Communicating Climate Change: A Qualitative Discourse Analysis of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Lectures by Al Gore and Rajendra K. Pachauri By Marianne Beck Heien A Thesis Presented to the Department of Literature, Area Studies and Language, Faculty of Humanities, In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the English Language Master of Arts degree University of Oslo Spring Semester 2009 Acknowledgements A warm thank you to my supervisor Hilde Hasselgård for guidance, knowledge, and constructive criticism. A modal expression will never again be merely a modal expression! I would like to thank Kirsten Kleveland, a very good friend at the receiving end of my questions, for her encouragement, support, great sense of humour, and mathematics skills. I would also like to express my appreciation to my family and friends, for their support and encouragement; and to my flatmates, for distraction, entertainment, skiing, and coffee. Last, but not least, thanks to my fellow students in the computer room and common room, the days (and late nights) wouldn’t have been the same without you. II Communicating Climate Change: A Qualitative Discourse Analysis of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Lectures by Al Gore and Rajendra K. Pachauri Table of contents 1: Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Aim and scope.................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Comments on the data...................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Theoretical foundation ..................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 3 1.4.1 Analysis of modality ................................................................................................. 3 1.4.1.1 Notes on the analysis of modality and hypothetical meaning............................ 3 1.4.2 Message factors......................................................................................................... 4 1.4.2.1 Analysing metaphors.......................................................................................... 4 1.4.2.2. Analogy ............................................................................................................. 5 1.5 Context of situation .......................................................................................................... 6 1.5.1 The field of discourse................................................................................................ 6 1.5.2 The tenor of discourse............................................................................................... 6 1.5.2.1 The Laureates ..................................................................................................... 6 1.5.2.2 Background information on the IPCC................................................................ 7 1.5.2.3 The audience ...................................................................................................... 7 1.5.3 The mode of discourse .............................................................................................. 8 1.6 Ethos, pathos and logos.................................................................................................... 9 1.7 The lecture as a genre..................................................................................................... 10 1.8. Ideology......................................................................................................................... 11 1.9 Study outline .................................................................................................................. 11 2: The Interpersonal Metafunction; Mood, Modality and Hypothetical Meaning.......... 12 2.1 The theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) ................................................... 12 2.2 The clause as exchange: The interpersonal metafunction.............................................. 13 2.2.1 The Mood ................................................................................................................ 13 2.2.1.1 Subject.............................................................................................................. 15 2.2.1.2 Finite................................................................................................................. 16 2.2.2 The function of the Mood........................................................................................ 16 2.3 Modal meanings and expressions of modality ............................................................... 18 2.3.1 Values of modality .................................................................................................. 19 2.3.2 The system of modality in SFL............................................................................... 19 2.3.2.1 Modalization in propositions............................................................................ 21 2.3.2.2 Modulation in proposals................................................................................... 21 2.3.3 Means of expressing modality in reference grammars – Quirk et al. ..................... 21 2.3.3.1 Modal auxiliaries (MA).................................................................................... 23 2.3.3.2 Marginal auxiliaries.......................................................................................... 24 2.3.3.3 Content disjuncts.............................................................................................. 26 2.3.4 A broad concept of modality................................................................................... 27 2.3.5 Modal metaphors..................................................................................................... 28 2.3.5.1 Modal responsibility......................................................................................... 29 2.4 Different ways of expressing hypothetical meaning ...................................................... 30 III 2.4.1 Modal auxiliaries..................................................................................................... 31 2.4.2 The modal idiom were to ........................................................................................ 31 2.4.3 If-clauses ................................................................................................................. 32 2.4.4 Implicit if-clauses.................................................................................................... 32 2.5 Fuzzy boundaries............................................................................................................ 33 2.6 Summary of the terminology.......................................................................................... 35 2.7 Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................... 35 3: Communicating Climate Change ..................................................................................... 37 3.1 Understanding scientific language ................................................................................. 37 3.2 Effective climate change messages ................................................................................ 39 3.3 Relevance to the present study....................................................................................... 40 4: Modality in the texts: discussion....................................................................................... 42 4.1 Presenting the results...................................................................................................... 42 4.2 Possibility and ability..................................................................................................... 43 4.2.1 Possibility in the G-text........................................................................................... 44 4.2.2 Ability in the G-text ................................................................................................ 46 4.2.3 Possibility in the P-text ........................................................................................... 47 4.2.4 Ability in the P-text................................................................................................. 50 4.2.5 Observations on possibility and ability................................................................... 51 4.3 Prediction and volition ................................................................................................... 52 4.3.1 Prediction in the G-text ........................................................................................... 52 4.3.2 Volition in the G-text .............................................................................................. 53 4.3.3 Prediction in the P-text............................................................................................ 55 4.3.4 Volition in the P-text............................................................................................... 57 4.3.5 Observations on prediction and volition ................................................................. 57 4.4. Hypothetical meaning ................................................................................................... 58 4.4.1 Hypothetical meaning