The Study On The Lexical Characteristics Of The Speech In The "21^st Century Cup" National English Speaking Competition

By combining Quirk's theory on the classifications of word classes and other theories on word characteristics, the author aims at analyzing student competitors'word characteristics of the speech in the "21st Century Cup" National English Speaking Competition. In this thesis, open classes, closed classes and minor word classes from the speech in the 21st Century Cup " National English Speaking Competition are analyzed in detail. With integration of qualitative and quantitative methods, firstly,50 students' speeches which cover 28912 words are collected as target samples; then Visual Fox-Pro and AntConc softwares are adopted to work out the statistics of different parts of speech; finally, the characteristics and usages of various word classes in students'speeches are researched.The results in the study show that words of open classes which provide information with lexical meanings are more frequently used than closed-classes which have grammatical functions. In the open classes, nouns account for the largest number in the speeches; in closed classes, prepositions which have collected functions are employed most frequently; in minor word classes, numerals and interjections are adopted more rarely than open and closed classes. The numerals are sometimes used to qualify and identify students' speeches; while interjections are seldom employed in public speaking due to informality. Percentages of nouns, full verbs and prepositions all surpass 10%. Other words in the open-class and closed-class are relatively less frequently used. Through research the author finds out there is a closed relationship between language requirements, features of public speaking and students' word characteristics in English speaking competition.