A Systemic Functional Approach To The Interpersonal Meaning Of Radio Interview Discourse

The third edition of An Introduction to Functional Grammar was published in 2004 in which M. A. K. Halliday in collaboration with Christian Matthiessen presented his most updated revisions to the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). And radio interview as a popular type of discourse is heatedly discussed in the academia but systematic and rigorous linguistic analysis on the type of discourse is rarely seen.Therefore, based on the latest developments in the SFL school, particularly Halliday's recent revisions to the Functional Grammar and the newly proposed theory of Logogenesis, the present study aims at establishing a system network to describe the interpersonal process of radio interview discourse.Six texts are transcribed from BBC's weekly radio program The Interview and are subject to a multi-stratal analysis in terms of its interpersonal meaning within the broad framework of SFL.The author discovers that some lexicogrammatical choices have a high probability of occurrence while others are not. These choices form the four interpersonal lexicogrammatical subsystems of radio interview discourse, namely the MOOD System, SUBJECT PERSON System, DEICTICITY System, and ASSESSMENT System. The author further identifies six logogenetic patterns that emerge from successive lexicogrammatical choices, namely Orientation, Initiation, Personal Information, Historical Information, Factual Information, and Opinioned Information which form the INTERVIEW system network that can be used to describe the interpersonal process of radio interview discourse. The application of the system network is illustrated through a sample analysis on Text 3.