Theme And Thematic Progression In Political Speeches

Political speech is an important type of public speech. It is a kind ofspeech in which the speakers try to reveal their standpoints, expound theirviewpoints and publicize their positions in terms of internal affairs andforeign relations. It plays a very important part in the political life of theircountry.After a brief review of the previous studies on political speeches andwith Halliday's thematic theory and Dane's thematic progression theory asthe theoretical framework, the present thesis focuses on the study of Themeand thematic progression in political speeches. Both the quantitative andqualitative researches are performed in this thesis. The major findings fromthe study of the six political speeches are as follows:Political speeches tend to employ the simple Theme so as to make thehearers understand easily and narrow the distance between the speaker andthe hearers.The pronouns are adopted most of the time in the political speeches.The unmarked Theme is dominant in political speeches. The reason is thatthe choice of unmarked Theme can help the hearers understand thespeaker's intention quickly. But the speaker also chooses marked Theme tomake the speech more coherent. The political speeches also tend to employthe constant Theme pattern and the linear pattern through the analysis ofthematic progression.The study on the analysis of thematic progression in political speechescan help the speakers organize the text effectively and arrange the speeches well in order to communicate successfully. It can also help the hearersunderstand the speech easily and then grasp the main points of the speeches.Understanding thematic structure can be helpful for interpreters andtranslators to comprehend, interpret and translate political speeches exactly.