Abstract:

A Speech is very important in western countries, especially in terms of political significance. In western countries, if one wishes to dominate in the political stage, he not only needs a dominant ability to lead a country, but also he should be eloquent in speech delivering. Thus, it is crucial for a politician to have an outstanding ability in composing speeches. However, there exists much difficulty in composing an excellent discourse.
   The present thesis, from the perspective of linguistics and based on a sample selected from Winston Churchill’s discourses---Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat, is intended to investigate the cohesion of speech discourse at lexical cohesion level and places emphasis on practical analysis rather than relevant theories. In despite of all the efforts in the present study, there is much room for further improvement in this field. It is only hoped that this study will, to some extent, assist the speech composers in writing a better speech, which is more persuasive and sufficient.

Keywords: Winston Churchill; speech discourse; lexical cohesion

摘  要：

演讲在西方国家一直是非常重要，特别是在政治层面上。在西方国家，一个人要想踏上政治舞台不仅要有领导国家的超群能力，而且更重要的是要有精湛的演讲才能。可见，很好的演说能力对于一位经常在公众场合进行演讲的人是非常重要的。然而，演讲者要想把一场演讲演说好仍存在很大困难。
    本文旨在从语言学的角度出发，以西方国家著名的演讲者温斯顿.丘吉尔的一篇演讲稿《热血，辛劳，眼泪和汗水》为分析对象，从词汇衔接的层面对演讲稿的撰写进行探究，重点在文章的词汇衔接的实例分析而非阐述相关的理论。尽管本研究付出诸多努力，但在该领域仍有较大的完善空间。仅希望本研究能够在一定程度上帮助英语演讲者写出更好的演讲稿，让演讲更有说服力与感染力。

关键词：温斯顿.丘吉尔；演讲稿；词汇衔接

1 Introduction
1.1 Background information
 A discourse is very important for those who intend to go into politic stage, especially in western countries, because their nations’ main stream decides those to persuade their citizens to believe they have the ability to let them live a good life through their discourses. And it not only can make one go into politic room, but it also can inspire people in difficult times by a successful discourse. Around 2080 B.C an old Pharoah deeply said to his successor who was also his son: “being an eloquent speaker, you would be a strong man...the tongue just like a sword...”. The present study aims at analyzing the famous political discourse by Winston Churchill, a great politician and speechmaker, with emphases on its cohesion to uncover its roles in political functions.