Interpersonal meanings in the genre of diplomatic addresses

This article is concerned with the construction of interpersonal relations in a relatively neglected genre of political discourse – opening addresses delivered by Directors-General of UNESCO at international conferences and meetings – arguing that the genre-specific distribution of interpersonal cues in addresses enhances the perception of coherence. While exploring the communicative purpose and the rhetorical structure of addresses, the analysis relates the rhetorical moves of the genre to communicative functions of language conveying interpersonal meanings and considers their contribution to the perception of discourse coherence. The findings of the analysis show that owing to the ritualistic character of addresses, interpersonal meanings contributing to the perception of coherence convey a continuous appeal to the audience related to claiming common ground and shared ideology, and a consistent subjective evaluation of social actors, their actions and relations by the speaker.