(Re)Defining heroism: A Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) analysis of a president’s speech

Abstract

From a sociolinguistic perspective, language choice reveals a speaker’s ideologies. One among various sociolinguistic theories that could be relevant to this work is Halliday’s Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL), in which approach it is claimed that language is a resource of meaning situated in certain contexts. This study is an attempt at making use of such framework, aided by qualitative content analysis, to surface the ideologies of heroism in Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2023 National Heroes’ day speech. The researchers thematically analyzed the speech manuscript into a total of 6 themes: Heroes as historically significant figures; heroes of the past as part of the Filipino identity; breaking free from the traditional definitions of a hero; heroes as today’s ordinary men and women being products of their circumstances; that anyone can be a hero in their own way; and stories and recognition of everyday, modern and ordinary heroism. The 3 major process types, along with the other 3 minor types, were used to identify the extracts: Material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal, and existential processes. The significance of this work lies in its role in filling in the gaps in the academic literature surrounding the use of SFL as an approach in emerging conceptions from texts of sociopolitical relevance. Ultimately, this paper also brings to fore the relevance of semantics, syntax, and sociolinguistics as tools towards making sense of national and local consciousness, conceptions, and experiences.