Abstract
This study focuses on lexical bundles functioning as interactional metadiscourse in TED talks and adopts a combined approach of quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis to investigate their distributional and functional features, as well as the interpersonal style constructed by these lexical bundles. The quantitative results show that self mentions and engagement markers constitute the core categories of interactional metadiscourse chunks in TED talks, while hedges, boosters and attitude markers constitute only a small proportion. The qualitative analysis indicates that speakers exhibit a strong sense of audience awareness and interactional orientation through the use of the two core categories, thus constructing a distinctive interpersonal style in TED talks characterized by equality on the level of ethos, closeness on the level of pathos, and orderliness on the level of logos. This study not only provides empirical evidence for interpreting the interpersonal interaction mechanism of public speaking from a micro-linguistic perspective, but also offers implications for both language teaching and public speaking.
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How to cite this paper
Interpersonal Style in TED Talks: A Corpus-driven Study on Interactional Metadiscourse
How to cite this paper: Fang Yuan. (2025). Interpersonal Style in TED Talks: A Corpus-driven Study on Interactional Metadiscourse. Translation and Foreign Language Learning, 1(5), 883-887.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.12.023