Language of diplomacy: Interpersonality in Kofi Annan‘s entry and exit speeches to the united nations general assembly

Abstract

One of the unique features associated with Kofi Annan, a global icon, is his language use. By adopting a systemic functional linguistic approach, this study investigated the interpersonal language choices in his diplomatic speeches. The study, specifically investigated mood, modality and polarity, and personal pronouns and vocative address. To accomplish this purpose, the first speech he delivered when he was elected into office as the Secretary-General (SG) and his final speech he delivered to end his tenure in office as SG were selected from the reliable website of the United Nations. Employing qualitative document analysis, specifically the directed and summative approaches, the study provided three key findings. The first key finding concerned the dominant use of Declarative Mood choice as a system for information dissemination. The second key finding concerned the use of modal verbs and negative polar markers to mainly indicate the speaker‘s commitment to the truth value of propositions. The third key finding concerned the use of the first and second person personal pronouns (in both the singular and plural forms) to indicate the speaker/addressee roles in the speech situations; and vocative addresses expressed observation of diplomatic protocols as well. The study provides empirical support for SFL theory and equally has implications for the scholarship on interpersonality and diplomatic practice.