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

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 COMPARATIVE STUDY Field: The English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hien 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 i 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 ii 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 iii ABSTRACT This study aims to explore the interpersonal meanings in the speeches of Joe Biden and Donald Trump on the topic of COVID-19 using the frameworks of Systemic Functional Grammar and Appraisal Theory Specifically, this study examines the Mood system and Attitudinal resources as a means of revealing the interpersonal meanings in the speeches The study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative approaches to ensure the most robust results possible A data set of 10 speeches by Joe Biden and 10 speeches by Donald Trump, each with an average length of 800 words, is analyzed to identify notable trends and patterns The findings suggest that both politicians use declarative and imperative moods effectively, while minimizing the use of interrogative mood Trump frequently used modal auxiliary verbs and modal adjuncts to convey his opinions and level of confidence, while Biden used them 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 iv 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 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 1.2.1 Aim 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scopes of the Study 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Organization of the Study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Systemic Functional Grammar 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 v CHAPTER 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 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 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 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATONS SFG Systemic Functional Grammar SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics DTSs Donald Trump’s speeches JBSs Joe Biden’s speeches vii 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 viii 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 94 in his speeches, such as "extraordinary," "remarkable," and "historic” in the examples below: D9.C18 "We have extraordinary work happening at the National Institute of Health, doing everything from testing treatments and therapies to accelerating the development of a vaccine." D9.C1 "I want to thank you all for being here, and I'm especially honored to be here today with all of you to mark the historic progress we've delivered for the American people." D10.C14 "It's truly remarkable what we've accomplished in just 50 days, and it's due to the extraordinary efforts of so many people." In these statement, Biden used the adjective "extraordinary" to describe the work being done by the National Institute of Health, emphasizing the excellence and high quality of their efforts; the adjective "historic" to convey the idea that the COVID relief bill was a significant achievement, and that it will have a lasting impact on the American people; the adjective "remarkable" to express his appreciation for the efforts of healthcare workers, volunteers, and others who had worked to distribute COVID vaccines quickly and efficiently Overall, Biden used a greater proportion of negative Appreciation resources to acknowledge the severity of the situation and express concerns about the government's handling of the pandemic At the same time, he also used positive Appreciation resources to recognize the efforts of frontline workers and the achievements made in responding to the pandemic This demonstrates his ability to express empathy and gratitude while also acknowledging the need for improvement and progress 95 In short, this chapter successfully answered the research questions of the study about the interpersonal meanings revealed from Mood system, Modality and Attitudinal resources 96 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS In this chapter, the focus is on summarizing the usual results obtained from the study and drawing conclusions based on them Moreover, the chapter discusses recommendations for future research and reveals any limitations of the thesis 5.1 Conclusions This thesis, titled ““Interpersonal meanings in American presidents Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s speeches about the covid-19 pandemic: a comparative study.” aims to explore the interpersonal meaning conveyed through Mood types, the realization of Modality, and Attitudinal resources The research framework used in this study is based on Systemic Functional Grammar, as proposed by Halliday (1985, 2004 and 2014), which is closely related to mood types and Modality in speech Additionally, the study draws on the work of Martin and White (2005), which focuses on Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation in speech, and how they relate to lexical terms The writer employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to arrive at their final conclusions The first finding is the use of mood types (declarative, imperative, and interrogative) by both politicians It is observed that while declarative mood is more frequently used by Trump than Biden, the difference is not substantial enough to assert that the two are fundamentally distinct Both politicians utilize imperative moods effectively, but Biden employs more imperative clauses than Trump The use of interrogative mood in political speeches is relatively infrequent, and this is no exception in the speeches of Trump and Biden Overall, both politicians are successful in connecting with their audience by using declarative and imperative moods effectively, while minimizing the use of interrogative mood 97 The second finding centers on the usage of modal auxiliary verbs and modal adjuncts by the two politicians Trump frequently used modal auxiliary verbs to express different modalities, such as certainty, possibility, obligation, and lack of obligation He used these to convey his opinions, beliefs, and level of confidence in his actions to combat the pandemic On the other hand, Biden employed various modal verbs in his speeches about COVID-19 and other crucial issues, highlighting the need for taking action urgently Biden's use of modal verbs effectively conveyed his message and priorities, emphasizing the urgency of addressing critical problems while instilling hope and optimism for the future Additionally, Trump used modal adjuncts in his COVID-19 speeches to reinforce his points and evoke an emotional response from the audience These adjuncts conveyed a sense of certainty, probability, and obligation Similarly, Joe Biden also uses modal adjuncts in his COVID-19 speeches to express his cautious attitude towards the pandemic and the importance of following public health guidelines He frequently uses phrases like "let me be clear" or "the truth is" to signal his honesty with the public Biden emphasizes that the pandemic is still a threat and stresses the need to remain vigilant and take precautions He also uses modal adjuncts to express his strong support for vaccination, stating that it is the key to ending the pandemic and the best way to protect oneself and loved ones from the virus The last finding focuses on the use of attitudinal resources and their subtypes, including Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation The results show that both politicians use Attitudinal resources in their language, with some differences in their communication styles The findings of the study suggest that both Trump and Biden use Attitudinal resources in their language, but with some notable differences Trump relied more heavily on affective resources, which refer to the emotional reactions a speaker has towards a particular topic 98 or person Trump's speeches and communication style often included emotional outbursts and exaggerations, which appealed to his supporters and stirred up controversy On the other hand, Biden used more instances of Judgment and Appreciation Judgment resources refer to a speaker's evaluation of a particular topic or person, while appreciation resources refer to the speaker's expression of approval or disapproval towards a particular subject Biden's speeches often included statements where he made clear evaluations of the situation, and he used language that expressed his approval or disapproval of certain events or policies The study suggests that the use of attitudinal resources in language can provide insight into a politician's communication style and can be a useful tool for understanding their appeal to different audiences The differences between Trump and Biden's use of attitudinal resources may reflect their different approaches to communication and their respective strategies for appealing to audience 5.2 Implications The study aimed to interpret the interpersonal meaning conveyed through Mood Types, Modality, and Attitudinal resources, and to identify similarities and differences in the evaluative language employed by Joe Biden and Donald Trump, using Systemic Functional Grammar and Appraisal Theory The study’s findings can be valuable for language learners as they expand their understanding of interpersonal meaning and the features of evaluative language used in speeches by Joe Biden and Donald Trump The English language data analyzed in this study were sourced from reliable government sources in the US, making it practical for learners of English to apply evaluative language in their speaking Moreover, learners can also take note of the useful language resources used by Joe Biden and Donald Trump and incorporate them into their speaking and debating skills This study can also serve as a reliable reference 99 for learners of Vietnamese in their exploration of interpersonal meaning using the Appraisal approach and Systemic Functional Grammar approach 5.3 Limitations for further research There are several limitations to this research that should be considered in future studies First, due to the broad scope of interpersonal meaning, the analysis in this study was limited to Mood types, Modalities, and Attitudinal resources in the speeches of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump Second, the data corpus was collected from a small sample size of only 20 speeches obtained from online sources, which may not provide a comprehensive view of the interpersonal meanings employed by both speakers Additionally, the use of Internet sources for data collection may have introduced bias and limited the scope of the study Furthermore, the researcher may have faced constraints such as time limitations and the availability of reference materials, which could have affected the accuracy and completeness of the study Despite these limitations, the author has made every effort to ensure the validity and reliability of the research by addressing potential drawbacks and minimizing their impact Further research can build on these findings to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the interpersonal meaning used in political speeches 5.4 Recommendations for Future Research Upon completion of this research, it has become apparent that there are numerous possibilities for further exploration of Interpersonal meaning Both the theory and the subject of the study present opportunities for more comprehensive analysis For instance, future researchers may consider incorporating additional theories such as prosody and ideology into the Appraisal Theory for a more detailed investigation Additionally, the target of study in this research could be compared with other types of speeches to explore similarities and differences between them Such comparisons may provide a 100 more nuanced understanding of the use of 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