An Intertextual Analysis On Obama's Inaugural Address

Public speeches of famous people's are widely and frequently required nowadays when mutual understanding and cooperation between countries have become far more important in international and domestic affairs than ever before. The most fundamental functions of English political speeches are to inform, to move, to persuade and inspire the audience to take some actions that the speaker expects. The inaugural address of the newly-elected American President Barack Hussein Obama, who took office in January, 2009, at a time when the global economic crisis had dealt a heavy blow to the country's economy as well as its people's faith in their government, has attracted the whole world's attention. This research is aimed to explore intertextuality in Obama's Inaugural Address (OIA). It analyzes the intertextual classification and its functions in OIA, and reveals the important functions of using these intertextual skills effectively and the features of OIA as well.The theoretical model of this thesis is based on the typology proposed by Hatim and Mason combining with the features of OIA. And five types of constitutive intertextuality and six types of manifest intertextuality are identified. The approach adopted in the study is referred as a combination of case study and comparative study. That is, detailed information of the application of intertextuality is acquired by contrasting and comparing these selected examples of OIA from both the deep structures and language's surface. Detailed analysis reveals that the president frequently makes the most of all the intertextual relationships so as to achieve persuasiveness and charisma in the inaugural address. Constitutive intertextuality including generic intertextuality, thematic intertextuality, structural intertextuality, functional intertextuality and rhetorical intertextuality, are used for the analysis from the deep structures. Manifest intertextuality including reference, cliché, allusion, quotation and self-quotation, conventionalism, proverbs and idioms are used for the analysis from the language's surface. To make good use of intertextuality, on the one hand, can help the president win public support for both the newly-elected administration and the new policies; on the other hand, to use intertextuality properly can enhance the aesthetic value of the inaugural speech and let the audience easily understand it. The present research has some significant implications. Firstly, there are a lot of intertextual relationships commonly existent in OIA. Secondly, the proper use of intertextuality methods like constitutive intertextuality and manifest intertextuality can make the inaugurals more appealing, persuasive, and aesthetic. Thirdly, a new view of studying the features of public speeches is offered in this research and a series of skills and methods to make appealing speeches are provided as well. It also has some significant implications to discourse teaching.