An Analysis of Commencement Speech at Princeton University in 2018 from the Perspective of Interpersonal Metafunction_英语论文

摘要

演讲作为现实生活中的一种语言交际活动，具有一定的人际意义。毕业演讲作为演讲语篇的一个类别，具有一定的人生道理和激励人心的力量。演讲从风格上可分为朴实型、严谨型、激昂型等。普林斯顿大学校长伊斯格鲁布在2018年毕业典礼上进行的演讲正面对社会兴起的“大学无用”进行批评与回击，具有完备的逻辑分析性和高度的严谨性，是严谨型演讲的优良范例，被称为校长给予的“最佳毕业演讲”，媒体从而找到了“大学无用”命题伪证的权威范本，引起公众关注。目前，国内外学者运用不同理论和方法研究演讲语篇，但较少涉及毕业演讲及其具体类型，而人际功能多用于分析政治演讲。因此本篇论文拟以韩礼德的人际功能理论为基础，通过定性与定量结合的方法，从语气、情态和人称代词三方面探讨伊斯格鲁布是如何成功地实现其人际意义和演讲效果，使其成为毕业演讲的典范。通过对该演讲语篇的分析，对构建和理解严谨型的毕业演讲具有一定参考意义。

关键词：毕业演讲  严谨型  人际意义

Abstract

Speech is a language communicative activity in public, which embodies interpersonal meaning. As a type of speech discourse, commencement speech contains certain lessons and inspiring powers. From the speech style, speech can be divided into simple speech, rigorous speech, passionate speech and so on. In the commencement in 2018, Christopher L.Eisgruber, the president of Princeton University, criticizes and responds to the theory of the futility of college degrees which is popular in society. His speech embodies complete logic analysis and high degree of rigor, which is a good model of rigorous speech and known as the “best commencement speech” delivered by the president, and the media set it as the authoritative model to demonstrate the fallacy of the theory, which evokes public attention. At present, scholars at home and abroad apply different theories and methods to study speech discourses, but few on commencement speech and its concrete types. Meanwhile, there are many analyses adopting interpersonal metafunction on political speech. Therefore, with the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this thesis tries to explore how interpersonal meaning and speech effects are achieved by Eisgruber from mood, modality and personal pronouns on the basis of Halliday's interpersonal metafunction. Through the analysis of this speech discourse, it may contribute to the construction and understanding of the rigorous type of commencement speech.

Key words: commencement speech  rigorous type  interpersonal meaning

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Research Background 1

1.2  Purpose of the Thesis 1

1.3  Structure of the Thesis 2

1.4  Research Methodology 2

Chapter Two  Literature Review 3

2.1  Introduction 3

2.2  Previous Studies on the Types of Speech Style 3

2.3  Previous Studies on Speech Discourses 4

2.3.1 Previous Studies on Speech Discourses Abroad 5

2.3.2 Previous Studies on Speech Discourses at Home 6

2.4  Summary 8

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 9

3.1  Introduction 9

3.2  Interpersonal Metafunction 9

3.2.1 Mood 10

3.2.2 Modality 11

3.2.3 Personal Pronouns 12

Chapter Four  Analysis of Commencement Speech by Eisgruber at

Princeton University in 2018 from the Perspective of Interpersonal

Metafunction 13

4.1  Introduction 13

4.2  The Type of the Speech 13

4.3  Mood Analysis of the Speech 15

4.4  Modality Analysis of the Speech 17

4.5  Personal Pronouns Analysis of the Speech 20

Chapter Five  Conclusion 23

5.1  Major Findings 23

5.2  Limitations and Suggestions for future Study 24

Bibliography

Appendices

Acknowledgements