On Coherence Of Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches For Literature From Perspectives Of Thematic Progression

Thematic progression,one of important ways for discourse analysis,reflects theme-rheme interactions in discourses and the information development.Since 1980 s,domestic and foreign scholars on human science have explored connotations and applications of this theory from multiple perspectives and achieved some research outcomes.Systemic functional school,which is represented by Halliday,attaches great importance to constituents and semantic functions of sentences and discourses.In research and dissertation of Fries and Dane?,the Theme-Rheme Theory is studied from the perspective of discourses.In recent years,more and more attention has been paid to thematic progression in speeches,such as Obama Speech,Trump Speech,and so on.But studies on thematic progression in presentation speeches are relatively few.Charming languages used in the Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches for Literature provide accurate statements and evaluations of laureates.The analysis of thematic progression in presentation speeches broadens the scope of this study and enhance their language skills of public speaking.This thesis focuses on investigating the application of the thematic progression in the Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches for Literature.With Halliday's and Yan Huang's Thematic Progression Patterns as theoretical framework,the author analyzes ten texts of the Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches for Literature and compares thematic features.By identifying pragmatic effects and roles of different Thematic Progression Patterns in the Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches for Literature,this thesis explores inherent relationships between applications of Thematic Progression Patterns and discourse coherence.The data of this study are collected from official website of the Nobel Prize,and ten Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches for Literature(made from 2008 to 2017)are chosen as data for analysis.In the main text of this thesis,the author classifies and statistically analyzes ten target discourses to explore degree of correlations between different Thematic Progression Patterns and discourse coherence,while conclusions are reached as follows:First of all,concerning type of used themes,simple themes are used most frequently in those ten Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches for Literature,followed by clausal themes and multiple themes respectively.As to markedness of themes,unmarked themes are most commonly used.From the perspectives of Thematic Progression Patterns,Irregular patterns are utilized most frequently,followed by Constant Theme patterns and Derived patterns.It is noteworthy that there are no Juxtaposed patterns and Constant Rheme patterns.Secondly,the frequency of each Thematic Progression Patterns used in Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches for Literature is very similar.This indicates that speakers mostly use the same types of Thematic Progression Patterns in discourse development,in hope of guaranteeing discourse coherence in their presentation speeches.Last but not the least,discourses and types of Thematic Progression Patterns are discussed and analyzed to find out the relationships between thematic progression and discourse coherence.Theme selection and thematic progression have significant impacts upon discourse coherence of Nobel Prize Presentation Speeches for Literature.It is apparent that Irregular patterns are the most commonly used patterns in the speeches compared with other types of discourse.Since sentences in the whole texts are not consistent with the structure,they are semantically coherent.It refers to the understanding that they are connected by deep meaning.