A Comparative Study On Commencement Addresses At Top American Universities Under Thematic Progression Theory

Thematic structure is a principal method of discourse analysis,and almost all types of discourse can be divided into the theme and rheme,and certain connections or changes between the theme and rheme in the text constitute the thematic progression,and this progression has also gradually become the important means of discourse analysis.Thematic progression theory is applied to the analysis of speech discourse,but it is mainly limited to the qualitative study of political speeches,and there is a lack of the quantitative study of commencement addresses.Compared with other types of speeches,commencement addresses have eminent themes and inspirational characteristics with wide audience and close to real life,which is of great educational significance.Based on the thematic structure proposed by Halliday(1985)and Thompson(2008)and six thematic progression patterns summarized from Danes(1974)and Zhu Yongsheng(1995)’s patterns,this thesis takes 5 graduation speeches delivered by business elites from the book of commencement speeches at top American universities:make a difference(2013)and another 5 graduation speeches delivered by art superstars from the book of commencement speeches at top American universities:write the future(2013)as the corpus through random sampling,and adopts quantitative and qualitative research method to compare and analyze the similarities and differences of thematic structure and thematic progression pattern in two kinds of commencement speeches and to explore the reasons for their similarities and differences,aiming to provide inspiration for speakers and audience to better write and analyze commencement addresses.The study finds that commencement addresses delivered by business elites and art superstars have both similarities and differences in thematic structures and thematic progression patterns.The similarities are mainly reflected in the more use of simple theme,experiential theme,unmarked theme,parallel pattern,concentrated pattern and continuous pattern,and relatively less use of multiple theme,clausal theme,marked theme,cross pattern,split pattern and derived pattern.The differences mainly embody the difference in the frequency of use of the multiple theme and clausal theme,unmarked theme and marked theme,and the difference in the frequency and order of use of six thematic progression patterns.Furthermore,the reasons for the similarities and differences of thematic structures and thematic progression patterns mainly refer to the genre of speech,the characteristics of graduation speech,the position and feelings of the audience and the occupations,experiences,thinking and social influences of the speakers.