Interpersonal Function in Martin Luther King Jr’s Speech

Abstract

This research aims was to discover the interpersonal function types and to explores their realization within the speech. This research was conducted by using qualitative research design. The data was taken from the website which are readily accessible to the public. After that, the data is divided into clauses form. Next, the data was analyzed based on Halliday’s theory through many steps of data analysis by Cresswell. The results of data analysis showed that Martin Luther King Jr applied: (1) Speech Function (statement, command, and question); Mood (declarative, imperative and interrogative); Modality (high, median, and low); Tense Shift (present, future, and past) and Personal Pronoun (First Personal Pronoun, Second Personal Pronoun and Third Personal Pronoun). (2) speech function (statement was a most dominant, command was the second dominant and question was less); Mood (declarative was most dominant, imperative was the second dominant and interrogative was less); modality (median was most dominant, high was the second, and low was rare); personal pronoun (we was used frequently) and tense shift (present tense was majority, future was a second place, and past tense was less). So based result above, it was concluded that Martin Luther King Jr gave much infomation. Therefore, this speech was called as an informative speech. Considering the result above, the researcher suggested orator use many pronoun “we†when delivering a speech and the university students learn interpersonal function.