Aproximación sistémica funcional a la relación entre el significado y las palabras en el discurso de inauguración de Mandela como Presidente

Resum

In this article, I intend to analyse the main linguistic characteristics of one of Mandela� speeches: the address to the nation at the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as President of the Republic of South Africa, Union Building, Pretoria, 10 May 1994. Having Systemic Functional Linguistics (hereafter SFL) as a framework, I will explore the speech as an instance of the generalized system of meanings surrounding it by paying attention to the different rhetorical devices (parallelisms, enumerations, repetitions, and exclamations), to marked syntax, and to appraisal. This analysis will show how these resources allow the author to create a social reality through language, to contribute to the vividness of the speech, and to build the reality of the historical moment that the speech shows. Special attention will be given to the situational variable of tenor to describe the relationship that Mandela (the addressor) establishes with the audience (the addressee), to whom the speech is addressed to. From this analysis, I will conclude that there is a clear relationship between language and meaning, i.e., Mandela�s language is not chosen randomly; on the contrary, it has a clear purpose that contributes to the way the meaning of the text is expressed by the author and perceived by the reader.