AN INVESTIGATION OF NATIONAL UNITY BUILDING IN PRESIDENT GEORGE WEAH’S INAUGURAL SPEECH (2018): A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL APPROACH

Abstract

The inaugural ceremony of President George Manneh Weah made Liberia the focus of international attention as well as leading newspapers, television and radio stations across the globe. His speech has been described as one of the best inaugural orations in modern history; what values its exploration. Following the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory, this study deals with national unity building through tenor variable and interpersonal meaning in the speech under consideration. It aims at exploring how interpersonal meaning is realised in this speech and at helping readers understand and evaluate the speech regarding its suitability. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used. The findings show that George Weah uses exclusively declarative and imperative moods in his speech and that the core messages conveyed through this are his gratitude, promises, and calling for National Unity for the building of this “New Liberia”