Abstract—Interpersonal function of language was first put
forward by Halliday and it has been added by some scholars,
which is one of the three meta-functions of language. It helps us
establish and maintain social relationships. This paper analyzes
the inaugural speech of Joe Biden based on interpersonal
function and conducts both a quantitative approach and a
qualitative approach. This research has found: In personal
pronoun system, Biden used the first person pronoun most
frequently in his inaugural speech. In modality system,
medium-value modal verbs were used most, followed by
low-value modal verbs and high-value modal verbs. In mood
system, declarative sentences were used most often, which made
his speech more objective and reasonable. In tense system,
present tense appears most often in the speech, followed by
future tense and past tense. In evaluation system, different
resources have helped to achieve the interpersonal function.
Index Terms—Interpersonal function, systemic functional
grammar, political speech
Huo Haitao and Zhang Yi are with School of Foreign Studies,
Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi’an, CO 710129 China.
*Correspondence: yizhang@nwpu.edu.cn (Y.Z.)
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Cite:Haitao Huo and Yi Zhang, "An Analysis of the Interpersonal Function of Joe Biden’s Inaugural Speech," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 204-207, 2023.