1。2 Theoretical Approach

The Systemic-Functional Grammar (SFG) established and developed by the eminent linguist M。 A。 K。 Halliday is employed in this paper。 There are two reasons for the selection of the theory。

For one thing, SFG thinks highly of the function of language, especially the social functions, as Halliday points out “our general approach to the study of language, as our title is intended to suggest, is one that focuses upon the social” (Halliday et al。, 1985: 3)。 Professors at home also emphasize that language is inseparable from social activities of man when they give introduction to SFG (Hu Zhuanglin, 2011: 288)。 A well-made speech, without question, would arouse social attention。 Therefore, it is quite possible to provide a society-oriented discourse with a society-oriented linguistic theory。

For the other, quite a few researches on many genres of discourse have been conducted with the help of SFG。 According to rough statistics, SFG has been used in the analysis of literary discourses like poems, advertisement discourses, legal discourses, etc。 It is acknowledged that Halliday’s theory has come into maturity in discourse analysis (DA)。 In fact, some scholars have discussed the structure of certain speeches from a small perspective of SFG in the past years。 For example, they may only look into the text through one of the three functions。 To view a speech in a comprehensive way is thus rather meaningful。

1。3 Overall Structure of the Paper

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the target speech by applying SFG, and it is composed of five chapters。

The first chapter is the introduction part, in which the author talks about the motivation for choosing this topic and background information with regard to the topic。 A review of what has been written about the same topic is presented in chapter two, including studies on speech, studies on SFG, and studies of speech by applying SFG。 Moreover, the theoretical framework of the whole paper, the core of the paper, is included in chapter three。 A lot of examples and tables are used to introduce SFG in detail。 Then comes the most important part。 Analysis and discussion of the target speech can be found in chapter four。 Lastly, chapter five gives a conclusion of what has been talked about in the preceding parts and suggestions for further investigation。

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2。1 Studies on Speech源Q于W优E尔A论S文R网wwW.yOueRw.com 原文+QQ75201,8766

Studies of speech from both abroad and home have a long history。 In western countries for example, the history of speech can date back to ancient Greece and Roman times。 In around 11st to 10th century BC, speaking activities were prevailing in ancient Greece。 “The art of speaking” is said to be first put forward by Homer, who had recorded a number of wonderful speeches made by people at that time。 The 5th century BC bore witness to the tremendous prosperity of Athens, in which public speaking reached its peak。 Representative orators of this period include Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle。 Marcus Cicero dedicated himself in studying the speeches of former speakers and produced such work as De Oratore。 To this day, speech is still flourishing in that statesmen use it to win votes, social activists use it to convince the public, and celebrities use it to encourage people。

Since much attention is paid in making speeches, a lot of books and essays are accordingly published to summarize features of good speeches and to offer advice on becoming an outstanding orator。 One of the popular works is written by the famous German communication master Heinz Goldmann。 He probes into every key points of speech and provides suggestions on aspects like “how to make a prologue”, “points to be noted in the organization of speech”, and “how to make an attractive ending” (戈德曼, 2008)。 In addition, Lucas provides “speech principles” and “skills of different kinds of speech” in his book (Lucas, 2010)。 In conclusion, the works on speech mainly talk about the practical speaking techniques and strategies, and they do not view speech from linguistic perspective。 Therefore, they are better regarded as textbooks of speech making。