奥巴马总统竞选演讲辞的文体分析_英文_

（Inner Mongolia Science &Technology University,Foreign Langvages College,Bao Tou,Inner Mongolia 014010）［Abstract ］On the base of the definition of stylistics,this paper gives a detailed analysis of stylistic devices usedin the famous speech by the well-known American new leader Obama,and then probes into the stylistic characteristics of speech as a style.［Key words ］Stylistics ；Stylistic devices ；analysis ；and speech ［中图分类号］H315［文献标识码］A［文章编号］1672-8610（2009）03-0028-02○WangXiaolinA Stylistic Analysis of Obama ’s Speech［作者简介］汪晓琳，内蒙古科技大学外国语学院教师。

As an interdisciplinary field of study,stylistics promises to offer useful insights into literary criticism and the teaching of literature with its explicit aims and effective techniques.It is very useful in the analysis of various styles of writing.In this paper,I want to try my best to offer a stylistic analysis of Obama ’s Speech.Ⅰ.IntroductionAs far as the definition of stylistics is concerned different scholars define the branch of study in different ways.Wales defines stylistics simply as “the study of style ”(1989:437),while Widdowson provides a more informative definition as “the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation ”and takes “a view that what distinguishes stylistics from liter －ary criticism on the one hand and linguistics on the other is an essential mean of linking the two ”(1975:3).Leech holds a similar view.He defines stylistics as the “study of the use of language in literature ”(1969:1)and considers stylistics a “meeting -ground of linguistics and literary study ”(1969:2).From what Widdowson and Leech say,we can see that stylis －tics is an area of study that straddles two disciplines:literary criticism and linguistics.It takes literary discourse (text)as its object of study and uses linguistics as a means to that end.Speaking of stylistic analysis,it is generally concerned with the uniqueness of a text;that is,what it is is peculiar to the uses of language in a literary text for delivering the mes －sage.This naturally involves comparisons of the language of the text with that used in conventional types of discourse.Stylists may also wish to characterize the style of a literary text by systematically comparing the language uses in that text with those in another.Halliday points out,“The text may be seen as ‘this ’in contrast with ‘that ’,with another poem or another novel;stylistics studies are essentially comparative in nature …”(1971:341).On these points,Widdowson is of the same opinion as Halliday.He says ：“All literary appreciation is com －parative,as indeed is a recognition of styles in general ”(1975:84).Thus,we may conclude that stylistic analysis is an activity that is highly comparative in nature.As to public speech,persuasion is the most complex and difficult a spect.Its job is to change the audience ’s minds-to get them to agree and perhaps to act.Its goal may be to de －fend an idea,to refute an opponent,to sell a programme,or to inspire people to action.Ⅱ.Related information of Obama and his speechObama was born in Hawaii,and his father was a student from Kenya while his mother was a white Kansas.Obama grad －uated from Columbia University and Harvard University,and for the first time in 1996,he was elected Illinois senator while in 2004,for the first time elected as a Senator,to become the U.S.Congress in the history of the 5th session of Congress —the only black senator.In July 2004,the convening of the Democratic Party National Congress,Obama has been designated to do the next day,“the keynote speech.”,which is the Democrats on the party ’s program and policy statements,usually by the party ’s most promising political star to make.Obama delivered the speech he wrote and published an impassioned speech.In his speech,he proposed the elimination of differences between po －litical parties and ethnic differences,“a U.S.”dream.Ⅲ.Some stylistic devices employed in the speech1.Grammatical featuresWe know that casual speech tends to use short sentences.But a glance at Obama ’s speech reveals that its sentences vary much in length,esp.long sentences,ie.,there are many para －graphs only including one sentence.Though there can be sev －eral clauses in a longer sentence,they mainly come after the main sentence,which presents no great difficulty for the audi －ence to comprehend.There are no incomplete or elliptical sen －LANGUAGE Wang Xiaolin /A Stylistic Analysis of Obama ’s Speech282009年第3期语文学刊·外语教育教学tences.These characteristics show the double traits of public speaking:it is formal as is required of written language,and it is yet not difficult to understand at the time of its delivery as is required of the spoken mode.For example:She was born just a generation past slavery;a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky;when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons–because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.2.Lexical featuresIn order to adapt the message to the particular audience being addressed,there seems nowadays to be a tendency for the speaker to incline his/her language toward the relatively less formal,less rigid ways of speaking,making reference to himself/herself,introducing humor,asking for direct response from the audience,or using some colloquial items or idioms, even some dialect words,to appear“closer”to his/her audi－ence.Public speech is careful about of words.It tends to use words accurate and clear in meaning.For instance:There will be setbacks and false starts.There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as Pres－ident,and we know that government can’t solve every prob－lem.But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.I will listen to you,especially when we disagree.And above all,I will ask you join in the work of remaking this na－tion the only way it’s been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years–block by block,brick by brick,cal－loused hand by calloused hand.3.Semantic FeaturesPublic speech is an art.Persuasive speeches need even greater skill.The effective ways of organization(catching format)and delivery(rhetorical devices)are among the re－quired skills.A well-organized speech enhances its credibility and makes it easier for the audience to understand the mes－sage.The most prominent of the rhetorical devices in speech-making is the use of parallelism-the similar arrangement of a pair or series of related words,phrases,or sentences,such as: And tonight,I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America–the heartache and the hope;the struggle and the progress;the times we were told that we can’t,and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed,she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.Yes we can.When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal,new jobs and a new sense of common purpose.Yes we can.When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world,she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and ademocracy was saved.Yes we can.She was there for the buses in Montgomery,the hoses in Birmingham,a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that“We Shall Overcome.”Yes we can.…Synonymous words are repeated to add force,clearness and balance to a sentence.Repetition(of the same word or set of words at the beginning or end of successive clauses or sen－tences)helps create a strong emotional effect.The parallel structure makes the statement clear,consistent and compelling.Parallelism is another syntactic over-regularity.It means exact repetition in equivalent positions.It differs from simple repetition in that the identity does not extend to absolute dupli－cation,and it“requires some variable feature of the pattern-some contrasting elements which are‘parallel’with respect to their position in the pattern”(Leech,1969:66).To put it sim－ply,parallelism means the balance of sentence elements that are grammatically equal.To make them parallel,balance nouns with nouns,verbs with verbs,prepositional phrases with prepo－sitional phrases,clauses with clauses,and so forth.Ⅳ.ConclusionAs we have analyzed above,stylistic devices are frequent－ly used in the discourse of literary works,especially in speech, to achieve certain specific purposes and to make the style of a speech somewhat particular to the others.Generally speaking, a speech may have the following stylistic characteristics:To begin with,it must be very persuasive.Thus the sen－tence patterns are very well-organized,with repetitions,paral－lelism and contrasts frequently used.Secondly,it should be emotional so as to be convincing because the speaker should face the audience directly and his words should not only be orderly and informative but also be expressive and inspiring.Therefore,the stylistic devices such as similes and metaphors are often involved.Finally,in many cases,written-conversational style is usually used with not very formal diction or not very compli－cated sentence structure.———————————————【References】[1]Obama’s Speech Script,November,2008.[2]Wang Shouyuan,Essentials of English Stylistics,Shandong Uni－versity Press,July,2000.[3]Widdowson,H.G.Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature,Longman,1975.[4]Leech,G.N.“‘This bread I break’Language and interpretation”.In D.C.Freeman.(Ed.).Linguistics and Literature Style.New York:Holt,Rinhart&Winston.[5]Pan Shaozhang,English Rhetoric and Writing,Shanghai Trans－portation University Press,December,1998.奥巴马总统竞选演讲辞的文体分析（内蒙古科技大学外国语学院，内蒙古包头014010）［摘要］本文根据文体学的定义和特征对美国著名的新领导人奥巴马的竞选演说词进行分析，从语法特征，词汇特征及语义特征等深入探讨了演讲词这一文体的文体特征。