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Research Article | Volume 4 Issue 1 (Jan-June, 2023) | Pages 1 - 7
The Realization of Interpersonal Function in Political Speech Discourse
 ,
1
Department of Foreign Studies, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, Hebei, China
Under a Creative Commons license
Open Access
Received
March 3, 2023
Revised
April 9, 2023
Accepted
May 19, 2023
Published
June 8, 2023
Abstract

Political speech is an effective means of promoting international communication. The interpersonal function is one of the meta-functions of Halliday’s Systemic Functional linguistics. Based on the theory of interpersonal function, with LancsBox6.0 as a research tool, this research analyzes the use of modal verbs and personal pronouns in political discourse with the keynote speech by Xi Jinping at the Opening Ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 as a corpus. The results show that in political discourse, speakers often use a declarative mood to convey information. In terms of modality, speakers mostly use median and high-value modal verbs. In terms of personal pronouns, the first person and the third person are often adopted. In the context of century-change, international communications including political communications are of particularly great importance. Therefore, figuring out the interpersonal meaning in the political speech discourse is necessary and significant.

Keywords
INTRODUCTION

The speech refers to “in a specific time and space environment, speakers use vocal language and its corresponding body language to transmit information, express opinions, clarify facts and express feelings to the audience, finally to inspire the audience” [1]. Different identities of speakers, occasions and content of speaking lead to various speech genres, such as academic speech and political speech. Political speech is an important part of Chinese and Western political speech styles. Li and Zou [1] mentioned that political speech is a kind of speech in which people express their positions, clarify their views and publicize their opinions on the country’s internal affairs and foreign relations [1]. It plays an important role in international political and economic activities. However, most speeches studied from the perspective of Systemic-Functional Grammar are Western political speech discourses, while relatively few domestic political discourses are studied, which is not conducive to promoting our culture and voices better “go abroad”. As political speech is extremely critical in promoting international communication. Therefore, researching the realization of the interpersonal function in the domestic political speech discourse can help better publicize our political stances and attitudes to the world, so that the world can better understand China.

 

Systemic-Functional Grammar is a sociologically oriented functional linguistic and one of the most influential linguistic approaches. The Systemic-Functional linguistics school is represented by Halliday [2,3], who proposed meta-function, consisting of ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. The ideational function (experiential and logical) is to convey new information and to communicate content that is unknown to the hearer. The interpersonal function refers to using language to express the speaker’s attitude, evaluation and the social and personal relations of the communicative role between the speaker and the listener. “The textual function refers to using language to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living passage different from a random list of sentences.” Those three functions are realized by different means [4]. The ideational function consists of transitivity and voice, while the interpersonal function is realized by mood and modality.

 

Since the reform and opening-up, China’s economy has developed rapidly and its comprehensive strength has been continuously enhanced. It is very necessary to establish the image of a big country and spread the voice of China to the world. Political speech discourse can just show China’s stance, express China’s attitude and help China build a harmonious interpersonal relationship with the world. The characteristics of political speech discourse are consistent with the interpersonal function. Therefore, conducted from the interpersonal function in systemic functional grammar, this research analyzes the use of modal verbs and personal pronouns in the keynote speech by Xi Jinping at the Opening Ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022, to explore how speakers use modal verbs and personal pronouns to achieve interpersonal functions in Chinese political speech discourse. 

 

Theoretical Framework

Halliday’s Interpersonal Function: The basic function of language is to describe our recognition of the objective world and to regulate our interpersonal relationships [5]. According to Halliday, interpersonal function refers to the function that people use language to communicate with others, establish and maintain interpersonal relationships, which can also express the speaker’s identity, social status, worldview, motivation and judgment and evaluation [6] and it also refers to change other’s behavior or even changes the world through the use of language [7]. It is usually realized by mood system and the modality system. Personal pronouns in the discourse can achieve interpersonal meaning as well.

 

Mood System

According to the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics, the function of mood system is to express what the speaker wants to achieve by speaking. Mood components have clear semantic functions. 

 

The Mood is composed of “the Subject” and “the Finite element”. The residue consists of a predicate, adjunct and complement. The different order of subject and finite element leads to different types of sentences. According to Halliday, from the perspective of interpersonal function, language as a tool plays two essential speech roles, that is “giving” and “demanding”. And there are two corresponding communicative objects--goods and services or information. These two basic roles and two types of communicative objects can constitute four kinds of speech functions: offer, command, statement and question [4]. When someone is giving goods and services or information, the offer or statement is produced, which is presented by the declarative mood; when someone demands goods or information, the command or question is produced, which is shown by the imperative mood and interrogative mood respectively. In general, the declarative mood consists of the structure of “subject + predicate”. The imperative mood usually lacks the subject or finite element. While the interrogative mood is composed of the structure of “a finite element coming before the subject.”

 

Modality

Systemic-Functional linguistics believes that modality is a sub-system of mood system that embodies interpersonal meaning and is one of the means of expressing the interpersonal function of language. It can express personal willingness, predication and obligations that others are required to undertake, etc. [5]. Different linguists define the modality system differently. 

 

According to Fowler [8], the modality system is the degree of recognition of the authenticity of the topic presented by the speaker. And the degree of modality reflects the speaker’s position and his attitude and evaluation of a certain statement. According to Asher [9], modality can be seen as a speaker’s cognitive, emotional and willing attitude toward a state. Halliday [2] distinguishes the subjective and objective orientations of modality and believes that modality is the main linguistic means to reflect interpersonal function, that is, to affect the ideology of others; in turn, ideology determines the choice of language representation. The speaker seems to undertake a so-called “modal responsibility” for elements such as the truth of discourse propositions [10]. However, Halliday does not explicitly propose the term, he only refers to the concept in his books (1994:103, 2004:633-634), while Thompson [11] makes a clearer definition of “modal responsibility”. He defines it as “the extent to which the speaker publicly accepts responsibility for the subjective evaluations that are expressed [12]”.

 

Halliday [2] and Thompson [12] divided the modality system into modalisation and modulation. The former refers to the speaker’s judgment of probability and the usuality of a proposition. While the latter refers to the addressee’s duties and obligations to perform a certain action or relates to the speaker’s inclination or willingness to perform a certain action, which can be further divided into obligation and willingness. They further mention that probability and usuality are related to the communicative object “information”; while obligation and willingness are linked with the communicative object “goods and services” [5]. Li [12] said “If the mood is the grammaticalization of the modality, then we can also look at the relationship between the modality and the mood from another angle -- the modality is the lexicalization of the mood”, which is corresponding to the classification of Halliday [2] and Thompson [11]. 

 

Generally speaking, the modality system can be regarded as a semantic system that expresses the speaker’s judgments and evaluation. It is usually realized by the modal verb, modal adverb and extension of the predicate (supposed to, obliged to). In discourse, modal verbs and modal adverbs are the main forms of modality. In addition, some verbs, nouns and prepositional phrases can also achieve modality. Halliday [2] classified modal verbs into three types according to the value of modal verbs. The following Table 1 shows his classification.

 

Table 1: Classification of Modal Verbs [2]

ValueModal verbs
Highmust, ought to, need, has/had to
Medianwill, would, should, is/was to
Lowcan, may, could, might, dare

 

Personal Pronoun

According to Halliday, personal pronouns and their possessive form can reflect the interpersonal meaning of language. The referential meaning of personal pronouns plays a particularly important role in political speech discourse. The choice or use of personal pronouns reveals how the speaker views the relationship between him and the listener, as well as the speaker’s choice of different identities and political intentions [13].

 

In political speech, combined with different occasions, the choice of different personal pronouns can reflect different political attitudes of speakers, which helps to establish a specific interactive relationship between speaker and listener, to realize the interpersonal function of political speech [14].

 

Therefore, it is of particular significance to analyze the use and choice of the personal pronoun in political speech discourses and to explore the reasons behind these choices [15]. Personal pronoun includes the first personal pronoun, the second personal pronoun and the third personal pronoun.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Research Background and Data Collection 

In 2022, a century of change and the world epidemic are intertwined and superimposed and the world has entered a new epic of turbulence and change. Against this background, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia on April 22, 2022, whose theme is “The World in COVID-19 and Beyond: Working Together for Global Development and Shared Future”. This speech is mainly made up of five parts, which are symbolized by five vocative expressions. But here, I mainly mentioned the three most important parts, which are the middle three parts and reflect that the forum mainly focuses on three major issues facing all the countries in the world. The first is how to overcome the epidemic and build a post-epidemic world. The second is how to promote the stable recovery of the world economy and achieve sustainable development. The third is how to reduce tension and confrontation in international relations and achieve win-win cooperation. In response to the above-mentioned issues, in-depth discussions were conducted in four areas: “green development”, “innovative development”, “inclusive development” and “cooperative development”.

 

The reason why this research conducted and analyzed this keynote speech is that it is a political speech discourse delivered by President Xi Jinping and it is a relatively new material. The materials collected in this research are all original political speeches from the Xinhua website [16]. 

 

Research Questions

This research aims to answer the following questions:

 

  • How are mood structures used to express interpersonal meaning in Chinese political speeches

  • How are modal verbs used to express the speaker’s opinions, attitudes and stances in Chinese political speech

  • What functions does personal pronouns have in Chinese political speech

 

Research Tool

In this research, both qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted. The quantitative method is used a corpus tool to sum the data of modal verbs and personal pronouns. While the qualitative approach is adopted in analyzing the interpersonal meaning behind these statistical data and exploring how the modal verbs and personal pronouns are used to express interpersonal function in political speech. In recent years, the development of corpus linguistics has promoted the upgrading of corpus tools. These corpus tools have greatly helped academic researchers to analyze corpus and obtain scientific data. #LancsBox6.0 is a typically useful corpus tool, as it can visualize language data. #LancsBox6.0 is a new-generation software package for the analysis of language data and corpora developed at Lancaster University. To explore the use of modal verbs and personal pronouns, this research used #LancsBox6.0 as a tool, importing the text of Xi’s Keynote Speech of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022 into it and then figuring out the frequency of modal verbs and personal pronoun by searching the keywords “MODAL” and “PRONOUN”. Every singer modal verb and personal pronoun were searched respectively.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Based on Halliday’s theory of interpersonal function, this research analyzed the text -- Xi’s Keynote Speech of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022--from the perspective of mood system, the modality and the personal pronoun respectively. 

 

Mood in Xi’s Keynote Speech of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022

There are a total of 85 sentences in Xi’s Keynote Speech at the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022. And the total of 85 sentences are declarative sentences. Among the 85 declarative sentences, President Xi used several parallel sentences, which are catchy to read and have a strong power of persuasion and the effect of emphasizing the content from the perspective of rhetoric.

 

In terms of mood system, the function of declarative sentences is mainly to provide information. In his keynote speech at the Boao Forum, President Xi Jinping used almost entirely declarative sentences to extract his own opinion, which reflects that political speech plays a primary role of “giving information”; while “giving information” means to ask or demand the audience to receive information. In other words, when the speaker expresses his position and attitude, he hopes that the audience will accept his point of view [16].

 

In political speech discourse, the speaker usually wants to convey their political opinion and stance point directly to the audience and has a strong will to ask his audience to accept his view or obtain support. That’s no wonder that there are almost entirely declarative sentences. There are some examples as follows:

 

Example 1: “We need to work together to defend people’s lives and health...We need to work together to promote economic recovery...We need to work together to maintain peace and stability in the world...”

 

President Xi used three parallel sentences, all of which are expressed by the declarative mood, to convey that people all over the world must work together to overcome difficulties and maintain a healthy and peaceful world. 

 

In addition to providing information, declarative mood can express emotion and hope as well. For instance:

 

Example 2: “As long as we join hands and never slacken in efforts, we will build great synergy through win-win cooperation,... and usher in a brighter and better future for humanity.”

 

In example 2, President Xi expressed his wish and confidence to overcome difficulties and usher in a brighter future.

 

In this keynote speech, there are a small number of the imperative mood. Generally speaking, the main functions of the imperative mood in political speeches are persuasion, invitations, suggestions and urges. For instance:

 

Example 3: “Let me conclude ..., Keep walking and one will not be daunted by a thousand miles; make constant efforts and one will not be intimidated by a thousand tasks.” 

 

President Xi used the structure of “let me...” to conclude his speech and urged that people all over the world should keep firm faith and keep striving to fight for a better world.

 

Modal Verbs in Keynote Speech of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022

Modality refers to the speaker making a judgment on the success or validity of his proposition or demanding an obligation or expressing his will in a proposal (Zeng, 2009). Modal verbs with different values reflect different interpersonal meanings. The different value of modal verbs indicates the speaker’s attitude and position. The higher the value is, the more affirmative and strong the speaker’s attitude is. Conversely, the lower the value is, the more gentle and euphemistic the speaker’s attitude is.

 

In Xi’s Keynote Speech at the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022, he uses modal verbs with different values very skillfully to show his political intention, his opinion and appeal. The following table is the distribution of modal verbs in Xi’s keynote speech.

 

In the process of verbal communication, it is of great necessity to select different values of modal verbs based on specific contexts and intentions. From Table 2, it is found that in Xi’s keynote speech: (1) 48 modal verbs were used in this 2156-word speech; (2) among these modal verbs, “will”, “should”, “need” and “must” were used most frequently; (3) in aspects of value, median value and high-value modal verbs are the main parts in political speech, which account for 56% and 32% respectively; (4) median value modal verbs are used to express obligation and willingness; while high-value modal verbs are used to express demand or determination. And few modal verbs express possibility and probability.

 

Table 2: The Distribution of Modal Verbs in Xi’s Keynote Speech

High

Median

Low

Type

Occurrence

Rate

Type

Occurrence

Rate

Type

Occurrence

Rate

must

6

13%

will

17

35%

can

0

0%

need

9

19%

should

11

23%

may

0

0%

ought to

0

0%

would

4

8%

could

1

2%

has/had to

0

0%

is/was to

0

0%

might

0

0%

 

 

 

 

 

Therefore, it is safe to say that in Xi’s Keynote Speech at the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022, he prefers to use the median value modal verbs. It is corresponding to the characteristics of political speeches, whose purpose is to express the speaker’s strong will and meanwhile, to call on the audience’s strong desire, to overcome certain difficulties or achieve a certain goal together. Among the median value modal verb, “will” accounts for the highest, which show President Xi’s promise, plan and principle. See the following examples:

 

Example 4: “China will follow through the pledged donation of 600 million and 150 million doses of vaccines to Africa ...”

 

Example 5: “In the second half of this year, we will convene the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which will draw the blueprint for China’s future development.”

 

Example 6: China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order.

 

“Will” mainly expresses what responses and measures the Chinese government will take under the currently complex domestic and international situations.

 

Example 4 showed that China make a promise to provide funds and material assistance for the countries in need to help them overcome the pandemic, which shows an image of a responsible country. Example 5 showed that China has a plan to uphold the 20th NPC, drawing a blueprint for China’s future development. Example 6 showed China’s principle is to keep the path of peaceful development and showed China’s responsibilities to the world. “Will” was used frequently in the third part of this speech, which mainly talked about how to achieve a win-win corporation and prospects. Therefore, President Xi puts forward his prospect and promises to cheer the people of the whole world up by using the modal verb -- “will”.

 

Among the median value modal verbs, “should” is also a high-frequent modal verb. It is used to show obligation, advice, or appeal. There are some examples:

 

Example 7: “Countries,..., should all add splendor rather than trouble to Asia.” 

 

Example 8: “All should follow the path of peace and development, seek win-win cooperation and contribute to an Asian family of unity and progress together.”

 

Example 9: “We should resolutely safeguard peace in Asia.”

 

Example 10: “We should vigorously advance Asian cooperation.”

 

Example 7 refers to President Xi's appeal that all countries have an obligation to work together for a brighter future, rather than make trouble for Asia. Example 8 is to advocate all the countries had better follow the principles and enhance corporations to make progress and so do examples 9 and 10. In examples 9 and 10, President Xi also adds the adverb “resolutely” and “vigorously” to strengthen his emotion and appeal. These three examples reflect the obligation and advocacy of President Xi by using the median verb -- “will”. 

 

The extensive use of medium-value modal verbs is to give oneself some leeway when expressing without affecting the transmission of information, which can also be seen as a politeness strategy. The use of median-value modal verbs can avoid absolute expression, making the information easier for the audience to accept and also help to adjust the interpersonal relationship between the speaker and the audience, to make the speech go smoothly [17].

 

While the high-value modal verbs can be used to express a strong desire, determination and faith to create a better future. The use of high-value modal words, on the one hand, shows that the speaker has a very strong and positive attitude toward the proposition. On the other hand, it reflects the speaker’s high social status and strong influence [16]. 

 

From Table 2, it is found that the high-value modal verbs account for 32%, among which “need” and “must” are ranked sequentially. See the following examples:

 

Example 11: “... and that all countries need to follow the trend of the times featuring peace, ...”

 

Example 12: “We need to work together to defend people’s lives and health; ... to promote economic recovery; ... to maintain peace and stability in the world; ... to tackle global governance challenges.”

 

Example 13: “We need to uphold true multilateralism and firmly safeguard the international system with the UN at its core ...”

 

Example 11 appears at the beginning of the speech, President Xi conveys the information that today’s world needs peace and all countries have a duty to keep it peaceful. Example 12 is a set of parallel sentences with the beginning of “we need to work together...”, which presents China and other countries in the world have further tasks or duties and responsibilities to conduct and undertake, showing a strong desire and positive attitude towards building a peaceful and stable world. As the greatest developing country in the world, China has emphasized global governance, which, however, needs the corporation of all the countries. In example13, President Xi told other countries that it is essential to uphold multilateralism and comply with the principle of the UN, to achieve a peaceful community with a shared future.

 

Another high-value modal verb -- “must” has a high proportion in Xi’s keynote speech. The choice of this word conveys a strong determination and a clear attitude. See the following examples:

 

Example 14: “Faced with the many challenges, we must not lose confidence, hesitate or flinch. Instead, we must firm up confidence and press ahead against all odds.”

 

Example 15: “We must keep COVID vaccines a global public good and ...” 

 

Example 16: “For the ship to navigate the storm and sail toward a bright future, all passengers must pull together.” 

 

In example 14, facing challenges, President Xi encourages people to keep confident. And we have the confidence and abilities to overcome these difficulties, showing a big country’s confidence. Example 15 reflects President Xi Jinping’s commitment to the world, that is to provide public services and medical assistance to the world, showing an image of a big country and his sincerity and determination as a leader. There is a metaphor in example 16. President Xi symbolizes all the people in the world as passengers on the ship. He expresses his strong desire that a better world and a brighter future need the efforts of all the people. 

 

In a word, the examples mentioned above used different value modal verbs, showing China’s promise, duties and determination. In terms of the modality system, in this political speech, considering the unique characteristic of political speech, the speaker prefers to use the median value modal verb and the high-value modal verb, while the low-value modal verb accounts for a low proportion. 

 

Personal Pronoun in Keynote Speech of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022

According to Halliday [2], the subject is the component responsible for the validity of the proposition in the structure of the clause, which is mainly realized by the noun or noun phrase. While the pronoun in a discourse can stress the speaker’s attitude and help to build a certain relationship between the speaker and the hear [18]. Zhong [19] believes that personal pronoun has great significance in achieving interpersonal meanings. In a public speech, speakers usually choose different personal pronouns to help them achieve different interpersonal functions [19]. Speakers can “subtly express interpersonal meaning” by choosing personal pronouns, which help them to “adjust and even manipulate the interpersonal relationship between the speakers and the audience”. Here is the distribution of personal pronouns in Xi’s keynote speech.

 

In this speech, I only choose “we”, “us”, “our”, “I” as the first personal pronoun and “you”, “your” as the second and “they/them”, “China” and “Asia” and “it” as the third. From Table 3, it is found that President Xi mainly uses the first person and the third person, which respectively accounts for 50 and 47%. “Asia” and “China” are also included in the third person. In the first person, “we” is used most frequently. According to the interpersonal function, the use of “we” can reflect a concept of “community” and shorten the distance between the speaker and the audience. See the following examples:

 

Table 3: The Distribution of Personal Pronouns in Xi’s Keynote Speech

Personal PronounThe first personThe second personThe third person
weusourIyouyourThey/themChinaAsiait
Number26272002141110
Percentage35%3%9%3%0%0%3%19%15%13%

 

Example 17: “We should follow a people-centered approach, place development and people's well-being high on the agenda.”

 

Example 18: “We humanity are living in an indivisible security community.”

 

Example 19: “We should cement ASEAN centrality in the regional architecture and...” 

 

The three examples mentioned above represented different references. In example 17, “we” refers to China or the Chinese government. In example 18, “we” is related to humanity. While in example 19, “we” means the Asian country and people. 

 

As the theme of the speech is “The World in COVID-19 and Beyond: Working Together for Global Development and Shared Future”, it is more reasonable to use “we”, which can convey a sense of community, equality and solidarity and shorten the distance between President Xi Jinping and the audience, as to create a natural and harmonious atmosphere.

 

In addition, in this speech, the first personal pronoun “I” is much more individual, which is not suitable to be used in political speech discourse, as the political speeches often represent the will of the country. President Xi avoids using “I”, reflecting his modesty and tries to make his words more objective.

 

In his speech, there are few numbers of use of the second personal pronoun, as it will increase the distance between the speaker and the audience and it is not beneficial for the speaker to convey their political intention and attitudes. To some extent, the second personal pronoun may bring hostility to the listener.

 

As for the third person, President Xi used several kinds of subjects, among which “China” and “Asia” made up the largest portion. There are some examples as follows:

 

Example 20: “China has provided over 2.1 billion doses of vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations.”

 

Example 21: “China presented to the world a streamlined, safe and splendid Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.”

 

Example 22: “China has honored its commitments with concrete actions.”

 

In the above examples, Xi Jinping as Chairman of China, conveyed the fulfillment and achievement that China has made in the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic and in the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. President Xi expresses a sense of pride in being Chinese. 

 

The subject “Asia” here has a high frequency as well, as this speech is based on the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022, whose center is Asian countries. And what President Xi wants to express is that all Asia countries have further duties to create a brighter future and the necessity to enhance corporation. Therefore, it is very essential to highlight the subject “Asia”. For example:

 

Example 23: “People in Asia deeply cherish the value of peace.”

 

Example 24: “When Asia fares well, the whole world benefits.”

 

Example 25: “Asia has enjoyed overall stability and sustained rapid growth, making possible the Asian Miracle.”

 

The subject “Asia” mainly appeared in the second part of this speech, in which President Xi demonstrated the development of Asia in the past few years and further clarified his advocacy or future plan for Asia countries, showing his prospects.

 

In this speech, the subject “it” also often appeared. According to the interpersonal function, the subject “it” can reflect the objectivity of the speech and it is much more corresponding to the structure of English sentences.

 

In a word, in terms of personal pronouns, in this keynote speech, President Xi mainly used the first person and the second person, which depends on his political intention.

CONCLUSION

Based on the interpersonal function of Systemic-Functional Grammar, this research analyzed the interpersonal meaning of the keynote speech by Xi Jinping at the Opening Ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 from the perspectives of mood system, the modality system and personal pronoun and explored the use of modal verb and personal pronoun in public speech discourse. 

 

Political speech has a distinctive feature of adapting to social circumstances and personal intentions [20]. The choice of the word reflects the speaker’s political opinion, attitude and intention. 

 

From the perspective of mood system, this speech mainly used the declarative mood. The reasons are as follows. On the one hand, in public speech, the function of declarative sentences is to state facts and express certainty. It is convincing and highly persuasive. On the other hand, this speech is mainly to convey information to the world and express attitudes and confidence and political stances toward the current situation at home and abroad. 

 

From the perspective of the modality system, it is found that in this speech, the median value modal verb is the most frequently used. Generally speaking, in political speech, in order to call and inspire the people in an approachable way, the speaker will choose the median value modal verb, which can soften the speaker’s mood, giving the audience a sense of respect and make the information more easily accepted by the audience. The second most frequently used is the high-value modal verb. In political speech, the use of high-value modal verbs, especially those expressing obligation, can reflect the power and influence of the speaker as a leader and show his self-confidence, thus giving people a sense of security. In addition, high-value modal verbs are conducive to establishing a self-confident image of a big country.

 

From the perspective of personal pronouns, in political speech, the speaker mainly used the first person and the third person, which expressed different political stances and intentions. The use of the subject “we” corresponds to the theme of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022. And it shortens the distance between the speaker and the audience, which can help President Xi propose or call for all the people in the world to build a community for a shared future. The first-person pronoun helps to build harmonious interpersonal relationships. While the third person showed the fulfillment and commitment that China and Asia countries have achieved, showing the characteristic of objectiveness.

REFERENCES
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Ovarian Pathologies in Paediatric Age Group - Our Experience and Review of Literature
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Published: 20/05/2021
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