基于语料库对美国总统奥巴马竞选演讲的话语分析.doc

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1、湖 南 科 技 大 学毕业设计（论文）题目基于语料库对美国总统奥巴马竞选演讲的话语分析作者刘婷婷学院外语系专业教育英语学号0662010429指导教师王利君二0一0 年 月 日A Corpus-based Study on Discourse Analysis of Election Speeches by President ObamaA Thesis Submitted to Department of Foreign LanguagesXiaoxiang CollegeHunan University of Science and TechnologyIn Partial Fulfill

2、ment of The Requirements forThe Degree of Bachelor of ArtsByLiu Tingting Under the Supervision ofAssociate Prof. Wang LijunJune, 2010湖 南 科 技 大 学 潇 湘 学 院毕业设计（论文）任务书 外国语 系 英 语 一 教研室（教研室）主任: （签名） 年 月 日学生姓名: 刘婷婷 学号: 0662010429 专业: 教育英语 1 设计（论文）题目及专题： 基于语料库对美国总统奥巴马竞选演讲的话语分析 2 学生设计（论文）时间：自 2009年 12 月15日开始

3、至 2010年 6月20日止3 设计（论文）所用资源和参考资料：1) Biber, D., Conrad, S. & R. Randi. 2000. Corpus Linguistics. M. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 2) Kennedy, G. 2000. An Introduction to Corpus Linguistics M. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press 3) Sun, Shan. 2008. Discourse A

4、nalysis to Speeches by American President. D. MA thesis, Shandong Normal University. 4) 杨惠中， 2002， 语料库语言学导论 M。上海：上海外语教育出版社。5) 何常丽， 2009， 语料库语言学综述研究 J。渤海大学学报（3）：149-151。4 设计（论文）应完成的主要内容：随着研究的深入，语料库语言学的蓬勃发展，基于语料库的研究方法称为一种全新的研究方法。因此，该论文将选择美国总统奥巴马演讲作为研究语料，运用语料库语言学理论对此文本进行分析，旨在发现公共演讲的语言特征，并期望人们在公共演讲中获得更多

5、的支持。 5 提交设计（论文）形式（设计说明与图纸或论文等）及要求： 1）要求学生认真、独立完成毕业论文的写作 2）要求按照学校规定的论文格式撰写论文 3）要求及时同指导老师进行沟通，按步骤完成论文的写作和答辩工作。 6 发题时间： 2009 年 12 月 27 日指导教师： （签名）学 生： （签名）AcknowledgmentsThere are so many people whom I wish to extend my gratitude to during my composition of the thesis and the past four years of study i

6、n the university. Without their help, I couldnt finish my thesis completely.I would first express my appreciation to Associate-Prof. Wang Lijun, my supervisor, whose guidance and insightful criticism have been greatly helpful in the writing of the thesis. I have been impressed and inspired by her pa

7、tience and encouragement.My thanks also go to the School of Foreign Studies, Hunan University of Science and Technology, where I had great opportunities to attend classes and improve myself in knowledge as well as my character formation.My gratitude will also extend to my classmates and friends who

8、have helped me all along the past four years and who have given my good advice and a lot of useful information in my study.Last but not the least，I should express my grateful thanks to my parents for their continuous encouragement and financial support in the course of my four-year undergraduate stu

9、dies.AbstractWith the development of research on discourse analysis, corpus-based approach has established as a fresh approach linguistics. Firstly gives a brief introduction to discourse analysis and introduce a new approach based on theories of corpus linguistics. Then introduces corpus linguistic

10、s. Finally analyzes Obamas speeches under the guidance of the theory of corpus linguistics. Some linguistic features of public speeches will be discovered, to tell people how to achieve the support in the public speeches. Key Words: discourse analysis; corpus linguistics; Obamas election speeches 中文

11、摘要随着研究的深入，语料库语言学蓬勃发展起来，基于语料库的研究方法已经成为语言学研究的一种新兴方法。本文首先回顾了以往有关语篇分析的方法，介绍基于语料库的分析方法。其次介绍了语料库语言学。最后在语料库语言学理论的指导下，尝试分析了美国总统奥巴马竞选演讲，旨在发现公共演讲的语言特征，启示人们如何在公共演讲中获得更多的支持。关键词：语篇分析；语料库语言学；奥巴马竞选演讲-iii-ContentsAcknowledgmentsiAbstractii中文摘要iiiIntroduction1I. General Review of Discourse Analysis21.1Definition of

12、Discourse Analysis21.2 A Review of Previous Approaches to Discourse Analysis21.3 Corpus Linguistic Approach to Discourse Analysis4II. A Brief Introduction to Corpus Linguistics52.1 Definition and Types of Corpus52.2 Definition of Corpus Linguistics62.3 The Role of Computer in Corpus Linguistics7III.

13、 Analysis of the U.S. President Obamas Election Speeches.83.1 Corpora Used in the Study83.2 Analysis of Words Length of Obamas Speech93.3 Analysis of the key words in Obama Speeches Corpus103.3.1 Personal Pronouns113.3.2 Modal Verbs123.3.3 Connectives14Conclusion16Bibliography17Appendix .18Introduct

14、ionAfter many years of development, discourse analysis now establishes itself as an interdisciplinary field of study. Studies on discourse analysis are an important field in modern linguistics. Influenced by other disciplines, many approaches to discourse analysis have developed and improved gradual

15、ly. Some main analysis methods include those based on Speech Act Theory, Social Linguistics, Systemic-Functional Grammar, Cognitive Linguistics, Pragmatics, Rhetoric and so on. Since the 1980s, corpus linguistics has developed with computer corpus construction and application. Corpus-based approach

16、has become a fresh and popular approach in applied linguistics.Public speeches play the most important roles in general election, they can influence and persuade the audiences. Barack Hussein Obama, the current President of the United States, is perhaps one of the most brilliant politicians around t

17、he world. His powerful words and perfect speech techniques contribute to his success. Obamas outstanding communication abilities enable him to gain support from the most diverse groups in American. Therefore, this thesis chooses Obamas speeches as a research subject. By using the corpus-based approa

18、ch, some linguistic features of President Obamas speeches will be discovered.This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one presents a brief introduction to the previous approaches to discourse analysis and introduces a new approach based on theories of corpus linguistics. Chapter two introduce

19、s theories of corpus linguistics which include definition and types of corpus, definition of corpus linguistics and the role of compute in corpus linguistics. Chapter three analyzes Obamas election speeches under the guidance of theories of corpus linguistics. All in all, the thesis is intended to p

20、rovide an introduction to a new approach to discourse analysis. The approach is based on theories of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. Some main points are summarized. Limitations of the research and further efforts are to be made.I. General Review of Discourse AnalysisThis part is the gene

21、ral review of the thesis, in this chapter we will gives a brief introduction to the discourse analysis, the theories and approaches concerning the present research. Besides, a new approach to discourse analysis will be introduced.1.1 Definition of Discourse AnalysisThe term, “discourse analysis” was

22、 first used by Z.S. Harris who published a paper entitled Discourse Analysis on the magazine Language in the year of 1952. It is generally believed that discourse analysis emerges as a general approach to language studies and as a prominent force in Applied Linguistics today. Many experts have done

23、a lot of researches to develop discourse analysis since the 1960s. We can define the term by looking up a dictionary. Richards et al. (1998:521) define “discourse analysis” as “the study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, i

24、nterviews, etc.” Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and the context in which it is used. It grew rapidly in different disciplines in the 1960s and early 1970s, including linguistics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. Discourse analysts study lan

25、guage in use: written texts of all kinds, and spoken data, from conversation to highly forms of talk. (McCarthy, 2002:5)Widdowson and Halliday think discourse analysis is the study of text cohesion and discourse coherence. Brown and Yule (2000:1) have remarked that “the analysis of discourse is, nec

26、essarily, the analysis of language in use.” 1.2 A Review of Previous Approaches to Discourse AnalysisSince the 1960s and early 1970s, it has developed various approaches of study and has continued to develop new theories. Discourse analysis can be applied to any text or language context. In the foll

27、owing discussions, we will review a number of previous but important approaches in discourse analysis. They are the speech act approach, the systemic-functional approach, the cognitive approach and the critical linguistic approach.The speech act approach is presented by two philosophers John Austin

28、and John Searle. The theory comes from the basic insight that language is used not to describe the world, but also to perform a series of other actions that can be indicated in the performance of utterances themselves. The speech act approach to discourse analysis focuses on communicative acts perfo

29、rmed through speech. It is basically concerned with what people “do” with language-with the functions of language. (Schiffrin, 1994)The systemic-functional approach to discourse analysis is developed by M.A. K. Halliday, a prominent linguist much influenced by ideas of the Prague School who suggests

30、 the basic statement about language is that language is functional. Hes way of making an analysis of a text is through studying the three major functions of language, which he names ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function. The Systemic-functional approach is a popular appro

31、ach to Discourse Analysis around the world.This cognitive approach to discourse analysis originates in psychology. It studies the cognitive process of discourse production, comprehension, storage and reproduction. Van Dijk is one of the representatives of this approach, whose approach differs from l

32、inguistic ones in that he shows interests in the actual process of decoding, interpretation, storage, and images presentation of brain. This approach has a strong tendency to relate discourse study to the study of human psychology. The final one is the critical linguistic approach. Today society and

33、 criticism have become key words in various new approaches to language studies. Critical linguistics regards the connections between language, power and ideology as its research center. Xin Bin (2000) views a text as the result of choices made by producers at two main levels: textual and ideological

34、. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) chiefly deals with the discovery and interpretation of ideology in texts and makes the study of language an interdisciplinary tool. A brief review of previous approaches to discourse analysis is made in the above discussion. Thus, two points are summarized. Firstl

35、y, discourse analysis has established itself as an interdisciplinary subject. Many approaches are developed in this field. Secondly, the previous studies suggest that these approaches are used to analysis discourse from various perspectives. With the achievement, the previous approaches are very pop

36、ular, but not the only ones used to do analysis. We all know many approaches still await us to explore. (Sun, 2008)1.3 Corpus Linguistic Approach to Discourse AnalysisIn this part, the author will introduce corpus linguistic approach to discourse analysis. The approach to linguistic study based on c

37、orpus and Corpus Linguistics theories can be called corpus linguistic approach. It relies on modern computer techniques. When Henry Kucer and Nelson Francis published Computational Analysis of Present-Day of American English supported by the Brown Corpus in 1967, the field of corpus linguistics has

38、been established (Biber, 2000). According to Biber, Conrad and Reppen (2000:4), the essential features of corpus-based analysis are: (1) It is empirical, analyzing the actual patterns of use in natural texts; (2) it utilizes a large collection of natural texts, known as a corpus, as the basis for an

39、alysis; (3) it makes extensive use of computers as well as analytical soft wares for analysis, using automatic and interactive techniques; (4) it employs both quantitative and qualitative methods.The advantages of corpus-based approach come from the use of computer. Different from human beings, comp

40、uters provide reliable analysis, they are not tired or change their mind in the process of data analyzing. Therefore, it is possible to analysis complicated language patterns. It is important to point out that computer is essential in corpus-based approach. However, the single approach is not adequa

41、te to discourse analysis. It should be combined with other approaches. Corpus-based approach is helpful in studying how speakers and writers use the linguistic resources available in languages. It is widely applied in studies of spoken English, dictionary compilation, researches on lexicography, gra

42、mmatical studies centered on morphemes or words, grammatical studies centered on the sentence, as well as language teaching (Kennedy,2000). The representatives are including Graeme Kennedy, Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, Randi Reppen, Yang Huizhong, He Anping and so on.II. A Brief Introduction to Corp

43、us LinguisticsThis part is a brief introduction of corpus linguistics. In this chapter, we will introduce some knowledge on corpus including its definition and types, definition of corpus linguistics and main developmental trends in corpus-based linguistic research.2.1 Definition and Types of Corpus

44、What is a corpus? Derived from the Latin word, corpus means body. According to Kennedy (2000:3), a corpus is a body of written text or transcribed speech which can serve as a basis for linguistic analysis and description in the language sciences. In Hus book Linguistics: A Course Book, “Corpus is a

45、collection of linguistic data, either compiled as written texts or as a transcription of recorded speech” (2006: 254). In modern linguistics, the term corpus is used to refer to a collection of written texts or transcribed speeches, which can serve as a basis for linguistic analysis and description.

46、 It is defined in terms of its form and purpose. In recent years, corpus has been kept for compilation of texts or parts of text that are stored by computers.Sometimes a distinction is made between a corpus and a text archive or a text database. Leech suggested it that “the difference between an arc

47、hive and a corpus must be that the latter is designed for a particular representative function” (Kennedy, 2000:4). Whereas a corpus designed for linguistic analysis is normally a systematic, planned and structured compilation of text. In contrast, a database more generally is a body of information that is designed for easier data entry and retrieval. Linguistic c