《十二怒汉》话语情态的人际意义解读——以八号陪审员的话语为例

Interpretation of Modality in Twelve Angry Men——In the case of Juror 8's words

英语专业《现代大学英语》第三册课文《十二怒汉》取自同名电影剧本。该剧本藉以十二个陪审员讨论一个谋杀案的故事,反映美国陪审员制度和司法公正这一主题。运用系统功能语言学的情态理论,对八号陪审员的话语情态进行分析,发现他的话语承载了凸显陪审员应有的责任、增加证据合理疑点的可信度和巧妙引发辩论的人际意义,有效地反映了作者意欲表达的主题。

The text Twelve Angry Men in Contemporary College English for English majors comes from a movie script of the same name .The play is concerned with the judicial system in the USA and ju-dicial fairness by way of describing the jury trial process for a murder case .By adopting the modality system proposed by Systemic Functional Grammar to analyze Junior 8’s words ,the paper illustrates his responsibility as a juror ,the credibility for his reasonable doubt ,and the clever interpersonal meaning of debate ,w hich the author intends to convey .