The Interpersonal Meaning In The Discourse Of Chinese Talk Show

Talk shows are unique communication events which combine the form of daily conversation and the aim of the interview to set up a speacial relationship between the host and the guest. But the study of talk shows is few and it is even less to take the Chinese as the data. The present dissertation sets out to investigate the realizations of interpersonal meaning in Chinese talk shows based on the theory of interpersonal meaning. 20 authentic talk show texts are randomly selected from two influential CCTV programs:实话实说and对话. Three major components of the interpersonal meaning, namely mood, modality and modal assessment are repectively examined in detail to uncover how the interpersonal meaning is realized through various lexical-grammatical patterns.The interpersonal meaning theory proposed by Halliday takes the continuum of grammar and lexis as the theory frame, of which the mood is grammatical means and the modal assessment is the lexical means and the modality is combination of the grammatical means and the lexical means. This paper applies the method of the quantitative analysis along with the qualitative analysis.The study reveals that various lexical-grammatical patterns have been skillfully used by the host to manipulate the interaction and negociation with the guest. It is found that the grammatical patterns of mood choice enables the interaction between the host and the guest, of which the guest mainly uses the declarative and the host balances the use of the declarative and interrogative; modal expressions serving as politeness strategy enhance the relationship between the host and the guest, the low value is obviously less than the high value, especially in the words of the host; modal assessment resources is selected based on the meaning proposed in the modality, of which the comment adjunct is discussed in detail in this paper, which in function constructs solidarity between the host and guest.This study proves that the realizations of interpersonal meaning in talk shows are diversified, and the interpersonal meaning is appliable in the research of talk shows discourse.