Discourse Analysis To Speeches By American President

Studies on Discourse Analysis are an important domain in modern linguistic researches. Influenced by other disciplines and overlapped with them, many approaches to Discourse Analysis have developed and improved themselves gradually. Some dominant analysis methods are including those based on Speech Act Theory, Social Linguistics, Conversation Analysis, Pragmatics, Systemic-Functional Grammar, Criticism Linguistics, Rhetoric, Cognitive Linguistics, Stylistics and so forth. Current researches on Discourse Analysis also mainly employ the above methods. Since the 1980s, Corpus Linguistics has developed with computer corpus construction and application. Corpus-based investigating approach has established itself as a fresh approach in modern linguistics and applied linguistics. The approach has been widely used in the traditional dictionary compiling work, stylistics and pathology linguistics as well as investigations of the language expression of cultural attitudes. It functions as a language source of Critical Discourse Analysis. Corpus Linguistics has a close relationship with English Teaching in that it not only provides teaching materials for classroom programs directly but also plays a part in teaching materials compilation and syllabus design. Though a number of approaches and wide application fields as mentioned above, there is still large room for further exploration in Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis research fields. Therefore, this study chooses the weekly radio addresses delivered by American President George W Bush dated from January, 2001 to September, 2007 as research subject, conducting analysis by the use of Corpus Linguistics theories.This study adopts a corpus-based approach in analyzing discourses. To meet the purpose of investigation, one corpus of President Bush's Radio Addresses (CPBRA for short) has been established. The corpora are real languages in abundance stored in computer as basis. One thing needs to be especially pointed out is that the data used to compile the corpus are authentic and vivid languages in actual communication. They are not created by the writer of this thesis simply for the sake of analyzing. The data come from weekly radio addresses delivered by American President George W Bush to the whole nation of the United States. They are official and formal.The thesis consists of four chapters, with an introduction part at the beginning and a conclusion part at the end. Before the literature review is given, an introduction about the thesis is introduced, stating the general purpose of the study, research methodology and other issues related to data collection.Chapter One presents a brief literature review of the existing approaches to Discourse Analysis and introduces a new approach based on theories of Corpus Linguistics to be discussed in detail in the thesis.Chapter Two explores theories of Corpus Linguistics which provide the theoretical framework and guidance to this study.Chapter Three explains methodology of this research, giving explanation to corpus design. A corpus of President Bush's radio addresses is also established for the research object.Chapter Four is devoted to the analysis of the corpus. Some amazing language features are obtained.In the conclusion part, implication and applications of corpus-based approach to Discourse Analysis in various fields of language, particularly in English teaching and learning are explored. Some main points are summarized. Limitations of the research and further efforts to be made are addressed in this concluding chapter as well.This study is intended to provide an attempt introduction to a comparatively new and unexplored approach to Discourse Analysis. The approach is based on theories of Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics. With its advanced means of corpora management, authentic language data, scientific design and unique analyzing pattern, corpus- based approach has more advantages than previous approaches in that it can avoid the subjectivity and unilateralism of researchers. It is also a supplement to human language awareness.