Abstract:

To mend the rifts and ease the conflicts between the parties torn apart during the US presidential elections and to regain the continuing support of the entire nation, newly-elected US presidents tend to construct identification with the audience by narrating past events in their inaugural speeches. Drawing on Burkean identification theory, this article aimed to study the types of identification-oriented narratives employed by the US president-elects. Both the statistical data and speech texts have been analyzed. The results have shown that the historical origin, the Founding Fathers, the situation, the American Dream and some common values are important topical means manipulated by the newly-elected US presidents to build identification with the audience. When relating American history, recalling American historical heroes and narrating ethnic stories as well as other events concerning common values, the presidents have managed to regard themselves and all other American citizens as the descendants of the Founding Fathers. Meanwhile, they have also associated themselves with the great leaders who have led America out of difficulties in the past, the audience with the ordinary historical heroes in their endeavor for the country, and the present situation with a certain historical period. This study has attempted to combine narratives, rhetoric and speech discourse organically in the hope of extending related studies.

Keywords: US presidential inaugural speech; speech narrative; identification theory; identification-oriented narrative; identification-building

摘要：

为修补因竞选而激化的党派分歧,争取各方对自己执政的支持与合作,美国当选总统在就职演讲中常借助叙事来建构与受众的同一。本文借助伯克的同一修辞理论,采用数据统计和文本分析等研究方法,对美国总统就职演讲中的同一叙事进行了研究。研究结果表明,历史渊源、国父、情景、美国梦及价值观等话题均是新总统实现与受众同一的重要手段。在讲述历史成就、英雄事迹、种族故事以及其他能够体现人类社会共同价值观的事件时,美国总统往往设法把自己和所有美国人共同归于国父后裔,把自己比作历史上带领人们走出困境的伟大领袖,把受众比作历史上为国家奋斗的英雄人物,把当时的社会情景与历史上的相似情景进行比照。本研究尝试将叙事、修辞和演讲话语分析有机结合在一起,希望有助于拓宽叙事、修辞等研究视域。

关键词: 美国总统就职演讲, 演讲叙事, 同一理论, 同一叙事, 同一建构