研究奥巴马就职演讲中的美国价值观分析研究 英语学专业.docx

Acknowledgments Thanks for giving me this chance to achieve this paper and to make a conclusion for my four years’ university education. Through writing this paper, I have acquired more knowledge than I supposed. My sincere thanks are due to my supervisor，Ms. Zou Qiangzhen, for helping me to clarify my minds and strengthen the depth of my thinking. Here, I also want to give my thanks to other teachers and my classmates who gave me much help. Thank you! Abstracts Barack Obama is the first African American to have served as a president, as well as an outstanding orator. His inaugural addresses attracted much attention both abroad and at home ever since their delivery. He talks about American conditions in three ways—individual, society and country, and expresses his views on life, freedom as well as the pursuit of happiness. His addresses are not only the expression of sentences and the embodiment of internal thought, but also the side of American culture. The study of this paper is based on Obama’s two inaugural speeches, and the paper specializes in analyzing the culture of American values that contained in these speeches. Due to the different systems of values between China and America, on the one hand, researching on Obama’s wonderful speeches can allow Chinese to have a better recognition and understanding of the concrete contents of American values. On the other hand, it contributes to a further comprehension of American society and culture and the promotion of mutual communications and exchanges. Key Words: American values; freedom; culture 摘 要 奥巴马是美国第一任非洲裔总统，也是一位杰出的演说家。他的就职演讲发表后引起了国内外广泛的关注，他从个人、社会、国家三个方面讲了美国的形势和国情，也表达了他对生存，自由的看法以及对幸福的追求。他的演讲不仅仅是言语的表达，内在思想的体现，更是美国文化的侧面体现。本文以奥巴马的两次就职演讲为研究对象，重点分析了演讲中体现出的美国价值观文化。由于中美两国不同的价值观体系，研究奥巴马总统的精彩演说一方面有助于中国人更好地认识，理解美国人具体的价值观内容。另一方面有助于中国人进一步了解美国的社会和文化，增进彼此的沟通和交流 关键词：美国价值观；自由；文化 Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1. Introduction 1 2. Values and American Values 2 2.1 The Definition of Values 2 2.2 The Definition of American Values 2 3. American Values in Inaugural Speech of Obama 3 3.1 Pursuing Freedom 3 3.2 Emphasizing Equality 5 3.3 Valuing Practice 7 3.4 Promoting Innovation 8 3.5 Advocating Fair Competition 9 3.6 Upholding Hard Work 10 4. Conclusion 11 Bibliography 12 A Study on the American Values in Inaugural Speech of Barack Obama 1. Introduction On January 21st, 2013, Barack Obama delivered his second inaugural address to the American public as the President of the United States, and the first one was in 2009. Barack Obama is the first African American to have served as a president, as well as an outstanding orator. His inaugural addresses have attracted much attention both abroad and at home ever since its delivery. He talks about American situations in three ways—individual, society and country. The subjects of his addresses are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness about Americans. These two speeches not only have a powerful persuasion but also give a full description of American culture. So it is necessary to elaborate on Obama’s speeches. Through the consulting a large number of literatures, relevant books and searching related content on the Internet, it can be seen in recent years that a lot of scholars have explored these two speeches from different aspects and got spectacular findings. Some scholars study Obama’s inaugural speeches from the perspective of rhetoric. For example, Zheng Linlin studies the influence of Neo-Aristotelian rhetoric on Obama’s speeches (6). Some scholars study the speeches from the perspective of language characteristics. Some scholars based on the theoretical framework of functional linguistics, investigate the expression of interpersonal meaning in Obama’s inaugural addresses as well as how interpersonal meaning contained in the source speeches texts are converted into Chinese. In terms of functional equivalence, some scholars analyze Obama’s speeches from the perspective of literature. For example, Liu Qian study the feature of literary style of Obama’s speeches (5). Some scholars discuss the cultural connotation implied in Obama’s speeches, for example, Wang Xuemei and Luo Lingzhi’s paper titled Obama’s Speech and American Culture, reveals American unique political system, traditional culture and values (80). But, from the above analysis, it can be found that few scholars make a full analysis of American values implied in Obama’s inaugural addresses. For this reason, this paper offers a discussion of American values that contained in Obama’s inaugural addresses. With respect to the substance of American values, these are hard work, respect of freedom, attaching more importance to realities than vision, thinking highly of fair competition, enterprise and innovation, worship equality and personal struggle. For the feature of American values, we can conclude that it is widely inclusive confluence, and more or less been influenced by their religious beliefs. America emerged from 13 British coloni