| Michelle Obama, as the current First Lady of the United States, regularly deliverspublic speeches to enhance her public image and rally support for her husband,Barrack Obama. Her speeches enjoy unprecedented popularity because of her inherentintelligence and eloquence. Therefore, her well-received speeches, which exertundeniable influence, should no longer be slighted by scholarly attention.In1987, William Mann and Sandra Thompson originally put forward theRhetorical Structure Theory, which accounts for the relations between text parts andvisualizes hierarchic structure in the text. Based on this theory, the rhetorical structureof Michelle Obama’s speeches is offered by qualitative and quantitative analysis.The study has found that Joint, Elaboration and Justify relations are the mostfrequently used in the ten speeches. The functions and effects of these three rhetoricalrelations determine their high frequencies in persuasive and eloquent speeches.Furthermore， the forward arrows appear more frequently than backward arrows,which verifies the English speakers’ preference to the principle of presenting theircentral ideas followed by proofs and evidences. Lastly, the author analyzes the toplevel structure. Based on the above analyses and discussion of reasons for thedominant relations in her public speeches, the author establishes the rhetoricalstructure pattern about her public speeches.It can be safely said that the study is of great theoretical and practical significance.Firstly, a brand new research perspective for discourse analysis is provided. Secondly,the research results are expected to help the language instructor and the learner toraise the rhetorical awareness so as to produce eloquent, persuasive and coherentpublic speeches. |
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