In Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics, interpersonal function is described as any

function that makes people interact with each other through language. That is language is
organized to express a certain interactive event that involves speaker/writers and listeners
(Halliday, 2000). In fact, the language function served as interactive form between speakers
and listeners is called interpersonal function. In this way language is used to establish and
maintain appropriate relationship among people (Thompson, 2000). In addition to identifying
speakers, interpersonal meanings also express attitudes, motivational speakers and so on.
Through interpersonal functions, social groups are separated from each other, individuals can
express and identify themselves, strengthen their relationships with others and efforts to
influence the behavior and attitudes of others through mood and modality system.

Interpersonal meaning, according to Butt (2001:86) is one of the most basic interactive
distinction is between using language to exchange information and using it to exchange goods
and services. These meanings are most centrally influenced by tenor (who/what kind of person
produced this text? For whom?) of discourse. Interpersonal meanings focus on the interactivity
of the language, and concern the ways in which we act upon one another through language. In
either spoken texts or written texts, an interlocutor expects to tell listeners/readers via text. It
means that each text has a relationship between providers and recipients of information.
Interpersonal meaning also deals with three components, are mood element, residue element,
and mood system. The mood element includes subject, finite, and/or mood adjunct; while the
residue consists of predicator, complement, and some adjuncts such as mood, polarity,
comment, vocative or circumstantial adjunct (Eggins, 1994:154-169).

Interpersonal meaning is a technical term in Systemic Functional Grammar

(SFG) related to someone‘s attitude and judgments. In an utterance, there is meaning that
wants to be delivered to the hearer. ―Meanings are realized in wordings through what is called
mood
and modality‖ Gerot and Wignell (1994:13). Mood is most centrally influenced by the context
situation named tenor. On the other hand, Halliday in Beaugrande (1991:245) explains briefly
that the interpersonal metafunction concerns ‗forms of interaction‘ and ‗embodies all use of
language to express social and personal relations‘, ‗personalities, and personal feelings‘, as well
as ‗the speaker‘s intrusion into speech situation and
speech act. The interpersonal meaning can be achieved by analyzing the mood system and its
constituents. Mood represents the organization of participants in speech situation and
speakers‘ roles. Mood system consists of two elements. They are mood element and residue.
Mood element contains Subject and Finite. Meanwhile, residue ―is a remainder of the clause
―(Gerot and Wignell, 1994:25). Mood and residue are the elements which set the clause as
exchange. Those can be analyzed to set how the interpersonal meaning is constructed in such
situation. The main structure of mood is Subject and Finite. Subject is a part of nominal group
and finite is a part of verbal group. Finite can be a representation of time speaking and the
judgment of the speaker as stated by Halliday and Matthiessen (2004:115). Martin et al
(1997:62) state that ―the mood element makes the clause‗negotiable‘ and consists of finite,
subject and sometimes modal adjunct(s). The finite makes the clause negotiable by coding as
positive or negative. It means that the finite is the decisive factor which realizes the
interpersonal meaning of the speaker. For detailed explanation, the following section will give
brief explanation about the mood elements.
Halliday and Matthiessen (2004:117) define subject as something by reference to which the
proposition can be affirmed or denied. It is also vested the success or failure of the proposition.
Subject is also responsible for the functioning of the clause. It can realize the offer or command
in a clause. Furthermore, Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p. 119) also state regarding subject,
―subject has got distinct identity which can carry modal responsibility which is responsibility
for the validity of what is being predicated (stated, questioned, commanded or offered) in the
clause.‖ It means that Subject can be placed as the actor of what being said in the utterance
which is responsible to what is being discussed. Matthiessen et al. (2010, p. 98) define ―the
finite verbal operators has the function to express the arguability value of the clause as
exchange by reference to either of tense or modality (probability, usuality, obligation,
inclination, or ability; high, median or low value).‖ In constructing meaning in a clause, finite
works by using two operators. They are primary tense (temporal operators) and modality
(modal operators). The primary tense is past, present or even future of the speaking time.
Meanwhile, modality indicates the speakers‘ judgment or the obligations in what the speaker is
saying (Gerot & Wignell, 1994, p. 27-28). Finite modal operators represent the three values to
set the interpersonal meaning of the speaker. They are high, median and low value. Each of
them has their own function. The high value shows the obligation of the matter. The median
value functions the inclination or futurity. Then, the low value functions the possibility or
ability. The three value of it is represented in the modal used by the speaker. The detailed
information will be provided below with the temporal finite operators as taken from Halliday
and Matthiessen (2004, p. 116).

Lock (1996:9) explains that: Interpersonal meaning has to do with the way in which we act upon
one another through language-giving requesting information, getting people to do things and
offering to do things ourselves and the way in which we express our judgment and attitudes
about such things as likelihood, necessity, and desirability. While Martin, Matthiessen, and
Painter (1997:5) state interpersonal meaning involves treating the text
dialogue basically this means dividing the text into things you can argue with. Interpersonal
meaning views language from point of views of its function in the process of social interactions.
Interpersonal meaning, according to Butt (2001:86) is one of the most basic interactive
distinction is between using language to exchange information and using it to exchange goods
and services. These meanings are most centrally influenced by tenor (who/what kind of person
produced this text? For whom?) of discourse. Interpersonal meanings focus on the interactivity
of the language, and concern the ways in which we act upon one another through language. In
either spoken texts or written texts, an interlocutor expects to tell listeners/readers via text. It
means that each text has a relationship between
providers and recipients of information. Interpersonal meaning also deals with three
components, are mood element, residue element, and mood system. The mood element
includes subject, finite, and/or mood adjunct; while the residue consists of predicator,
complement, and some adjuncts such as mood, polarity, comment, vocative or circumstantial
adjunct (Eggins, 1994:154-169).

In Interpersonal metafunction analysis which is our concern in this study, sentence is

considered as a piece of interaction between the speaker and listener.(Halliday&Hasan 1985:
8). Here, language is considered as a way of reflecting. According to Butt, et al(1995:13) “The
interpersonal metafunction uses language to encode interaction and to show how defensible or
binding we find our proposition or proposal.” In interpersonal analysis, meaning is considered
from the point of view of its function in the process of social interaction. In the interpersonal
metafunction, a clause is analysed into Mood and Residue, with the mood element further
analysed into Subject and Finite. TheSubject and Complement are typically realized by nominal
groups. The Finiteis realized by the tensed element of the verb. The Predicator is realized by the
non-tensed (or nonfinite) element or elements of the verbal group. The Adjunct is realized by
an adverbial group or prepositional phrase.

One of the purposes of communication is to interact with other people. By interacting, I mean
social relationship, which is established by people for proper communication. Thus, language is
used for establishing and maintaining
relationships with each other, to affecteach other’s behavior, to express their own viewpoints
on things around them, and to change or elicit the desire of each other[19].The negotiation of
social relationships among participants is called Tenor. It has to do with the Roles of Addressers
and Audience, Mood, and Modality.“One of the most basic interactive distinctions [in using
language] concerns the kind of commodity being exchanged” that is, the difference between
using language for exchanging information and goods and services[2]. A second type of
distinction is concerned with the type of interaction taking place; that is, the difference
between giving and demanding something. In other words, we can give or demand information
and give or demandgoods and services[20]-[2]..The Interpersonal Metafunction of the clause is
carried out by a term called ‘Mood’. The ‘Mood’ is made up of Subject and Finite. “The subject
supplies the rest of what it takes to form a proposition, namely, something by reference to
which the proposition can be affirmed or denied”[10]. The first functional element of the verbal
group is the Finite. In any exchange, the most important purpose is giving or demanding
information and goods and services. According to [7] in any interpersonal exchange, there are
four speech functions: “giving information, demanding information,
giving goods and services and demanding good and services”. We then conclude that these four
functions are expressed by: statement, question, offer, and command.The function of
statementsareexpressed by declarative clauses; questions are expressed by interrogative
clauses, and command is expressed by imperative clauses

The Interpersonal Metafunction of a speech represents the way the addresser and the audience
interact, the use of language to establish and maintain relations with them, to influence their
behavior, to express our own viewpoint on things in the world, and to elicit or change theirs. It
mainly concerns the Roles of Addressers and Audience, Mood and Modality. To help readers to
understand Barack Obama's Inaugural Address and make comments on the speech about
whether it is an effective discourse for its own purpose, the following analysis of the speech
from the perspective of the Interpersonal Metafunction mainly involves the analysis of Mood,
Modality and Pronoun[4]

Halliday (1994: 68), furthers it is through the interpersonal metafunction that people
establish, negotiate and assume their position in social relationship, and it is concerned
with clauses as exchange. The inter-personal significance begins with the definition of
the basic role of the speech: the provision of information, the provision of goods and
services and demanding goods or services (Halliday, 1994).
Thompson (1996) summed the types of metafunction as: 1) we use language to talk
about our experience of the world, including the worlds in our own minds, to describe
events and states and the entities involved in them. 2) We use language to interact with
others, establish and maintain relationships with others, influence their behavior, and
speak for ourselves views and eliciting or changing theirs about things in the world. 3)
By using languages, we organize our messages in ways that indicate how they fit with the
other messages that surround them and the broader context in which we speak or write.
4) Complex-clauses associated with logicosemantic relations to form sequences in the use
of languages (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004).
Grammar interpersonally is not a theory but a way; it is our social connections, both
of which define the society and our own role, and of the immediate dialogic situation.
Grammar is our social relationship. This is the interpersonal metafunction through which
language builds up our social collective and thus our personal being (Halliday &
Matthiessen, 1999). In other words, interpersonal roles play a role in the establishment
and preservation of social relations and indicate the role of communication participants
(Halliday, 2002).
A component is essential for the interpersonal metafunction of the clause as an
exchange in English in order to keep contact going. It is called Mood and consists of
Subject and Finite (see Thompson 2000:41). As the Halliday quote (1994:76) points out,
"the subject provides everything else that it takes to make a proposition, namely
something that can be affirmed and denied." The Finite refers to the verbal group's first
functional element.
As its name suggests, Systematic Functional Linguistics is a language
subdiscipline, offering different models and instruments to analyze all human languages.
According to Teich (2003, p. 37), three main elements – the ideational, the interpersonal
and the textual meta-function-are defined as the general representative categories for the
linguistic descriptions used in SFL. Logical and experiential mode is the ideation
metafunction. In the logical mode, "our world experience is taken as channels of the
natural-semantic phenomena" (Matthiessen, Teruya, & Lam, 2010, p. 132).
Language resources "to build our experience of the world around us and in
ourselves as meaning" are provided in the experiential mode (ibid. 92). The second
metafunction, i.e., the metafunction of people, considers language "a means of
establishing roles and relationships between the speaker and the addresses" (ibid: p. 126).
It is a combination of Bühler's conative and expressive functions and matches the tenor
system. The latest metafunction – the textual metafunction is a feasible metafunction,
"which provides resources for ideational and interpersonal meaning to be presented in the
context of a flux of information within a wording" (ibid.: p. 220).

According to Halliday (1994: 68), it is through the interpersonal

metafunction that people establish, negotiate and assume their position in social
relationship, and it is concerned with clauses as exchange. The interpersonal
meaning begins with defining basic speech role: giving information, giving
goods-and-services and demanding goods-and-services, respectively called
statement, questions and commands (Halliday, 1994:68)