A Stylistic Analysis of Oprah Winfrey’s Commencement Speech in Stanford University_英语论文

摘要

本文从词汇，句法和修辞三个方面，并从文体学角度对奥普拉这篇毕业演讲进行了较为全面的分析。作者将通过数据分析法和归纳法，并分五部分来对文本展开分析。通过对该篇公共演说的文体学分析，了解毕业演讲的展开思路，词汇运用以及修辞使用，从而促进英语演讲的学习；该论文也将作为奥普拉温弗瑞的研究材料。

关键词：文体学  毕业演讲  奥普拉 

Abstract

Commencement speech is an art of language. Every year, American universities will invite some successful people(entrepreneur,actor/actress,scientist etc.)to make commencement speech for the graduates. This thesis analyzes Oprah Winfrey’s commencement speech in Stanford University from the perspective of Stylistics. In this essay, author will give an analysis of vocabulary, semantic, and rhetoric on Oprah’s speech in Stanford University. The author aims to discover the stylistic features of commencement speech though her study. Subject to the significance of this study, this commencement speech perfectly manifests Oprah’s speaking style and wisdom, which can be a perfect model for English learners to learn how to establish an English public speech successfully. Moreover, it would also be part of the research resource of stylistic.

Key words: stylistic  commencement Speech  Oprah Winfrey

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Brief Introduction of Oprah Winfrey 1

1.2  Research Objective 2

1.3  Research Methodology 2

1.4  Significance 2

1.5  Structure of the Thesis 3

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4

2.1  Introduction 4

2.2  Brief Introduction of Commencement Speech 4

2.3  Studies at Home 4

2.4  Studies Abroad 5

2.5  Comment 5

   Chapter  Three Theoretical framework 6

3.1  Introductio 6

3.2  Brief Introduction of Stylistic 6

3.3  The Development of Stylistic in the Recent History 7

3.4  The research method of Stylistic 7

Chapter Four  Stylistic analysis of Oprah Winfrey’s commencement speech in Stanford, 2008 9

4.1  Introduction 9

4.2  Analysis of lexical level 9

4.2.1 Analysis of the use in hard words 9

4.2.2 Analysis of the use in Abstract words 10

4.2.3 Analysis of the use in Personal Pronouns 10

4.3  Analysis of syntacticial level 11

4.3.1 Analysis of the use in complex/short sentences 11

4.3.2 Analysis of the use in sentence patterns 11

4.4  Analysis of Rhetoricial level 13

4.4.1 Analysis of Parallelism and Repetition 13

4.4.2 Analysis of Metaphor 15

4.4.3 Analysis of Alliteration and End Rhyme 16

Chapter Five  Conclusion 17

5.1  Major findings 17

5.2  Limitations and suggestions for future study 17

Bibliography 

Acknowledgement