布什总统国情咨文的修辞分析

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Chapter One Introduction

§1.1 Research Background

As we know, U.S. presidents give the State of the Union Addresses every year.

They use the opportunity to present their goals and agenda through broad ideas or

specific details. Although there are various kinds of forms, content, delivery methods,

their annual addresses are a backdrop for national unity. We can understand plenty of

policies, means about American economics, politics and social security systems,

which are presented by American presidents. We can see these addresses as a window

to know the United States and western culture.

From the time of President George Washington to the present, American people

have witnessed the development of the State of the Union Addresses, which remain

relatively stable and retain unique characteristics. Therefore, the State of the Union

Addresses can be recognized as a genre. Though they have already been widely

familiar to people, they have been under-researched in comparison with other genres

such as research articles, business letters or others. One reason for the lack of

researches might be that the State of the Union Addresses of American Presidents are

hard nuts for academics to crack, because they present few arguments, analyses or

anything else. We can always see researches on a certain president’s speech, but little

systematic investigation has been conducted into the State of the Union Addresses as a

whole, and some aspects of this particular genre are completely ignored. Even among

these researchers, they mainly focus on the issues of social security, terrorism, policies,

economy and so on in the State of the Union Addresses. Up to now, to my limited

knowledge, there is little research on the State of the Union Addresses, especially on

Bush’s State of the Union Addresses in light of western rhetorical theory. This is why

I would like to choose this subject for my study.

Since 2001, George W. Bush has been American President for eight years and

has already presented to us eight State of the Union Addresses. We can, therefore, take

his State of the Union Addresses as a representative to investigate the American State

of the Union Addresses as a genre.

A Rhetorical Analysis of Bush’s State of the Union Addresses

§1.2 General Purpose of the Study

Based on rhetorical theories, classical and modern, the present study attempts to

analyze the American President George W. Bush’s eight State of the Union Addresses

as an absolute genre. We analyze the rhetorical characteristics of Bush’s State of the

Union Addresses with respect to identification and the three artistic proofs in the eight

addresses. Therefore, we explore the basic frame of analyzing the State of the Union

Addresses. Through Bush’s eight State of the Union Addresses, we can thoroughly see

his opinions and his rhetorical use of language. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal

the rhetorical process of Bush’s State of the Union Addresses and the rhetorical

strategies embodied in the discourse that he uses to influence his audience. Through

this thesis, we hope to give some valuable suggestions about speech making and to

push the development of speech theory and practice.

§1.3 Methodology and Data Description

This thesis proposes to conduct a qualitative analysis from the rhetorical

perspective. In this study, in order to analyze Bush’s State of the Union Addresses

thoroughly, we mainly adopt the rhetorician Kenneth Burke’s Identification theory,

Chaim Perelman’s Argumentation theory, and Aristotle’s theory of artistic proofs,

Lloyd F. Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation theory, and Generic Criticism theory. As the

focus of analysis will be on language, we collect a corpus of American President

George W. Bush’s eight State of the Union Addresses from 2001 to 2008, to build a

small pool of language data. All the transcripts of Bush’s State of the Union Addresses

are downloaded from the Internet: http://www.whitehouse.gov/, the official web site

of the White House.

§1.4 Structure of the Thesis

This thesis is organized into five chapters.

Chapter One is a general introduction to the current study. It first introduces the

background and objectives of this study, and then the methodology and data to be

used, and finally presents an overview of the structure of this thesis.

Chapter Two explores the perception of State of the Union Addresses and Bush’s

Chapter One Introduction

State of the Union Addresses and provides a literature review of the previous studies

on this genre. Following the summary of previous studies is a brief description of the

present study, in which the author introduces a new rhetorical approach to Bush’s

State of the Union Addresses.

Chapter Three presents the theoretical preliminaries, that is, some key notions of

Western rhetoric. In this chapter, we review Aristotle’s theory of artistic proofs,

Kenneth Burke’s Identification theory, Chaim Perelman’s Argumentation theory,

Lloyd F. Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation theory, John M. Swales’ Genre theory and

Generic Criticism theory. These theories combine to constitute a basis for our critical

analysis.

Chapter Four is devoted to a rhetorical critique of Bush’s State of the Union

Addresses. This chapter is divided into four parts. Firstly, we analyze Bush’s State of

the Union Addresses as an absolute genre, and find the characteristics and the

differences between his eight State of the Union Addresses. Secondly, we analyze the

rhetorical situation in these addresses, including exigence, audience and constraints.

Thirdly, we use Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s Audience theory to analyze the

audience of Bush’s State of the Union Addresses. Finally, we define three artistic

proofs: ethos, pathos, and logos, and apply them in the critique of Bush’s State of the

Union Addresses.

Chapter Five draws a conclusion about the present study, and presents practical

implications for composition studies.

A Rhetorical Analysis of Bush’s State of the Union Addresses

Chapter Two Literature Review

§2.1 Bush’s State of the Union Addresses

§2.1.1 Introduction to the State of the Union Address

The State of the Union Address is an annual speech the President of the United

States gives to Congress. It is usually an address to a joint session of Congress (the

House of Representatives and the Senate). On January 8th, 1790, American President

George Washington delivered the first annual speech to Congress. Since then, U.S.

presidents have given the Congress an assessment of the condition of the union. They

use the opportunity to present their goals and agenda through broad ideas or specific

details. And the messages’ length, frequency, and method of delivery have varied from

president to president and era to era.

At the beginning, the annual address was just presented to the Congress. With the

advent of radio and television, the presidents’ annual addresses have become not only

a conversation between the President and Congress, but also an opportunity for the

President to communicate with the American people at the same time. In 1923, Calvin

Coolidge gave the first annual address on radio. In 1935, Franklin Roosevelt used

“State of the Union”, a phrase later became the common name of the presidents’

annual addresses. In 1947, Harry Truman, Roosevelt’s successor, presented his State

of the Union Address on television. Since then, all of us have gradually known about

the State of the Union Addresses as a genre.

(http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/history.html)

Most annual addresses outline the Presidents’ legislative agenda and national

priorities in general or specific terms. In 1823, James Monroe discussed the

centerpiece of his foreign policy, now-known as the Monroe Doctrine, which called

on European countries to end western colonization. Lincoln famously expressed his

desire for slave emancipation in 1862, and in 1941, Franklin Roosevelt spoke about

the now famous four freedoms in his State of the Union address.

(http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/history.html)

The President delivers the speech from the podium at the front of the House

Chamber. And the State of the Union addresses usually last a little over an hour. Part

Chapter Two Literature Review

of the length of the address is due to the large amounts of applause that occur from the

audience throughout. The applause is somewhat political in tone, with many portions

of the address only being applauded by members of the President’s own party.

Applause typically indicates support.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union_Address)

No matter what form, content, delivery method or broadcast medium is used, the

President’s annual address is of great importance for national unity. Through giving

the State of the Union Address, the President reviews the past and presents his hopes

for the future to Congress, the American people and the world. In the State of the

Union Address, the President traditionally outlines not only the administration’s

accomplishments over the previous year but also the agenda for the coming year, and

usually in optimistic terms. At some point during the address, the President usually

says “The State of our Union is strong” or a very similar phrase. Since the 1982

address, it has also become common for the President to acknowledge special guests

sitting near the First Lady in the gallery, such as everyday Americans or visiting

Heads of State. The guests are usually relevant to some part of the President’s address.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union_Address)

§2.1.2 Bush’s State of the Union Addresses

As we all know, George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He

was sworn into office on January 20th, 2001, and was re-elected on November 2nd,

2004, so he was sworn in for a second term on January 20th, 2005. Prior to his

presidency, President Bush had served for 6 years as the 46th Governor of the State of

Texas. As a compassionate conservative, he shapes public policy based on the

principles of limited government, personal responsibility, strong families and local

control. Thus, he earns great reputation.

Since becoming President of the United States in 2001, George W. Bush has

already made eight State of the Union Addresses. With his particular language and the

special situation for each address, his eight State of the Union Addresses can be seen

as an absolute genre. Therefore, in this thesis we will take his eight addresses as a

genre and analyze them from a rhetorical perspective.

A Rhetorical Analysis of Bush’s State of the Union Addresses

§2.2 Previous Studies on Bush’s State of the Union Addresses

Since the State of the Union Address plays a significant role in American

political life, Bush’s State of the Union Addresses attract more and more people’s

attention; they study these addresses from various perspectives. We have surfed the

websites www.cnki.net and www.wangfangdata.com.cn from 1999 to 2008, and found

more than 95% of the studies are concerned with social security, terrorism, economy,

policies, and so on, for example, articles on social security, such as “Analysis on

Social Security Reform in Bush’s State of the Union Address” (Chen Jun, 2006),

“Controversy on the Privatization of the American Social Security System” (Zheng

Bingwen, 2003), “On the Debated Reform of Social Security System in the U.S.”

(Chen Hong, 2006); articles on economy, such as “Major International Events this

Month” (Gao Zugui, 2002), “Advances in Behavioral Finance” (Thaler, 2005), “In

Swing-State Tour, Democrats To Target Economy” (Horsely, 2008); articles on

terrorism, such as “Some Reflections upon the So-called ‘Axis of Evil’” (Wang

Hongwei, 2002); articles on policies, such as “How Bush will Read Just His Home

and Foreign Policies in His Second Term-An Analysis of the State of the Union

Address” (Jiang Lin, 2005), “How Bush will Tend towards His His Home and Foreign

Policies in His State of the Union Address” (Shao Ming, 2002). In his paper, Chen Jun

holds that in Bush’s State of the Union Address 2005, Bush promotes the American

Social Security Reform, which produces great effect in American politics and

economy. Therefore, he insists that his study will be important to the further study of

American Social Security System.

Besides our Chinese researchers, foreign scholars have also done research on

Bush’s State of the Union Addresses. For example, Dave Michaels studies the

President Bush’s State of the Union Address in his paper “Analysis: President Bush’s

State of the Union Address” published in the Dallas Morning News in January 28,

2008 (Michaels, 2008). He studies the addresses from five aspects: economy, federal

budget, energy, health care, and immigration. James Fallows, an Atlantic

correspondent and former Presidential speechwriter, published his article “State of the

Union Address 2007: Instant Analysis” (Fallows, 2007), which mainly focuses on

Bush’s economic measures. Some other scholars approach important issues like war

on terror Bush’s promises (Zalman, 2007; Kaplan, 2008).

To sum up, although there are many articles about Bush’s addresses, they are

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摘要：

ChapterOneIntroduction1ChapterOneIntroduction§1.1ResearchBackgroundAsweknow,U.S.presidentsgivetheStateoftheUnionAddresseseveryyear.Theyusetheopportunitytopresenttheirgoalsandagendathroughbroadideasorspecificdetails.Althoughtherearevariouskindsofforms,content,deliverymethods,theirannualaddressesareab...

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