Transitivity Analysis of Joe Biden’s Inaugural Address From the Perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar

Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar provides a new perspective and method for political discourse analysis. This paper first introduces the research status of political discourse at home and abroad, and then elaborates three metafunctions of Systemic Functional Grammar, namely ideational function, interpersonal function as well as textual function. On this basis, this paper makes an in-depth transitivity analysis of the inaugural address of the 46th president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden. Through profound research, this paper attempts to reveal how English language is applied to hide ideology in political speeches and how president Joe Biden uses various language features to persuade and inspire American people in order to reach his political purpose; at the same time, it also verifies the practicability of Systemic Functional Grammar in the analysis of political speech discourse.

Modality analysis in Joe Biden’s speech delivered on the anniversary of the Covid-19 shutdown

Covid-19 has been global health problem and become the concern of global leaders in the world. One of them is Joe Biden, current president of American. He delivered his speech on Anniversary Covid-19 Shutdown on March 11, 2021. The clauses in his speech contain modality. Modality is included in interpersonal meaning where language is used to encode interaction between the speaker and the hearer. This research aims to analyze the type of modality used by Biden in his speech and utilize it to find his self-representation. The research uses Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in term of modality analysis as the tool and discourse analysis as the approach. The finding shows that three types of modalities found; inclination, probability and obligation. The self-representation of Biden found are being visionary, being determined, showing sadness, being powerful, and showing respect. DOI: 10.26905/enjourme.v6i2.6531

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Incognegro (2008)

This study attempts to conduct a multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) of Incognegro (2008), a graphic novel by Mat Johnson and arts by Warren Pleece, by applying Michael Halliday’s theory of the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) (1994) for the written texts, i.e. the captions found on the images, and Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design (GVD), or what has been recently called Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) (1996) for the images themselves. The study employs, as well, Teun A. van Dijk’s modal of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (2004), in which power, racism, segregation, oppression, ethnicity, inequality, discrimination, identity, superiority, inferiority, dominant groups, and dominated groups are being analyzed. The study aims at showing the inequality, the oppression, the racial discrimination, and the exercised power Negroes previously suffered (1930s) in America, the land of freedom, and how this suffering is depicted through graphic novels for historical documentation. The study shows that the Whites considered themselves the dominant group, whereas the Negroes were treated as slaves, not even equal to human beings, and hence are recognized to be the oppressed and the dominated group.

Comparing Oral and Written Cooking Recipes Using Systemic Functional Grammar

This article compares oral and written cooking recipes of the same food created by the same person, by using systemic functional grammar. The aim of the article is to find out the similarities and differences of the language used in both recipes. The data are obtained from Jamie Oliver’s cooking show aired in a YouTube channel on how to make scones and the written recipe of the same food published in his website. The focus of the analysis is on the lexico-grammar of the clauses used in the texts. The result shows that there are more differences than similarities between the two texts. There are more clauses in the spoken text than those in the written text in terms of quantity and variety. In the ideational function, both texts have a similar variety of processes with the majority of material process showing imperatives of procedural texts and additional information using mental, existential, and relational processes, but in the written text there are two clauses using verbal process that are not found in the spoken text. In the interpersonal function, the two texts show demands of good and services and the use of modalities in expressing the expected results of the cooking process. In the spoken text, the relation between the cook and the audience is friendlier and closer than that in the written text. It is demonstrated in the use of vocatives and interrogatives that are not used in the written text. The textual functions show similar results in the use of conjunctions but the spoken text displays closer interpersonal textual functions found in the use of vocatives. The analyses of the three metafunctions of the two recipes may contribute to the study of food texts in linguistics that are relatively low compared to those in other disciplines.

El-Sisi’s Speech on the 47th Anniversary of the October Victory: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a modern branch of linguistics. The current study applies CDA to a televised speech of El-Sisi, the Egyptian president, on the 47th anniversary of October Victory in its English version. The study aims to reveal ideologies behind the publishing of the speech and its role in shaping the mentality of Egyptians. The researcher applies Fairclough’s (2014a) three-dimensional model. She also uses Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) metafunctions of systemic functional grammar (SFG) as the tool for analysis. The analysis is mainly qualitative. The research answers some questions. The first one is: ‘How the constructive ideologies are expressed through their linguistic structures and features in the English version of El-Sisi’s speech on the 47th of October victory ceremony?’ The second is ‘what is the explanation for including such confidential ideologies in the published English version of El-Sisi’s speech?’ A significant finding is that the delivered messages of the speech reflect some ideological orientations. The ideological orientations are affected and determined by the dominant social ideologies and the general orientation of institutions in Egypt. The study aims to help readers use their skills in analyzing any discourse systematically. The study also highlights the fundamental ideologies needed to direct Egyptians for the benefit of their country. Future researches can focus on the role of words in reflecting ideologies or the role of explicitation and implicitation techniques in conveying beliefs and confidential ideologies.

Critical Discourse Analysis of Ivanka Trump’s Speech at the World Assembly for Women

As a type of discourse analytic tool, critical discourse analysis takes the research on the way that how social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted as the main object. It is a popular method to study political speech. Taking Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework as analytical framework and employing systemic functional grammar, the study adopts the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze meaning construction in Ivanka Trump’s Speech to the World Assembly for Women. At the stage of description, transitivity, use of modal verbs and personal pronouns are examined. At the stage of interpretation, genre, framing and topicalization are analyzed. At explanation stage, the text and social environment is considered. Based on the analysis, the study found out that Ivanka expressed her concern about the status quo of women’s lives, which resonated with feminists, and expressed the government’s determination to make changes. The study unearthed power relations and ideologies concealed in the speech, which means that she intends to strengthen the audience’s understanding of their political ideas and consolidate their political position through this speech. Meanwhile, the analysis of political speech by means of critical discourse analysis is helpful to improve readers’ critical thinking ability of discourse.

Analysis of the Thematic Progression Patterns in English News Discourse

The theory of theme and rheme and the patterns of thematic progression are not only two important parts of the systemic functional grammar but also an important means of discourse analysis. With thematic structure theory and patterns of thematic progression as the theoretical support, this research makes a combination of theoretical research and discourse analysis. This paper aims to find out the application and characteristics of the theme and rheme structure in English news discourse. After choosing the data from BBC (website:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51403795) reporting on 7th February 2020 with the title of Li Wenliang: Coronavirus Kills Chinese Whistleblower Doctor and giving a detailed analysis by empirical study. Through the analysis of the relationship between theme and rheme in the full text, we find that this text does not only apply a certain thematic progression pattern, but also applies more than one thematic progression pattern. Therefore, we come to the conclusion that thematic progression does exist in this news discourse and shows obvious characteristics and distribution. And also, parallel pattern and continuation pattern are frequently presented in this news discourse.

POWER RELATION IN ‘IF HE WANTS TO COME HOME, JUST COME HOME’: JOKOWI AIDE SAYS ABOUT RIZIEQ BY THE JAKARTA POST

This research investigated the power relation which exists in Rizieq’s homecoming case in The Jakarta Post by doing Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis proposed by Carabine (2001). The research was also supported by evidence gained using linguistics theory, Systemic Functional Grammar, focusing on transitivity. An article entitled ‘If he wants to come home, just come home’: Jokowi Aide Says about Rizieq written in the Jakarta Post is the main discourse analyzed supported by other discourses to show an inter-relationship between discourses and counter-discourses. The findings indicate that the absence of Habib Rizieq in Indonesia is the effect of power existing around him. There are some Actors mentioned in the discourse: the government, leader of FPI, presidential chief of staff, deputy secretary-general of NU, spokesman of the 212 Alumni Association, and Prabowo. The use of transitivity evokes the position possessed by them in which they have a connection around Rizieq’s case.