The Interpersonal Functional Analysis of Taylor Swift’s Commencement Address at New York University

Chenyang  Ma

doi:10.54691/scvd9751

Authors

Chenyang Ma

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54691/scvd9751

Keywords:

Taylor Swift; Commencement address; Systemic functional grammar; Interpersonal function; 2022

Abstract

As an American singer-songwriter, actress and music producer, Taylor Swift is known for her pop and country music compositions and considered as one of the most influential artists of the 21st century. Therefore, it is very meaningful to study the speeches delivered by famous musicians at graduation ceremonies. Based on the interpersonal function of Halliday’s systemic functional grammar, this paper takes Taylor Swift’s commencement address at New York University in 2022 as the corpus, analyzes the interpersonal meaning of the address from three angles including mood system, modality system as well as personal pronoun system, aiming to reveal how the speaker chose the appropriate language means to realize the interpersonal meaning in the address, and then achieve the purpose of the address.

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