An Analysis of Interpersonal Function in TED Educational Speeches

Abstract

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), an online speech platform, has become popular around the world in recent years. With the mission of “ideas worth spreading”, TED speakers are committed to using languages to convey ideas and to influence the attitudes and the behaviors of their audiences. This mission actually reflects the interpersonal function of TED speeches. In order to explore how interpersonal function is realized in TED educational speeches, the paper selects the British educator Ken Robinson's three TED speeches as research materials. The study will elaborate on how interpersonal function is realized in TED educational speeches through mood, modality and personal pronoun systems. The study reveals that in mood system, declarative mood is always used in TED educational speeches to express statement or suggestions so as to enhance the credibility of the speeches. In modality system, median and low value modal operators is always used by the speakers in order to convey opinions in a polite and gentle way. In personal pronoun system, the speakers always use first personal pronouns in their deliveries, which is conducive to present information and bridge the gap between the speaker and the audiences.