中美大学生英语演讲稿对比修辞研究

论文摘要

西方修辞学源于亚里士多德时期的论辩术，因此，西方修辞和演说息息相关，其精华就在于劝说。西方修辞学很大程度上是围绕“不确定性”这一特征而展开的研究。然而，目前国内的修辞研究大都还停留在对静态的、书面文本的分析探讨上。与之相比，对比修辞研究在很长的时间里忽略了对动态的、具有不确定性的口头语体的探究。目前，国内外可供参考的关于演讲稿对比研究的文献十分缺乏，这方面的对比修辞学研究则更是如此。那么，到底不同民族的英语使用者在进行英语演讲时采用的修辞策略和话语结构之间有何异同呢?他们在表达思想和阐述观点时所遵循的究竟是不是相同的模式呢?如果这之间确有不同，那到底是何种因素造成的呢?这些问题都亟待解决。本文从对比修辞学的角度出发，探索性地选用大学生英语演讲这一特定的语体，从语篇、修辞的层面对中美两组语料(各二十篇)进行了相对全面细致的定量描述性对比分析。本文在对语料进行定量分析对比的同时，找出了两组语料间的差异，并结合相关文献对此进行了一定的理论解释。文章从语篇、修辞的层面选取了四个对比分析项，它们分别是：演讲的组织结构、推理方式、开头和结尾部分运用的修辞策略以及演讲者对修辞格的运用。研究发现：两组语言使用者在演讲稿修辞使用偏好上表现出的差异由显到隐分别是：推理方式、演讲稿的组织结构、开头和结尾部分运用的修辞策略和对修辞格的运用。研究指出，中美大学生在各自的英语演讲稿中的确在以上四个方面表现出修辞偏好的差异；尽管有的差异非常明显，有的偏好相近，但不可否认中国英语学习者在创作英语演讲稿时仍需努力学习了解西方修辞并加深对英汉语差异的认识，从而缩小其与本族语使用者之间的差距。通过对中美大学生英语演讲稿的对比分析，本文对国内修辞学研究作了一次探索性的回归，填补了对比修辞研究对演讲体裁分析的空白，是对比修辞学研究领域的一次尝试性的突破和补充。

论文目录

• Acknowledgements
• Abstract
• 摘要
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• 1.1 General Introduction
• 1.2 The Rationale of the Present Study
• 1.3 The Objectives of the Present Study
• 1.3.1 Introduction
• 1.3.2 The Theoretical Contributions
• 1.3.3 The Practical Contributions
• 1.4 The Outline of the Thesis
• Chapter 2 Literature Review
• 2.1 Overview
• 2.2 Contrastive Rhetoric in Forty Years
• 2.2.1 General Retrospection of Contrastive Rhetoric
• 2.2.2 Chinese-English Contrastive Rhetoric
• 2.2.2.1 Hu Shuzhong
• 2.2.2.2 Scollon and Scollon
• 2.2.2.3 Cai Jigang
• 2.2.2.4 Other Chinese-English Contrastive Rhetoric Studies
• 2.3 Public Speaking Study at Home and Abroad
• 2.3.1 Public Speaking Study in the West
• 2.3.2 English Public Speaking Contests Today in China
• 2.4 Evaluating the Previous Studies
• 2.5 Summary
• Chapter 3 Research Methodology and Data Collection
• 3.1 Overview
• 3.2 Data Collection and Reliability
• 3.3 Analytical Framework
• 3.4 Summary
• Chapter 4 Contrastive Rhetoric Analysis of English Contest Speeches of Chinese and American College Students
• 4.1 Overview
• 4.2 Composition Writing vs. Speech Writing
• 4.2.1 Differences between Composition and Speech
• 4.2.2 Similarities between Composition and Speech
• 4.3 CR Analysis of the Speeches from the Discourse Perspective
• 4.3.1 CR Analysis of the Structural Organization Pattern of the Body of the Speech
• 4.3.1.1 Aristotelean Rhetoric vs. Chinese Eight-legged Essay
• 4.3.1.2 Structural Organization Patterns in the Body of a Speech
• 4.3.1.3 Quantitative Descriptive CR Analysis of the Data
• 4.3.1.4 Results Analysis
• 4.3.2 CR Analysis of the Reasoning Methods Used in the Speech
• 4.3.2.1 Types of Reasoning Methods Used in a Speech
• 4.3.2.2 Quantitative Descriptive CR Analysis of the Data
• 4.3.2.3 Results Analysis
• 4.4 CR Analysis of the Speeches from the Rhetorical Perspective
• 4.4.1 CR Analysis of the Rhetorical Strategies Employed at the Beginning and Ending of the Speech
• 4.4.1.1 Common Approaches to Begin a Speech
• 4.4.1.2 Quantitative Descriptive CR Analysis of the Data
• 4.4.1.3 Common Approaches to End a Speech
• 4.4.1.4 Quantitative Descriptive CR Analysis of the Data
• 4.4.1.5 Results Analysis
• 4.4.2 CR Analysis of the Rhetorical Devices in the Speech
• 4.4.2.1 Common Rhetorical Devices Used in the Speeches
• 4.4.2.2 Quantitative Descriptive CR Analysis of the Data
• 4.4.2.3 Results Analysis
• 4.5 Summary
• Chapter 5 Conclusion
• 5.1 Findings and Implications of the Study
• 5.2 Limitations of the Study
• 5.3 Insights for Further Researches
• Bibliography
• Appendix 1: Sample speeches of Chinese College Students
• Appendix 2: Sample speeches of American College Students