands something from the listener to interact

For an exchange to occur, the commodity being exchanged may be either goods-&-services or information Speech functions are classified into four types based on the roles and commodities involved: offer, command, statement, and question A statement conveys information, a question seeks information,

a command influences the addressee's behavior, and an offer initiates or accompanies the giving of goods and services Among these functions, statements are most commonly expressed through declarative clauses, questions through interrogative clauses, and commands through imperative clauses (Halliday, 1994:68)

Systemic Functional Linguistics developed by Halliday emphasizes the importance of the Mood and Modality systems in expressing interpersonal meanings Halliday (1994) notes that the selection of Moods is critical for communicating the various roles and relationships between individuals, while the Modality system is essential for conveying a speaker's attitude and perspective These systems allow speakers to express interpersonal meanings, such as attitudes, judgments, power dynamics, and ideologies, which are crucial for successful communication

The Mood system helps speakers express their intentions and roles in communication, such as making suggestions, providing information, seeking information, and issuing commands The Modality system, on the other hand, enables speakers to express their stance towards the information they convey, such as their level of certainty, probability, obligation, or desirability These two systems work together to express interpersonal meanings in various social contexts and situations The use of Mood and Modality in interpersonal meaning is critical for accurate and effective communication These systems allow individuals to express themselves appropriately and to interpret the intentions and attitudes of others By understanding how these systems function

in communication, individuals can develop better interpersonal relationships, negotiate power dynamics, and communicate their ideologies effectively The Mood and Modality in interpersonal meaning are presented as follows:

Mood system

Mood system is a grammatical system that is concerned with how speakers use language to position themselves in relation to their audience It refers to the grammatical choices that speakers make in order to convey their attitude towards the situation, the interlocutors, and the message being conveyed In SFG, it is composed of three elements: the Subject, the Finite, and the Residue The placement of the Subject and the Finite in a clause determines the mood types in English The Mood system allows speakers and writers to express a wide range of attitudes towards the proposition being expressed, including certainty, doubt, obligation, permission, possibility, and probability via mood adjuncts

Subject

According to Halliday (1994), “the Subject supplies the rest of what it takes to form a proposition, namely, something by reference to which the proposition can be affirmed or denied” In other word, the Subject is the person

or thing that is performing the action or state described in the clause, and it is a necessary component of the clause The Subject can be expressed as a noun phrase, a pronoun, or a nominal group In SFG, the Subject is not just a grammatical element, but also a functional one, as it plays an important role in determining the focus and organization of the clause

Finite

The role of Finite in the Mood system is to demonstrate the tense, aspect, and modality of a clause It is an essential element of the clause as it shows whether the event being referred to is in the past, present, or future, and whether

it is ongoing or completed The Finite can be marked for the simple aspect, which indicates a completed or habitual action, or for the progressive aspect, which indicates an ongoing or incomplete action In addition, the Finite indicates the Modality of the clause, which is the attitude of the speaker or writer towards the proposition being expressed (Thompson, 2004) This is illustrated as follows:

Table 2.3 Finite Verbal Operators (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014)

Temporal Operators:

Positive did, was, had,

used to

Does, is, have Will, shall, would, should

Negative didn’t, wasn’t,

hadn’t, didn’t used to

Doesn’t, isn’t, hasn’t Won’t, shan’t, wouldn’t,

shouldn’t

Modal Operators:

Positive can, may, could,

Won’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t,

(isn’t/wasn’t to)

mustn’t, oughtn’t to, can’t, couldn’t, (mayn’t, mightn’t, hasn’t/hadn’t to)

The placement of the Subject and the Finite in a clause determines the mood types in English There are two major categories of moods: indicative and imperative (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004) Each has distinct organizational structures and functions

Figure 2.1 Mood types (Gerot and Wignell, 1994:25)

Declaratives are clauses in the form of statements that comprise two types: affirmative statements and negative statements These are case in which subjects always precede finites Look at the following examples taken from Thompson (2010:59):

(Thompson, 2010: 59)

In English, yes/no questions are realized by a modal finite or a finite operator or the verbs be, do, did, has, or have, etc or negative forms of these verbs before the subject of the sentence For example:

Can

Do

he

we

paint well enough?

have anything in common?

Residue Mood

In English, interrogative structure is a clause in the form of a question with the following main types: WH- questions, yes/no questions (polar), and tag questions WH-questions begin with an interrogative wh-word, consisting

of who, whose, what, which, where, when, why, how, etc Interrogative form

in English is typically formed with the inversion of the finite operator or modal finite and the subject of the sentence The WH-element is a distinct element in the interpersonal structure of the clause Its function is to specify the entity that the questioner wishes to have supplied Look at the following example:

take the conversation for granted most of the time

Subject Finite Residue

Mood

Who

What kind of idiot

Who

‘s would {past}

been sleeping in my bed?

doing something like that?

typed out that note?

Residue Mood

Don’t

go away answer no more than three of the following questions

look at me like that

Mood

(Thompson 2010:58)

The general term for the part of the clause that is not the Mood is the

Residue (Thompson, 2010) The Residue consists of functional elements of

three kinds: Predicator, Complement, and Adjunct There can be only one Predicator, one or two Complements, and an indefinite number of Adjuncts up

to, in principle, about seven The Predicator is present in all major clauses, except where it is displaced through an ellipsis It is realized by a verbal group minus the temporal or modal operator, which functions as Finite in the Mood element The Predicator is thus non-finite A complement is an element within the Residue that has the potential to be Subject but is not It is typically realized

by a nominal group A complement could function as Subject in a clause related

to the original There is one exception to this general principle, that is the attributive Complement Adjuncts can be defined as clause elements that contribute some additional (but non-essential) information to the clause They can be identified as elements that do not have the potential to become Subject

It is typically realized by an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase

Mood

(Halliday, 1994 :74)

According to Thompson (2010), the role of mood in clauses is crucial in conveying interpersonal functions The Subject, as identified by the speaker, is responsible for the validity of the proposition being presented The listener may respond by confirming, rejecting, querying, or qualifying the validity of the proposition by repeating or amending the Finite However, if the Subject is altered, a new proposition is introduced

In summary, Mood system is comprised by three elements: the Subject, the Finite and the Residue The Subject forms the basis of the phrase, and this understanding has been widely incorporated into grammatical descriptions The Finite allows for debates about the validity of the proposition, and the speaker can convey three essential claims about the validity: whether it is present, past, future, or unreal (tense); whether it is positive or negative (polarity); and to what extent it is valid or impolite (modality) The Residue is everything else in the sentence that is not the Subject or Finite, and it provides additional information or clarification about the proposition being expressed

This study focuses on three typical types of Moods - Declarative, Interrogative, and Imperative - to uncover the interpersonal meanings between speakers

2.1.3.2 Modality

Modality is a grammatical system that enables speakers to express their attitudes and judgments towards the proposition being presented Halliday (1994) proposes that modality is a fundamental aspect of language that allows speakers to evaluate the truth or probability of a statement, as well as express obligation, permission, ability, and other related meanings According to Halliday (1994), modality refers to the intermediate degrees between the positive and negative poles, and the space of meaning that falls between "yes" and "no" In order to account for this, we need to refer to the distinction between propositions ('information', i.e statements and questions) and proposals ("goods-&-services', i.e offers and commands)

According to Halliday (1994), in a proposition, the meaning of the positive and negative poles is asserting and denying: positive 'it is so', negative 'it isn't so' Intermediate possibilities can be categorized into two kinds:

(i) degrees of probability, such as possibly, probably, and certainly and

(ii) degrees of usuality, such as sometimes, usually, and always

The former indicates whether a statement is likely or not, while the latter indicates how often the statement is true These scales of probability and usuality fall under the term 'modality', which is further classified as

opinion, while in a question, it is a request for the listener's opinion Additionally, even a high value modal, such as 'certainly' or 'always', is less

determinate than a polar form For instance, "It always rains in summer" is less certain than "It rains in summer" (Halliday, 1994)

On the other hand, in a proposal, the meaning of the positive and negative poles

is prescribing and proscribing: positive 'do it', negative 'don't do it' (Halliday, 1994) There are two kinds of intermediate possibilities in this case, depending

on the speech function, command or offer:

(i) In the case of command, the points signify degrees of obligation, such

as 'allowed to', 'supposed to', and 'required to'

(ii) In the case of offer, the points signify degrees of inclination, such as 'willing to', 'anxious to', and 'determined to'

These scales of obligation and inclination are known as modulation, which

distinguishes them from modality in the other sense, which is called

modalization as mentioned above

Both obligation and inclination can be expressed in two ways: by a finite modal

operator (e.g you should know that, I'll help them) or by an expansion of the Predicator (e.g you're supposed to know that, I'm anxious to help them )

(Halliday, 1994)

Table 2.4 is a brief summary of the categories of Modalization and Modulation and how they are realized in clauses Modalization refers to the way in which the speaker conveys their attitude or viewpoint towards the proposition expressed by the clause, including notions of possibility, probability, necessity, obligation, and permission Modulation, on the other hand, refers to the way in which the speaker modifies the proposition expressed by the clause, including notions of certainty, emphasis, and attitude

Table 2.4 Modalization and Modulation (Halliday, 1994:91)

Finite modal operator Modal Adjunct (both the above)

They must have known They certainly knew They certainly must have known Usuality

(sometimes/usually/al ways)

Finite modal operator Modal adjunct (both of the above)

It must happen

It always happens

It must always happen Goods &

services

Proposal command Modulation: Obligation (allowed/

supposed/ required)

Finite modal operator Passive verb predicator

You must be patient You’re required to

be patient offer Inclination (willing/

keen/ determined)

Finite modal operator Adjective predicator

I must win I’m determined

to win

Table 2.4 outlines the category of expressions known as Modal Adjuncts, which contribute significantly to the realization of Modality Although Modal Adjuncts are traditionally considered part of the Mood system in Systemic Functional Linguistics, they also serve to convey the speaker's attitude or viewpoint towards the proposition expressed in the clause Hence, they are essential to the study of modality Modal Adjuncts take various forms, including adverbs like "probably" or "certainly," and phrases like "it seems that" or "in my opinion." They contribute to the speaker's expression of certainty, doubt, or subjectivity

Modal Adjuncts fall into two main groups: mood adjuncts and comment adjuncts The former expresses the speaker's/writer's judgment or attitude towards the message's content Comment Adjuncts, such as ‘unfortunately’, typically comment on the entire clause rather than provide circumstantial information about the event, and they are often separated from the rest of the clause by commas The second group of Modal Adjuncts is more difficult to identify since most of them appear to modify the verb and may, therefore, look like circumstantial Adjuncts (Martin & Rose, 2007)

However, they are in fact most closely related not to the Predicator in the verbal group but to the Finite: they express meanings associated with tense, polarity, and modality Because of this link with the meanings associated with the Mood, they are called Mood Adjuncts Generally, Mood Adjuncts feel intuitively more ‘grammatical’ than circumstantial Adjuncts, although in some cases it is, difficult to see the difference Examples where the link with Mood meanings is obvious include: ‘already’ (related to tense), ‘never’ (related to polarity), and ‘maybe’ (related to modality) Examples where the link with Mood meanings is less obvious include: ‘regularly’ (related to temporal meanings) and ‘at all costs’ (related to modal meanings of obligation) A list of the main items that function as Mood Adjuncts is given in the table 2.5 below:

Table 2.5 Modal Adjuncts (Halliday, 2004:82)

Type Meaning Examples

I Probability How likely? Probably, possibly, certainly, perhaps, maybe

Usuality How often? Usually, sometimes, always, (n)ever, often, seldom Typicality How typical? Occasionally, generally, regularly, for the most part Obviousness How obvious? Of course, surely, obviously, clearly

II Opinion I think In my opinion, personally, to my min

Admission I admit Frankly, to be honest, to tell you the truth

Persuasion I assure you Honestly, really, believe me, seriously

Entreaty I request you Please, kindly

Presumption I presume Evidently, apparently, no doubt, presumably

Desirability How desirable? (un)fortunately, to my delight/distress, regrettably,

hopefully Reservation How sensible? At first, tentatively, provisionally, looking back on it Validation How valid? Broadly speaking, in general, on the whole, strictly

speaking, in principle Evaluation How sensible? (un)wisely, understandably, mistakenly, foolish

prediction How expected? To my surprise, surprisingly, as expected, by chance

To conclude, this section has given an overview of the evaluation of interpersonal meaning in the Mood system, with a focus on Mood and Modality The researcher has separated these two aspects of the system to provide a clearer understanding of the way in which interpersonal meaning is conveyed For the purposes of this study, the focus is solely on the analysis of Mood in order to identify different Mood types, and on the study of Modal verbs and Mood Adjuncts to gain a better comprehension of Modality By analyzing these aspects of language use, the author is able to identify the ways in which interpersonal meaning is conveyed in examples given by Donald Trump and Joe Biden

2.2 Appraisal Theory

Martin and White (2005) formulated a linguistic framework that emerged from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) It provides a detailed analysis of how speakers express their attitudes, emotions, and evaluations

towards different aspects of language use The theory is based on the idea that language is not just a neutral means of conveying information, but rather it is heavily influenced by the speaker's subjective stance and their social context Thus, the language choices made by speakers reflect their perspective on events, people, and situations The theory is an extension of M.K.A Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic, which provides an analytical tool to understand the issues associated with evaluative resources and the negotiation of intersubjective positions, and opens a new area of interpersonal meaning

As Martin and White (2005) stated, Appraisal itself is regionalized into three interacting domains: Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation Attitude is concerned with our feelings, including emotional reactions, judgments of behavior, and evaluation of things Engagement deals with sourcing attitudes and the play of voices around opinions in discourse Graduation refers to grading phenomena whereby feelings are amplified and categories blurred

The focus of linguistic analysis in Appraisal Theory is to study how evaluation is expressed, both implicitly and explicitly, through language use The framework is organized into three semantic systems, which will be explained in subsequent sections

Figure 2.2 An overview of Appraisal resources (Martin and White, 2005)

2.2.1 Engagement

Engagement is a key concept in Appraisal Theory that refers to the way language users position themselves in relation to the social and interpersonal aspects of a communicative event It involves the speaker's stance towards the audience, as well as their degree of involvement and commitment to the message they are conveying (Martin and White, 2005)

In the context of Engagement in Appraisal Theory, according to Martin and White (2005) utterances can be categorized as either monoglossic or heteroglossic Monoglossic utterances are those that do not reference other voices or viewpoints, while heteroglossic utterances do, allowing for the inclusion of dialogistic alternatives This categorization allows for a deeper understanding of the ways in which speakers use language to position themselves in relation to their audience and convey attitudes and values Following are examples extracted from Martin and White (2005:100):

Table 2.6 The monoglossic and the heteroglossic (Martin and White, 2005)

Monoglossic (no recognition of

dialogistic alternatives)

Heteroglossic (recognition of dialogistic alternatives)

The banks have been greedy There is the argument though that

the banks have been greedy

In my view the banks have been greedy

Callers to talkback radio see the banks as being greedy

The chairman of the consumers association has stated that the banks are being greedy

There can be no denying the banks have

been greedy

Everyone knows the banks are greedy

The banks haven’t been greedy

etc

It is clear that more than one voice can be inferred from the heteroglossic examples, such as the voice of the author in “in my view”, the voice of

“everyone” or the voice of “the chairman of the consumers association ,”

whereas only one voice appears in the monoglossic example

Heteroglossia further consists of two dimensions: the dialogic expansion and the dialogic contraction The former deals with semantic resources entertaining other voices, acknowledging sources, and distancing from the authorial voice The latter is used to narrow the space for certain dialogic alternatives through DISCLAIM ( denial and countering) and PROCLAIM (limitation)

Heteroglossia further consists of two dimensions: the dialogic expansion and the dialogic contraction The former deals with semantic resources entertaining other voices, acknowledging sources, distancing from the authorial voice The latter is used to narrow the space for certain dialogic alternative through DISCLAIM ( denial and countering) and PROCLAIM ( limitation) DISCLAIM is further divided into DENY (negation) and COUNTER (concession), while PROCLAIM has three sub-types: CONCUR (alignment), PRONOUNCE (emphasis of authorial intervention) and ENDOSEMENT ( sourcing warrantable external sources) The following figure is the choices of the dialogistic expansion and contraction of engagement system (Martin and White, 2005:134)

Figure 2.3 The engagement-contract: disclaim (Martin and White, 2005:134)

2.2.2 Graduation

According to Martin and White (2005)Graduation is a key concept in Appraisal Theory that refers to the degree or intensity of an attitude or evaluation expressed in language At its core, graduation is concerned with how speakers use language to convey not just their attitudes, but also the strength or force with which those attitudes are held By examining the ways in which language is used to convey different levels of intensity or force, Appraisal

Theory provides a framework for analyzing the nuanced ways in which speakers negotiate power dynamics, express emotions, and convey values through language

In this way, graduation is a fundamental aspect of how meaning is constructed through language, and is essential to understanding the complex ways in which speakers use language to shape their interactions with the world around them It might be said that attitude and engagement are domains of graduation that differ according to the nature of the meanings being scaled (Martin and White, 2005) Graduation works in two ways: grading according

to how intense or how much something is, and grading according to how close

it is to the standard definition of a category Grading by intensity works best for things that can be measured on a scale, like emotions or size The word

"force" refers to this type of grading Graduation can also work by comparing

things to the most typical or ideal example of a category (Martin and White,

2005) When we use words like "true," "real," or "genuine" to describe

something, we are saying that it fits the category well On the other hand, if we

use words like "kind of," "of sorts," or "-ish" to describe something, we are

saying that it is not a perfect fit for the category This type of graduation is

called "focus”

As mentioned earlier, force refers to evaluations of intensity and quantity

Evaluations of intensity can apply to qualities (for example, slightly foolish or

extremely foolish), processes (for example, somewhat hindered or greatly

hindered), or likelihood, habit, inclination, and obligation (for example, just

possible or very possible) The term "intensification" is used to describe this

scaling of qualities and processes The following figure is the Force: intensification – quality and process (Martin and White, 2005: 141)

Figure 2.4 Force: intensification – quality and process

(Martin and White, 2005: 141)

Graduation according to prototypicality (focus) applies most typically to

categories that, when viewed from an experiential perspective, are not scalable These are the clearly bounded, either-or categories that operate in experiential taxonomies where category membership is more or less precisely determined

by some combination of sufficient and necessary conditions In this case, graduation operates to reconstrue these categories in such a way that they participate in scalable clines of prototypicality For example:

They don’t play real jazz

They play jazz, sort of

(Martin and White, 2005:137)

2.2.3 Attitude

According to Martin and White (2005), Attitude is concerned with

people’s feelings and their character and evaluation of things As the central part of the Appraisal System, Attitude, attends to gradable resources for construing evaluation, and can be divided into three sub-systems: Affect (emotion), Judgment (ethics) and Appreciation (aesthetic)

Affect deals with registering positive and negative feelings: people feel happy or sad, confident or anxious, interested or bored Judgment is concerned with people’s attitudes towards behavior, which people admire or criticize,