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Vol. 1, No. 1, August 2018, pp. 22-28 
E-ISSN: 2621-6485  

  
 

 

An Analysis of Domain Mood and Modality of 

Interpersonal Meaning in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono 

(SBY)’s Speech 

 
1
Mustika Amalia, 

2
Dedy Subandowo, 

3
Eva Faliyanti, 

4
Fenny Thresia 

Universitas Muhammadiyah Metro 
1 

mustika0542@gmail.com, 2dedy.subandowo@ummetro.ac.id, 
3evafaliyanti1980@gmail.com, 4fenny.thresia@yahoo.com  

 
Abstract 

This research examines the interpersonal meaning in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)’s 

speech. This is based on the details of speech or writing to define an investigation. The 

object of this research is the used moods and modality types in interpersonal meaning of 

SBY’s speech under the title “Toward Harmony among Civilizations” by Dr.Susilo 

Bambang Yudhoyono. The aims of this research are (1) to observe the mood and modality 

types used in SBY’s speech, (2) to observe the dominant mood and modality types in 

SBY’s speech, (3) to describe the interpersonal meaning in case of mood and modality 

types in SBY’s speech. The main sources of data in this study are taken from the SBY’s 

speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University summit on 

September 29
th

, 2009, in Boston, USA. The data then are classified and collected in 

tabulation. This paper is based on the discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics 

approach by Halliday. The writer analyses the speeh by SBY mainly from the interpersonal 

meaning which focuses on the mood and modality types. The results of this research are 

(1) there are two mood types in interpersonal meaning of SBY’s speech namely indicative 

and imperative type, (2) the dominant mood in SBY’s speech is the indicative type which 

is declarative with the total number of 97 clauses or around 95%, while the dominant used 

modality is “can”. In addition, the overall dominant modality type exists in median degree 

modality with the total percentage 40,6%, and (3) the researcher discovers the different 

mood and modality that might affect the value of the speech to the audience. 

 

Keywords: discourse analysis, interpersonal meaning, speech of SBY, systemic 
functional linguistic 

 

 

How to Cite: Amalia, M., Subandowo, D., Faliyanti, E., Thresia, F. (2018). An Analysis of 

Domain Mood and Modality of Interpersonal Meaning in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono 

(SBY)’s Speech. English Language Teaching Educational Journal, 1(1), 22-28.  

 

INTRODUCTION 
Language is a natural part of the process of living (Halloran, 2008). 

Language is used for communication and that is called discourse (Gee, 2014) 

and (Wetherell, 2001). The researcher conducts a linguistic research on the 

interpersonal meaning which analyzed mood and modality types in the speech 

of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). The speech was delivered on September 

29th, 2009 at  John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University with 

the topic “Towards Harmony among Civilizations”. 

This research focuses on mood and modality in the interpersonal 

relationship that can be seen through the interpersonal meaning realized on the 

mailto:mustika0542@gmail.com
mailto:2dedy.subandowo@ummetro.ac.id
mailto:3evafaliyanti1980@gmail.com
mailto:4fenny.thresia@yahoo.com


 
 

23 
ELTEJ  E-ISSN: 2621-6485 

 
 

Amalia, Subandowo, Faliyanti, Thresia 

speech. Mood types in English depend on the position of the subject like the 

doer, and the finite which is used in the clause. According to Gart & Wignellin 

(Halliday M. & Matthiessen, 2004) there are two main categories in mood 

types :indicative and imperative moods (Haratyan, 2011) and  (Matthiessen& 

Halliday, 2009). 

People use interpersonal meaning in communicating to his/her motion, 

feeling, etc (Sadighi,2008) and (Feng& Liu,2010). These express the speaker 

or writer’s judgments on or attitude to the content of the message. The 

elements of interpersonal meanings are mood and residue. Mood element 

carries the interpersonal   functions of the clause and consists of subject and 

finite (Halliday &Matthiessen, 2014). 

The research relating to this topic has been done by Wang (2017) that 

tested on the effect of using mood and modality interactivity under the context 

of smart phones news reading. This study showed that mood, modality 

interactivity, or news story length had no direct impact on user engagement. 

However, there was a combinatory effect of mood, length, and topic on 

dimensions of user engagement. On the other hand, Ko (2018) researhced on 

systemic functional grammar to Korean Texts. This study mentioned that there 

are three metafunctions of SFG: experiential, textual and interpersonal. The 

study subsequently provides a sample text analysis of email and personal diary 

writing of two Korean ESL children, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of 

applying SFG to Korean texts. Furthermore, Tokunaga (2017) examined the 

mood and modality on transactional monologues like procedural texts. This 

study evaluated that interpersonal meanings are made not just in highly 

interactive dialogic modes of discourse such as conversations, where 

maintaining and negotiating social relationships is key, but transactional 

monologues as well. 

Based on the phenomenon above, the research tries to conduct analysis on 

mood and modality in interpersonal meaning of the SBY’s speech. The 

researcher wonders how mood and modality realize in SBY’s speech and how 

the interpersonal meaning creates the speaker’s action to the listeners. It is 

important to find out the goal of SBY as the speaker conveying his speech. 

RESEARH METHOD 
This research is qualitative research which concerned with developing 

explanations of social phenomena (Hancock, Ockleford, &Windridge, 2009), 

(Sandelowski, 2000) and (Cochran, 2002). This study is categorized into 

documentary research regarding with the data that is taken from the document 

or written text; speech. Based on Grix (2001) in (Mogalakwe, 2006) states that 

documents are produced by individuals and groups in the course of their 

everyday practices and are geared exclusively for their own immediate practical 

(Bowen, 2009) and (Voice, 2012).  The speech of SBY was downloaded from 

https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-

sebagaipidato- terbaik-abad-21/.In processing the data, the first step was giving 

a code and mark to the found mood and modality types in the script of SBY’s 

https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/%20idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-sebagai%20pidato-terbaik-abad-21/
https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/%20idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-sebagai%20pidato-terbaik-abad-21/
https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/%20idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-sebagai%20pidato-terbaik-abad-21/
https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/%20idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-sebagai%20pidato-terbaik-abad-21/
https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/%20idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-sebagai%20pidato-terbaik-abad-21/
https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/%20idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-sebagai%20pidato-terbaik-abad-21/
https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/%20idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-sebagai%20pidato-terbaik-abad-21/
https://ombenk.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/%20idato-presiden-sby-yang-terpilih-sebagai%20pidato-terbaik-abad-21/


 
 
 
24   E-ISSN: 2621-6485 
 
 

 

 

speech. The second step was observing the mood and modality types realized in 

the script of SBY’s speech. The further step was observing the dominant mood 

and modality types in script of SBY’s speech. Then Describing the interpersonal 

meaning in case of mood and modality   types in SBY’s speech based on 

Systemic Functional Linguistics theory in discourse analysis. 

 

RESULTS 

The finding of the research showed that there are two kinds of mood 

types, namely indicative and imperative. Indicative type has two types; those 

are declarative and interrogative. In terms of modality, SBY applies 10 

modalities which kind of low, middle and high category in his speech. 

The dominant mood used in the speech is declarative mood and followed 

by the interrogative and imperative. There are 97 clauses identified as 

declarative mood or around 95% in SBY’s speech, and it is followed by 4 

clauses or over 3,9% as interrogative mood, and1 clause or about 0,9% as 

imperative mood. 

Table 1. The dominant mood type 

 

The table is about the dominant modality which showed the middle 

degree with 41 modal or around 40,6%, and followed low degree with  40 

modal or around 39,6%, then the high degree with 20 orover19,8%.The 

researcher discovers the different mood and modality can affect the value of 

the speech to the audience. As declarative type is the dominant mood type in 

SBY’s speech, this means that SBY gave information to the audience. 

Modality expresses the speaker’s judgment of how likely or unlikely he is 

toward the thing that he says. The dominant modality in SBY’s speech is can 

which is used  to describe the ability of the subject to do or to make something. 

Apart from likely or unlikely “can” could be used as “permission”.  Yet, 

overall, the dominant modality type does exist in median degree. This degree is 

served by modal will, should, would, and shouldn’t. It shows that the speaker is 

declaring his speech courteously, or in the median politeness. 

 

 

 

Mood Types Speech 

Function 

Mood 

Element 

Appearance Percentage 

Declarative Statement Subject 

+ Finite 

97 95% 

Interrogative Question Finite 

+ Subject 

WH/ Finite 

+Subje ct 

4 3,9% 

Imperative Command Finite 1 0,9% 

Total Clause 102 100 

% 



 
 

25 
ELTEJ  E-ISSN: 2621-6485 

 
 

Amalia, Subandowo, Faliyanti, Thresia 

 

Table 2. The dominant modality type 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINDING AND DISCUSSION  

From the result of the analysis, the researcher received the data of mood 

types. The data consist of 97clauses or all over  95% of declarative clause, 4 

clauses or about 3,9% of interrogative clause, and 1 clause or around 0,9% of 

imperative clause. The dominant mood used in the speech is declarative type, 

and it is followed by the interrogative and the imperative one. In declarative 

mood, SBY formed the nine steps to build the harmony of civilization. Then 

interrogative mood, SBY preferred to use WH-elements in representing his 

questions and demanding the reasons to make the work globally between 

Indonesia and America. The last imperative mood in SBY’s speech is used to 

demand the information from the Indonesia to America. 

The result of modality is about 101 modals in total. The speaker tends to 

use modal can, but the modality types consist of 40 modals or around 39.6% 

of low degree, 41 modals or about 40,6% of medium/middle degree, and 20 

modals or around  19,8% of high degree. 

The writer found the dominant mood type is   declarative   clause.   

Meanwhile,   the speaker tends to use modal can in his speech which included 

low degree. However, from the  percentage  of  modality,  the dominant shows 

middle degree. 

The mood is the valuable thing in realizing interpersonal meaning for it 

is the main point in bearing the speaker’s attitudes and judgments. Since mood 

is built by subject and finite, and the chosen finite is modality, the researcher 

Degree Modality Appearance Percent age 

Low Can 

Could 

May 

Cannot 

32 

3 

3 

2 

 

Result 40 39,6% 

Middle/ 
Medium 

Will 
Would 

Should 

Should n’t 

17 

14 

7 

3 

 

Result 41 40,6% 

High Must 

Have to 

19 

1 

 

Result 20 19,8% 

Total (Low+Middle 

+High) 

40+41+20= 

101 

100% 



 
 
 
26   E-ISSN: 2621-6485 
 
 

 

interprets the clause which consists modal in it. SBY tends to use modal "can" 

that aims to convince and persuade the audience to deal with the idea of the 

speaker,while the researcher discovers that the dominant modality type is in 

middle degree. It means that the speaker is conveying the speech in way of 

median politeness. 

 

CONCLUSION 
The researcher found that there are two mood types in interpersonal 

meaning of SBY’s speech namely indicative and imperative type, Indicative 

type consists of declarative and interrogative. Based on the analysis of mood 

type, the researcher reveived the data 97 clauses of declarative with the 

percentage around 96%, 4 clauses of interrogative with the total percentage 

3,9%, and 1 clause of imperative with 0,9%.  The modality in that speech is 10 

modals, there are 32 of “can”, 3 of “could”, 3 of “may”, 2 of “cannot”, 17 of 

“will”,14 of “would”, 7 of “should”, 2 of “shouldn’t”, 19 of “must”, 1 of “have 

to”. The details of those types are the first low degree (can, could, may, cannot) 

with the total percentage of 39,60%, then middle degree (will, would, should, 

shouldn’t) with the 40,60%, and the last is high degree (must, have to) with 

19,8%. 

The dominant mood in SBY’s speech is the indicative type that is 

declarative with 97 clauses or around 95%, while the dominant modality is can. 

Yet, overall, the dominant modality type exists in median degree modality with 

the percentage 40, %. 

This research uses SBY’s speech as an example to show how 

interpersonal meaning is realized in a speech, especially in a political speech. 

From the explanation in the previous chapter, the researcher discovers that the 

different mood and modality can affect the value of the speech to the audience. 

As declarative type is the dominant mood type in SBY’s speech, this means that 

SBY gave information to audience. Modality expresses the speaker’s judgment 

of how likely or unlikely he is the thing that he says. The dominant modality in 

SBY’s speech is can which is used to describe the ability of the subject to do or 

to make something. Apart from likely or unlikely “can” could be used 

“permission”. Yet, overall, the dominant modality type exists in median degree. 

This degree is served by modal will, should, would, and shouldn’t. It shows that 

the speaker is declaring his speech courteously, or in the median politeness. The 

realized modality type in median degree is 40,6%of all data. 

 

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