Abstract

Every four years, American presidential inaugural addresses are the focus of the world. As an important cultural phenomenon in USA, delivering a presidential inaugural address has always a formal and regular way for a president to begin his term of presidency. The presidential inaugural addresses are not only exquisite in wording and phrasing, but also well organized in sentence structures.
This thesis mainly discusses some ideas on the linguistic features of American presidential inaugural addresses.
Firstly, American presidential inaugural address has a particular stylistic feature. It combines literary words with spoken language. Such combination makes each inaugural address a typical literary work for people to learn and follow.
Secondly, American presidential inaugural address contains rich rhetorical devices such as alliteration and assonance, parallelism and repetition, question and contrast. These rhetorical devices help to make the speech more vivid and powerful. They help the presidents to express themselves better and get people’s support.
Finally, American presidential inaugural address has thick religious features. Although not all the presidents are religious believers, almost every one of them will refer to the God in their speech. The Bible makes the addresses more holy and scared, which the orators need to arouse people’s feelings.

Key words: American presidential inaugural address; stylistic features; rhetorical features; religious features

摘要

美国历来有总统在就职当日发表演说的传统。美国历届总统发表的就职演说词，不仅仅是总统个人忠诚与热情，风度与智慧的生动写照，更是美国民族社会与历史，经济与文化的壮丽画卷。
本文从三个方面研究了美国总统就职演说的语言特色，这三个方面为：一、美国总统就职演说的文体特征；二、美国总统就职演说的修辞手法；三，美国总统就职演说的宗教色彩。
在文体特征方面，美国总统就职演说既是一种正式的文本文体，又同时具有非正式的口语特色，。在修辞手法方面，美国总统就职演说中会用到许多修辞手法，例如头韵、尾韵、排比、反复、反问、对照等。在宗教色彩方面，美国总统就职演说的语言与内容都明显含有宗教的特征。

关键字：美国总统就职演说；文体特征；修辞手法；宗教色彩