Genre Analysis of Trump’s Inaugural Address

来源 :校园英语·上旬 | 被引量 : 0次 | 上传用户:lwz
下载到本地 , 更方便阅读
声明 : 本文档内容版权归属内容提供方 , 如果您对本文有版权争议 , 可与客服联系进行内容授权或下架
论文部分内容阅读
  【Abstract】The US presidential inaugural speech is a kind of highly regarded genre, and the application of genre analysis can help to understand how the purpose of communication determines the characteristics of language and has some practical significance in understanding discourse and writing practice.
  【Key words】Genre; Genre analysis; Inaugural Address
  【摘要】一直以來,美国总统就职演说(APIA)都会引起学者在应用语言学领域的极大关注。然而,大多数关于APIA的研究主要是从翻译、文体、修辞等角度进行的,对体裁分析的研究却少之又少。
  【关键词】体裁 体裁分析 就职演说
  1. Introduction
  Genre Analysis
  As an admittedly new development of discourse analysis, genre analysis establishes itself after going through four stages, that is, register analysis, grammatical-rhetorical analysis, interactional analysis and genre analysis. This paper, with the relevant theory of Bhatia on the genre analysis, will study the language characteristics and discourse composition of Trump’s inaugural speech.
  2. The Language Analysis of Trump’s Inaugural Speech
  The communicative function of the inaugural speech determines its characteristics in terms of words selection, sentence style and rhetoric.
  2.1 The Use of Pronouns
  In the inaugural speech, in order to get the audience’s support, the speaker must make the audience feel grounded to bridge the distance between the speaker and the audience. This kind of subtle social relationship influenced the language style of the inaugural speech. Speakers often use the first person pronoun plural to achieve this purpose.
  E.g: Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come. We will face challenges, we will confront hardships. We will get the job done.
  The use of “we” makes the audience feel that the president are standing together with them, and the president and the general public will face difficulties, solve the problem together.
  2.2 Words that Represent the Current Situation
  Description and evaluation of the situation at home and abroad is also an indispensable content in the inaugural speech. In his speech, Trump expressed his judgment on the current situation.
  E.g: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner city... our country of so much unrealized potential.
  In order to inspire the morale of the people and to enhance the confidence to overcome difficulties, Trump stressed the livelihood of the people, therefore, family, job, school, retirement and other words reflecting the basic livelihood of the people also repeated. In addition, when referring to the national citizen, he used men, women, children, parents and other affinity words more than once, which increased the emotional expression of the speech.   2.3 The Use of Rhetorical Device
  The purpose of the speech is to arouse the enthusiasm of the audience, get the support of the audience. The immediate effect becomes a measure of success or failure, since most of the audience is only interested in the content of the speech, and will not listen to the recording repeatedly in the future. That, in turn, affects the content and form of the speech. In Trump’s inaugural speech, many kinds of rhetorical devices were used.
  2.3.1 The application of parallelism
  Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same;or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter. This method adds balance and rhythm to sentences giving ideas a smother flow and thus can be persuasive because of repetition it employs.
  E.g: A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions.
  2.3.2 The application of climax
  Climax is derived from the Greek word for “ladder” and implies the progression of thought at a uniform or almost uniform rate of a significance or intensity, like the steps of a ladder ascending evenly. That big moment at the end is the climax, the decisive moment in the speech that all the action builds up to.
  E.g: We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny.
  3. Conclusion
  Genre analysis not only reveals the available form-function relationship of a text but also contributes significantly to language learners’ understanding. After summarizing the Trump’s inaugural speeches, we can appreciate the language charm of the inaugural speech as an embedded genre of speech genre. To sum up, through the attempt, we can see that genre analysis is a practical means of studying spoken and written discourse for applied ends.
  References:
  [1]Bhatia,V.K.A Genre-Based Approach to ESP Material Development[M].New York:Language Teaching,1991.
  [2]Bhatia,V.K.Analyzing genre:language use in professional settings[M].New York:Longman Publishing,1993.
  [3]Flowerdew,L.Using a genre-based framework to teach organizational structure in academic writing[J].ELT Journal,2003.
  [4]Mirador,J.F.A move analysis of written feedback in higher education[J].RELC Journal,2008.
其他文献
【摘要】在教学改革不断深入的背景下,教育部门对于教育工作者的素质要求越来越高。词汇教学一直是初中英语教学中的重点,也是学生学习英语的难点。如何帮助中学生突破英语词汇学习难关是农村初中英语教师们一直在探讨的问题。  【关键词】初中英语 词汇教学 问题  一、词汇在英语学习中的重要性  由于大部分学生缺乏正确的词汇学习方法,学生们背诵单词枯燥无味,一点兴趣都没有,而且时间用得不少,整体效果不好。由于强
【摘要】无论何种学科的教学,学生都是教学活动中的主体,对于提高其自身的自主学习能力是非常有必要的。尤其在英语教学期间,英语教学对英语口语能力与自主性阅读能力的要求非常高。初中英语作为学生以后学习英语的基础环节,在此期间培养学生的自主学习能力,为今后的学习英语培养好的学习习惯就成为了重中之重。基于此,文中对初中英语教学中如何培养学生的自主学习能力进行了详细的阐述。  【关键词】初中 英语 自主学习 
【摘要】小学阶段是学生英语学习中不可忽视的重要阶段之一,也是提高学生英语综合能力的关键点。在小学英语教学中,思维导图不断应用其中,发挥着多样化作用,激发学生学习兴趣的基础上,利于提高英语课堂教学有效性。因此,本文从不同角度入手客观分析了思维导图在小学英语教学中的作用。  【关键词】思维导图 小学 英语教学 作用 分析  在小学阶段,英语是不可或缺的重要学科之一,在素质教育背景下,传统满堂灌教学方法
【摘要】随着我国高中教育改革的深入,在英语教学中着重培养学生综合语言运用和多种思维能力。与以往重知识为主的“灌输式”教学不同,现阶段教育工作者深知改革的新方向,但在操作上并未摆脱传统模式的束缚。因此,本文从批判性思维切入,以理论为基础,探索发展的时与机及其与高中英语教学的关系,并在实践中寻求教学的时与机,在锻炼思维的同时以求其反作用于促进综合语言运用能力的发展。  【关键词】高中英语 批判性思维
为了全面落实国务院农村综合改革工作小组办公室《关于进一步做好美丽乡村建设试点工作的通知》精神,开展好美丽乡村试点工作。9月16日,全省美丽乡村建设试点工作培训班在长春
【摘要】在初中阶段,毕业班英语复习教学的重要性不言而喻,是初中毕业班学生系统化学习、复习初中英语知识的关键点,是他们顺利应战中考英语的首要前提。因此,本文从不同角度入手客观阐述了初中毕业班英语复习教学。  【关键词】初中 毕业班 英语复习教学  在素质教育背景下,中考英语已被提出全新的要求,初中英语教师必须认真解读中考英语大纲,根据毕业班学生各方面情况,多层次优化完善英语复习教学,不断提高毕业班英
期刊
【摘要】本文探讨了影响高中学生的英语阅读水平的语言障碍。通过调查问卷和访谈的形式,找出诸多影响因素中最具影响力的语言障碍,并以此给予教师适当的建议,以改善高中生的英语阅读能力。本研究采用了调查问卷和访谈的方法,通过分析收集到的数据,得到了关于学生的英语阅读能力现状的总体情况。  【关键词】语言障碍 英语阅读能力 语篇知识  一、介绍  纵观历史,我们一直着迷于语言的力量。我们环顾四周,发现我们极大
期刊
【摘要】狼孩儿事件的发现引起了社会的广泛关注和极大轰动。作为少有的罕见事件,狼孩儿案例对儿童语言习得和心智发展方面的研究具有一定的辅助作用。本文尝试运用行为主义学习理论和语言天赋论来对狼孩儿的语言习得状况进行分析探究,分别探讨先天语言习得机制和后天语言环境对儿童语言习得的影响和作用。  【关键词】狼孩儿事件 行为主义学习理论 语言天赋论 语言习得  一、引言  狼孩儿作为众所周知且轰动一时的重大发