A Study Of English Political Speeches From Functional Stylistic Perspective

With the accelerating process of globalization, China’s international political status has improved. At the same time, China shoulders more international responsibilities. More importantly, China has more right to speak and to make decisions at international summits, in big-power negotiations and in other political activities. In the international politics, English political speech also bears four vital functions:informing, influencing, persuading and inspiring. Therefore, higher level of English speaking ability is particularly crucial. As the sub-style of public speaking, English political speech owns its special style. It is safe to say that the systematic and comprehensive analysis of English political speeches has significant theoretical and practical values. Up till now, although some linguists and stylisticians have paid much attention to English political speeches, unfortunately, few researches on the stylistic features of English political speeches are done from the angles of metafunctions and context of situation, which will be a new perspective.The theoretical basis of this thesis is Halliday’s Systematic Functional Grammar (SFG), and the author focuses on the three metafunctions and situational context. And the corpus of this thesis is Obama’s victory and inaugural addresses, which are the representative ones of his political speeches successfully achieving political purposes—informing and persuading. To a certain extent, Obama’s high level of public speaking ability plays a huge part in helping him become the first black president of the United States, as well as in making his second term political career. Obama’s infectious language, together with impassioned and provocative speaking ways, is favored by many English learners and receives considerable attention from the researchers.The following are the primary purposes of the study:Firstly, the author employs statistical data to analyze the stylistic factors of language functions comprehensively so as to reveal the stylistic features of English political speeches from the perspective of three metafunctions—ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function.Secondly, this thesis is attempted to analyze how English political speeches are constrained by the context of situation from the perspectives of field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse.Thirdly, the author aims to help Chinese students improve their English ability and facilitate the improvement of the speech lovers’skills in using public speaking language through the analysis of English political speeches’stylistic features.The following questions play vital roles in designing and completing this thesis:1. As one of public speaking sub-styles, what kind of stylistic features does English political speeches bear?2. In order to realize the functions of political language, what are the effective experiential resources, interpersonal ways and text structures employed in English political speeches?3. How does the context of situation constraint the selection of political language?The major research methods of this thesis are:1.Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed.2. The author follows Michael Short’s basic steps of stylistic analysis: description, interpretation and evaluation.3. The author applies statistical data analysis to study the stylistic features of English political speeches, which is a prominent feature of this thesis.The major findings of the study are concluded as follows:First and foremost, in the aspect of the ideational function, it is seen that the material processes account for the largest proportion in stating the facts, the employment of material processes can make the speech more objective and serious. At the same time, mental and relational processes are also used frequently by the speaker to shorten the distance between the audience and himself so as to achieve his political purposes.Furthermore, as for the interpersonal function, the proper employment of mood, modality and personal pronouns conveys the speaker’s political viewpoints and persuades the audience to change their standpoints. The prominent declaratives are used for the speaker to deliver information in a limited time; the low and median modal operators, together with the first person plural, make the political language more approachable. As a result, the speaker succeeds in achieving communicative goals.In addition, in the perspective of the textual function, English political speeches have both written and spoken features, and the language is relatively formal; the language structure tends to be complex but not particularly abstruse. The appropriate use of marked theme and unmarked theme, together with the grammatical cohesion, makes the whole discourse logical, compact and persuasive.Last but not least, the effectiveness of speech is mainly constrained by the context of situation. Not only should the substantial contents and diction but also the situational context be considered.The analysis of stylistic features of English political speeches from the perspective of metafunctions and situational context is the new exploration of the study, and it may make some contributions to functional stylistics. The author does hope the results of this thesis can provide valuable reference for the study and application of stylistics, and can be beneficial for writing and appreciating speeches, as well as be useful for Chinese students to improve their English application ability.