On English Ceremonial Speeches from the Perspective of Identification Theory: A Case Study of British Prime Ministers’ New Year Speeches
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54691/bcpssh.v18i.999Keywords:
ceremonial speeches, Identification Theory, rhetorical strategies, new year speechesAbstract
Ceremonial speeches play different roles on different occasions, and Kenneth Burke's rhetorical Identification Theory provides a new perspective for the study of ritual speeches. Based on this theory, this study explores British Prime Ministers’ new year speeches with qualitative and quantitative methods. According to the findings, Identification by Inaccuracy is used most frequently, followed by Identification by Sympathy and Identification by Antithesis, the frequencies of which show no significant difference. The high frequency of Identification by Inaccuracy is mainly due to the repeated use of “we” and intensive depiction of future visions. Apparently, this strategy is in line with the thematic features of new year speeches, i.e., uniting people and looking into the future. This study, examining the rhetorical features of ceremonial speeches with the example of new year speeches, hopes to inspire speech enthusiasts with useful speaking strategies and rhetorical awareness.
Downloads
References
Aristotle. Rhetoric [M]. Trans. by B. Jowett. New York: Random House, 1954.
Burke, K. A Rhetoric of Motives [M]. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.
Dunn, C. D. Pragmatic Functions of Humble Forms in Japanese Ceremonial Discourse [J]. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2005, 15(2): 218-238.
García, M. L. The Long Count of Historical Memory: Ixhil Maya Ceremonial Speech in Guatemala [J]. American Ethnologist, 2014, 41(4):664-680.
Prescilla, Y. F., R. Amalia. A Critical Discourse Analysis and Illocutionary Acts of John May’s Speech in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Ceremony Award [J]. Getsempena English Education Journal, 2018, 5(2):127-133.
Setiawan, H. Prosody Analysis of Mariah Carey’s 1999 Billboard Award Speech and Its Contribution to EFL [J]. Journal of ELT Research, 2017, 2(2):103-114.
Verderber, R. F., K. S. Verderber. The Challenge of Effective Speaking [M]. Beijing: TsingHua University Press, 2012.
Jiang Chunli, Yang Ke. Analysis of the discourse function of Russian New Year's speech from the perspective of political discourse [J]. Russian Teaching in China, 2019, 38(1): 29-35.
Ju Yumei. The Essence and Function of Rhetoric: On Rhetoric and the Construction of Harmonious Society [J]. Journal of Fujian Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 2007(6): 79-84.
Li Mingxia. Comparative analysis of the speeches of the US presidential campaign from the perspective of evaluation theory [D]. Xinjiang University, 2018.
Liu Jiangtao. A Study on the Award Speech for "Moving China" from the Perspective of Narratology [D]. Changchun University of Science and Technology, 2019.
Liu Wenjuan. A comparative study on the intervention resources of the Nobel Prize in Literature award speech and award speech [D]. Zhengzhou University, 2019.
Mai Hongyu, Shi Xiaoran. A Comparative Analysis of the Use of Metaphors in the New Year's Speeches of the United States, China and Singapore [J]. Comparative Research on Cultural Innovation, 2020, 4(1): 85-86.
Shao Yiming. A Comparative Study of Conceptual Metaphors in Xi Jinping's New Year's Greetings [J]. Chinese Character Culture, 2018(7): 1-3.
Tang Jiali. Research on Modal Collaboration of Dynamic Multimodal Discourse: Taking Video Lectures as an Example [J]. Journal of Xiangtan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 2021, 45(4): 187-192.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
How to Cite
