Abstract

As the great power in the world, the politics of the United States received much concern. It follows that American president’s speeches has been taken as the topic by large numbers of scholars. In this paper, the author is going to take the literature researching method and makes a comprehensive study over Obama’s speech. There are five chapters altogether. The first chapter is introduction, which illustrate the researching background, the purpose of the study. The second chapter is the research status of the previous studies on this topic. It presents a sum-up over the previous studies. The third chapter presents a brief analysis about the basic concepts related with this passage, including the definition, features and classifications of the speech. The fourth chapter is the analysis of Obama’s speech. In The research is carried from two aspects, including the content and the rhetoric devices. On the speech content aspect, it talks about presidents’ speeches in USA, especially president Obama’s speech. On the rhetoric device aspect, the author mainly used parallelism, repetition, climax and antithesis will be used to analyze those speeches. According to the analysis, it is found that Studies on Obama’s speeches will not only help the readers to know the American culture, but also help the readers to acknowledge what kind of features a successful speech is supposed to have and hence promote the readers’ English skills.

Key Words: The United States; Obama; speech; language strategy

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction-1

1.1 Research background-1

1.2 Aims and significance of the study-2

1.3 Structure of the paper-2

2. Research of the study 3

2.1 Studies abroad -3

2.2 Studies at home.4

3. General Information about Speeches and American Presidents’ Speeches-5

3.1 General information of speeches-5

3.1.1 Definition of speeches-5

3.1.2 Features of speeches-6

3.1.3 Purpose of speeches-7

3.2 Introduction of presidents’ speeches.7

4. Language Strategies of Obama’s Speeches-8

4.1The content of Obama’s speeches-9

4.1.1Historical figures-11

4.1.2Historical events11

4.2 The rhetoric devices used by Obama.14

4.2.1 Parallelism.14

4.2.2 Repetition .17

4.2.3 Climax.18

4.2.4 Antithesis.19

5.Conclusion-19

Reference-21